PicoBlog

One of the most important lessons Barrington’s Joe Sanchez received on the road to becoming the winningest football coach in Mid-Suburban League history came from Tim Dunn.

Sanchez was in his first job out of North Central College as an offensive coordinator for Barrington’s sophomore team led by Dunn. Sanchez was eager to show what he could do late in a game that was basically wrapped up against Hoffman Estates, where Dunn had also coached.

“One of his closest friends is Mike Batina,” Sanchez recalled of the longtime Hoffman assistant football and track assistant and then-sophomore coach. “I’m young and gung-ho and want to score again. 

“Tim put his arm around me and said, ‘You see that guy over there? That’s one of my closest friends. We’re taking a knee.’ That lesson always stuck with me. He taught me to respect the game.”

It was all part of the larger-than-life presence Dunn, who was known to friends as “Boss,” had not only at the high school but throughout the Barrington community as a lifelong resident with family roots dating to the 1880s. That presence will be sorely missed by many after Dunn unexpectedly passed away from a heart attack at 72 before the wrestling team was getting ready to head to a meet on November 30. He is survived by his wife Chris and daughters Erin and Emily.

“He was just a great guy and he will be missed,” said longtime friend Denny Sander.

“Probably the simplest way to break Tim down is large man, larger heart, because that’s who he was,” said retired Barrington athletic director Mike Obsuszt earlier this week. “He was a presence when he was in a room and the most kind-hearted person you could meet.

“He was everything Barrington. My heart is kind of sunk thinking about his passing. He was just such a good guy.”

Dunn coached football and wrestling and was the social studies department chair at Barrington before retiring from teaching in 2007. He was inducted into the school’s coaches hall of fame in 2015. He also served on the Barrington village board from 1995-2003 and was very involved in the community’s 150th anniversary celebration in 2015.

“Because he grew up and lived in the community and had so many connections in the community, it made him a much different figure than most who might have lived and taught in the same place,” Sanchez said. “He was so connected. That’s the word that keeps popping up. 

“He was connected to the founding fathers of Barrington. The iconic pillars of our history, he was related (great nephew) to Arnett C. Lines. When you stop and think about somebody’s connection to a community, I can’t think of anyone who would have that kind of historical connection to a place.

“It’s one of a kind. You just don’t come across it. He’s just iconic. To know Tim Dunn and be close to Tim Dunn is to be connected to the birth of Barrington.”

Dunn went to St. Anne’s grade school in Barrington and Carmel Catholic for high school, where he played football and wrestled and met his wife of 50-plus years Chris.

Eventually coming back to Barrington to teach and coach was a natural progression. Dunn was the head wrestling coach from 1998-2007 and in 2005 the program won the Mid-Suburban West for its first division title since Barrington joined the MSL in 1977. 

“It’s been since the beginning of time that a Barrington wrestling team has won anything like a division title,” Dunn told the Daily Herald’s Hall of Fame wrestling writer Mike Garofola. “We took one giant leap forward this year by winning a tournament, then beating (perennial state power) Conant in a dual and enjoying some much-deserved success. We’ve got a great group of kids and I am really proud of all of them.”

A year later, Barrington would repeat as division champions and win its first overall MSL title. The program also won consecutive Class AA regional crowns in his final two years as head coach.

“The wrestling world can be pretty combative but I don’t know any wrestling coaches in all the years I was around who didn’t like Tim Dunn,” Obsuszt said.

After Dunn retired he continued to help as an assistant coach and by running the school’s prestigious early-season Moore-Prettyman tourney. Obsuszt joked about the eye-opening coffee Dunn would make.

“Tim would go early to get the coffee pot going,” Obsuszt said with a laugh. “You could pretty much use a fork to drink it.”

Sander, who was an assistant softball coach and manager of the American Legion baseball team, joked that Dunn “could smell a wrestling hot dog cooked outside a quarter-mile away.” Working the grill at home football games on the famous pork chop sandwiches was just one way Dunn and Sander bonded.

Dunn started Barrington’s Anglers Club and Sander’s son Jon went on a fishing trip to Canada with the group. Sander also drove Dunn’s sophomore football team bus to away games.

“I always had to get the bus ready for a quick escape,” Sander said. “Tim got going, too, if there were players missing. He’d say, ‘They can go on the varsity bus.’ And you had better not say one word on the way to the game. He was a great coach to work with.”

Obsuszt, who was Barrington’s varsity basketball coach from 1995-2002, and Sanchez were both hired by Dunn to work in the social studies department. It was life-changing for both of them.

“I have a special place in my heart for him as a friend and colleague,” Obsuszt said.

“In so many ways he was a father figure to me,” said Sanchez, who just finished his 22nd season as head coach. “I was fresh out of college and he took a chance on a 22-year-old kid. I wouldn’t be at Barrington if it wasn’t for Tim Dunn. I was fortunate to have someone who trusted me and was willing to let me grow.”

While Dunn eventually stepped away from coaching football he would still frequently come to games and practices. He would also have a spread of food waiting for the coaches after Friday night games that ranged from cooking himself to buying sandwiches or ordering pizzas.

“You would walk in and see ‘Boss’s’ smile and it’s where he wanted to be,” Sanchez said. “He was a great storyteller. He loved hearing about the game and what went well and what didn’t. He always had the right thing to say to lighten the mood (if things were down). This year with the success we had (Class 8A state semifinalist) it was even more special for me to share that with him.”

Obsuszt said Dunn “walked the walk” with the other things he did such as buying matching wrestling shirts for all the coaches out of his own pocket or working hard to get Barrington students who turned 18 to register to vote. When Obsuszt’s daughter Ashley was at North Park University, he set it up for her to student-teach with Dunn’s wife Chris as Countryside Elementary School.

My wife Amy covered Barrington in the mid-1990s for the Daily Herald and recalled that Tim Dunn was a voice of reason in the often-contentious area of local politics.

“There were so many layers to Tim and we saw the teaching and coaching layer a lot,” Sanchez said. “You would see the community member Tim and how involved he was with so many organizations and people. If you needed anything in the community all you had to do is call Tim Dunn. He was a classic servant leader who wanted to always put others above himself.”

Services were held for Tim Dunn on Friday and Saturday. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the Tim Dunn Memorial Fund to support wrestling scholarships and details are included in the link below to his obituary.

Tim Dunn Obituary

ncG1vNJzZmilkafBurnAnKCaq6qauG%2B%2F1JuqrZmToHuku8xop2ismaJ6pcHNp2SwmaNiuaqyxKWmp59doa6zs8SrZK2gkaM%3D