Honoring a Legacy: Mahomet-Seymour Football Carries the Memory of Coach Frank Dutton into the 2024 Season
By FRED KRONER
It represents a symbol of excellence.
Or perhaps a symbol of appreciation and gratitude.
Maybe the actual symbol of recognition is more like a tribute to a person whose decades-long tenure in the Mahomet-Seymour school district made an impression on thousands of former students, many of whom still live locally.
Wherever the M-S football team plays this season – and at whatever level – the players (118 in all) will carry with them a remembrance of former head coach Frank Dutton, who passed away suddenly on April 8, 2024.
Two former students – Jonah Cagley and Nezar Kassem – initiated the plan to get decals honoring Dutton on the helmets of every squad member.
Cagley played football four years under Dutton. Kassem was not a football player. It didn’t matter.
They shared similar feelings of admiration for the same person, who died at age 79.
“I didn’t have him as a coach,” Kassem said, “but he taught sound fundamentals, preparation and having fun.
“He applied that to his job as a teacher and did the same for students as well as athletes. He would stay after to help students, prepare you and make sure you had fun.
“I had geometry with him. I was not fond of it when I started, but by the end of the year, it was one of my favorite classes. Coach Dutton was the kind of person you’d want influencing your kid. He was always a positive role model.”
Kassem formulated several ideas – including helmet stickers as well as a patch for the players’ jerseys – and received support when he contacted athletic director Matt Hensley, Bulldog football coach Jon Adkins and former coach Tom Shallenberger.
The feeling was, “he’s a legendary icon and this is the time to give him recognition,” Kassem said.
The plan was in motion, but faced an immediate hurdle.
“A decal is easier to do than a patch, but I don’t know how to do it,” Kassem said.
He didn’t need to look further than the neighborhood he lived in during childhood. Cagley – who is two years older – worked in that area and, in 2008, had designed the current logos for M-S school athletics.
At Southern Illinois University, Cagley studied commercial graphic design and marketing.
“I started out as a designer and artist,” Cagley said. “After seven or eight years, I migrated to marketing.”
Cagley, who lives in Maple Grove, Minn., didn’t need to be asked twice for assistance and willingly donated his services.
Kassem made one request before Cagley started work.
“One stipulation was to be respectful to the family,” Kassem said. “I don’t know the family on a personal level, but wanted them to be involved and to have their blessings.”
Shallenberger was the intermediary.
“Tom was a good person to contact the family and stepped up as the conduit,” Kassem said.
Over a span of about two weeks, Cagley created and submitted some possible decal designs.
“I narrowed it to three distinct designs,” Cagley said. “Each was unique in their approach.”
They were sent to Dutton’s widow, Diane, on June 30. Cagley was going to be OK with whichever design was picked.
“What I learned from design is never send a design you don’t want chosen,” 1989 M-S graduate Cagley said.
Turns out there were no issues.
“The No. 1 goal was to make Diane happy,” Cagley said. “She said she loved them all. The one she liked best was my personal favorite.”
The chosen design has the name – FRANK DUTTON – in uppercase with white lettering on a blue background.
The top quarter of the design features an orange-shaded football with a white stripe on each side and M-S centered in the middle of the ball.
“Everywhere we go, teams, referees and fans will see that name,” Adkins said. “Some will ask questions, and it will be our chance to speak about him.”
Diane Dutton said she was both surprised and pleased by the special recognition.
“Our family is very grateful to all those involved in Frank being recognized and honored this way,” she said. “It means a lot to us, and know it would mean a lot to him.
“It was very unexpected.”
Shallenberger said he is certain that Frank Dutton would be most pleased by one portion of the undertaking.
“I know Frank would be proud of the fact that he’s not just recognized as a coach,” Shallenberger said, referring to Kassem’s role. “That shows how much people respected Frank.
“I thought this was a great idea. I’m glad M-S schools and coaches wanted to do this.”
Kassem had an opportunity to share with Dutton how his class had an impact on his own career.
“I told him he was the reason I answered a question correctly on my dental boards,” Kassem said. “The isosceles triangle is a symbol we use in dentistry.
“One of the questions on my board exam was to select the definition of an isosceles triangle. Thanks to him, I knew the answer.”
Adkins had the chance to meet and visit with Dutton in the fall of 2022, during a season when the Bulldogs won their first 11 games.
“We noticed this gentleman watching practicing,” Adkins said. “I had never seen the guy and Keith Pogue (assistant coach) said, “That’s Frank Dutton.’
“We walked over to him after practice and I got the chance to listen to the legend. I was like a kid in a candy store.
“That’s history. That’s tradition. The first thing I knew about this place was the name of the field. It was an awesome experience to shake his hand. I will never forget that moment.”
Cagley said at least one of his other designs may be used as well.
“We’ll take the design with the shield and crest and use it on a T-shirt (with another design on a hoodie), and sell those to raise money for the Frank Dutton Scholarship,” Cagley said. “There’s nothing like the legacy of Frank Dutton in Mahomet.
“Whether you were a student, athlete, parent or someone who lived in town, we were lucky to have a person like Frank Dutton to grow up around. We benefited from him.”
Adkins said the coaching staff is looking into wearing the T-shirts together at one Bulldog home game instead of their traditional coaching polo shirts.
“In my mind, it’s ‘What can we do?’” Adkins said.
The scholarship will be designated for a football player who was in the program all four years at M-S.
Cagley said he felt no pressure making the design for his hometown hero.
“I feel it’s special,” he said. “I loved to do it, especially for Mahomet.
“The connections are the reasons I go back and do these things.”
The most recent reiteration of the Bulldog logo – which debuted in 2008 following a vote of the student body from several choices – was the handiwork of Cagley.
“I’ve had my hands in doing a lot of things around the school,” said Cagley, who designed the camp T-shirts for Shallenberger during his tenure as head coach after succeeding Dutton.
Though Kassem was the first to voice the proposed plan, he said getting it implemented required plenty of assistance.
“A lot of people needed to be involved,” Kassem said. “It involved skills I didn’t know how to do. People he touched came together to get this accomplished.
“It took a community effort to get it done.”
Kassem, a 1991 M-S graduate who is now a Mahomet dentist, has also been actively involved with projects with the school.
For more than a decade, he has supplied mouthguards for the high school football players at all levels.
“We schedule a time for them to come in on a Friday in the summer and it takes about a week to go from impressions to done,” Kassem said. “We average 60 to 80 per year.
“It is part of the required equipment, and I didn’t want a situation where someone couldn’t participate because they didn’t have the equipment.
“There have been instances where teeth have been saved by using the mouthguard.”
The 2024 M-S varsity football season will start on Friday (Aug. 30) at 7:30 p.m. at home against Morton. It will be one of just four regular-season Bulldog home games at Frank Dutton Field.
