Illini LEGENDS, LISTS & LORE

Illini Legends, Lists & Lore

                            John Karras

Johnny Karras

Jan. 27, 2025

 “An elusive, will-o-the-wisp who always was a threat anytime he had the ball.”


That was the description of Fighting Illini running back Johnny Karras by his coach, Ray Eliot.


The famed “Argo Express” was born 97 years ago today - Jan. 27, 1928.


During his three letter-winning seasons from 1949 through 1951, Karras rushed for a University of Illinois record 2,077 yards, six more yards than his idol, Red Grange, but in 15 more attempts. His 826 yards as a sophomore in ’49 was his best single-season effort, including a Big Ten record 732 yards in conference games. He was the team MVP that season.


Though his production tailed off a bit during his last two seasons, Karras led the Illini to a spectacular 16-2-1 cumulative record over that span, including a nearly perfect 9-0-1 mark in 1951 when Illinois topped off its season by defeating Stanford in the Rose Bowl.


He played one season in the NFL with the Chicago Cardinals. In 1990, Karras was selected by fans as a member of Illinois’ All-Century Team.


He died in 2008 at the age of 80.


                            Lee Eilbracht

Lee Eilbracht's Major Leaguers

Jan. 24, 2025

Seventy-three years ago today, Lee Eilbracht was named acting head coach of the Fighting Illini baseball team, replacing Wally Roettger who had died the previous September.


Eilbracht lettered three years as a player (1943, ’46 and ’47). He had a celebrated career as Illinois’ head coach, compiling 515 victories against 393 losses and six ties in 27 seasons. He had 41 more wins than Itch Jones (474 in 15 years) and 201 more than George Huff (314 in 23 years). Current Illini coach Dan Hartleb broke Eilbracht's record in 2023 and has 567 total victories.


Eilbracht’s Illini teams won four Big Ten titles. Fourteen of his Illinois players eventually went on to play Major League Baseball:


Ethan Blackaby: Milwaukee-NL (1962-64) … Career: .120 average, 0 HR, 1 RBI

Bob Burda: St. Louis (1962 & ’71); San Francisco (1965-66, 1969-70); Milwaukee-AL (1970); Boston (1972) … Career: .224 average, 13 HR, 78 RBI

John Felske: Chicago-NL (1968) and Milwaukee-AL (1972-73) … Career: .135 average, 1 HR, 9 RBI

Tom Fletcher: Detroit (1962) … Career: 1 game

Tom Haller: San Francisco (1961-67); Los Angeles-NL (1968-71); Detroit (1972) … Career: .257 average, 134 HR, 504 RBI

Jim Hicks: Chicago-AL (1964-66); St. Louis (1969); California (1969) … Career: .163 average, 5 HR, 14 RBI

Ken Holtzman: Chicago-NL (1965-71, ’78); Oakland (1972-75); New York-AL (1976-77) … Career: 174-150, 3.49 ERA

Dick Hyde: Washington (1955-60); Baltimore (61) … Career: 17-14, 3.56 ERA

Bobby Klaus: Cincinnati (1964) and NY Mets (1964-65) … Career: .208 average, 6 HR, 29 RBI

Gary Kolb: St. Louis (1960, 62-63); Milwaukee-NL (1964-65); New York-NL (1965); Pittsburgh (1968-69) … Career: .209 average, 6 HR, 29 RBI

Em Lindbeck: Detroit (1960) … Career: 2 games

Herb Plews: Washington (1956-59) and Boston (1959) … Career: .262 average, 4 HR, 82 RBI

Lou Skizas: New York-AL (1956); Kansas City (1956-57); Detroit (1958); Chicago-AL (1959) … Career: .270 average, 30 HR, 86 RBI

Ed Spiezio: St. Louis (1964-68); San Diego (1969-72) and Chicago-AL (1972) … Career: .238 average, 39 HR, 174 RBI


                            Jack Squirek on the cover of Sports Illustrated

Jack Squirek

Jan. 22, 2025

Forty-one years ago today - Jan. 22, 1984 - former Fighting Illini star Jack Squirek scored a touchdown on a five-yard interception as the Los Angeles Raiders beat the Washington Redskins, 38-9, in Super Bowl XVIII.


