*This article was first published in 2020. Mahomet-Seymour Hall of Fame Inductees will be honored at the Homecoming game on Sept. 17.
*photo by Heather Wanniger, Sweet Lemonade Photography
BY DANI TIETZ
dani@mahometnews.com
Journalists know the story is never about them.
Over their careers, they may thousands of stories, and at the end of the careers, there may only be a dozen stories — if any — written about them.
They will have watched balls being passed between teammates, tears shed at a funeral, outrage expressed over government decisions and joy shared between lovers as they cross the threshold, but at the end of the day, journalists often question if they are really playing a part in the world or just watching and reporting.
After five decades of covering sports throughout East Central Illinois, Mahomet-Seymour alum Fred Kroner is aware of the work he did for The Champaign-Urbana Morning Courier, The Springfield State-Journal Register, The Bloomington Daily Pantagraph, The Champaign-Urbana News-Gazette and the Mahomet Citizen, but many times he wonders how his work played a role.
“From the time I started into journalism school, all the professors always talked about how journalists are impartial,” Kroner said. “You’re never a part of what’s going on
“When I go to the games, I’m not there hoping someone wins. I’m there to cover the event and write something about it.”
While Kroner grapples with his role, those whose lives he touched and those who realize what a vital role journalism plays in society, are honoring the journalist who retired from The News-Gazette as the sports editor in 2015.
The Mahomet-Seymour Education Foundation will induct Kroner — alongside Leo Vitali, Jason Seaman and Janet Watkins — into the 2020 Mahomet-Seymour Hall of Fame during the Mahomet-Seymour homecoming football game on Sept. 18 against Effingham.
Kroner said being in his alma mater’s Hall of Fame has never been a goal.
“(Mahomet-Seymour) didn’t have a Hall of Fame when I started at The News-Gazette,” he said. “It was never something I thought, ‘Maybe if I do this I’ll get into the Hall of Fame one day;’ that was never on my radar.
Even after the Mahomet-Seymour Education Foundation began its Hall of Fame in 2016, Kroner didn’t feel like what he’d done deserved to be recognized.
“To me, a Hall of Fame recognizes people that are, whether it’s athletics or drama or music, the people that have participated; people that have had an active and prominent role in how things turn out,” he said. “And I don’t feel like I have had that.”
Although Mahomet-Seymour’s Hall of Fame oftentimes recognize athletes’ accomplishments, Kroner’s athletic career was nearly non-existent as a youngster.
He ached to play baseball and basketball during his years in junior high and high school, but because of his parent’s rules and his chores on the farm, he learned about sports by listening to the Chicago Cubs on his transistor radio during the summers as he walked beans for his father.
His short stint on the Mahomet-Seymour High School basketball team ended mid-season his sophomore year when the coach told Kroner he couldn’t play because of practice attendance. Kroner said he would have made it to practice if his parent’s rules had been different.
Although Kroner made it to all the games that season as either a player or a manager, he was not awarded an athletic letter.
“As I look back on high school, that was my biggest disappointment,” he said.
He became a journalist during his time in junior high when he wrote about Mahomet-Seymour Junior High sports for The Sucker State. He continued through high school before he attended the University of Illinois to study communications.
While Kroner can rattle off the names and stats of area athletes who are now adults as well as those who are currently playing, few statistics have ever been kept on Kroner: games attended, phone calls made or stories written are not something professionals keep track of.
But Kroner’s work ethic, attention to detail and interest in people has set him apart from the rest of the crowd.
“When I started, I had approximately 50 high schools I was responsible for,” he said. “And they had anywhere from eight to 20 sports, depending on the size of the school.”
Kroner said that throughout his career his sights were set on writing the best stories and covering as many teams as possible.
The area he was required to cover ranged from Kankakee to Mattoon, and LeRoy to the Illinois/Indiana state line. For years, his workday started in the morning hours and ended around midnight, if he was lucky.
Although Kroner grew up in Mahomet, and has lived there much of his adult life, he said that he never treated Mahomet-Seymour athletics differently than other teams he was tasked with covering.
He has been accused of it, though.
In the 1980s, Mahomet-Seymour’s wrestling program was at the height of its dominance.
“Mahomet had teams going to state every year, winning five team state titles in a seven-year period, along with a bunch of individual champions,” he recalled.
Urbana spectators wondered why Kroner covered Mahomet the way he did.
“I tried to explain to people, it didn’t matter (where he was from),” he said.
“It could have been Monticello, it could have been Rantoul; if they’re doing that well at that level, they’re going to get the coverage.”
