Illini coach

'like brother,'

says son of

Dick Clark

By PETE SWANSON

Clarion Sports Editor

About 11 o'clock the Friday night of March 11, while wating for an available table in a Chicago restaurant after watching Illinois win a Big Ten Tournament basketball game, Mark Clark's cell phone rang.

"Who could be calling me at this time of night?" wondered the longtime Princeton resident, son of the late Dick Clark and brother of Jeff Clark, who owns and operates the restaurant in their father's name.

When the caller spoke, Mark Clark's jaw dropped.

"Mark, I've got you taken care of. You have tickets for tomorrow's game," said Illinois coach Bruce Weber.

Clark knew that three hours earlier, the coach's mother, Dawn Weber of Milwaukee, had passed away at a Chicago hospital.

"I don't care about the tickets. How are you doing?" replied Clark, who learned in afternoon that the coach's mother had been taken to a hospital, but, like others close to the Illini, did not know that death was imminent.

Reflecting on that conversation, Clark said:

"We got emotional. Bruce was there for me when dad died in 1997. His mom died of a ruptured aneurysm, same as dad.

"Bruce and I are like brothers. We go back 21 years, to when I was a student and an athletic equipment manager at Purdue and he was assistant to Gene Keady. He's family, just like my 13-year-old son Austin, Jeff, mom (Edna Mae Clark), and my sister Barb Smith in Florida.

"His mom had died three hours earlier, yet he was thinking of me and the promise that he'd try to get tickets for the three of us. I'd taken Kyle and Brandon Anslinger, my fiancee's sons, to Chicago for the Big Ten tournament. I'd told them, 'Let's go to Chicago and have a good time.'

"We watch Illinois win, and a few hours later we hear bad news."

Mark Clark, who April 13 in Jamaica will marry Vicky Anslinger of Evansville, and may bring his bride and new family to Princeton and ask Father Bernie to perform a second ceremony in St. Joseph's Church, said he wasn't surprised that Weber coached the Illini each of their next two days in the Big Ten tourney.

"Bruce is a remarkable guy. He knew his mom would have wanted him to coach, and he knows when he has a job to do.

"His mom saw all three of her sons coach this year. Bruce's brother Dave won a state championship with a Chicago suburban team. His older brother came out of retirement to coach again in Milwaukee."

Clark and Brandon and Kyle Anslinger, who earlier in March finished his University of Evansville sophomore season, found just how well Bruce Weber had taken care of them.

"We had seats in the third row," Clark said.

"Bruce is a very loyal guy. I'm a Bruce Weber fan. Not an Illinois fan, but a Bruce Weber fan. We talk all the time on the phone.

"I've seen Illinois play just three times this season, not at all in the NCAA games in Indianapolis or Chicago. When we talked after that comeback win over Arizona in the regional final, Bruce laughed when I told him I hadn't seen the game or the tape. I'd gone to Easter mass Saturday night with Vicky, Austin and mom. He said it was one of the most incredible games he'd ever been involved in, the way his team came from 15 points down with four minutes to go and won in overtime.

"When the subject of Final Four tickets came up, Bruce said to get back to him about Thursday. I'm going over to St. Louis without tickets in hand.