JACK BLAIR, SR. SPECIAL CONTRIBUTOR YEAR OF INDUCTION: 2010 It is for his role with the Booster Club that Jack Blair Sr. was selected for inclusion in the Steinert Athletic Hall of Fame. He surrounded himself with like-minded parents and started the first Booster Club for the soccer program in 1975. It was said to be the first active, organized effort to involve the families and the local business community to help support the athletic program at Steinert and it became the model for other booster programs at SHS. Blair was among the first to recognize the need to help supplement and enhance the resources of the soccer program and he worked closely with the coaching staff at the school to identify the needs of the boys, prioritize the various efforts required and coordinate fundraising activities to raise the money to implement the improvements including scoreboards and fencing. "There was definitely a need at the time to get some additional help for a soccer program that was regarded as one of the best in the state," Blair said. "A number of concerned parents like myself had discussions with Coach Paul Tessein to let him know we wanted to help, and the best way we could do that was to get involved, work with Paul and give him the resources he felt he needed to continue its success. We had a lot of families who knew each other from all the other soccer teams the boys played on, but we needed to form the group and get it going in order to make it work and the booster club seemed to be the best way to do that." RETURN TO THE HALL OF FAME MEMBERS PAGE