Over the breadth of his career, Kroner witnessed many changes in how stories are written, and ultimately how they are consumed. He was even part of that movement in the 1980s when he clamored for changes in The News-Gazette’s sports section.
Kroner wanted to focus on athletes, coaches, referees or families rather than just provide a play-by-play recap of the game.
“(When writing about) a football game maybe I wouldn’t necessarily focus on one member of the offensive line, but just kind of talking about the line in general, because they don’t get a lot of recognition,” he said.
His plans didn’t always play out, though.
Sometimes, game highlights would end up being the story that Kroner produced.
“When a basketball team is down by 20 points to start the fourth quarter and then they just chip away, chip away, chip away, and they hit a shot at the end to win, that become the focus,” he said.
“There are such situations like that where you pretty much have to talk about the game, the comeback and what led to the final shot, rather than just trying to focus on one individual. So I couldn’t always do what I wanted.”
There were times when interviewing coaches also made telling the story difficult.
Kroner said even in games where an athlete hit a last-second shot, there were coaches that wouldn’t single the athlete out, but rather talk about the team’s effort throughout the game or during the final play.
But other coaches realized that Kroner would highlight different athletes throughout the season.
“There were coaches that realized that, and they were willing to go along, knowing that the other people are going to get their recognition in time,” Kroner said. “It’s just going to be down the line.”
Telling the unknown story about athletes always intrigued Kroner.
While Kroner covered all of the top athletes in the East Central Illinois area for decades, he also made sure to see and occasionally tell the story of those who crossed the line last — literally.
At a girls’ cross-country meet, he watched the top runner finish in about 17 or 18 minutes. Then, as the finish line cleared of parents and athletes, Kroner waited for the final athlete to cross the line at around 37 minutes.
“The reason for that was not to make fun of that person but to talk about what determination in knowing pretty much at the start of the race, she was going to be the last runner,” he said.
“The motivation for doing that in a sport like cross-country is you can be the last runner but you can improve, you can have a time a minute better than you ever ran before.
“And that’s a significant achievement; you may never be fast enough to beat other people, but it’s doing the best that you could do.”
Readers and organizations took notice of the way Kroner told stories.
In 2001 he was chosen as the Illinois Sportswriter of the Year by the National Sportswriters and Sportscasters Association; in 1985 he was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize; in 1984, 1988, 2000 and 2009 he was named Newsman of the Year by the Illinois Wrestling Coaches and Officials Association; in 2008 he was named the Illinois Coaches Association Softball Writer of the Year; and in 2015 he received the Distinguished Media Award from the Illinois High School Association.
Being inducted into the Mahomet-Seymour Hall of Fame is an honor to add along with Kroner’s induction into the Illinois Basketball Coaches Association Hall of Fame in 2009 and his upcoming induction into the Illinois Wrestling Coaches and Officials Association Hall of Fame in April.
Kroner said that writing about wrestling wasn’t something he was passionate about as a young journalist, but because no one else wanted to cover the sport, he took it upon himself to learn and to write about it because he knew it was important to cover.
“I just kind of took it and made it my own,” he said. “By the time I retired, I had covered the state tournament in wrestling for 40 straight years.”
Kroner said that although he knew that some of the stories he produced could win an award, and although he did not expect to be inducted into the Hall of Fame, he is honored by the fact that readers, coaches, athletes, officials and other journalists have enjoyed the body of work he produced.
Today, Kroner spends his days helping his wife Emily pursue her dreams as the owner of Lucky Moon Pies in Mahomet. He also writes for the Mahomet Daily and SJO Daily, providing sports coverage, commentary and showing off his talents with stories that showcase local residents.
“There’s always a new chance to tell somebody else’s story,” Kroner said. “It doesn’t really matter what the sport might be, or even if it’s not a sport; I enjoy writing about people in the business world or in the academic world or in the arts or whatever it might be.
“There’s other challenges out there. There’s another story to tell just around the corner.
“I look forward to that. For me, that’s exciting.”
Being inducted into the Mahomet-Seymour Hall of Fame makes up for missing out on an athletic career and athletic letter during his time in high school.
“In some little way that gives me a little bit of extra satisfaction thinking, ‘Okay, I did it.’ I didn’t get the other but I’m getting this, even though it was never an ambition. I can take satisfaction from that.
“I think that’s the perfect way to end the story.”
M-S Education Foundation Hall of Fame
2020 Inductees
NAME GRAD YR.
Fred Kroner 1973
Jason Seaman 2007
Leo Vitali N-A
Janet Watkins N-A
NOTE: The inductees will be enshrined at the homecoming football game on Friday, Sept. 18 against Effingham.
