Remembering two good men: Kevin Hennessey and Mark Scheurer

During the time of the horrific coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic and the terrifying civil unrest that has been caused by the tragic death of George Floyd in Minneapolis, I wanted to pay tribute to two men who lost their lives in the past week, in an untimely fashion considering Father’s Day is this coming Sunday – and both men featured here were fathers, loving and caring fathers at that.

In his heyday, Kevin Hennessey was an outstanding athlete, a track and field and cross country superstar at St. Aloysius High School and later Seton Hall University.

Hennessey’s cross country career ended in the 1959 season with a second place in the entire state of New Jersey, leading the Kardinals to the Jersey City and Hudson County championships.

But he was just getting started. During both the indoor and outdoor track seasons in 1960, Hennessey won the Hudson County and NJSIAA Parochial C championship in the 880-yard run, setting new county and state sectional records along the way.

Hennessey also won the prestigious All Hallows Invitational Mile and the even more impressive Eastern States Invitational Mile, defeating a top-flight national field in the process.

Because of his efforts, Hennessey was awarded the Hudson County Track Athlete of the Year, the Catholic Advocate Athlete of the Year and the New Jersey Track Coaches Association Athlete of the Year. That’s quite an array.

Article written about the late Kevin Hennessey by Fred Cranwell of the Jersey Journal in 1960

Hennessey took his immense athletic talents to Seton Hall University and won the famed Metropolitan Mile during his sophomore year. He won the 1,000-meter run as a junior and won the mile as a senior. Hennessey helped the Pirates win the Metropolitan Intercollegiate Championship in cross country. He was also part of the Seton Hall two-mile relay that won both the IC4A and National Championship in 1964.

Hennessey is a member of the Seton Hall University, the Hudson County Track Coaches Association and the Hudson County Sports Hall of Fame, earning induction in 2004.

Kevin Hennessey was tremendously proud of his athletic accomplishments. He was a familiar face at several Hudson County cross country and track meets and was an avid supporter of the Hudson County Track Coaches Association, annually attending the HCTCA’s Awards Banquet and Hall of Fame Induction ceremonies.

His son, also named Kevin, who is the owner of the O’Leary’s Publik House on Garfield Avenue in Jersey City and was also a basketball player at St. Peter’s Prep and St. Peter’s College before becoming a Jersey City firefighter.

The younger Kevin Hennessey obviously never saw his father run.

“But I know what I’ve heard about him,” Hennessey said. “I guess he was pretty good. And he let us know how good because he talked about it all the time. I heard it enough times to gather that he was one of the best.”

The elder Kevin Hennessey passed away Monday at the age of 78 after battling a series of medical issues in the past year.

“But he had a hell of a run,” Kevin Hennessey said. “He was a tough city kid who had to battle a speech impediment as a young kid.”

The elder Kevin Hennessey was born with a cleft palate and had to learn to talk with it.

“People made fun of him,” Kevin Hennessey said of his dad. “He was taunted and teased a lot when he was a kid.”

So Hennessey overcame his speech impediment and let his fleet feet do the talking.

The younger Hennessey reflected on what kind of a father he was to his four children, sons Jeffrey, Mark and Kevin and daughter Linda.

“He spent a lot of time with us growing up,” Kevin Hennessey said. “He did a lot of things with us. But he was as competitive as anything. He just wanted to compete in sports and in life. He was tough on me, but I think he was tougher on the older ones. They just wore him out. I would get over on him, so I got it a little easier.”

The late Kevin Hennessey (center), with sons Jeffrey (left), Mark (right) and Kevin (front)

A salesman of floor products for a living, the elder Kevin Hennessey was also a doting grandfather to his several grandchildren and would brag about each and every one.

“He left an impression everywhere he went,” Kevin Hennessey said.

From a personal standpoint, Kevin Hennessey became a good friend to me. We would spend a lot of time talking about the old days during a beer or two at the Park Tavern on West Side Avenue, my home away from home for over 40 years. He gave me a history lesson or two over the years and even made the familiar phone call to me when he didn’t agree with something I wrote. Believe me, there were plenty of those calls.

But Kevin (and he made sure I called him Kevin and not Mr. Hennessey) was always more helpful than a hindrance. He was a walking encyclopedia of sports knowledge, especially track and field. Perhaps the legendary Ed Grant is the only person alive who knew more about Hudson County track and field history than Kevin – and for that alone, he will be so sorely missed.

However, I will miss the countless talks, where he would get so very close to my face to make sure a point was driven home. I’ll miss his opinionate take – a trait that was passed on to his sons. I’ll miss laughter, the generosity and the hearty handshakes and hugs.

Perhaps it was only fitting that after three months of being totally shut closed because of the coronavirus pandemic, O’Leary’s Publik House was able to serve customers outdoors Monday on tables in the parking lot with proper social distancing. Just three hours after the first lunch was served Monday outdoors, Kevin Hennessey passed away.

“Maybe that was his way of saying that he was good to go,” Hennessey said. “It was time for us to get up and get running again. When he died, I thought about it and how fitting it was.”

It certainly was.

The other man who died last week was Mark Scheurer, who wasn’t nearly as athletic as Kevin Hennessey, but perhaps thought he was.

As it turns out, Scheurer was indeed an excellent football and basketball player at St. Peter's Prep during his heyday, one of the only people to play for both the legendary football coach Bill Cochrane and the legendary basketball coach Jerry Halligan.

Mark was a character, someone who I got to know first from the Park Tavern, where he would come to visit his friend from St. Peter’s College, the late Larry McGuirk, who was the weeknight bartender at the Park Tavern for two decades. Mark was a professor at St. Peter’s, as well as other local colleges like Ramapo College and Hudson County Community College.

Mark fashioned himself on being quite an athlete, first as a basketball player, but later in life, as a runner. In fact, Mark maintained that he was in training for the Irish National Olympic Track Team under his pseudonym Pontiac Maguire, a name that he used to write poetry, sonnets and articles. In fact, Mark used to write poetry and present his poems to friends and relatives as gifts.

I would constantly see Mark running around Lincoln Park and he would constantly bellow, “I’m in training, Haguey, I’m in training.”

He truly was a character, one of a kind, a brilliant man with a keen mind. He certainly knew a ton about politics, sports and life. His chats were also memorable – either for good reasons or questionable. But Mark made his presence felt, both at St. Peter’s College and at the Park Tavern.

And the athletic legacy lives on, because his young granddaughter, Maddie Branigan, was a freshman basketball standout for St. Dominic Academy last season and an All-Area honoree from Jim Hague Sports in early March. Maddie averaged 15 points and nine rebounds per game for the Blue Devils last season and certainly has a very bright future.

Two very memorable people with two lasting legacies. May they both rest in peace.