Whenever people first hear that Mount Carmel’s first state championship team wasn’t a football team, they’re always shocked. Most people don’t believe that the first state title in MC’s illustrious athletic history was won by the water polo team.
The 1975 champion water polo team, from a program that had only existed for ten years at the time, was composed mostly of seniors who had started playing in their sophomore year. Now, 50 years later, the team returned to campus on Friday, October 17, to celebrate the anniversary of their unlikely milestone.
That team, led by coach Tommy Berry, a Brother Rice graduate and standout UCLA water polo player, finished with a record of 20-5. Their journey to glory included a triple overtime thriller versus the number sixth-ranked team in the country at the time, the Fenwick Friars, before cruising to beat Oak Park River Forest 13-3 to bring home the school’s first state championship.
“We didn’t think it was a big deal at the time,” former player Mike “The V-man” Vlamis said, laughing as he looked around The Huddle, MC’s special gathering space between the main academic building and Graham-McCarthy building, and which in 1975was a parking lot. “But as the years went on, we realized that it was the start of something special. Now 50 years later, and Mount Carmel is honoring us, it’s unbelievable.”
In true MC fashion, no one on the team knew each other till they stepped foot on MC’s campus. The team came from all over the Chicagoland area, from South Chicago to River Forest. They formed a tight, unbreakable bond while at MC.
“The upperclassman used to beat us up in the pool,” said Mike Blake, a captain of the team. Water polo is a tough sport; a lot goes on under the water that the audience can’t see.
“It made us tougher,” said Blake. “By the time they graduated, we were ready to finish the job they started.”
In water Polo, players must have their fingernails clipped so they can’t dig into opponents’ skin under the water. That didn’t used to be a rule back in 1975.
The team didn’t even win the Chicago Catholic League that year, losing to Fenwick in the CCL championship.
“They kicked me out in the second quarter,” Blake joked about that match. “They said I punched a guy. I said, ‘Look at his face. Does it look like I hit him?’” Blake claimed that he only pushed him out of the way, maybe a little too aggressive though.
That was the team’s third loss to Fenwick that season prior to the state semifinal match.While Mount Carmel and Fenwick were archrivals in the pool, the respect between the two schools grew over time.
“We’ve maintained a relationship all these years,” said Joe Wendt, a 1976 Fenwick grad who played against the Caravan in 1975. The bond grew so much that some of the guys from the Fenwick team like Wendt were invited to the celebration of the Caravan’s team. “Back then we were enemies, but now we are friends. That’s what sports are supposed to do.”
The players said that the win marked the beginning of a new athletic era for the school. “Before that, Carmel wasn’t really known for winning much,” Vlamis said. “Our class changed that.”
The 1975 title started a much-beloved tradition at MC–getting a free day off of school because of a state championship. Started by MC Faculty, the practice still goes on to this day.
“Freshmen, sophomores, and juniors still come up to us this day and say, ‘You guys got us the day off,’” Vlamis said with a grin.
The celebration during MC’s football game against Fenwick on October 17 was filled with all kinds of memories.Players remembered their old rivalries, the early practices, and the state championship trophy that mysteriously went missing just hours after they won it.
“I’ve been accused of having it in my basement,” said Vlamis, “but it’s not there I swear.”
When the team first won the state championship, the MC trophy case was small and noticeably empty for the most part. Now in 2025, the trophy case is full with 31 state championship trophies, but only 30 of them are the real thing.
But Vlamis reminds us of the 1975 championship trophy, ‘Nobody knows where it went.”