At that point, just three years into his pro career, Squirek only saw spot duty as a reserve linebacker. Raiders linebacker coach Charlie Sumner substituted the athletic Squirek for Matt Millen with just seconds remaining in the first half and Washington at its own 12-yard line. Instead of running the clock out, Redskins quarterback Joe Theismann decided to throw an ill-fated screen pass. Squirek stepped in front of halfback Joe Washington and went into the end zone untouched for a TD.


His game-turning play earned him the spotlight on Sports Illustrated’s Jan. 30, 1984 issue. In a retrospective article written by SI’s Jeff Pearlman, Squirek remembered his day in the sun.


"It was all very amazing," he told Pearlman. "I was staying at the LAX Hilton at the time, and I came down to the magazine stand in the lobby and saw the cover. It blew me away."


Eventually, injuries shortened Squirek’s career and his playing time ended in 1986.


He died on Jan. 5, 2024, at the age of 2024.


                            Rob Mango

Rob Mango

Jan. 20, 2025

As a 14-year-old freshman at Tinley Park High School, future University of Illinois star Rob Mango was focused on two things: running and visiting the Art Institute of Chicago. Following weekend track meets, his parents would shuttle him to 111 South Michigan Avenue where he attended classes and devoured the paintings of Monet, Van Gogh and Picasso.

Mango credits his mother for creating his passion for literature and fine arts.


“Every morning my mother prodded me in the direction of literature and the American poets and authors who she was most familiar with,” he said.


Once Mango arrived at the University of Illinois on a partial track scholarship, the middle-distance ace trained with long-distance teammates Lee LaBadie, Mike Durkin and a young Craig Virgin. He endured extreme pain when, during the six-to-twelve-mile runs, they would ratchet up the pace.


“To survive the experience,” said Mango, “I would visualize my paintings, usually works in progress, but also new pictorial hallucinations as my mind would fill with fragments from my subconscious.


“My life was a composition of training and distance running and studying art and creating,” he continued. “I found out what oxygen debt meant; when you’re not breathing in enough air to supply to your muscles for the speed that you’re running. Something happens to your brain. You’re looking straight ahead and your mind is gushing forward ideas and images. You’re seeing them in your eye. I was seeing rectangles with pieces moving. Different forms of symmetry started entering my mind … bilateral, radial, rotational symmetry … really just the contents of the human psyche, which we all have. But I was able to excavate them and use them as a motif format to create paintings.”


Running long distances turned out to be a highly successful for Mango, as he would finish his career with two Big Ten individual championships (880-yard run in 1972 & ’73) and one conference relay title (one-mile relay in 1970).


At the NCAA meet in 1972, Mango anchored the two-mile team of Dave Kaemerer, Ron Phillips and LaBadie that captured first place. Individually, Mango also finished second in the 1973 NCAA 880-meter run.


He was a 1972 Olympic Trials finalist and won the 1973 Big Ten Conference Medal of Honor for proficiency in the classroom and in athletics.


Mango continued to study painting after graduating in 1973, first at the University of New Mexico, then back at Illinois where he received his Master of Fine Arts for sculpture.


Then, Mango said, New York began calling his name.


“It was the home of the beatnik poets and it was the city where the art world was and the people I admired. Painting became the essence of my being.”


Since November of 1977, Mango has operated his own gallery and studio in Tribeca on Lower Manhattan. For more than 40 years, he has been an internationally exhibited painter and sculptor. Mango’s work has been extensively collected in both the private and corporate spheres. He has participated in several solo exhibitions across the United States and Europe. Mango and his artwork have been featured in such publications as The New York Times, Art in America, and Art News. He’s also written a book entitled 100 Paintings: An Artist’s Life in New York City.

 

Mango’s family includes his wife, Helena, and two children. Today, he celebrates his 74th birthday.



To view his work, go to www.robertmango.com.


                            Preston Pearson

Preston Pearson

Jan. 17, 2025

Preston Pearson, former University of Illinois basketball star and the answer to several sports trivia questions, celebrates his 80th birthday today.


