The 1944 Mount Carmel Oriflamme yearbook summarizes the football career of senior Phil O’Reilly with succinct praise:  “‘Phee’ O’Reilly turned in one of the finest roles in the Caravan forward wall. A sixty minute player, O’Reilly made every move count.” In hindsight, it’s apparent that the quality that set O’Reilly apart as a football player – making every move count – would also describe the rest of his life.

The idea of starting from the bottom and working his way to the top is a prominent one throughout O’Reilly’s life. When O’Reilly graduated from Mount Carmel in 1944, he went from being the star football player to a non-scholarship player at Purdue University. However, he didn’t let that discourage him and ended up months later making the team at age 17, securing a scholarship, and eventually earning All-American honors.

In his business career O’Reilly started as an engineer and then salesman for the American Brake Shoe Co., then transferred to Houdaille Industries as an Automotive Div. salesman, and eventually worked his way up to become CEO at one the top 50 largest stock trading companies in the nation.

In a phone interview with The Caravan, O’Reilly recalled fond memories from his high school days, including well-loved teachers like Fr. Gerard, who presided at his wedding, and Fr. Roderick , a dedicated Yankees fan, “who would give him a dollar and organize trips for us to Comiskey Park to see the White Sox play the New York Yankees.  The only thing we had to do was bring him back a filled-out box score from the game.”

He also remembers, less fondly, the way his senior year football season ended.  In the 1944 Catholic League Championship game, the Caravan tied St. George 13-13 . To determine who would go on to the Prep Bowl Championship, there was a coin toss, which the Caravan lost.  That gave St. George the honor of playing Wendell Phillips with its star Buddy Young for the city championship at Soldier Field, which St. George won.  The Caravan had to settle for the title of City Co-Champions.”

Shortly before turning 18 years old, the recent Carmel grad had to deal with the stark reality of “The Draft” during World War II. O’Reilly initially took a summer session at Purdue University before eventually enrolling in the Navy. After completing boot camp at the Great Lakes Naval base and  passing a qualifying test, O’Reilly was sent to University of Louisville for NROTC.

After the end of the war, O’Reilly returned to play football at Purdue, where in his 1947 season he was voted Most Valuable Player by his teammates. The following year resulted in a bevy of awards, as he was voted a team captain, All-Conference, and an All-American.

The football honors did not stop there for O’Reilly. After graduating from Purdue he was selected to play in the East-West Game, the first Hula Bowl game in Hawaii, and the College All-Star game. The All-Star game, sponsored by the Chicago Tribune, pitted college all stars against the National Football League champion. The All-Stars took on the Philadelphia Eagles that year and lost 38-0. O’Reilly explained, “We were just a bunch of guys that got thrown together in a week; they had been playing together for several years so it was not a close game.”

That game ended up being O’Reilly’s last, even though he was drafted to play professional football not once, but twice. In 1948 O’Reilly was drafted to the National Football League as a tackle by the Pittsburg Steelers. He then was drafted again by the San Francisco 49ers, who at that time played in the All-America football conference, and was attempting to challenge the NFL.

Despite those twin opportunities, O’Reilly never set foot on a professional football field. “Back in college I had some injuries to both my knees and the professional players weren’t making too much money, so I went to work.” Still, while he never played an NFL game, O’Reilly’s rookie football card is part of a 1948 set which included the cards of Sid Luckman and Chuck Bednarik and is now sold on different websites for between $60 and $100.

O’Reilly actually owns one of these cards, and says, “Every year or so somebody ends up sending me a card (to sign).  It’s actually quite funny.” The picture on the 1948 card was taken during his time at Purdue and appeared in the Saturday programs.

O’Reilly graduated from Purdue with a double major in Mechanical Engineering and Naval Science, degrees that he put to good use at the American Break Shoe Company in Chicago for 3 years, and later with another division of the company in Rochester, New York.

After two years he joined  Houdaille Industries, eventually working his way up to lead the company. Along the way, “I was in charge of about every division in the company.” After 10 years at the helm of Houdaille Industries O’Reilly stepped down to let someone else run the show. He then joined “ Stonebridge Partners” as an operating partner and COB of many of their acquired  companies.

Life and career has led O’Reilly and his family to many parts of the United States, including Rochester, New York; Detroit,Michigan; Huntington, West Virginia; Buffalo, New York; Ft. Lauderdale, Florida; and Vero Beach, Florida where he currently resides.  His record of meeting every challenge and  achieving success at every stop along the way speaks to the Caravan tradition, and proves the adage of his high school yearbook:  “Every move counts.”