When you join the Lions as a player, social member or a friend, you are always a Lion. But life sometimes takes its toll and some leave us, either before their time or after they have crossed the try line. This is a page dedicated to those we fondly remember and do not want to forget. They are Lions at rest.
Please use the form at the bottom of the page if you would like us to add anyone.
Keith Brown (1950 – 2011)
Keith J. Brown passed away peacefully on Wednesday, October 19, 2011 after a battle with Melanoma Skin Cancer. He was Executive Vice President at Klaff Realty, LP, a private Chicago-based real estate investment firm that specializes in the acquisition of distressed commercial property on a national scale. He was born in Chicago, Illinois on August 18, 1950 and is survived by his wife, Lisa Quinn, and two sons, Colin and Brendan. He also leaves behind a Black Army…
Keith was President of the Chicago Lions Rugby Club and a board member of the USA Rugby Foundation. Keith had served as President for five years, until this past August when he stepped down. He was instrumental in realigning the Lions when he first became involved as part of the building committee in 2005. At this time the Lions had assets in both the School Street Clubhouse and the North Park Tap. He spearheaded the group to consolidate and sell both using the proceeds to purchase an income producing six flat building on Chicago’s Northwest side. The rental units provide a steady income for the Lions as well as providing lodging for newly transplanted players to get their feet on the ground.
Keith was also the leader in securing the present playing pitch and clubhouse at our Lions for Hope Field in conjunction with The Hope Academy. His work with Hope Academy was monumental. I will be submitting a proposal to the Lions Executive Committee to rename the grounds Keith Brown Hope Memorial Field.
Mike Cavanagh (1952 – 2006)
by Ray Karenas
I first ran into Mike on the rugby pitch when he played with Southern Illinois University and I with Illinois State University in 1975. Actually, he ran into me and flattened me. My respect for him started right then and there. SIU and ISU scheduled home/away matches each Spring and Fall, so we got to run into each other quite often back then, him more often into me. After his graduation from SIU in 1976, he joined the Chicago Lions. I only really got to know him once I became a member of the Black two years later in the Spring of 1979. He played inside centre and I at wing for many, many matches joining ivory-man Harry Yaseen, his mate from SIU. We then joined forces on the ice rink and played organized league ice hockey along with his brother-in-law, Tim Morgan on the Yellow Jackets for many years. As age started to slow us down, diminish our hair lines and increase our waist size, we continued to play with the Grey Lions, both on the rugby pitch traveling to Aspen for many years, as he organized all of those efforts, and on the ice with the Lions Old Boys up at Skokie Skatium for over a decade.
I lived in Korea for two years back in 1991 to 1993 and while there I just happened to call the Lions Clubhouse one night after the Blackhawks made it into the NHL Stanley Cup Finals and who answered the phone but Mike, who was there with some mates celebrating the birth of his daughter, Grace. Grace and Karla were resting comfortably in the hospital and Mike’s elation, glow and happiness was felt all the way in Seoul. Just listening to him exult in fatherhood was a precursor to my happiness with my two children. Pretty cool stuff.
Mike was diagnosed with Colon Cancer three years ago. He continued his battle with it after surgery removed quite a bit of his colon. But due to his courage, his heart and his spirit one would never have known what was actually going on in his body.
This past October I organized the ‘Mike Cavanagh Appreciation Day’ for us old boys to get together to play a match down in Lemont at the Blaze’s pitch. I suggested to Mike that he come out and be our honorary captain, maybe take kicks at goal for us and convert all of our tries. Well, he didn’t like the setup I had, said something about not liking all of the hullabaloo but he said he’d come out and hang out and have a couple of beers with us. Well, show up he did. At half time he snuck away into the bushes and as if it were a phone booth, donned the black jersey, shorts and socks and waited until my eye caught his. With about 20 minutes left in the match I came off and Mike came on. He knocked heads, tackled hard and generally was the Cavs of old. What a joy, what a sight! Incredible. Unbeknownst to all but Bob MacArthur, Mike confided with Bob and showed him his surgically implanted chest catheter. He told Bob that if this thing cracked or opened up and he started to bleed just be sure to pinch the plastic tube and then find the damn cap. Obviously he came away unscathed, we all adjourned to beers, food and stories and everyone left knowing they caught an unbelievable event knowing now the events of this week.
Mike was a doer, a mentor and a confidant. On the pitch he usually was the captain and was both a physical and cerebral force. The kind you’d like to have 15 of wearing your jersey. [read more]
I am only too honoured to have known ye…
My heart goes out to Karla, his wife, and Grace and Molly, his daughters, and all of his immediate family and to our extended Chicago Lions Family.
We all hurt with you but celebrate the time we had with Michael. May God Bless You!
Denis Dunne (d. 2011)
Denis Dunne started playing football in the era of the leather helmet and no face mask. Good prep for his later found rugby. Although tall, he was an undernourished end playing single platoon football at Cornell. Strong breezes were his enemy.
Next he went to sea and became a Navy hard hat diver in the icy and dark waters of the world’s oceans and harbors, later admitting that he was in part influenced by John Wayne in”Wake of the Red Witch”.
Then came Rugby.
He was the rugby player who pushed in every scrum , who loved the ruck and maul and who showed up every minute of every game of every season – mud, snow, heat, whatever.
He broke almost every bone in his back yet got patched up, added a few metal parts and returned to the pitch and played as if he had something to prove. In truth, he had nothing to prove, he just loved the game.
He was always the gentleman, the person who seemed to have invented polish, who charmed all who met him and for whom the girls would always sigh.
He was ever brave and gallant as when he plunged into a burning London pub and dragged the damsel from the fire — as the Herald Tribune duly noted.
He was a man among men who loved his hunting and bird dogs. He was as comfortable in a log cabin as in a Board room and his most recent Christmas card showed him mushing his beloved on a dogsled through the snows of the North Woods.
Denis Dunne was the Financial Advisor of the USRFF for many years who would truly be embarrassed by this gushy tribute. We post this tribute because Denis Dunne epitomized the character and qualities of a man and teammate that we all admired and he shared those with us. He was charming, bright, witty and incredibly resiliant.
Too soon gone-not to be forgotten. On Febuary 5, 2011 Denis Dunne completed his journey through life. All who knew him mourn his passing.
Rob Mier (d. 1995)
Rob Mier was one of the unsung heros of the Chicago Lions in the 80s and early 90s when he played 2nd and 3rd XV scrum half.
Rob had a distinguished career in Urban Planning.
Read more about Rob in this UIC article.
“Mier founded the College of Urban Planning and Public Affairs’ Center for Urban and Economic Development in 1978, which to this day works with community groups to improve the economic states of their urban neighborhoods. He also created Chicago Works Together, the city’s 1984 economic development plan, working as Mayor Harold Washington’s commissioner of economic development. As with everything he did, Mier infused both endeavors with a steadfast focus on social justice, equality and diversity.”
Rob passed away in 1995 at the age of 52, from exposure to Agent Orange during his service in the Vietnam War.
Brian Mullery (1957 – 2007)
Brian Mullery was not just my friend.
He was OUR FRIEND.
If you saw him back in 1982 when the ISU OLDE GOLD ALUMNI played together this is what you may remember him to look like.
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