H. Patrick Costello - Leo Grad, Brother Rice Teacher/Coach, St. Mary's Shakespeare Professor - Remembered

Long before Harry “Pat” Costello began teaching in Chicago, then embarking on a distinguish career as a professor and Shakespeare scholar, the only child from St. Leo Parish made his mark on the Southside as a gifted athlete.

The 1950 Leo High School valedictorian followed the lead of the Irish Christian Brothers from Leo to attend Saint Mary’s College in Winona, Minnesota, where he excelled in his studies as well as athletics.

Following graduation, Pat taught and coached for a year at Christian Brothers High School and College in Memphis, Tennessee. He returned to Chicago and earned an M.A degree from Loyola University Chicago. In 1965, he was awarded a Danforth Teacher Grant, enabling him to complete his Ph.D. at Loyola University.

In 1956, the same Brothers made Costello the first layperson hired at Brother Rice High School Chicago. In the first year of existence, Costello chaired the English Department and served as the first head basketball coach, competing in the Chicago Catholic League.

In recent days, despite being in Hospice care at his Winona home, Costello was following the improbable success of the Leo Choir as it competed and placed fourth in last summer’s America’s Got Talent competition. He and his wife Joan would share a laptop propped up in his bed to watch their performances, either live or between naps.

Costello was less surprised by the Leo boys’ success than many. A member of the Glee Club (1946-1950), Costello readily identified with the “discipline” needed to perform at such a high level. He was a lead vocalist in Leo's musical productions.

“We had a Jewish woman named Esther Rehberg who taught Voice at Leo,” said Costello to a visitor last summer in the beginning days of Hospice. “Miss Rehberg was great and very disciplined. Every year she would produce our musicals.”

H. Patrick Costello was born on August 17, 1932, in Chicago, Illinois, the only child of Harry and Agnes (Smith) Costello. An educator and devoted family man, he lived a life guided by faith, service, and love of learning. He died November 13, 2025.

“We will all be so lucky to go so smoothly,” said son Mike Costello, who is raising his own family four doors from his childhood home.

Costello may have been masking his pain. A diabetic, Costello fought diligently to remain healthy, dutifully injecting insulin into his muscular frame for more than 60 years, a period of time Mayo Clinic doctors found extraordinary.

Costello’s own mother suffered a series of miscarriages and was concerned she might not be able to carry a baby to term. Undeterred, she delivered a son, who would be raised an only child.

“I was Valedictorian at Leo because of my mother,” Costello once said of the 30-year career educator in the Chicago Public Schools.

“She was so clever. She told me to study as hard as I could as a freshman and get the highest average of any student and then everyone will be afraid to give me anything but a top grade. I don’t remember studying as hard at Leo after that.”

Sports, English studies and Shakespeare became his passion.

While most basketball enthusiasts remember Costello for his hoop prowess, as a Leo Lions lefty quarterback, he was a gunslinger who had some of his best performances in front of the big Sunday crowds for charitable causes.

In the fall season of 1948, Costello beat Saint Rita by one score with two touchdown passes in front of 35,000 fans at historic Soldier Field. The televised game was secondary to a bigger Chicago mission.

The November 1, 1948 Chicago Sun-Times headlines read: “TV helps Sister Riccardo see Leo top Rita 20-12 for Charity.”

Foundress of the charity game 23 years earlier, Sister Riccardo was prohibited by the Mercy Order from attending athletic contests. However, as reported in the paper, Sister Riccardo “was with a group of nuns at Mercy high school huddled around a television set (and) like thousands of others, she must have leaped to her feet when Leo Quarterback Pat Costello started pitching passes...”

Costello later laughingly admitted: “We weren’t moving the ball against Rita and we didn’t have one pass play, so I made up two in the huddle. I liked to throw the ball.”

The gate proceeds contributed to the $1 million raised over the years by Sister Ricardo for Mercy Hospital.

As a graduating student spokesman for Leo High School, Costello's comments were featured in the Chicago Sunday Tribune in 1950: "I'd like to leave the world a better place for my being in it. I want to use every bit of talent I have for the good of other men."

Costello’s basketball championship success in leading Leo to the City title in Lightweight competition led to greater heights at Saint Mary’s.

Credited in the early 1950s with introducing the jump shot to the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (MIAC), Costello was all-conference sophomore, junior and senior years, ranked sixth nationally with a .523 field goal percentage and held three MIAC scoring records. He also was the top scorer in National Catholic Invitational Tournament in New York. He was elected to the Midwest All-Catholic team as a junior and senior and selected to play with the College All-Stars against the NBA Champion Minneapolis Lakers.

Costello also coached the Saint Mary’s team from 1974 until 1976.

Known to many as Doc Costello, the scholar dedicated his life over a six-decade career to the Christian Brother schools both at the high school and college levels, after graduating from Saint Mary’s College in Minnesota in 1954.

During the late 1950s and 60s, Costello finished his Masters and Doctorate studies at Loyola University in Chicago, which led him to Saint Mary’s to teach literature and Shakespeare.

Costello spent 39 years teaching English and Shakespeare at the Winona, Minnesota college, which was, renamed Saint Mary’s University of Minnesota in 1995.

Costello retired in 2003 for eight years led the Great River Shakespeare Festival Collegium,
helping to establish the company's theater and festival in Winona along the Mississippi River.

Costello died peacefully Thursday afternoon on November 13, 2025 surrounded by his family in the Winona home where he and Joan raised seven children.

Costello is survived by his wife Joan of almost 65 years and his daughters Rosemary O'Connell, Kathleen Costello and Mary Eileen (Dan) Fitch, and four sons Patrick (Trish), Michael (Stacy), Hugh (Thelma) and Daniel (Rosario) and grandchildren: Danny, Mary Rose and Julia Costello, Sean and Liam O'Connell, Joseph, Megan and Colleen (Coco) Costello, Patrick, Hugh and Santiago Costello and Lucy, Emmett and Patrick (Packy) Fitch.

In lieu of flowers, the family respectfully requests that memorials be directed to St. Mary's Parish, St. Mary's University or Cotter Schools.

Pat donated his body to Mayo Clinic for medical education and research. The Visitation and Celebration of his Life will be held on Friday, Nov. 28 from 3:00-7:00 p.m. at St. Mary's University Toner Center and on Saturday, Nov. 29, from 9:30 until the 11:00 a.m. Memorial Mass at St. Mary's Parish, Winona. The mass will be streamed: www.stmaryswinona.org