When Tom Hitcho fired up his car in Terre Haute, Indiana, and headed for Chicago in 1977, little did he know that he was about to make a little bit of history and find a home. 
 
Some 43 years later, Dr. Tom Hitcho continues to carve out his own rich history at Loyola University Chicago. 
 
We just need a proper title to this saga. 
 
The story sounds like a movie: 'It started with a phone call,'" Hitcho recalled recently.
 
That's as good a place as any to start. When Hitcho made the 180-or-so-mile drive from southern Indiana to Chicago's North Shore back in '77, he came face to face with perhaps the biggest heavyweight in the history of Rambler sports: George Ireland. 
 
Let 'Hitch' tell the story. 
 
"I was at Indiana State finishing up my graduate degree in athletic training," he said. "And George had called and said he's looking for an athletic trainer and assistant to the athletic director. I drove up one day from Terra Haute to Chicago to meet him at his office. I remember walking by the window. I had no idea. He saw me walk by the window, and he came and greeted me at the door -- very cordial, very professional. 
 
"The interview wasn't that long. He didn't ask that many questions. I told him about myself. He said, 'Fine. I'll hire you as an athletic trainer. Help me with some of the administration of the sports.' He said, 'Do you know anything about ice hockey?' I said, 'No.' He said, 'That's OK, I'll help you.'"
 
Hitcho's hiring turned out to be the last made by Ireland, whom most remember as the head coach of the men's basketball team that won the NCAA national championship in 1963. Today, Hitcho keeps that historical line moving in his role as senior associate athletic director, operations. He is the longest-running staff member in the athletic department and was inducted into the Loyola Athletics Hall of Fame in 2006. He received his doctorate in education from Loyola. 
 
What have his duties entailed over the years? The better question might be: What haven't they entailed? If there is a "Mr. Loyola" of athletics, it just might be Hitch. He has seen it all, from the growth of women's sports to the explosive development on the Lake Shore Campus, development that included Rambler Athletics transitioning from Hitch's beloved Alumni Gym to Gentile Arena. 
 
"Without question, he is Mr. Loyola," said Bill Behrns, assistant athletic director, communications. "I've referred to Hitch as the Swiss Army knife and the glue of our department. He can and has stepped in to assist in so many different roles and he has been the one constant in Rambler Athletics over the last four-plus decades.
 
"Hitch does so many little things on a daily basis that go unnoticed and are taken for granted that when he eventually does leave Loyola, we will all find out just how much he was doing and how critical he was to our day-to-day operations. And, we'll probably need to hire 2-3 additional people to pick up that slack! He is such an incredible resource, especially to newer staff, because he knows everyone on campus and has so much institutional knowledge."
 
The early days
 
When Tom Hitcho arrived at Loyola, longtime Rambler fans could easily rattle off memories of the 1963 national championship team. During Hitcho's time on campus, the Ramblers have achieved glory by going to the Sweet Sixteen in 1985 under coach Gene Sullivan and making a magical ride to the Final Four in 2018 under Porter Moser. 
 
Other men's and women's sports in Loyola's ever-growing Athletics Department also have won their share of titles and accolades.
 
But Hitch's first season with the basketball team provided plenty of excitement. 
 
"You'll remember in '77-78, in one week, on Saturday we played Marquette," he said of a run that began in late January and went into February. "I think they were either No. 1 or 2 ranked in the country. We upset them. That was Saturday night. Then Monday night we hosted Indiana State and Larry Bird and we beat them as well. Then that Saturday evening, we had Georgetown, and we beat them. That week was pretty special for the athletic department and the basketball program at the time. With three major wins, that was really special."
 
In November of that season, the Ramblers opened by beating Minnesota, which featured future NBA Hall of Famer Kevin McHale. 
 
"Those were national powers," Hitcho said. "Loyola always had a history of playing big schools, big teams. They don't back down. That's part of the culture of Loyola basketball or any other sport: 'We'll play anybody anywhere anytime.' Even though we're a mid-major, when it comes to competition, we don't consider ourselves a mid-major. We'll play anybody - Big Ten - anywhere.
 
"I think over the years it definitely helps recruiting. If you're going to play the big schools, the powerhouse five, if you go after a recruit and say, 'Yeah, you come to Loyola, you get a great education and you're going to play the big schools as well.'"
 
Alumni Gym memories
 
Alumni Gym was rocking on those nights when the Ramblers beat the powerhouses. Loyola's little bandbox of a gym, in which a couple thousand or so could be shoehorned, still holds a special place in the heart of Tom Hitcho. 
 
