April 14, 2008 |
Chicago Fire Luncheon  The Byki attended the Chicago Fire kickoff luncheon on March 25. It was the ninth consecutive year that the Byki organized a group to attend this event and, as usual, everyone really enjoyed being part of the atmosphere as the Fire celebrate their tenth anniversary in 2008.Fire head coach Denis Hamlett joined the Byki for lunch and was very cordial and gracious in answering their questions about the roster and the upcoming season. Coach Hamlett was reserved regarding some questions, like the one about which Fire player would wear the captain’s armband this season. In all, however, the Byki learned a lot about the coach and his commitment to making the Fire an excellent team. The picture below shows Coach Hamlett holding up the scarf that the Byki presented to him at the end of the luncheon. The funniest moment of the afternoon occurred when Byki autograph hound Mark Sokolowski was chasing down Mexican superstar Cuauhtémoc Blanco for his signature. Mark came to the luncheon fully prepared, having printed photos of nearly every Fire player. He spent most of the pre-luncheon mingling time getting many of the autographs, but Blanco was his toughest target. Blanco spent most of the two hours being hounded by the Spanish-speaking media and appeared to be surrounded by an entourage the whole time. Mark’s persistence did not waver as he ran after the scrum surrounding Blanco. Despite having his arms full of Fire giveaways, Mark finally positioned himself in front of the mercurial midfielder and got him to sign. “It was so funny to watch Mark running around like a crazy man,” noted George Gorecki. “He looked like an old lady at a sale at Wal-Mart, elbowing her way to the front of the line.” 25th Anniversary Preparations for the 25th Anniversary celebration for Stare Byki FC are humming right along. An Anniversary Committee was formed three weeks ago. Howard Hartenstein, Edi Pinkowski, Ted Piotrowski, Jeff Samp, Vitaly Tsipris and Steven Pedlow are all involved in some capacity. More details will be revealed as they become available, but here’s what is known so far. The big day will be Saturday, July 19. At 4:00 PM that day, the Byki will stage a Reunion Game to be played at the Sport Center in Schaumburg. The participants will be the same players who took the field in the first-ever Byki match played on June 10, 1983. The idea was hatched by original Byk Mark Sokolowski and the response of his teammates has been incredible. Several players who no longer live in Chicago have committed to coming back to play in the Reunion Game. Meanwhile, Edi is reprising his role in organizing his squad. The Reunion Game will be played as a 7 v 7 match on a modified field at the Sport Center. Upon hearing the news, many current Byki are curious to see a bunch of old men huffing and puffing for an hour. “I am amazed and extremely pleased with the response of all of the players,” said Byki President George Gorecki. “I have no idea what this game will bring, as Stef Wiecek and I are the only ones from that game who are still playing soccer competitively. The quality may be great, or it may suck. But I guarantee that it will be highly entertaining.” Once the old farts have exhausted themselves, all players, fans and supporters will head over to the Goose Island Brewery, 1800 N Clybourn in Chicago for a party that begins at 7:00. The Byki have reserved a private room for the party, which will feature food and unlimited beer and other drinks. The Anniversary Committee is busy mulling over ideas for the evening’s program, some of which will be disclosed soon. Other events that night will be a complete surprise, however. The Committee has already enlisted George’s help and he eagerly agreed to his new task. “We thought it would be fun to take a look at our past,” said George. “I have compiled a list of the 25 best players in the club’s history, along with a list of the 25 best matches played by our teams. I will also present my best squads, for outdoor and for indoor competitions. No one has seen more Byki games or Byki players than I have, so I feel uniquely qualified to put these lists together.” |
March 14, 2008 |
During their 25 years of playing soccer, the Byki have played 1,476 official matches. As the club celebrates its silver anniversary, Byki Bouncings will take a walk down memory lane to relive some of the greatest and most entertaining moments in Byki history. This Week in Byki History will be a regular feature for all of 2008, as some of the most memorable headlines and stories from Byki Bouncings will be reprinted here. Byki defense blankets White, secures 3rd place The Byki scored the third trophy of their young existence when they beat White 3:0 on February 4, 1988 in the Odeum's D League. Joe Zachemski and Edi Pinkowski scored first-period goals and Rich Hass added a third later in the contest. The Byki ended the season with a 7-1-2 record and dominated the playoff game. Original Byk Stef Wiecek was on his maiden voyage as player-coach. Even though he was pleased to have guided the team to another piece of hardware, he was intent on winning a title. He didn’t have to wait long; the Byki grabbed the top spot in the D League in August of 1988. Edi became the first Byki player to score at least a point in every game in a season, notching 12 goals and 6 assists. Sergio Bertoncello topped the scoring charts that session with 12 goals and 11 assists. The 11 assists set the record for most assists in a season at that time. Doug Roth displayed his all-around play with 9 goals and 7 assists. Sluggish Byki Squeak Past Rolling Thunder The Byki won a 4:3 decision over Rolling Thunder in the Odeum's D League on March 7, 1991. The victory improved their record to 4-0-1 for the season. But