Northwestern Athletic Director Jim Phillips, known as Jimmy in his youth, grew up in a devout Catholic house, but a near-death accident in eighth grade forever shaped his perspective on his faith.
Jimmy Phillips, just 13 years old at the time, was riding his bicycle down Montrose Avenue in the northwest part of Chicago. He had just finished playing baseball with some buddies and they were on their way to the White Hen Pantry, a convenience store, to shop for baseball cards.
Then, out of nowhere — wham!
A drunken driver slammed his car into Phillips’ bike. Before he knew what happened, Phillips went flying and crashed onto the pavement. The impact could have easily killed him or done more lasting damage. Instead, Phillips suffered two broken femurs, the bone in the upper part of the leg.
Phillips was hospitalized for months and couldn’t walk for almost a year. One of the legs didn’t heal properly, so doctors refractured the bone and started the healing process over. The injuries eventually forced him to have hip replacement surgery in his 30s.
It was a devastating accident for anyone, but especially an eighth-grade boy who was accustomed to being outside with his friends playing baseball and basketball. For a year, the teachers from his Catholic school came to the Phillips house to deliver assignments. He took Catholic confirmation classes at home.
“That was a real turning point for Jimmy,” said his older brother, John, a physician in California. “He was in a cast for something like six months and it was a tough blow because he couldn’t do some of the things he used to do, especially with sports.”
Jim stayed involved in athletics as a basketball team manager and student assistant coach at the University of Illinois, but his playing days weren’t the same after getting hit.
Nearly 40 years later, when Phillips reflects on what could have been a disastrous event in the prime of his youth, he thinks about the good that came from it.
“It changed my life forever, for the better,” said Phillips, who often speaks publicly about his Catholic faith. “God was with me then and now, and has never left my side.”
In his office at Northwestern are a series of photos that show Phillips, his wife Laura and their five children speaking with Pope Francis last summer. Phillips speaks in a hushed, reverent tone as he describes the brief conversation, during which the pope asked the Phillips family to pray for him.
“It was an incredibly transformational moment,” he said, holding one of the photos.
— Michael Smith
