What's in a Name?

Your name matters. What you call yourself or answer to, matters.

As a former Simeon Career Academy student-athlete I returned to the school in the 2010/2011 school year to volunteer in the athletic department. I didn’t know it at the time, but quickly learned the athletes were still carrying on the winning traditions that were there when I was a student, in the 80’s. I was so excited about this “new breed” of Wolverines that I wanted to share it with whoever was willing to listen. So, in addition to performing administrative tasks and organizing fundraisers for the athletic department, I decided I would start a Twitter feed. At that time, Twitter, now X wasn’t as widely used as it is today, but it didn’t matter.

The goal was to share the teams’ overall athletic successes as well as highlight individual athletes who might otherwise go unnoticed. I would be unapologetic when featuring Simeon’s student-athletes, but never at the expense of their opponents…good sportsmanship matters!

To be clear, this Twitter account would be my personal passion project, but I knew I would be speaking to and for other alums and sports enthusiasts alike, so the name on this Twitter account mattered.

It’s really hard to explain, but the day I returned to Simeon, entering the building I felt an overwhelming feeling of nostalgia. This was weird because the only thing left from “my school;” Simeon Vocational High School (SVS) (the name of the school when I was a student); was the old gym. And, if I’m honest, that was the only part that truly mattered, but I digress. There were so many memories made in that gym. We all supported and cheered each other on when we were not playing or practicing ourselves. We were teased by other schools because our school was converted from an old warehouse. But we bonded together as a result of the ridicule, and in that “warehouse” we built a MACHINE, “AH BLUE MACHINE!”

So fast-forward, as you know we landed on the name, SimeonNation.

Now I know what you’re thinking, lots of teams use the moniker “Nation” to describe their fans and supporters, but that isn’t true for us. Our name was created to pay homage to another Simeon student-athlete from the 80’s’ by the name of Ben Wilson. Now, if you’re reading this, there’s a good chance you’ve heard of Ben “Benji” Wilson. So many stories have been told, but bear with me as I share a snippet of mine.

First, you should know that I personally find myself avoiding all “Ben Talks” or remembrances displayed each year in the month of November. In fact, the 40th anniversary of his passing is quickly approaching on November 21, 2024. I was a sophomore at Simeon in 1984. I saw Ben in the hallway and I walked up to him, hugged him and said,” welcome back!” Ben had just returned to school from a suspension and as I walked away, he shouted back, "thanks twin!" I turned back to see Ben heading out of the building for lunch and to what felt like minutes later, I found myself outside of the school looking at Ben on the ground, propped up against the fence. As I stood there, wondering what he was doing on the ground, I overheard someone say, “he got shot.” SHOT! As I stood there in shock, not understanding what I’d heard because there was no blood anywhere that I could see. So as I struggled to match what I heard with what I saw, the next thing I remembered was the school’s Officer Harley and Assistant Principal Everett yelling “back in the building!'' as they began to corral students back into the school, the word started to spread. Again, this was the 80’s and teenagers getting shot wasn’t a thing, so this made news. And, because that prior summer Ben was named the first ever high school basketball player ranked #1 in the nation, this made NATIONAL news.

On the 25th anniversary of Ben’s passing in 2009, the Chicago Tribune sports writer KC. Johnson wrote an article.

This is a picture of the actual article that I kept all those years because reading it allowed me to fill in some blanks that my mind blocked out as well as find some peace with that moment in time. In the article, there is a picture of Ben’s headstone with the inscription, “Best in the NATION.'' Seeing that headstone then and now still hits the same. A lump still forms in my throat whenever I think back to that day. I still remember Ben’s mom announcing that her son, Benji had passed away. I remember how she showed so much strength, compassion and care as she delivered news that she knew would be hard for her son’s classmates and school community to hear. But in that moment, she was a mother to us all.

As I shifted my focus from what was lost, I wanted to tie the spirit of the past to what I was witnessing with the current group of athletes. So, when thinking of a name suitable for a Twitter feed “organized with the Simeon athletic fan in mind,” For me, the name most synonymous with Simeon is Ben. THE first high school basket player ever named #1 in the NATION! So, SimeonNation it is! And look, IT’S ONE WORD PEOPLE! Because Ben WAS Simeon and his spirit has lived on in every student-athlete since.

Several months after launching @SimeonNation ESPN released the 30 for 30 Documentary “Benji” Celebrating Ben Wilson’s Legacy, presented by Nike in August 2012. This November is the 40th year of Ben’s passing, so I invite you to watch (or rewatch) the documentary in Ben’s honor.

Here’s hoping we all live a life worthy of being remembered by ensuring that your name mattered!

Now, I’ve gotta go…gotta get to the game!

Your Chief in Cheering!

Tambra

"Leaving an Imprint: Tribune Reporter K.C. Johnson Played Against Ben Wilson in the Slain Simeon Star's Last High School Game, and 25 Years Later, the Killing has Lost None of its Impact." Chicago Tribune (1997-), Nov 15 2009, p. 1. ProQuest. Web. 23 July 2023 <https://chipublib.idm.oclc.org/login?url=https://www.proquest.com/historical-newspapers/leaving-imprint/docview/2370067232/se-2?accountid=303>.