the real story of the game was the performance of Brazilian striker Junior, who scored the game-winner, giving him seven consecutive games scoring at least one goal. The streak was the second-longest in club history. Junior was definitely a mercurial player for the Byki, despite his brief 20-game stint in the winter of 1990-91. During that time, he scored 28 goals and racked up 14 assists. In games when Junior scored a goal, the Byki had a gaudy record of 12-1-3. George Gorecki recalls the first time he saw Junior, warming up before his first game. "I was on the side, talking to someone during the pre-game stuff," said George. "I hear this loud whacking sound. It was like someone hitting a corrugated steel roof with a baseball bat. I turn around and I see Junior taking his warm-up shots. That sound was his foot hitting the ball." D League players soon learned that blocking Junior's shots was not the smartest thing to do. "I instructed Junior to take all free kicks where the defense set up a wall," said George. "Oftentimes, he would just shoot the ball at the defender intentionally to give him a little taste of his velocity. It was funny to watch guys who got hit. The second time around, they just got out of his way." Junior didn't expend too much energy on defense, and his lack of two-way play irked some of his teammates. But there was no denying that he had magic in that right leg. He returned to Brazil in the spring of 1991, stealing a Byki jersey in the process. Haynes sets records, Byki run wild The Byki ended the 2002-03 indoor season in the NSL with a crazy 10:8 win over FK Kozarac on March 7, 2003. Russ Haynes scored five goals, to give him 18 for the season. Both marks were the highest goal totals for a Byki player in the NSL's indoor competition. Russ played in 15 games that season and scored at least one goal in 10 of them. Overall, Russ had the third-highest goal total for one indoor season in the history of the club, trailing only Dominic Demarets and George Siepiora. His 23 points represent the fifth-highest output in Byki history. |
January 25, 2008 |
During their 25 years of playing soccer, the Byki have played 1,476 official matches. As the club celebrates its silver anniversary, Byki Bouncings will take a walk down memory lane to relive some of the greatest and most entertaining moments in Byki history. This Week in Byki History will be a regular feature for all of 2008, as some of the most memorable headlines and stories from Byki Bouncings will be reprinted here. Treter, Towsey, Chahmirzadi (?) topple Bosnians Matt Treter scored a pair of goals and Doug Towsey had one, as the Byki Over 30 Team beat West Bosnia 5:2 on January 3, 2003. But the most unlikely goalscorer of the night was keeper Manou Chahmirzadi. The Bosnians were in the hunt for the NSL playoffs that night and a late Byki surge broke open a 2:2 deadlock, as Doug and Matt scored to put the good guys up 4:2. The Bosnians tried to flood the Byki end of the field with attackers, but the tactic backfired when Manou grabbed a loose ball with 0:20 to go and heaved the ball the length of the field into the empty net on one bounce to seal the deal. Manou became the first Byki goalkeeper to score a goal. Hungry Byki eat up Eaton - Sergio goes wild The Byki clobbered Eaton by a gaudy 12:0 scoreline on January 21, 1988, and striker Sergio Bertoncello registered three goals and five assists. It was Bertoncello's third hat trick of the season and the five assists and eight points set the Byki single-game records at the time. The Byki took third place in the Odeum's D League and Sergio finished that successful season with 12 goals and 11 assists. Those 11 assists broke the existing club record for assists, which Sergio had set two years previously. It remains the fourth-highest assist total for Byki indoor competition. Lucky 13 spells Byki win The Byki Over 40s clobbered the Mavericks in a 13:4 whitewash on January 8, 2007. Dominic Demarets, in the middle of mind-boggling scoring run, notched six goals and two assists. The six goals and eight total points were the second-highest marks for one game in the club’s history. Dominic went on to shatter the season record for goals and points, with 42 goals and 6 assists. Byki put Azteca in their place The Byki downed Deportivo Azteca 3:1 on January 23, 1998 in the NSL's 1st Division. The victory ignited a six-game winning streak, during which the Byki demonstrated that they were no longer NSL patsies in their second year in the League. Goals by Ted Snodgrass and Carlos Soriano 1:49 apart put the Byki in control over Azteca and then Marek Ciszewski's late goal gave the Byki an unassailable 3:1 lead. The Byki finished that campaign with seven wins in their last nine contests, which erased an ugly start to the season, leading to a final record of 8-1-7. |
December 7, 2007 |
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Several Byki and friends took a trip... to the Chicago Brauhaus to celebrate Oktoberfest recently. This is annual event that has been going on for over 20 years and Wei Zhang took the initiative to organize the outing. Wei also took the pictures that accompany this story. The Brauhaus is a bottomless pit of fun and merriment, as longtime visitors can attest. George Gorecki, who might be the biggest fan of the Brauhaus, once proclaimed, “If you go to the Brauhaus and don’t have a good time, then there must be something wrong with you, not with the Brauhaus.” Wei is always on the lookout for a good opportunity to take a scarf picture and things could not have worked out better at the Brauhaus. One of the attractions at the Brauhaus is the lively band, who play a steady stream of German beer-drinking music. The ringleader of the band is Guenther, an enthusiastic showman