Ottawa’s Frank Polancic was a ‘big fish in a little pond’

He was a man about town, that’s for sure. Everywhere he went, he told people he was happy to see them and was smiling. He was a remarkable man.”

—  Frank Polancic's son, Frank P. Polancic

Anyone who knew Ottawa’s Frank Polancic and what a friendly, involved and generous man that he was would likely have a difficult time coming up with a more apt description of him than the one his son used recently.

“He was a big fish in a little pond.”

Polancic, a successful longtime Ottawa business owner, youth sports coach and benefactor and member of the Ottawa Elementary school board, passed away Dec. 8 in Peoria, leaving a proud family and many, many friends to remember his kindness and good works in his hometown of Ottawa.

“My dad was a man about town and truly a big fish in a small pond,” said his son, Frank P. Polancic. “We often joked that I moved to Chicago for my career because Ottawa wasn’t big enough for two Frank Polancics. … He was a good dad, a good husband, an icon in the community, an exemplary citizen. He was just a wonderful man.”

Polancic was a member of the Ottawa High School Class of 1947 and afterward worked for the gas company until he was drafted into the U.S. Army, where he served as a radio operator during the Korean War. After his honorable discharge, he went on to earn a degree in finance at the University of Illinois in just three years, graduating in 1956 and then entering the business world with IBM in the Chicago area.

But sports was always his passion, so after three years in that position, he returned to Ottawa in 1959 to open his own business, which was at first a toy store but later grew into Polancic’s Sporting Goods and served the area until his retirement in 2002.

During those 43 years of business, Polancic generously sponsored men’s and women’s and boys and girls teams in many sports. As a member of the National Sporting Goods Association, he, along with his wife, Patricia, and his children, traveled to major shows at McCormick Place in Chicago, meeting famous people and gathering ideas for his own store. As a result, he was the first sporting goods dealer in the area to stock new products from up-and-coming companies.

But he was never too busy to chat with customers and friends who happened to stop in or offer care for those in the community. Although he knew many famous and important people, he talked to them just the same, his son said.

“My dad brought cutting-edge sports to Ottawa, names like Nike, Converse, Adidas, Puma,” Frank said. “When nobody else had that stuff, he was bringing it into the store. He loved sports and he loved people, and in his store, he masterfully weaved together those two passions.

“But he wasn’t just about the business. He cared about people and wanted to know about them. There was a day when a girl who had recently lost a parent in an accident came into the store to buy a swim suit. It was a $25 suit, but he only charged her $1 … When something impacted a community, he made a difference. He would give away stuff, make a kind gesture to someone, he would feel it and express himself so generously.”

Along the way, Polancic even created his own baseball/softball scorebook that was a staple in area dugouts for years.

His success allowed Polancic – a longtime member of the OHS Booster Club and a member of the school’s Hall of Fame – to attend many high school sporting events around the state and be an active follower of the Fighting Illini, going to many bowl games and tournaments they played in.

He would often call his college contacts to recommend athletes who had impressed him with their play on the field, court or diamond.

“Like me, Frank was just a huge Illinois fan,” said Dan Eilts, former sports editor at The Times. “Every time I saw him, that was all he’d ever talk about, Illinois basketball, Illinois football. … When he got to the age where he couldn’t go to the games, he asked me to bring him a program and every year at the beginning of the season, I did, one of the big ones with all the record in it. He loved to look through that stuff.

“He was a great guy. His dedication to his family, to Illinois, the city of Ottawa, Ottawa High School and the grade schools, was just fantastic. … He was a pillar of the community, really.”

Polancic was equally passionate about the Chicago Cubs. In 2016, with the Cubs marching toward the franchise’s first World Series in 108 years, the Times wrote an article on Polancic’s lifelong passion for the North Siders, and how he was listening intently to the radio the day in 1938 that Gabby Hartnett hit his famed “Homer in the Gloamin.’ ” He was proud to have attended the first official night game ever played at Wrigley Field. A season ticket holder, he attended games even after age made it difficult to get to his seats.

That passions carried into youth sports in Ottawa, as well. Polancic was a longtime coach of Pony League and Little League baseball, was involved in the start of Ottawa Youth Football and was one of the first supporters and a coach of YMCA youth soccer. It was a source of great pride that the place next to Central Intermediate School – where its soccer team and OYF still play – was named in his honor, Frank M. Polancic Field, in 2012.

“He loved coaching. He couldn’t wait for 5 o’clock so he could close the store and go meet the kids for practice,” Frank said. “To the day he died, he talked about coaching and the kids he coached. He always remembered them. He was always fully invested. Even the ones who weren’t good players, he taught them to be good teammates and to be involved.”

But Polancic also loved his hometown. A voracious reader and staunch supporter of education, he served on the Ottawa Elementary school board for 37 years. He also was on the boards for Ottawa police and fire departments, the Salvation Army and the Ottawa Industrial Development Board and was president of the Ottawa Lions Club.

To the end, he had board notes, agendas and information among the many stacks of books in his home.

“I got to know Frank better when I became superintendent,” Ottawa Elementary superintendent Cleve Threadgill said. “He always had a lot of good advice, and one time he told me to always be myself. I intended to do that, but that came at a time when I needed that encouragement and backing. … He would listen, he had advice … and his knowledge of the history of Ottawa was vast. We always talked about current things, but also things from the past he experienced. He was a great person.”

After his retirement, Polancic traveled extensively, often with his family. Three times he visited his parents’ home town of Ravnagora, Croatia. His son remembered that his dad was proud of the fact that he had visited 48 of the 50 states.

His personal life was not without difficulty. Since the passing of his wife in 1984, he spent much of his time living with and caring for another son and best friend, John, who was hurt in an auto accident in 1987. In addition to Frank, John and daughters Loriann and Teresa survive.

Still, Polancic always had a smile on his face and a kind word to share with everyone he met.

“He was a man about town, that’s for sure,” Frank said. “Everywhere he went, he told people he was happy to see them and was smiling. He was a remarkable man.”