At 6-2, he was a prep all-state selection at Freeport High School, chosen to the same all-Illinois all-star team that featured Dan Issel from Batavia. A three-sport star at Freeport, Illini basketball coach Harry Combes recruited him to Illinois.


Pearson eventually became a part-time starter, sharing the court with such Illini as Jim Dawson, Don Freeman, Skip Thoren, Tal Brody, Rich Jones and Dave Scholz. His basketball career was mostly unspectacular, averaging five points and three rebounds through 62 games.


However, in the 1967 National Football League Draft, Coach Don Shula’s Baltimore Colts saw promise in the powerfully built Pearson and made him a late-round selection. With that break, Pearson’s career as a professional athlete took off. He began his career as a defensive back, but was eventually moved to running back where he excelled. Pearson played for Shula’s Colts from 1967-69, then Chuck Noll’s Pittsburgh Steelers from 1970-74, and finally for Tom Landry’s Dallas Cowboys from 1975-80.


He played in five Super Bowl games and is the only player to have done it with three different teams: the Colts of 1969, the Steelers of 1975 and the Cowboys of 1976, 1978 and 1979. Upon his retirement from the game, Pearson established a sports marketing company called Pro-Style Associates.



                            L.M. "Mike" Tobin

This Date in Illini History

Jan. 13, 2025

Jan. 13, 1923: Nine of Wally Roettger’s 15 points came via free throws and captain Swede Hellstrom added 10 points as Illinois defeated visiting Indiana, 31-22.


Jan. 13, 1930: Illinois held Michigan to just four field goals en route to a 24-18 basketball victory at Ann Arbor.


Jan. 13, 1944: Longtime Illinois sports information director L.M. “Mike” Tobin (pictured) died at the age of 64.


Jan. 13, 1968: Dave Scholz capped a spectacular 26-point performance by drilling a 20-foot jumper with just five seconds left as Illinois topped host Minnesota, 61-60.


Jan. 13, 1973: Jed Foster sank two free throws with just 11 seconds left to help Illinois defeat Iowa, 80-78.


Jan. 13, 1981: NCAA members vote to begin holding women’s championship meets.


Jan. 13, 2001: Three Illini women’s track standouts broke school records in a meet at UI’s Armory. Perdita Felicien set a new mark in the 60-meter hurdles, Angela Hilgers broke Illinois’ pole vault record, and Adeoti Oshinowo broke the school record in the 20-pound weight throw.


                            Andy Kaufmann vs. Iowa, 1993

Memorable Games of the '90s

Jan. 9, 2025

The decade of the 1990s was an exciting chapter in the history of Fighting Illini men's basketball. Today, we rank the 10 most thrilling games of the '90s:


Feb. 4, 1993: Andy Kaufmann hits a long-range 3-pointer at the buzzer to lead Illinois past No. 9 Iowa, 78-77.

Mar. 6, 1999: Last-place Illinois reaches the finals of the Big Ten Tournament with a 79-77 victory over Ohio State, its third straight win over a nationally ranked team.

Dec. 1, 1995: Illinois upsets No. 12 Duke, 75-65, snapping the Blue Devils' 95-game non-ACC winning streak at Cameron Indoor Stadium.

Feb. 24, 1996: Following Illinois' 91-86 victory over No. 18 Iowa, Lou Henson announces that he'll step down as head coach.

Mar. 11, 1990: Illinois beats Indiana for the third straight time in Bloomington (69-63) as Kendall Gill becomes the Big Ten scoring champ.

Feb. 12, 1998: Illinois beats 13th-ranked MSU, 84-63, at the Assembly Hall, to climb into a tie for first place. UI would go on to share the Big Ten title.

Dec. 20, 1995: Fourteenth-ranked Illinois beats 15th-ranked Missouri, 96-85, in overtime to stay unbeaten.

Jan. 14, 1997: UI beats No. 7 Minnesota, 96-90, at the Assembly Hall. The Gophers went on to earn the Big Ten title and a berth in the Final Four.

Mar. 2, 1997: The Illini outscore Michigan 41-9 to close out the game in a 70-51 victory at the Assembly Hall.

