1983

1983 was the first full season in Mt. Prospect for Green White, and while some of those games were a little rough because the field wasn't quite in shape yet, Green White managed to hold their own despite losing their star striker Robert Meschbach (he was playing professionally for the Ft. Lauderdale Strikers alongside former German superstar Gerd Mueller). Frank Schmaltz (photo) was one of the players on that year's first team, along with the Speth brothers and Hans Metzinger Jr.

As for the younger Green White clubs, once again a Green White youth team won the state championship. The U12 team led by Joe Schlenhardt did it again, the third year in a row a Green White U12 team won the championship.

With the new fields, Green White also was able to finally do something they had dreamed of doing for years--hold their very own tournament. It was a huge undertaking, but for the crew that had just spent the last year and a half literally building fields and a clubhouse from scratch, this was a task they were ready to tackle.

Helmut Filian was in his last year running the youth organization and he remembers it well. "We had the first youth tournament in the area here in 1983. We had 50 or 60 teams. That was no easy job because we didn’t have computers to create the brackets or anything. We were lucky that Alex Gyurko helped us get the referees—he convinced them to whistle for free that first tournament to help us build this thing. That whole tournament was a huge undertaking. Everyone pitched in—some helped out in the chuckwagon--some helped out on the fields, some helped to keep track of the brackets, some helped with traffic. Everybody helped, and I mean everybody. I got the teams to get here—that was my job.”

Former Green White President Hans Metzinger chuckles at the memory of the kids helping out. "We made some benches for the spectators, and had a few of our kids help paint them. Peter Kaempfer and Kurt Melcher had more paint on their faces than they had on the benches because didn’t turn the planks, they went underneath to paint them."

Green White Off The Field

The one down side to moving out to Mt. Prospect was the loss of the Donauschwaben banquet hall in Chicago. That made it a little more difficult to stage some of the annual social events the club had been having for the past 27 years. Needless to say, that little hiccup didn't stop the party. Most events were moved to the Schwaben Center in Buffalo Grove, including the annual Schlachtfest (an event that still goes on to this day). This picture was taken there.

Once again a Miss Green White was crowned. In 1983 it was future club president Cindy Kaempfer (photo), who went on to be named Miss Soccer at 1983's annual Sport, Radio & Press ball. Some of the first team players and coaches are in the picture with her including a very young John Dunkas, Frank Schmaltz and Frank Speth (back row), Mike Andres (glasses) and coach Stefan Zimmer.

In Pop Culture

*The number one song of the year was "Every Breath You Take" by The Police.

*The Academy Award for best picture was given to "Terms of Endearment"

*The top rated television show of 1983 was "Dallas"


Elsewhere in 1983

~The Chicago White Sox won their division and lost to the Baltimore Orioles in the ALCS.

~Chicago Archbishop Bernandin was named a Cardinal by the Vatican.

~Michael Jackson's "Thriller" album went to #1 and stayed there for 37 weeks.

~Vanessa Williams became the first black Miss America.

~Ronald Reagan signed a bill declaring Martin Luther King Day as a national holiday.


Coming next month: 1984.

As always, if you have any thing to add or correct in this month’s installment, please drop me a line at amishrick@yahoo.com. I consider this a group project, and a work in progress, so we can add and subtract until we get it all exactly correct. If you have photos you’d like to contribute, please do.