(Glenview Lantern) For the past 47 years, Glenbrook South has hosted a holiday Wrestling tournament.

Each season the Titans, along with several other local wrestling teams, can count on spending a day or two of their holiday season competing at GBS.

While the tournament certainly hasn’t gone unchanged over years — with the constant shifting of coaches, athletes and the number of teams competing — there has been one aspect of the event that has remained a constant for nearly as long as the tournament itself.

The name attached to it.

The Rus Erb Tournament, as it would come to be known, is named in honor of a former GBS assistant wrestling coach, football coach and math teacher; whose legacy what cut short after a fatal heart attack in 1971.

But prior to his death, Erb played in key role in building the Titans’ wrestling program from the ground up.

GBS’s original athletic director, Walt Sherman, started the holiday tournament once the school finally had a senior class in 1964.

Rather than continue to travel to Waukegan every year, Sherman was hoping to develop a tournament that the school could come to be known for.

As part of the building process, Sherman hired Bill Fuller — an All-American wrestler from the University of Iowa — to lead the program, and Erb to serve as an assistant.

“He was a lieutenant kind of guy,” Sherman remembered. “You told him what the job was, and what we had to do, and he took care of getting it done.”

Erb came from the Rockford school system, where he had originally earned his coaching experience.

With Fuller coming in fresh out of college, Erb’s presence on the staff allowed the Titans’ wrestling program to reach its true heights.

“He was a real help to me in that he had a lot of experience with kids and with coaching,” Fuller said. “He was a great help for a young kid like myself who was just starting out.”

Fuller would go on to become the athletic director at Glenbrook North in the coming years, with Max Farley eventually taking over as head of the program.

Farley welcomed Erb’s presence in the program, relying heavily on his assistant coach.

Early on, Erb was responsible for the bout cards during the holiday tournament, figuring out which wrestlers would compete against each other.

Later on, he would help re-design the entire tournament into a form much closer to the way it is run today.

“He made up this 16 team wrestling tournament with wrestle-backs,” Farley said. “Being a math teacher he loved working with numbers.”

Erb loved scoring so much, he was in charge of it not only for the GBS tournament, but for the state tournament and even the national tournament during a year in which the meet was held at Northwestern University.

His impact on the local wrestling scene was endless, which is the reason why it was decided that the tournament would continue in Erb’s death.

Prioir to passing, Erb also had the chance to coach his son, Bruce Erb, in both football and wrestling before he went on to play at the University of Illinois and, prior to that, coached the defense for GBS’s first ever conference championship football team.

Fuller remembers Erb as a healthy man who practiced what he preached, and set a fine example for those around him. For that, he will always be grateful.

“He was a fine man, very Christian, very down to earth,” Fuller said. “I never head him swear, never saw him take a drink. And he was that way with the kids and he was that way with all the other teachers in the building.”

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(Glenview Lantern)  Sure, the annual faculty game between Glenbrook South and Glenbrook North Tuesday night went for a good cause.

All tickets sales from the game was split and donated toward both schools’ canned food drives. But while the Glenbrook South faculty kept that in mind, it didn’t hurt to beat Glenbrook North 63-43.

Especially since the Spartans got the best of the Titans the past couple of years.

“It’s fun,” said Ben Widner, social studies teacher and game participant. “I guess the last few years North has beaten us and we came out wanting to energize our crowd a little bit and show them a good time. Obviously, it doesn’t hurt that it’s for a good cause.”

Glenbrook South has a canned food drive every year. This year the school’s efforts benefit the Northfield Food Pantry.

The students’ goal is to raise 107,000 cans. While they do bring cans to donate, raising money is also an integral part of their charitable efforts.

Events like the faculty Basketball game go on throughout the two weeks of the Canned Food Drive. There is also an auction. Each dollar raise equals four cans.

“It’s [Canned Food Drive] very popular in the school,” drivers education, physical education and sophomore basketball coach, Mike Vodicka said. “I think the administration, the student activities, do a great job of raising a lot of money for the homeless and the needy. This is something we’ve done ever since I’ve been a teacher here and a student.”

The theme for this year’s drive is “Happy Canniversary” which also commemorates Glenbrook South’s 50th year of existence.

There were other events amidst the basketball game between the two schools. Between the first and second quarters, members of the cheering crowds were selected to run a mini bike race. At halftime, a dodge ball game was played.

While the focus of Tuesday night’s events was on the canned food drive, Vodicka sees an added benefit to the game.

“The nice thing about it is the students get to see you in a different way rather than Vodicka or Widner or anything during the school day,” Vodicka, who played in the game, said. “It’s nice to establish those relationships also outside the building at events like this.”

Ultimately the drive and its associated events are a testament to the school and the tight-knit nature of the Glenbrook South community.

“It is a very tight-knit community,” Widner said. “I couldn’t be happier teaching in this district and so many of my colleagues would say the same thing. It’s a caring district, it’s a caring community and the canned food drive really demonstrates that.”

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(Glenview Lantern) Walter Sherman is not one to back down from a challenge.

