Easy Ed in retirement

ED MACAULEY SOLD HIS INTERESTS IN A cable television venture in St. Louis a few years back and deiced to retire. He wanted to spend more time with is wife of almost 50 years, Jackie, their seven kids, and 17 grandchildren.



But retirement also has given him a lot more time to devote to church. About 10 years ago, Macauley, the youngest player ever inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame, became a deacon in the Catholic Church. He has specialized in writing homilies, and has even begun to give others across the country and the world pointers on how to write better sermons.

"I've written a book with Monsignor Francis Friedl called "Homilies Alive: Creating Homilies That Hit Home," Macauley says. "I give the homilies in our church, and we do workshops with other priests and deacons and Protestant ministers on this subject." In fact, Macauley has started his own Web site, www.homiliesalive.com, as a storage house of homilies for others around the globe to read and use.

"The Web site last week had just under 3,000 visitors," Macauley says. "That's 150,000 a year. There's a lot of Web sites that get 12,000 hits a minute, but not for homilies."We have 40 or so priests and deacons and people from other countries that write the homilies for us. It's been a lot of fun. We've gotten good reviews from our workshops and great reviews on our book."

These days, “Easy Ed”resides in St. Louis, Missouri with his wife Jacqueline. The two of them have been married 52 years and have seven children and 17 grandchildren. Macauley's greatest thrill is watching his grandchildren grow up. Nolan is the tallest in his kindergarten class and loves soccer. "He's quiet," Macauley says. "I'll say, `Nolan, did your team win?' He'll say, `Yep.' I'll say, `What was the score?' He'll say, `5-3.' I'll say, `Did you get any goals?' He'll say, `Yep.' I'll say, `Well, how many?' He'll say, `Five.'" Another of his grandchildren, Patrick, once drove in 13 runs in a Little League game.

Sounds like they inherited some of grandpa's athleticism.