For every Rambler who can remember, Alumni Gym might have been a bandbox, but it was "our bandbox."
 
"Oh, yeah, I spent so many years there," Hitcho said. "It was special. And the athletes coming out of that really appreciated what it was because we always used to say, 'Hey, a lot of All-Americans came through here, and you're just part of it.' And they say, 'Oh, wow, I wish I was in Alumni. I wish I would have had a chance to play or practice there.'
 
"It was special, with the balcony and kids sitting with their feet hanging over."
 
Hitch can tell you that not only did Alumni Gym host Loyola men's and women's basketball and volleyball, but that it housed a swimming pool. He also can tell you off the top of his head that former swimming and water polo coach Ralph Erickson was a co-founder of PADI, the Professional Association of Diving Instructors.
 
"He used to teach scuba classes in the pool during the spring term," Hitch said of Erickson. "In March, he would take the class down to Cozumel, something special for them."
 
Many may not know or they have forgotten that little old Alumni Gym hosted some other big-time events not related to Loyola. 
 
"I was thinking about that," Hitcho said. "There were actually three unique events that did happen there that were athletic events. Do you remember the old Chicago City-Suburban All-Star Game? Those were hosted at Alumni Gym. You had the best players in the city who went on to college and the NBA. So, you had everybody there from Isiah (Thomas) to Mark Aguirre, and those games were fantastic, very special to Chicago with the city kids playing the suburban kids, and these future NBA players were there."
 
If you just happened to catch the recent Chicago Bulls documentary, "The Last Dance," you might recall that the central figure in that series was a guy named Michael Jordan. Turns out MJ had his moment at Alumni Gym, too. 
 
"Michael made one of his Nike commercials in Alumni Gym, as well," Hitcho sad. "That was probably his first year in Chicago, and he had just negotiated his deal with Nike, and he came in to make it. No fanfare at all. He came in just like a regular guy.
 
"He came into the gym, we showed him where the locker room was. He changed, went up, did the commercial and that was it. People knew of him, but they really didn't know what was going on or how great this future star would be."
 
A few years later, an international sensation gave the basketball world a look-see at Alumni Gym. 
 
"Yao Ming, we got a call," Hitcho said of the 7-foot-6 man out of China. "They wanted a central location somewhere in the States where all the NBA coaches and GM's could get to easily instead of it being on the East Coast or the West Coast. So, they picked Chicago.
 
"They called and said, 'Can we use Gentile?' I think there was a volleyball match in there. So, we said, 'No, it's booked, but you're welcome to use Alumni Gym.' They said, 'Sure.' So, Yao Ming came in. He had a translator with him. Every coach and general manager of NBA teams were in Alumni Gym - Jerry West, everyone. Outside were all the TV stations. It was just mobbed with NBA officials. That was amazing. You looked in the stands, and it was Rod Thorn, Jerry West, just a who's who in the NBA was there. This was Yao's first appearance in America, in the United States, and it was at Alumni Gym."
 
Working with the greats
 
During his time at Loyola, Tom Hitcho has been around some of the greatest sports leaders in Ramblers history: Ireland, Gene Sullivan, Porter Moser and, of course, Sister Jean Dolores Schmidt. 
 
Of Ireland, Hitcho saw someone extremely well prepared. 
 
"George was a unique person," he said. "He was very organized. He used to have sayings everywhere throughout Alumni Gym: 'A place for everything and everything in its place.' He would have signs posted.
 
"I know during his coaching tenure there were some scandals in the basketball world. He was very adamant that this will never happen at Loyola. He used to preach to the guys, 'Do the right thing. Don't get caught up in anything like that.' He didn't want that coming here to Loyola."
 
Sullivan, the gregarious Chicagoan who'd talk anybody's ear off, coached the 1985 Sweet Sixteen team. 
 
"Gene was really an intelligent person," Hitcho said. "He was a Chicago guy. He loved to write and read and he loved basketball more than anything else. I think if he wasn't a basketball coach or an athletic director, he would have made a great lawyer because he loved to talk. He was a great writer, a great speaker, really ahead of his time back then as a coach.
 
"If you looked at his teams and who he recruited, he was called sometimes Father Flanagan of Boys Town. He would go to see high schools, recruit the kids: Alfredrick Hughes, Andre Battle. He really had a passion for helping people, making them better citizens and better people."
 
