By Mike Pearson
FightingIllini.com
Football Performance Center | JoinTheIFUND.com
Matt Joyce and Dick Butkus have a uniquely "Chicago" connection.
Both men are offspring of immigrant families. Joyce's grandparents came from Ireland at the turn of the 20th century, while Butkus's parents arrived from Lithuania about the same time.
Joyce is a pure Chicagoan. Born on the south side in the Ashburn community near 80th Street and Pulaski, Matt's dad, Joe, packed canned meat onto rail cars that were bound toward the World War II effort in Europe. Butkus was a south side guy, too. He grew up at 10324 South Lowe Street in Roseland, just north of Fernwood Park near West 103rd Street.
Football fanatics, Joyce and his dad were huge Chicago Bears fans, idolizing the middle linebacker who wore jersey number 51 and occasionally traveling to Soldier Field to watch him play.
"I remember sitting there in the bleachers and being so cold," he said.
The fact that both Joyce and Butkus are both University of Illinois graduates forges their commonality even further.
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So, about three years ago when a U of I administrator approached Joyce about donating toward its new Football Performance Center, the light clicked on for the 1987 alum.
"(Deputy Director of Athletics) Warren Hood is a friend of mine," Joyce explained. "I absolutely love the Red Grange statue, so I asked Warren 'Why isn't there a Dick Butkus statue?' And he said, 'We're doing that!' Immediately, I said 'We're doing that! I want my name on that!'"
Joyce says he's both thrilled and honored at the opportunity for his family to be benefactors of the Butkus statue, currently being sculpted by famed artist and UI grad George Lundeen. It's scheduled to be unveiled near the corner of Fourth Street and Peabody Drive in 2019, overlooking the new facility's entrance.
"As a Chicagoan, I'm thankful that Dick Butkus went to Illinois," said Joyce. "Every other school in the country wanted him, but he chose to stay home. If you look at his stats, it's unbelievable what he accomplished. He was so fierce on the field, but such a gentleman off the field. He and I share a Chicago spirit. My dad (who passed away in 2009) would get a huge kick out of me doing this for Butkus."
Joyce said that his father, a football standout at Mount Carmel High School in the 1930s, was offered a partial scholarship to play at Notre Dame, but had to turn down the offer because "his family was super poor." Matt's older brother, Tim, lettered in football at Georgetown.
"I love the game, but I was a pretty mediocre receiver and tight end," he chuckled.
Upon arriving at the University of Illinois as an 18-year-old, he admits that he struggled and that it took him a while to figure things out.
"Once I did, I really felt like Illinois had my back," Joyce said. "Eventually, I became very involved through volunteer positions with the student alumni association, the Homecoming committee, and with my fraternity (Sigma Chi). And as I look back now, Illinois was where I figured out how to become an adult."
An economics major, Joyce was immediately hired by an options trading firm in Chicago. When his company was purchased by Swiss Bank in 1993, Matt and his wife Sara, also a UI grad, moved to the corporation's headquarters in London. He then helped form a highly successful derivatives trading company called Atlantic Trading. About that same time, Matt and Sara began their family.
"London is an unbelievable city," Joyce said, "but the weird thing about the schooling in London is that it becomes pretty intense. We knew it would be hard to transition them to the U.S. if they got much older, so we had to decide between them being U.K.-grown kids or American kids. In 2001, we moved back to Chicago."
Their children include oldest son, Martin, a varsity tennis player at Ohio State; daughter, Emma, a current U of I student, and Owen, a high school senior.
In 2013 Joyce shelved his career as a trader to start a totally new business that revolves around reclaiming vintage brick, stone, pavers and other materials from structures being razed around Chicago and throughout the Midwest. Located in the heart of Chicago's famous Union Stockyards, right where his dad used to load trains, Stockyards Brick and Timber (4150 S. Packers Avenue) has become Chicago's most desirable source for salvageable materials.
"One of the main concepts of our business is that you're just not buying material to reuse," Joyce says. "Every single piece of material has a story. We're selling pieces of history. It's super cool and the quality is unbelievable. When I first started the business, I thought I might go broke, but just the opposite has happened."
Joyce, whose family resides in Hinsdale, is a longtime season ticket holder for Illini football. If you spot his unique orange and blue number 50 banner flying on the west side of Memorial Stadium, he'd love to show you his Dick Butkus shrine.
"I bring my No. 50 signed helmet, Butkus bobble heads, signed Illini and Bears jerseys, and all of my Butkus trading cards," he said. "Every single picture I've ever seen of him out of uniform shows him in a suit and just looking sharp and classy. To me, he's just a class guy!"
Joyce can't wait for the 2018 football season to begin.
"I'm a huge believer," he says. "I believe in Josh Whitman and Warren Hood and Lovie (Smith). The Big Ten is very competitive, but I know we'll have success at some level."
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