So nearly 50 years ago, when he was asked by superintendent Norman Watson to become Glenbrook South’s first athletic director, football coach and physical education department chair, he didn’t have to think twice.

“How can you say no to something like that,” said Sherman, who accepted the position in 1962. “It was a challenge and something different. It was really interesting and exciting to be starting a new school.”

The task was nothing new for Sherman, who became the original football coach at Glenbrook High School in 1953, before the schools split.

But this time, it was different.

As the athletic director and physical education chair, Sherman, now 85, was responsible for overseeing and creating two entire departments — starting from scratch.

Constructing the dome

At that time, the outside structure of the gymnasium — commonly referred now “The Dome” — had just been completed, but there was nothing inside.

Sherman was shown plans for the inside of the structure, and was surprised to see there wasn’t much planned other than a basketball court in the middle of the gym.

“The first question I asked the architect was, ‘where is the running track?’” he recalled. “I thought there would be a track of some kind.”

At the original Glenbrook High School, the runners took to the hallways when they needed to practice indoors. Sherman didn’t want that to be the case at GBS.

So the locker rooms were made smaller, leaving room for an indoor track.

The next task was finding room for the rest of the sports.

GBS’s original nine sports, according to Sherman, were football, cross country, gymnastics, wrestling, swimming baseball, track, golf and tennis; all of which were male-only sports.

With the swim team was set to practice at Glenbrook North, there were only two more indoor sports left to worry about.

“We had gymnastics on concrete and we had wrestling on concrete,” Sherman said. “So I promoted the idea of having wood floors being put down. Which they did do.”

With gymnastics and wrestling practicing at opposite ends of the of the basketball floor, the facility was equipped for both teams.

Selecting the uniforms

With the gym in order, Sherman’s second order of business was to select the team uniforms, starting with his football team.

In a meeting with a salesperson designated to design the jerseys, Sherman was told some students expressed a desire to wear light blue uniforms.

He considered the idea, but turned it down because Maine West already wore a similar color.

It didn’t take Sherman long to come up with a second choice.

“Just at this time a jet flew nice and low over Glenbrook South, low and loud coming in for a landing,” he said. “And I turned to the salesman and I said, ‘we have to have navy blue’.”

The hardest choice, the primary color, was behind him so he moved onto the secondary. Sherman proceeded to choose gold and white as the trim. When questioned about which shade of gold he wanted for the uniforms, Sherman immediately knew that it had to be the same as Glenbrook North.

“If we were going to have gold, why should we have a different color gold?” he said. “The old Northbrook school was gold, Glenbrook North is gold, and Glenbrook South is gold. So the same thread of gold runs through all three schools.”

Building the program

Since all teams started at the freshmen and sophomore level, it took a few years for the Titans’ athletic program to make a name for itself.

The first year, GBS only competed against freshman and sophomore teams. In year two, they were able to form junior varsity teams. It was not until its third year of existence that Glenbrook South fielded varsity athletics.

From there, it didn’t take long to make its mark.

In their first year, the Titans’ football team — led by Sherman — finished with a 6-1 record and a conference championship.

Without a playoff system in place, a conference championship was as big as it got at that time. But what may have been even bigger was the Titans’ win over Glenbrook North in the first-ever meeting between the two schools.

Sherman admitted it was “exciting” to take down the rival school, but said his team didn’t treat the game unlike any other.

“We had the goal to win every game,” he said. Our goal was to do our best at all times. Now if that meant winning, wonderful. It didn’t always necessarily mean winning either but that was our goal – to do our best.”

GBS won 17 conference championships in Sherman’s tenure from 1962-70, including a football and basketball championship in the 1964-65 season.

In 1967, the golf coach approached Sherman and suggested the team had a chance to beat New Trier, a powerhouse at the time, if they were able to host the Trevians in Glenview.

“So I contacted the state and they gave us the district golf tournament, and we won it, we beat New Trier,” Sherman said. “And we proceeded to the state tournament, and we won the state tournament in golf.”

That win marked GBS’s first state championship.

Sherman admits that the GBS coaching staff was a driving force behind the school’s success, but it was the advancement of lower-level programs that gave the Titans an edge.

Starting with basketball, Sherman began offering athletics at the junior high level. As time went by, more sports were added, which led to more prepared athletes entering the high school ranks.

End of an era

When 1970 rolled around, Sherman was once again approached by superintendent Watson.

This time, it was Glenbrook North in need of his support.

With GBS athletics now well established, Sherman left the school in 1971 to help revamp the Spartans’ football program.

“I guess I like a challenge,” he said. “Rather than just being in a maintaining position, to go back against doing something creative … its’s more fun.”

Sherman would remain at GBN until his retirement in 1990. He currently resides with his second-wife, Joyce, in Northbrook, where continues to visit both schools on a regular basis.

Sherman said his time with South is filled with nothing but fond memories, noting he never dreamed of the having the chance to celebrate the school’s 50th anniversary.

“It’s marvelous,” he said. “I’m very proud of the building and the program and all the success that they’ve had down there. I think it’s just a wonderful school. I’m proud to have had a part in it.”

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