DePaul University Athletics
A Mother's Sacrifice Inspires Wintrust Arena Donor
4/26/2017 12:00:00 AM | DEPAUL ATHLETICS FUND
CHICAGO -- There is a special observance coming up next month in which we take time out of our busy lives to shower a unique individual with gratitude and appreciation.
For generous DePaul benefactor and Wintrust Arena donor Chuck Kopoulos, each and every morning he wakes up is the dawn of another Mother's Day.
The DePaul alumnus who worked his way through college bagging groceries at Dominick's and maxed out his Blue Demon education by rising to CEO and president of a worldwide corporation will never forget what an energetic and dedicated Greek mom did for her oldest child.
"We lost my dad, Chris, to lung cancer in 1965 when I was eight years old and my brother Peter was four," Chuck Kopoulos said. "My mom, Athene, was this 5-foot, 2-inch wonder of a woman running a single-parent home which was very rare in those days."
"She cooked and cleaned and worked two jobs to make sure we always had food on the table and anything else we needed. We didn't come from a lot, but everything my mom did made us wealthy in other ways.
"It was her dream that I would be the first one from our family to graduate from college. She thought it was such a huge opportunity and said: 'l do whatever I can to help you out, but you've got to do most of it yourself.'
Hard work and sacrifice were concepts Chuck embraced more than most teenagers in the 1970s when mood rings, bellbottoms, and Sony Walkman were all the rage with kids grooving to Paul Simon, the Bee Gees, Rod Stewart, Prince and Michael Jackson and flocking to the big screen for cinematic delights such as Star Wars, Jaws, Saturday Night Fever, Grease and Animal House.
"I got my moral compass and work ethic from her, a first-generation, devout Greek Orthodox mom who was always talking and gesturing with her hands,"Â Kopoulos said. "You can imagine when I told her I wanted to attend the largest Catholic university in the country, it wasn't exactly met with open arms.
"But she saw I would be going to a world-class university for business, and staying close to home would allow me to work and help her out around the house."
Chuck threw himself into his studies. After growing up at Lawrence and California, he and the family had moved out to Morton Grove. He was up at 6 a.m. to catch a bus and two trains to the Downtown campus. After classes and the commute home, he would work from 5-11 p.m. and return home to finish off homework around 1 a.m.
"I'm not sure how I did it, all on five hours of sleep---and there was no Red Bull back then,"Â he said with a laugh.
It all paid off on a gorgeous spring day in 1979.
"There were so many ways I wanted to repay my mom, but the first thing I wanted to do was have her watch me walk across the stage at the Opera House during DePaul's graduation ceremony,"Â Kopoulos said. "My mom was always talking and so full of energy, but she was eerily quiet on the car ride down to the Opera House that day.
"Â I asked her if everything was all right. She said: 'I don't want this to be a dream. I want it to be real, so I'm not saying anything.'
"We had a graduation celebration in our backyard for our large, extended Greek family and friends. My mom is only 5-2, but that day as she was walking around serving people, you'd swear she was 10-feet tall."
Chuck stood tall and did a lot of cheering during his college days as the Blue Demons went 88-30 during his four years on campus. He watched coach Ray Meyer’s teams featuring Dave Corzine, Joe Ponsetto, Randy Ramsey, Curtis Watkins and Gary Garland win 20 games in 1975-76 and advance to the NCAA Tournament Regional Final two years later, finishing 27-3.
Then came that glorious season of 1978-79 when a wunderkind freshman named Mark Aguirre took the Blue Demons on a magical ride to the NCAA Final Four. Along with Watkins, Garland, Clyde Bradshaw and James Mitchem, DePaul went 26-6 and came within two points of Indiana State and Larry Bird at the Final Four.
"Thinking about those days just gave me goosebumps,"Â Kopoulos said. &" IÂ had been a DePaul fan since I was a kid listening on my transistor radio to Red Rush calling the games. When I heard that Andy Pancratz and Dave Corzine were coming to DePaul, I knew we were headed for some big-time success. I had student tickets all four years three rows up from the floor in the bleachers.
"I loved watching Corzine and Ponsetto, Garland and Bradshaw. When Mark came in 1978, you could see the program was starting to outgrow Alumni Hall. I saw all the big games, including Notre Dame and LSU with their two All-Americans.
"I got to watch the players up close and get to know some of them. I had Clyde Bradshaw and Curtis Watkins in some of my classes. It gave me a real connection to the program."
He remembers everything like it was yesterday.
"I'll never forget my senior year when we played UCLA in the Elite Eight," he said. "They had beaten us by more than 20 points in the regular season, and Coach Ray was asked if he would play a zone defense this time. Coach said: "If we did that, they'd have to put up new nets at halftime because UCLA's shooting would burn them down."
"So, what did Coach do? He came out in a zone and we won by four.
"I still think we would've beaten Indiana State if Curtis Watkins had not hurt his knee in the UCLA game. He was a good defensive matchup against Bird and might have slowed him down."
Nothing could slow down this DePaul alum in the business world. After moving to Kansas City to start a manufacturing consulting practice, he made a pair of instant life-changing connections. The first one was Fike Corp., a humanity-oriented company whose mission is the uncompromising protection of life and critical assets through products and solutions to avoid any possibility of a disaster or catastrophic loss.
The second was his eventual wife, Barbara.
"I met Barb while I was working for a client in Kansas City, but I didn't start dating her until my business engagement was completed" Chuck said. " We got married in 1990.
"Fike was one of my first clients in Kansas City. They have a high moral compass just like DePaul and my childhood home life. It's a family-owned company with a noble advocacy of keeping people and facilities safe.
"I began in 1992 running the operations area, and I was the CEO from 2010 to last January. I was also president until 2014. I feel blessed to have this opportunity. It was the perfect storm of everything coming together.
Coming to Fike was the second-best decision I ever made---and I married the first one."
It was Barb who encouraged her husband to make the short trip from Kansas City to Chicago and visit his mom as often as possible.
I'd spend the weekend with her every month or two and we'd just stay home, kick back and relax"Â Chuck said. She passed away in 2005.Chuck has established the Athene Kopoulos Memorial Endowed Scholarship for a DePaul student-athlete studying in the Driehaus College of Business.
Athene's son often wears his Blue Demon gear while traveling on business and rarely misses an opportunity to promote his alma mater.
"We've gone through some tough times in recent years, but Barb and I never stopped supporting the program," he said. "A real fan is there whether the team is 27-0 or 0-27. And now, the new Wintrust Arena is the latest historic milestone in DePaul's rich basketball heritage. We really are Chicago's hometown team, and it's nice to bring basketball back to the city.
"We made a contribution and are naming some part of the arena. I strongly believe in paying it forward. If not for DePaul, I would never be in the place I am today. The university took me in and gave me a college education, and I will never forget the people who have helped me attain success in life. I'm thankful for that every day."
"I talked to Barb and said let's do something for the kids on the South Side and West Side. Let's do something for the single mom with four kids who could never get out to see a game in Rosemont."
And it will be a special occasion when Chuck and Barb gather up the Kopoulos extended family to attend a game at Wintrust Arena.
"When we see our name in the building, I know my mom and dad will be looking down and smiling,"Â Chuck said. I'm sure my mom will have tears in her eyes."
