When Ed Powell arrived at the Illinois Soldiers and Sailors School, he put his belongings in a small sack he found on his bed.

Mom Robards and her husband, Pop, were the house parents. Mrs. Robards explained to Powell that the small sack was a pillow cover and he had a locker in the basement - a locker that when he put all his personal belongings in they barely covered two small shelves.

Today, Steady Eddie, who got his nickname from a Pantagraph sports writer, has three degrees, an outstanding national reputation in education, and is the father of seven daughters - all of them college educated.

Ironically, those seven daughters came in the first nine year of his marriage to Ruth Mondrzyk, a woman he saw walking across campus in his freshman year at Illinois State Normal.

Powell was quick to the chase and shouted to the freshman from Calumet City, "You in the blue coat, I am going to marry you!"

They will have been married 50 years in February.

During U High's recent homecoming, Powell provided me with a manuscript of his book telling about his early years in Gibson City, Paxton and Elliott before a judge remanded him to ISSCS. He is seeking a publisher for this book in which he tells his appreciation of ISSCS and University High School. He details what the two institutions accomplished when he went from being a troublesome and combative youngster to a popular homecoming king as a U High senior before his 1955 graduation.

Ironically, he tried to turn down the king role because he had not planned to attend the dance and did not have a date. His superiors tried to talk him into going but he pointed out that he did not have a suit.

A few days later, he was given a check and told to buy a suit.

"I went to the dance and I enjoyed myself," said Powell. "But I did not dance." He explained he did not know how nor did he ever become proficient at the indoor sport.

Powell tells of his love for U High teacher Ruth Stroud and how she inspired him to acquire a great thirst for reading.

He writes that science teachers Harold Moore and John Carlock were outstanding and made him want to learn.

U High teachers went above and beyond the call of duty, according to Powell. "Nothing like this era of teacher unions," stated Powell.

There is humor, especially about his relationship with then U High assistant football coach, assistant basketball coach and head baseball coach Buford "Duffy" Bass.

Bass became his mentor, his father figure and, in later life, a good friend. But Powell remembers the Saturday mornings when he called himself Bass' indentured servant.

"He had the best looking yard in town because of me," said Powell.

Powell admits he would clench his jaw when he thought he was being unfairly lectured. He did that early in his freshman year with Bass and the coach shouted, "Powell, don't you clench that jaw at me or I will knock it off your face."

He recalls Bass' agility drills in basketball. When the team got Bass upset, he would line them up against a wall, have a manager or two keep him supplied with basketballs and would throw them as hard as he could at the team. "He called that agility drills," said Powell.

Powell, who went from a height of 5-9 to 6-3 between his freshman and sophomore years, tells about becoming a quarterback for Burt O'Connor, the U High football coach.

"Coach Bass told me I looked like a wide receiver, so that's what I told them I was," said Powell, "I didn't know how to put on football pads when Coach Bass surrendered me to the sport.

"One day, during practice at the old Cabbage Patch, I started playing catch with the receivers. Suddenly, I heard this roar and Coach O'Connor came running up and asked who was throwing those passes.

"I admitted I was and just knew I was in trouble. O'Connor told me to report to his office the next afternoon. O'Connor said he had heard I was trouble and wanted to know if I could change. I told him I could."

Then O'Connor gave him a U High playbook and told him to be back in his office the next day. When Powell arrived, the coach grilled him about the plays that Steady Eddie had not found difficult to learn. Finally, O'Connor said, "You are my quarterback."

Another funny story was his relationship with Father Hughes, the Roman Catholic priest who visited ISSCS.

"Father Hughes had three things on his mind," said Powell. "He wanted to save my eternal soul, wanted me to become a Catholic and wanted me to transfer to Trinity to play basketball.

"He was a better priest than a recruiter. Years later, Father Hughes was baptizing me and he poured a whole pitcher of ice water over my head and said, 'Take that!' And he did not say it in Latin.

"He was still upset that I would not transfer to Trinity where they had several outstanding basketball players. He figured I cost Trinity a state championship."

Powell tells about his being an All-State basketball player, being a 6-foot, 5-inch freshman starter in three sports at Illinois State Normal and his giving up his scholarship when he married Ruth.

He tells of their financial struggles, staying out of school a year and working in the Chicago steel mills and then returning to ISNU where they both earned their degrees and graduated with their class in 1959.

Powell did it by working at Phil Jordan's gasoline station, taking 24 hours a semester and going to summer school. He received his degree in Biological Science. Ruth worked at General Telephone.

He received his masters and doctorate at Purdue.

Not bad for a fellow who was born on a kitchen table in Gibson City in 1937 and never went to a doctor or dentist because his mother could not afford it. His father, whom he called a "mean drunk," left them and when his mother remarried she got another one, according to Powell.

And he will never forget the nights he slept in the Paxton jail because he could not find a ride to get back to Elliott after working in Paxton.

Another bad memory was the American Legion post selecting a Paxton family as most deserving and delivering a tree, food, and gifts to his home.

"I vowed I would never have another Christmas like that," said Powell

"My mother was grateful but I just glared at them. I did not like being singled out like that."

Powell remains active in his Prescott, Arizona, retirement home and continues leading cheers for U High and the now defunct ISSCS. There is no doubt about his deep grateful feelings to them.

Jim Barnhart is the retired sports editor of the Pantagraph. Contact him at brnhrtj@aol.com