Bishop McNamara's Zinanni Stadium torn down; To be rebuilt ahead of next school year

KANKAKEE — It’s been almost 70 years since a group of parents and some of their friends in the construction business began to build the football stadium at then-St. Patrick Central High School.

As the school moved to its new campus on Kankakee’s Brookmont Boulevard, the first group of what became the Huddle Club at the high school that became Bishop McNamara spent three years of evening and weekend hours constructing a set of stadium bleachers that contained locker rooms, bathrooms and a storage shed underneath on the field’s west sideline.

Over the course of the past 65 years, what started as just the football stadium at St. Patrick became Bishop McNamara’s football cathedral.

A seventh-grader when the high school hosted its first game at the stadium in 1959, Rich Zinanni led the program to so much success that the school renamed the place after him in 2019.

And on Monday, Zinanni, a member of the school’s first graduating class as Bishop McNamara in 1965, watched the stadium crumble down, just like he saw its construction as a child.

“Kids went into there as kids and walked out as men hopefully,” Zinanni said. “There are a lot of good memories, a lot of good pregame speeches, halftime talks that guys remember and bring up to me.”

Rich Zinanni Stadium was torn down Monday and will be rebuilt ahead of the 2025-26 school year, the fourth and final major renovation at Bishop McNamara stemming from the school’s Centennial Campaign that began with the school’s 100th anniversary in 2022-23.

NEW STADIUM, SAME GOAL

After a new chapel, chemistry lab and academic success center were all finished ahead of this school year, the football stadium has now started its own approximate $1.2-1.5 million upgrade.

The new version of Rich Zinanni Stadium will also host locker rooms, restroom and storage underneath stadium seating and the press box, but the new look will serve as the physical representation of a program that is rebuilding.

Zinanni, a five-time state champion coach whose 371 career wins over 48 seasons are third in IHSA history, retired after the 2021-22 school year. His predecessor, Alan Rood, left to restart the football program at St. Anne before the season began.

Shawn Lade served as interim head coach for a year, leading the team to a 3-6 mark in 2022 before the school hired Bob Kelly ahead of the 2023-24 season.

After two 4-5 seasons, Kelly resigned from his football head coach and dean of students jobs last month, leaving the Irish on the search for the longtime replacement to their hall-of-fame coach.

“The stadium will be new, the coach will be new, but the kids will be the same, the families will be the same, the alumni will be the same,” Zinanni said. “That’s what we expect to happen at Mac. We’re not gonna win state every year, but to have a good solid program the kids love and the parents and alumni really enjoy.

“That’s what it’s all about. I think that’s gonna happen.”

BITTERSWEET VISION

Terry Granger, the president emeritus for Bishop McNamara Catholic Schools and a 1976 McNamara graduate, spent most of Monday standing in the parking lot, watching the stadium that hosted so many of his memories crumble away.

“It’s definitely bittersweet,” Granger said. “It’s neat to see that it’s finally happening, but this is history. It’s something that you can’t forget, that’s for sure.

“But you’ve gotta look to the future, and that’s what we’re doing.”

Granger and Zinanni both share several similar favorite games at the stadium, chief among them a trio of state semifinal victories — a 7-0 win over Charleston in the 1978 Class 3A semifinals, a 30-24 overtime win over Geneva in the 1982 Class 3A semifinals and a 52-42 win over Rochester in the 2018 Class 4A semifinals — as well as a 30-8 win in 1997 over Providence that ended the Celtics’ 50-game winning streak.

Kelly O’Connor, a 1979 graduate, was the quarterback on that 1978 team, the first state finalist in school history before the 1982 team went on to win the school’s first state championship.

O’Connor remembers being a young 5-year-old playing with his friends in the grass past the north endzone, a tradition that continues to this day.

NEW ERA TO BEGIN

He remembers being wowed at Fightin’ Irish quarterback Rick Martin during a 1975 playoff game against Metamora and countless games since that have given him “unbelievably great memories.”

But O’Connor is also excited to see the stadium get an upgrade.

“I’m gonna think back on those times and those games and think what a great place that was,” O’Connor said. “ … But I’m all about the new and excited.”

Granger and athletic director Aaron Hamilton both said that the stadium will also revert back to some of its original use when there was just a varsity football program at the school — there will be space for spring sports teams at the school to also make use of, and visiting teams will have a space to change and meet pregame and at halftime.

Hamilton is relatively new to the McNamara family, taking over as AD ahead of the 2019-20 school year.

While he didn’t get to witness any of the team’s five state championships, the school renamed the stadium after Zinanni prior to Hamilton’s first football game in 2019, calling being a part of Zinanni’s final few years “a blessing.”

And as the school anticipates naming a new coach in the near future, Hamilton will also see the school begin a new era.

“It was definitely an opportunity that doesn’t come all the time, an opportunity to see a legend like that and get to see them finish their career,” Hamilton said. “ … You start the new chapter now with a new stadium, new coach, new era. That’s gonna be a positive change for the school and the football program.”

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