Lew Flinn, Princeton

Lew Flinn

PRINCETON

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Accomplishments

● A three-sport all-state athlete at PHS, Flinn earned 10 varsity letters and was a member of the state-placing 1955 PHS boys basketball team ● At NIU, he earned nine varsity letters (football 3, basketball 3, track and field 3) but found most success in football as NIU’s starting quarterback ● Longtime track and field coach, including at Princeton where coached numerous pole vaulters to the state meet, including 2009 Class 1A State Champion Alyssa

Donner

By Bobby Narang

Lew Flinn’s competitive nature was legendary. Flinn is widely considered one of the best athletes in the history of Princeton High School, where he earned 10 varsity letters. He then received nine varsity letters in a storied three-sport career at Northern Illinois University. WHERE are theyBut Flinn’s strong desire to win also led to a few problems. Winning, for Flinn, also led to sometimes losing. His son, Jeff, recalls a time when his father’s extraordinary talent and competitiveness got the best of him. Several years ago, NOW Lew Flinn was working for Spartan Tool. He was invited to golf in Arizona with his friend and Spartan Tool President, Pete Petkoff.

“Pete, his neighbor from two doors down, told my father that, ‘If you beat me, I’m going to send you to do inventory in Buffalo,’” Jeff Flinn recalled. “My dad had not picked up a club in three years. But losing wasn’t his nature. He wasn’t going to throw (the game).

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Flinn

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“He was playing with a bad wrist, and so many injuries from his football career. But he still beat Pete, so he didn’t have to go to Buffalo and do inventory. He just could do things athletically with his body that other people couldn’t. That made him special.”

Lew Flinn – who passed away on May 5, 2021, at the age of 84 – featured next-level athleticism that is remembered to this day, leading to countless awards, honors and memories for those who played with him or against him.

It helped make Flinn one of 15 inductees into the 2022 NewsTribune’s Illinois Valley Sports Hall of Fame.

PHS alum John Smith, who taught and coached for several years at his alma mater, said Flinn was a remarkable athlete, and “of all-around athletes, he’s the best to come out of Princeton High School.”

Flinn’s exploits in sports are legendary — and quite expansive.

So were his injuries.

“My dad had so many injuries,” said Jeff Flinn, a 1978 Princeton grad. “He hurt one knee so badly playing for the Buffalo Bills. That knee was never the same. I remember when he dislocated his shoulder playing for the Lake County Rifles football team, a semi-professional team. He couldn’t lift his shoulder, but he was named the MVP and got a big gold trophy.”

Flinn was among a storied run of quarterbacks to play for Northern Illinois Hall of Fame coach Howard Fletcher. A member of the NIU Athletics Hall of Fame, Flinn later became a teacher and coach at Ottawa Marquette, Barrington and Princeton.

PHS graduate Alyssa Donner said Flinn drove her to succeed in pole vault. Donner captured the Class 1A state pole vault title in her senior season in 2009, clearing 10-10 in Charleston.

“If it wasn’t for him, I definitely wouldn’t have been where I was in my pole vaulting career at all,” Donner said. “He was very positive, very outgoing no matter what it was and always made practice fun. He still had us do our jobs and get better, but he let us have fun on the side and made it a positive place to go and do what we wanted to do.”

Jeff Flinn admitted his last name made competing in athletics difficult.

“Since I grew up in Princeton, it was a bit of a tough challenge,” he said. “He was Mr. Everything. I couldn’t live up to that, and few people can. He was quite a legend locally.”

But Jeff Flinn said his father made a point to spend time with him outside of his many sporting and coaching activities.

“We were close,” he said. “I worked with his business in junior high, high school and college. We spent a lot of time together. I learned from him the right way to do a job. He was all about getting the job done with the best effort. There were some painful lessons in regard to that, especially when you’re young and have other things on your mind.

“He imparted to me the core values and things that drive me still to this day. I didn’t have success on the athletic field like he did. I was more of a student, but I was able to do very well in school, get good jobs and that has continued throughout my life. I owe him a debt of gratitude for instilling those core values in me.”