Leaving Glory for Greatness is our newest book at Eckhartz Press. Lou Macaluso is our newest author. We got a chance this week to sit down with Lou and discuss this exciting new book…
EP: “Leaving Greatness for Glory” is the life story of LaMarr Thomas. First of all, tell us a little bit about who this man was.
Lou: In 1966, LaMarr was an All-State football and Basketball star, High School All-American at Thornton Township High School in Harvey, Illinois, and Honor Student. He went on to Michigan State University where he became the Spartans’ lead rusher and 8th leading rusher in the Big 10 Conference for legendary Coach Duffy Daugherty in 1967. During the offseason, he challenged the MSU Athletic Department with race discrimination that led to an all-school black athlete boycott when the Athletic Director scoffed at their demands. The boycott generated national attention. The A.D. caved on the demands, and LaMarr ended the boycott; however, when he returned to football practice, a knee injury (possibly retribution from disgruntled teammates) ended his participation for the 1968 season. While recuperating he decided to end his collegiate and possibly NFL football career to become a scholar and to fight for the civil rights of all Americans. He protested for human rights all over the country, wrote scholarly papers and books, worked for the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, and saved his alma mater, Thornton High School, from extinction by raising millions of dollars for educational programs—all while fighting a rare form of cancer that took his life in 2019.
EP: It’s a fascinating story, but what was it about LaMarr that made you decide to write this book?
Lou: I, too, attended Thornton Township High School when LaMarr attended. I’ve never known anyone with his talent and charisma that so humbly served others and asked for nothing in return. I think everyone can learn from this book, as I did, how we should all be living our lives.
EP: Not all of Chicagoland remembers LaMarr, but there is one place that has never forgotten him. Tell us about his connection to his high school alma mater, and how important they have been in the creation of the book.
Lou: Simply put, Thornton Township High School was the number one high school in the state for decades because of the huge tax base in Harvey, Illinois due to the dozens of factories. Those factories moved away, and it became the poorest city in Illinois. When the school was set to close in 2002, LaMarr helped organize the Thornton Alumni Legacy Fund that raised millions of dollars not only to save the school but to restore it to its former status. Thornton has is helping to market Leaving Glory for Greatness. All author residuals will go to Thornton High School.
EP: LaMarr’s path crossed some big names in two different worlds, in the sports world, and in the civil rights community. Give us a few names from both worlds that found their way into the pages of your book.
Lou: Of course, Duffy Daugherty, actor/NFL star Bubba Smith, Gale Sayers, NBA star Jim Ard to name a few. Several civil rights figures are mentioned, but most prominent is Martin Luther King, Jr.
EP: Comedian Tom Dreesen has blurbed the book. Why did he decide to jump in to help promote it?
Lou: Tommy attended Thornton and loves the school and Harvey, Illinois as much as LaMarr and the author. Moreover, LaMarr and Tom formed a close bond toward the end of LaMarr’s life. Tom was one of the last persons that LaMarr called when LaMarr lay dying. It’s difficult not to tear up when one reads Tom’s recollection of that conversation.
EP: This is your first book for Eckhartz Press, but it’s not your first book. Talk a bit about some of the previous stories you’ve chronicled.
Lou: My first book, Clown Town, is an autobiographical account of my struggle with an eye affliction and my fear of death while growing up in a Chicago south suburb. The Warming Sicilian Son (no misspelling) intertwines a trip my wife and I took to Sicily with my grandfather’s immigration to America; it’s a novella. My next two books, In Search of Sal and Déjà vu, Italian Style, are murder mysteries based on true stories. Respectively, “Sal” was inspired by the death of another Thornton alumnus, Stanley DeSantis-a Hollywood movie character actor, and “Déjà vu” was inspired by the corruption in Chicago during the extension of the Blue Line Elevator Train construction during the Jane Byrne era. My most recent book before “Leaving Glory” was The Greatest Escape, based on the true story of a group of senior citizens who escaped from East to West Berlin during the Cold War—optioned for a movie and perhaps my most ambitious project, taking almost 20 years in the research and writing.
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