who loves to lead the crowd in song and games. Veteran readers of BB will recall that a few Byki have participated in the Brauhaus yodeling contest, and Russ Haynes finally won the competition a couple of years ago, after several failed tries in which Russ was convinced that the contest was fixed. Wei astutely put the Byki scarf on Guenther, and judging by the pictures, Guenther really enjoyed his new accessory. The Byki kicked off their celebration... of the club's 25th anniversary by taking a trip back to where it all started when they met up at the Billy Goat Tavern last Saturday. It was a good opportunity to take a trip down memory lane, as some of the new guys were not up to speed on the club’s origins. Two of the principal characters involved in setting up the first Byki game were at the Billy Goat last week, Edi Pinkowski and George Gorecki. This story has been told and re-told innumerable times, but relative newbies like Conor Casey and Chad Daniel enjoyed the trash-talking between Edi and George that was still going strong after 25 years. One event on the anniversary calendar that has been discussed a lot in the last two months is a reunion game, which would once again bring together the opponents that squared off in the first Byki match on June 9, 1983. Original Byk Mark Sokolowski has been feverishly trying to get his squad back together and has obtained commitments from nearly everyone who was on that 16-man roster. Edi, unfortunately, has not had as much success in motivating his former teammates to lace up the boots one more time. At last count, Edi’s squad has only four players with any interest of turning back the clock. This prompted Edi to take a new tack. Because the eligibility rules for that first game required that everyone on Edi’s team had to have graduated high school in 1983 or later, Edi used the occasion at the Billy Goat to recruit Matt Treter and Wei Zhang into his squad. A lame and failed attempt to build a team, to be sure, but it’s hardly surprising, given the lameness of Edi’s original team in the first place. The club is also proud to unveil its 25th Anniversary logo. The winning design was submitted by Russ Haynes and the club’s Board of Directors made some modifications before sending it off to California for patches to be made. The logo will appear prominently on the club’s website, in Byki Bouncings, and on the club’s new uniforms. All of these changes will begin in January. Although the official uniforms will be worn by the players, the club will also be producing some limited-edition replica jerseys in early 2008. This will allow current and former players, as well as fans, to retain a memento of this historic milestone. Orders will be taken in advance and numbering and personalization will be available for these replica shirts. Keep your eyes open for the details! |
 Matt Treter and Wei Zhang really enjoy their beer at the Brauhaus. |
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 Guenther is the first musician to perform while wearing a Byki scarf. Ein Prosit! |
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 Byki scarves were in abundance at the Billy Goat Tavern. |
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November 12, 2007 |
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Nobody throws a party like the Byki... and they certainly proved it in October. Conor Casey organized a night out at Redmonds, a beer-drinking joint in the heart of trendy Wrigleyville. Through Conor's diligence, a total of 69 people took part in the festivities. And as you can see by the pictures on this page, some people had way more fun than others. But the night out at Redmonds wasn't just a social occasion for the club to celebrate the end of another outdoor season. The Byki used the event as fundraiser. In exchange for bringing in a crowd to the bar, Redmonds charged everyone at the party $25 for a three-hour window of unlimited beer flow. The Byki benefited by Redmonds giving back $11 to the club for every person in attendance. It was clearly a win-win, and the club netted $800 on the night. That's a pretty good haul for just drinking beer.  And speaking of social events... the Byki will be kicking off their celebration of the club's 25th anniversary by taking a trip back to where it all started when they meet up at the Billy Goat Tavern on Saturday, December 1. The Billy Goat may appear like an odd venue for the birth of a soccer club, but it was on November 26, 1982 that the synthesis of the Byki began at the Billy Goat. It was on that day that the over-served loudmouth Edi Pinkowski threw down the gauntlet in front of a stunned George Gorecki. The Byki were born as a result of adolescent bravado creating a challenge and a group of older, wiser footballers accepting. Once the wheels were set in motion that day, there really was no going back. Newcomers to the club can read about all of the details surrounding the birth of the Byki in the history section on the club's website. Everything that happened on that memorable day will be retold, reviewed, rehashed, and thoroughly re-analyzed. All current and former players and fans and supporters are encouraged to attend our visit back to the Billy Goat. We'll be meeting at 7:00 PM. The original Billy Goat Tavern is located near 430 N Michigan Ave on the lower level. See you all there! |
 Russ and Connor show everyone the special love that only exists between teammates. |
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 Joe Gambino (4th from left) tries to keep his teammates under control. |
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 Experienced Byki beer-drinkers ready for action. |
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 Here's a good motto: 'Have Byki scarf, will travel.' |