Lifelong Passion for DePaul to Continue with Savage Endowed Scholarship
Former track and field/cross country student-athlete and coach looks back and forward at his impact on the program
Bob Sakamoto, Athletics Communications
5/13/2020
“I look back on everything and think: ‘What a lucky person I am.’ I get to DePaul as a student, get into coaching, get into teaching and then had all these wonderful student-athletes over all the years."-Pat Savage
“It’s just amazing.”
CHICAGO – Pat Savage will never forget the get-together he had with athletics development administrator Thad Dohrn earlier this year.
"I was in Thad’s office when he told me that Jess and Steve Sarowitz had made a very sizeable gift to the Patrick Savage Endowed Scholarship and that we were only $1000 from reaching the million-dollar mark,” said the former DePaul track and field/cross country coach. “I went home and wrote a check for $1200, took it around the block and dropped it off at DePaul.
“My wife Melissa and I poured a wee bit of aged single-malt Irish whiskey to celebrate. Because of the coronavirus, we have not been able to get out for a celebration dinner with Jess, Steve and Thad.”
Savage is all about celebrating life in three distinct ways---his love for Melissa and running plus his passion to advocate for DePaul and all that Chicago’s hometown university represents.
His Blue Demon connection dates all the way back to 1962 when he was began a splendid four-year track and field/cross country career under the guidance of coach Don Amidei. He was cross-country team captain his junior and senior years and track co-captain as a junior. An injury forced him to miss his senior season of track.
It was a bare-bones program that had neither an indoor or outdoor track as Savage and his teammates would practice by running at Lincoln Park Zoo. In those days, his shoes cost $6 and Savage would go through seven pairs a year as the soles kept wearing out.
His educational career included outstanding teaching and coaching stints at DePaul Academy, St. George, Niles West and Oakton Community College. Savage developed more than 200 All-State track and field/cross country athletes to go with his 39 junior college All-Americans at Oakton.
He was serving as a Blue Demon assistant coach in 2005-06 when athletics director Jean Lenti Ponsetto promoted him to head up the track and field and cross country programs.
“One of the best decisions we made was asking coach Savage to take over our programs and infuse his infectious enthusiasm and love for running with our young teams,” said Ponsetto. “All the while he was mentoring a terrific assistant coach in Dave Dopek who in a few short years was ready to be DePaul’s head coach.
“We remain grateful to Pat for coming out of retirement to assist DePaul athletics with his generous spirit and commitment to moving the programs to another level.”
Savage was surprised by the initial offer.
“I had been retired a couple of months when Jeanne asked me if I wanted to come and work in the track and field and cross country programs,” Savage said. “I was astonished.
“At age 62, I became their head coach. I always told my runners there are so few people that end up becoming professional runners---you have to fall back on your education.”
That message came through loud and clear as the 2009 cross country team was the No. 1 academic team in the country.
The coach’s retirement celebration in June of 2011 was quite the occasion as family, friends and Blue Demon fans paid tribute to the DePaul Hall of Famer.
“At my retirement party at the Cliff Dwellers, I walked up all 22 floors of the Borg Warner building that night without breaking a sweat!” he proudly recalled.
That same night, his former assistant coach and highly decorated DePaul track star Dave Dopek was honored as the new men's and women's track and field/cross country coach. Dopek has led the Blue Demons to their greatest success in the BIG EAST Track and Field Championships including the BIG EAST men’s outdoor title in 2017.
“I look back on everything and think: ‘What a lucky person I am,’” Savage said. “I get to DePaul as a student, get into coaching, get into teaching and then had all these wonderful student-athletes over all the years.
“It’s just amazing.”
The end of coaching was just the beginning of Savage’s next chapter at his alma mater.
That opens up with a fast friendship with Steve Sarowitz while coaching him on the Niles West Oakton Runners Club which won the Chicago Area Runners Association Race Circuit 17 times from 1989 to 2005.
Steve is an Illinois alum and Jessica graduated from DePaul in 1991. They have been immense supporters of DePaul athletics and powerful advocates worldwide for helping the disadvantaged that includes a deep involvement with the Friends of Honduran Children organization that has helped to save more than 35,000 Honduran children from the ravaging effects of hopeless poverty.
“While coaching at DePaul, I started working with Jeanne on getting an outdoor track and field facility built at Lane Tech,” Savage said. “I asked Steve and Jess if they would make a donation. They did. After several other donations to DePaul athletics and the track and field team, Steve told me that he wanted to do something more.”
A dinner meeting was arranged for a Thursday night in late June of 2011. A week before, Savage was running up a hill near his Wisconsin home on Delavan Lake in Wisconsin when he became completely out of breath.
