Where do your loyalties lie? Christ the King alumni are at center of Indiana, Western Kentucky game

By John Shaughnessy

BLOOMINGTON—A devilish smile crossed the face of Indiana University head football coach Bill Lynch when he spoke last November during a benefit dinner for the school and the parish where he grew up—Christ the King in Indianapolis.

Lynch told the audience that the opening game of the Hoosiers’ 2008 season would pit them against Western Kentucky University—a game that would also provide a special twist for the members of Christ the King Parish.

The head coaches for both teams, Lynch noted, are graduates of Christ the King School who also had their first football experiences playing for the parish in the Catholic Youth Organization program.

That’s when Lynch flashed the devilish smile and told the crowd that—other than the relatives of Western Kentucky head football coach David Elson—he expected everybody in the parish to be rooting for him and the Hoosiers during that game.

“I’ll stick by that,” Lynch said with another smile recently as he sat in his office in Bloomington and looked forward to the season opener on Aug. 30.

Elson laughed when he was recently told about Lynch’s remarks at the benefit dinner. Then Elson made his own plea to the members of his former parish.

“I would tell them this,” Elson said with a laugh. “They just have to side with the Lynch family or the Elson family. Both families have been around the parish a long time and people are just going to have to choose. I know where my loyalties lie.”

Beyond the levity, both coaches know how rare—and special—it is that the head coaches of two major college football teams would come from the same small spiritual community and that they would end up coaching against each other in a game.

“I’ve known his family for years,” said Lynch, who is 54 and a 1968 graduate of Christ the King School. “I’ve known his mother and father, and I went to school with his aunts and uncles. We all grew up in the same neighborhood. His brother, Brian, played for me when I coached at Butler. I’ve known David for years. He’s an outgoing guy who is really well-respected in the coaching profession. It really is ironic for this to happen.”

Elson agreed.

“I can’t say I ever imagined this,” said Elson, who is 37 and a 1985 graduate of Christ the King School. “Shoot, I’ve always wanted to work for him. I think the world of Coach Lynch. He’s been a mentor to me. Since I’ve been in this position, I’ve always gotten advice from him about coaching and hiring coaches. It will be a lot of fun—and tough. People you care about and people you have friendships with, someone will lose and someone will win.”

Lynch has that same feeling: “It will be a lot of fun. But in the coaching business, it’s difficult to coach against your friends. At this level of college football, every game is so important. It affects a lot of people. It means a lot to us to have success and it means a lot to Western Kentucky. You have to take the friendship out of it.”

Yet that’s as hard to do as taking away the influence that growing up in Christ the King Parish has meant to Lynch and Elson.

In separate interviews, they both talked about how they learned discipline, respect and their Catholic faith in their first parish.

“I just look back on going to Mass every day, the CYO football, the Christ the King festival,” said Elson, who is married and has two children. “The thing I appreciate is the sacrifice my parents made for their six kids to get a Catholic education. Spiritual values were ingrained in me there. It’s something that’s always been important to me. As I see and recruit kids from all walks of life, I see how fortunate I was to grow up in that situation—all the teachers, all the priests.”

He then named the teachers he had at Christ the King School, 23 years after he graduated from the school.

Lynch has his own fond memories. He and his three sisters attended Christ the King School. Lynch’s wife and her seven siblings from the Lux family also attended the parish school. He and Linda were married in the church. The first three of their four children were baptized at Christ the King Church.

“When you look back and look at the people who influenced you—the people you went to school with, the people who taught you, the parish priests, the parents—Christ the King means a lot to me,” said Lynch, who is also a 1972 graduate of Bishop Chatard High School in Indianapolis. “There’s still that connection there. What I learned there is the foundation of the beliefs I have today. They’re the foundation of my coaching.”

Lynch and Elson both keep in touch with the man who coached them when they played for Christ the King Parish in the CYO league—Bill Michaelis.

“These guys are exactly the same,” said Michaelis, 70, who coached CYO football at Christ the King for 23 years and CYO basketball for 20 years. “They’re both class guys. They’re both family guys. Neither one of them are ego guys. If you walked in to see either one of them and the president was behind you, they’d give you the same amount of time as him. You’re not going to find two better guys.”

Michaelis has told both Lynch and Elson the key to winning the game.

“I’ve called them both in the last month and told them that whoever runs the most Christ the King plays is going to win the game,” Michaelis said.

Brian Elson also has a common bond with Lynch and David Elson, who is his younger brother. Brian Elson played football at Butler University during the 1987 and 1988 seasons, a time when Lynch was the head coach there.

“I think he’s a great role model for kids,” Brian Elson said about Lynch. “He’s a good man. He really helped me at Butler. I wasn’t the easiest guy to deal with at the time. He’s in coaching for the right reasons. My brother is, too.”

Brian sighed when he was asked who he will root for during the game on Aug. 30.

“I always root for Coach Lynch when he’s playing,” said Brian, who coaches the CYO cadet football team at Christ the King Parish. “This will be bittersweet, but you have to stick with family. It’s an interesting game with two guys who grew up in the same grade school. It will be a lot of fun.”

Yet the fun will fade for the two coaches during the 60 minutes when Indiana and Western Kentucky play. Beyond the experiences of childhood and coaching that connect them, both Lynch and Elson share a competitive fire that burns deeply into the heart of who they are.

A win for the Hoosiers will provide a great start to the season for Lynch, who is beginning the first year of his four-year contract with Indiana. Last year, as the interim head coach, he led IU to a bowl game for the first time in 14 years.

As for Elson—a 1989 graduate of Cathedral High School in Indianapolis—an upset by the Hilltoppers would be a terrific start to his sixth season as the head coach at Western Kentucky.

Only one team and one coach will win. Still, the measure of both coaches has already been made, according to people who know them.

“They’re both winners,” Brian Elson said. “They’re winners because they have tremendous character, and they’re good people. You can see the respect that the kids on their teams have for them. They both want to help these kids become better people and productive people in society. I think that’s all part of the foundation they got in Catholic schools.” †