An athletic scholarship to Notre Dame has made many an athlete's day.

Notre Dame offered Santa Maria resident Jim Cusack a scholarship choice in THREE sports in the mid-1950s - football, basketball and baseball.

That accomplishment is the main reason why Peoria, Ill. native Cusack, who opted for basketball and baseball at Notre Dame, will be inducted into the Greater Peoria Sports Hall of Fame March 2. The induction ceremony will take place at the Peoria Civic Center, according to information that Dan Shea submitted to the Santa Maria Times.

Shea was a sports writer for the Peoria Journal Star in the 1950s. He was a news editor for that paper later. Shea wrote in the Cusack biography he compiled that Jim earned 10 varsity letters in three sports at Spalding Institute, a Catholic high school in Peoria. He also wrote that Cusack was chosen for seven All-City teams.

“Yes, I was surprised when I first heard of it,” Cusack said in a phone interview this week about his upcoming induction.

“I've been out of the Peoria area for quite awhile. Usually people who have stayed on there and got their start there are the ones inducted.” Shea is a GPHSF Committee member.

Cusack was dubbed the “Athletic Hurricane,” in his high school yearbook, Shea wrote. GPSHF member Hiles Stout, a rival of Cusack's when Stout played for Peoria Central, was among several to endorse Cusack for membership, according to Shea.

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“I played against Jim for four years in high school, and he was an excellent football, basketball and baseball player,” Stout said to Shea. “Not only an excellent player, but he was always a great competitor. It is my honor to submit his name for induction.”

Cusack married his high school sweetheart, Maureen Horan, in 1959. They have five children and 13 grand-children.

“I think nine of them are going to the induction ceremony - they've never been to that part of the country,” said Jim Cusack.

He chuckled wryly. “I think this will show them that grandpa wasn't full of it after all when he was telling them about his athletic career. I know sometimes we tend to embellish a little as the years go by.”

Cusack was a practicing obstetrician and gynecologist with his late partner, Dr. David Carty, for 37 years in Santa Maria.

After about six weeks of practice with Carty, Cusack was drafted in the doctor draft. He served two years at Beale Air Force Base in Marysville-Yuba City, then went back into practice with Carty.

Cusack retired in 2004 after a stint as chairman of the OB-GYN Department at Marion Medical Center.

One of Cusack's grand-children, Patrick, was a recent standout in football, basketball and track and field at St. Joseph before he graduated from high school. Another, Stephanie, is a top defensive player for that school's girls basketball squad. The Knights are 24-1.

“It seemed athletics were a lot more enjoyable when I was in high school than they are now,” said Jim Cusack. “You were able to participate in all three sports. There was better structure.

“The recruiting (by colleges) starts so much earlier now. None of us were recruited until we were seniors.”

Jim Cusack is one of 11 children. “My mother, Vera, was just a saint to raise us all. She and my father, Pat, did a great job bringing us up.

“It was an interesting group. I was in between two sisters, so I think I was protected some from the bedlam of all the brothers.”

Cusack hit safely in every game of Notre Dame's 1955 season. That school record, according to Shea, remains intact.

“I wasn't even thinking about that record,” as the season was going along, the soft-spoken Cusack said. “To be honest, the season was much shorter then - 24, 25 games, where now you're talking about 65-70 games. That's quite a difference.”

He played basketball his freshman and sophomore years at Notre Dame and varsity baseball for three years there. He hit .300 or better all three seasons.

Cusack captained Notre Dame's College World Series Final Four team his senior year. That finish remains the best ever for a Fighting Irish baseball squad.

Cusack was a first baseman for Notre Dame's baseball team and a forward on the basketball squad. Future Green Bay Packers football great Paul Hornung was Cusack's basketball teammate.

The Philadelphia Phillies offered Cusack a minor league contract. He decided to follow in his father's footsteps and pursue a medical career instead. Dr. Pat Cusack was Spalding's team physician for 25 years, according to Shea.

“I knew where my career would be,” Jim Cusack said. “Looking back on it, I know I made the right decision.”

He said a chance meeting blossomed into a 37-year partnership - and friendship - with Carty.

“He knew my older brother in Peoria, and that's how we met, though I didn't know him very well at the time,” Cusack recalled. “He was four years ahead of me at Notre Dame.

“After I finished my residency at Cook County Hospital (in Illinois), he said he was looking for a partner in Santa Maria and would I consider working with him. It was a wonderful opportunity.

“It was a wonderful time with him - he was a great guy and we had so much in common, with athletics and raising our families. Our mothers even went to the same high school, Spalding. There were three hospitals here (during part of our practice) - Valley Hospital and the county hospital were in Santa Maria then - and we were very busy running back and forth between the hospitals.

“Our office was on Main Street, across from Marian Medical Center.”

Cusack called Peoria “a wonderful place to grow up.”

He said, “You know, Chick Hearn and Jack Brickhouse broadcast games here. Chick is a GPSHF member, and I knew him well when he broadcast high school games here.” The late Hearn went on to a legendary career as a Los Angeles Lakers' broadcaster.

Though he is fond of Peoria, “I don't miss the snow flying around at all,” said Cusack. “Santa Maria is a wonderful place to raise a family.”

Feb. 19, 2008