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Connie Kowal
WIU Athletics

Athletics Department WIU Athletic Communications

Leatherneck Club Feature - Connie Kowal

Baseball alum sits down with Bryce Weiler and talks about the Leatherneck Club

Good afternoon ladies and gentlemen. This is Bryce Weiler. I have the distinct pleasure of chatting with an important individual, Connie Kowal who is a former Leatherneck baseball player. How is it going this afternoon Connie on a Friday?
Connie Kowal: Bryce, every day is good no matter if it is a Friday or not. It is great to be here on the campus of Western Illinois University, my alma mater, and this weekend I am proud to be down here as part of Western Illinois University baseball alumni tribute weekend. I am going to see a lot of the guys I played baseball with and meet some new guys that I haven't met, but most of all cheer on Ryan Brownlee and the current Leatherneck baseball team. It's great to be back at Western.

BW: It's an event that is very important to you as last year you organized if not definitely helped organize the 40th anniversary for your team from 1974. Talk about last year and how you continue to keep trying to do this every single year.
CK: When I first met coach Brownlee in 2013, in his first year of being WIU's baseball coach, I introduced myself and helped him know a little more about me. I said I will help you in terms of getting more in touch with the baseball alumni who played here. I will do it next year in 2014 because that happens to be the 40th anniversary of one of Western's greatest teams ever, the 1974 team, and true to my word a year ago at this time I brought the band back together and we had the great 1974 team back here on campus when the Leathernecks played. It was a spectacular weekend. Former greats got to see the current greats, and most of all help Ryan Brownlee build his program. We had a blast, it was a lot of fun. It was a weekend to remember, we literally knocked it out of the park. It was great to have coordinated such an event with the effort of the Western Illinois athletic department.

BW: One thing I like about you is that you are always willing to help others. You do not do it for your own personal gain. You do it to help others, whether it is students or baseball players meeting former athletes from the past. Talk about why you do this and what made you want to do it throughout your journey in sports.
CK: Well I think it's an ABC of life to help others and reach out to others. Everybody needs a break. Everybody needs some degree of encouragement, everybody needs some enthusiastic confidence that someone is willing to help you every step of the way. That is in my DNA and with Western in particular, Leathernecks help Leathernecks. You heard that as one of my credos when I was guest lecturer here on campus two months ago. That is what I love to do.
I've been lucky because I have been fortunate to play college baseball, to coach college baseball, to work in the sports world as an executive for 35 years, and I got a break. I've been lucky and so I have taken it upon myself to pay it forward before pay it forward became fashionable. I have been paying it forward since day one because when you get a break, and your hard work earns you certain things that help you in your profession, it's your job to help others because there is a lot more talented people out there than Connie Kowal.

I've been lucky, and my job then is to help others to aspire to do what I have done, do what I do, as well as reach their future goals. If I can do that it gives me great pride. I'll help anybody and Leathernecks in particular.

BW: You've worked in such a wide range of sports - in the NFL with the Saints, in baseball with the Cubs, and you started your career working in professional soccer… talk about some of the things you learned from each of those places maybe one or two things in particular from each place, and what the greatest thing is you might have learned.
CK: One of the things I always try to stress to people is that whatever your job is, whoever you work for, you need to be all in. You have to be 100 percent invested in your line of work and the employer you work for. I've enjoyed every one of my opportunities in sports and I've been able to go from team to team not because I was looking, but instead people saw my productivity, saw my effectiveness, saw the results I gained, and they aspired to get my services.

But, in professional soccer - which I did not know much about - what I learned was to learn your sport. Soccer I did not know much about. I did not know if the ball was filled with helium or feathers and now I am working for a professional soccer team as the PR director. You had better learn your industry quickly, particularly if you have to share that with the public.

With the Cubs, working for an iconic brand. Realizing the responsibility you have working with a historic franchise. At the same time, learning how to promote a product that has not been the most successful team on the field and how you can then market, promote, and build the brand with an organization that grew to new levels when I was privileged to be part of the Chicago Cubs.

Chicago Motor Speedway, again learning a new industry (motor sports) and learning how a motor speedway is built. When I worked for Vince McMahon in the XFL, I was taking something that had high profile recognition and being able to work it to the national scope as well as introducing something no one knew anything about. We had not played a game yet and we had to try to gain recognition and awareness in marketing to bring people into the stadium and have them become fans of a team they have never seen play yet. That was an interesting trick.

New Orleans, with the Saints it was learning this is the most important team to the people of the Gulf south. This was their team, it was their regional team. Similar to the Green Bay Packers, regional team, and it was the only professional sports team in town. Every move that was made by the Saints was scrutinized, thirsted for, and important to the fans because this is all they had other than LSU football. But the New Orleans Saints you had to recognize you had to make sure that your fan base was the most important thing because they craved and loved their Saints.

Chicago Shamrocks Indoor Lacrosse, a brand new sport. Introducing something with a new sport in a new stadium and how you get something in the awareness of Chicago. To get people to come to your very first game with a sellout of 9,000 people, the work it takes in order to get people to come to an event.

With the Libertyville Sports Complex now, it's taking a big building and making it diversify its usages for sports for events. Last night was a big Blackhawks road watch party inside our building. How you can create events, how you can create special activities to use every square inch of your facilities in order to run a business, create revenues, and build a branding that people want to come back again. You take all that, you put it in a big bowl; I will use a New Orleans term. You build a gumbo and stir it all up, and every step of the way you learn something. Every step you will reference what you learned.

Experience is a wonderful thing as well as being wise enough to know that you have to have what ifs. What if, be creative find new ways. And lastly in the sports business, you have to hustle. You have to work hard, when the game is over you cannot sell another ticket. You have to work every day to sell out your facility. You cannot rest for an instant, hence you have to hustle, you have to work hard and you have to make sure you do everything humanly possible to get the desired result because you cannot do it the next day, the game is over.

BW: You are a member of the Leatherneck Club here at Western Illinois. What are some of your favorite reasons why you are a part of that and why should others definitely join you in that endeavor?
CK: First of all, the Leatherneck Club is to support Leatherneck athletics. I played here, so being able to support Western Illinois athletics, just like people supported me when I played here, that is incumbent on anybody who played sports is to give something back. Whether it is financial, or in resources, or whether it's in energy, ideas, or even coming back to campus just like I did two months ago and speaking to students.

Touching with your comments, your advice, and your expertise well over 500 students, of which you were one of them in the classroom. That is what Leathernecks do. I played sports here, I coached baseball here for a year. To be part of the Leatherneck Club is a fundamental part that everybody needs to do in order to support the Leatherneck endeavors here and you do it through the Leatherneck Club.

So that's why I am taking an active role with Tommy Bell and his entire sports department in order to get the word out that the Leatherneck Club is something that all former athletes should be a part of in some way. And to get all former athletes, the alums who played here, to find a way in which they can help the athletic department now to give something back and help this great, great university and their sports program.

BW: It is important that every school and program has its backers and supporters, and you are definitely one of the best here at Western Illinois. It is a pleasure to have you here answering some of my questions and for being here every year to support baseball for as many home games as you can make it to. Thank you for chatting here with me here today Connie Kowal.
CK: My pleasure Bryce, and go Necks.
 
 
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