The 2018 Final Four team benefited from the growing popularity of the NCAA Tournament itself and, heightened media awareness and the ubiquity of social media. Leading that group was current head coach Moser, who has earned his place in Loyola lore along with the players.
 
"He's definitely on the Mount Rushmore," Hitcho said. "He loves basketball. He can talk and practice and play. He's just a basketball coach. Anything about basketball, he loves. He loves coaching. He loves the student-athletes. He's a workaholic. And he's very competitive.
 
"Porter worked hard to develop the culture here that he established: 'I'm going to recruit a good student-athlete. He's going to be a good student. He's going to fit in. He's going to be a team player.' He won't compromise his values to get someone who wouldn't fit into this culture. That culture is like the Jesuit culture. It's got all the virtues. He's always had a good staff, and they're all into his culture as well."
 
Hitcho earned his own measure of fame when cameras captured him assisting the then 98-year-old Sister Jean. When Sister Jean went from event to event as the Ramblers rode to the Final Four, Hitch was there, too, pushing her wheelchair and lending her a hand. 
 
"It probably was the best job on the campus," he said with a laugh. "My relationship with her probably started when she was at Mundelein. She was at Mundelein all those years and then (Loyola) took it over. In '94, she came on board as a tutor to help the guys if they needed any help or direction. Over the years that evolved to chaplain. Being the basketball athletic trainer, I would see her and talk to her all the time. We still do. Every day, we still do. She's still very active. And she's amazing - her memory, her recall, her meetings. She writes emails. She sends emails. She gives videos. She's just an amazing person."
 
A quiet appreciation
 
One of the more touching moments of the run to the Final Four was Tom Hitcho receiving a piece of the basket netting after the trip to San Antonio was clinched with a victory over Kansas State. 
 
"That was a surprise and I appreciate Coach Moser thinking of me," he said. "I had no idea. I was happy for the team, happy for the coaches. They had worked so hard. It was a special moment, and I was glad I was a part of it. I appreciate that. I've got it with my trophies."
 
It comes as no surprise to Behrns that Hitcho received a memento of such a memorable time in Loyola sports history. 
 
"One thing that is incredible is that I have never heard anyone say a negative word about Hitch - ever -- and that speaks volumes about the kind of person he is," Behrns said. "He has left a tremendous impression on so many coaches, staff and student-athletes and lives the Jesuit mantra of being a person for others."
 
Behrns cited several examples of Hitcho living and living up to that Jesuit mantra. 
 
"Hitch has always bent over backwards to help treat injured student-athletes (or staff), help them through personal or family problems or provide some encouraging words to student-athletes who were struggling academically or in their respective sport," he said. "He has been a father figure to so many student-athletes while they've been away from home and I don't think they ever forget the role he played in their Loyola experience.
 
"Everyone outside of Loyola probably saw him as the person that pushed Sister Jean around in her wheelchair during the NCAA Tournament run in 2018, but he has done so many little things to take care of Sister Jean as well, getting her to doctor's appointments, bringing her meals, etc. He truly is a person for others."
 
Indeed, Hitcho says it gives him great pleasure when former student-athletes return, some bringing their families with them to say hello and visit for a few minutes. He also seems to relish being that "Swiss army knife" in the Athletics Department.
 
"I do whatever it takes," he said. "Just do the job. Don't worry about who gets the credit. Make sure it gets done the right way. It's for the benefit of the student-athlete. That's what we're here for. It's to get their education, to have a good experience, to move on and reflect and look back and say, 'This was terrific.' Whatever it takes to make the program go, forget about who gets credit. Just get it done."
 
Back in 1977, when Hitcho was greeted and then hired by George Ireland, he had no idea that Loyola would become his home. There can be no doubt about that now, and he hopes to stay at home for at least a little while longer. 
 
"Definitely it's been my home," he said. "Initially when I came in, I had no idea what to expect, but my first year was more than I expected. The way I was accepted, appreciated, treated, I said, 'This is a good place. I hope I can stay my career here.' The Jesuits treat you pretty well.
 
"I enjoy it. It keeps me young. As long as I'm healthy and the university still thinks I can do the job, I'm going to try to hang in there."
 
 
Bruce Miles is a 1979 graduate of the Loyola University Chicago College of Arts and Sciences. He worked for the Daily Herald in Arlington, Heights, Illinois, from 1988-2019. He served as the Herald's beat writer covering the Chicago Cubs from 1998-2019.