“This never happened to me except at the end of a race,” Savage said. “The next day, I ran the same hill and the same thing happened. On that Sunday, Melissa went for a run around Delavan Lake and I followed on my bicycle. I could not ride up any of the hills.”
Savage contacted his doctor, Ben Hasan, another Niles West Oakton Runners Club enthusiast. Hasan scheduled blood tests on June 28 which turned out to be negative for a heart attack or stroke. Savage went to Glenbrook Hospital for an exam on June 30, allowing plenty of time for the dinner with Thad, Jessica and Steve.
Unfortunately, Dr. Hasan couldn’t find anything wrong and Savage would not leave the hospital until he had an answer. The dinner meeting was canceled.
“I spent the night in the hospital, and the next day they found that I had spontaneously torn three of the four chords in my heart and would need to have open-heart surgery on July 11,” Savage recalled. “The matching dates were Feb. 11 (retire from DePaul), June 11 (DePaul retirement party) and July 11 (heart surgery).
Steve and Jessica kicked off Savage’s endowed scholarship with a $50,000 donation, and Savage took it from there.
"Steve, Jess and their family came to visit me in the hospital and told me about the scholarship,” Savage said. "It was really exciting to have a scholarship named after me and to have another scholarship for track and field because of what they've done.
“After I was feeling better from my surgery, I started to contact DePaul former student-athletes as well as former student-athletes from my days of coaching at DePaul Academy, St. George High School, Niles West and Oakton,” Savage said. “I also reached out to DePaul alums, friends, family and people I had met over the years.
“Melissa and I know so many that love DePaul and are willing to donate to DePaul. I cannot begin to thank all the people who have contributed to the scholarship. There were donations large and small by so many generous, kind friends.
“Michael McGuinness and his wife Michelle whose daughter Kirstyn was on the DePaul cross country and track team made a very substantial gift. My high school and college teammate, Bill Drennan, has made substantial contributions as did college teammates Lloyd Schlegal, the late Rich Bokor, John Caldow, John Hudetz, John Foxen and Jim Faron.”
The ongoing support from Jessica and Steve Sarowitz and so many others has turned Savage’s endowed scholarship into the second-largest endowed athletic scholarship at DePaul. The most recent Blue Demon recipients were Henry Larkin and Margaret Hastings last September.
"I would describe Steve and Jess as a couple of balls of fire who are lively, active and both into sports," Savage said. "They are great people, and I can't say enough about them.
"Both are incredibly dedicated to helping DePaul. Jess is Honduran, and they sponsor an orphanage in the Honduras. They are about the most generous people I know who firmly believe in the golden rule. At the same time, they are fun to be around.”
Jessica endowed a women's soccer scholarship in honor of Blue Demon coach Erin Chastain. Jessica and Steve's keen interest in spiritual journeys led them to an endowment for the Footsteps of St. Vincent de Paul tours in France taken by the men's and women's basketball teams and the softball team. She serves as a trustee at DePaul.
“Pat exemplifies the spirit of our school,” said Jessica Sarowitz. “He has a genuine love for life that is infectious. Steve and I are honored to have a chance to contribute to his legacy.”
Steve founded the Paylocity Corporation in 1997 and served as its President and CEO for over a decade, guiding Paylocity from a start-up operation to becoming a leader in the payroll service industry.
"I became involved with DePaul through Pat Savage who is just a wonderful man," Steve Sarowitz said in a 2015 feature story on depaulbluedemons.com. “Pat is a giant in my mind.
"I've always loved Pat and trusted him. You could give him $1 million and he would give it back right to the last penny. He is a great sport with terrific character and a great sense of humor.
"I've been fortunate to be very successful financially. I want to make a statement and help people. My wife and I identify with DePaul's mission of providing a college education for first-generation kids."
Savage’s mission of enjoying life to its fullest has transformed his retirement into truly golden years.
“Melissa and I do a lot of traveling around the world,” he said. “We have been to Ireland, China, Greece, Italy, France, Canada, Mexico, the Caribbean Islands, Cambodia, Thailand, Great Britain, Laos and all over the USA including Alaska and Hawaii.
“I usually visit Ireland three or four times a year, and every other year I take a tour group there to run in road races and play golf. I have cousins all over the world, and during my lifetime, I have met more than 1,200 of them.
“Melissa and I also enjoy going to my former student-athletes’ weddings. They are always a grand celebration, and I am always amazed that they all have their former teammates in their wedding parties. I always said during recruiting that their future teammates would become their friends for life.
“We have been to so many of their weddings that I’ve lost count. What has also happened at DePaul is that many of their parents became great supporters of our programs and friends for life.”
