Knox College Athletics

Maynard (Pat) O’Brien is, sadly, not with us today, but the achievements of his long and prosperous life are worthy of our attention.
               
Originally from Canton, Illinois, Pat entered Lombard College in the fall of 1927.  He transferred to Illinois Wesleyan University for his senior year once Lombard closed, leaving behind the memories of his six varsity letters in the sports of football, basketball, and track.  He was a lineman on the football team, forward on the basketball team, and threw the discus and shot-put on the Lombard track team.  After college he put his sports experience to good use around the state of Illinois, as he was a teacher, coach, and administrator at Lewistown, Mt. Olive, Carlinville, and Stephen Decatur.
               
 From these high schools he went on to serve in the United States Navy for over three years where he attained the rank of Lieutenant Commander.  However, he was not done with education or sports by any means.  Following the war, Pat once again became a teacher-coach-administrator for 28 years after becoming affiliated with Easter Illinois University.  During this time this member of Pi Kappa Alpha and Theta Chi Delta earned his M.S. in 1946, his Education Degree in 1954 from the University of Illinois, and also received the Distinguished Faculty Award for Physical Education and Health from Eastern Illinois.  In 1975, Easter again honored Pat by renaming the football/track stadium to O’Brien Stadium.
               
A charter member of the EIU Athletic Hall of Fame, and a member of the NAIA Helms Hall of Fame, Pat was a former member of the U.S. Olympic Committee, as well as President of NCAA and NAIA national coaches associations for the sports of track and cross country.  Two of his cross country teams at Eastern were NCAA champions.
 
He retired in 1974 and lived in Charleston, Illinois until his death in 1990.  Accepting his induction plaque into the Knox-Lombard Athletic Hall of Fame this evening is his brother, Frank O’Brien.