Dec. 22, 1990: Rennie Clemons dunks over Shaquille O'Neal in Illinois' 102-96 triumph over LSU.


                            Bob Richards

Bob Richards

Jan. 2, 2025

Seventy-three years ago today—Jan. 2, 1952—former University of Illinois track and field star Bob Richards became the first—and heretofore only—Fighting Illini athlete to win the James E. Sullivan Memorial Award as America’s amateur athlete of the year.


A 1944 graduate of Champaign High School and a two-time Illini letter winner (1946 and ’47), the then 25-year-old Richards easily outdistanced tennis standout Maureen Connolly, 1,283 points to 903. Richards had 174 of the 487 first-place votes, while Connelly had 115.


Earlier in 1951, Richards had become the second pole vaulter in history to clear 15 feet and won the national decathlon championship. The best vault of his career at that point was 15-feet-4 ¾-inches, less than four inches beneath Cornelius Warmerdam’s world record. Richards’ best effort in the 10-event decathlon was 7,834 points, exceeded only by Bob Mathias’s 8,042 points mark (in 1948) and Glen Morris’s 7,254 points (1936) in Olympic competition.


At the time he won the Sullivan Award, Richards was an ordained minister in the Church of the Brethren and an instructor in religious philosophy at California’s La Verne College. A member of Richards’ congregation at that time was future tennis star Billie Jean King.


Richards’ training regimen was unlike other athletes.


In a 1952 Associated Press article, Richards told a writer, “I have to train much of the time at night. I usually teach in the morning, have business affairs to care for in the afternoon, preach at night, and then comes my training.”


Richards would go on to win Olympic gold medals as a vaulter, capturing first place in both 1952 at Helsinki, Finland and 1956 at Melbourne, Australia. He earned a bronze medal in 1948 at the London Games. He is the only vaulter to win more than two Olympic medals.


The longtime spokesman for Wheaties cereal died on Feb. 26, 2023, six days after his 97th birthday.


                            Rashard Mendenhall

Rose-Petaled Touchdowns

Dec. 30, 2024

The University of Illinois football team has played in five Rose Bowls in its program history. In those five appearances, the Orange and Blue have scored a total of 18 touchdowns. 


  1. Julius Rykovich (one-yard TD, run, 1947)
  2. Buddy Young (two-yard TD, run, 1947)
  3. Paul Patterson (four-yard TD, run, 1947)
  4. Perry Moss (one-yard TD, run, 1947)
  5. Buddy Young (one-yard TD, run, 1947)
  6. Ruck Steger (68-yard TD, interception return, 1947)
  7. Stan Green (81-yard TD, interception return, 1947)
  8. Pete Bachourus (six-yard TD, run, 1952)
  9. Bill Tate (five-yard TD, run, 1952)
  10. John Karras (seven-yard TD, run, 1952)
  11. Bill Tate (eight-yard TD, run, 1952)
  12. Don Stevens (seven-yard TD, run, 1952)
  13. John Ryan (six-yard TD, pass from Don Engels, 1952)
  14. Jim Warren (two-yard TD, run, 1964)
  15. Jim Grabowski (one-yard TD, run, 1964)
  16. Thomas Rooks (five-yard TD, pass from Jack Trudeau, 1984)
  17. Rashard Mendenhall (79-yard TD run, 2008)
  18. Arrelious Benn (56-yard TD, pass from Eddie McGee, 2008)


                            Tom Porter

Tom Porter

Dec. 27, 2024

A longtime member of the University of Illinois staff, Tom Porter celebrates his 83rd birthday today.  


He wrestled as an undergrad at Illinois, then at Indiana State where he eventually received bachelor’s and master’s degrees.


Porter began his coaching career in 1965 at Mount Prospect High School and moved on to John Hersey High School in Arlington Heights where he guided the Huskies to state championships in 1971 and ’72.


After four seasons at Hersey, Porter took a $4,000 cut in pay to become head coach of the Fighting Illin, replacing Jack Robinson. Two of his most successful wrestlers at Illinois were Kevin Puebla and Kevin Pancratz. Porter also served as an assistant football coach for the Illini.


In 1978, athletic director Cecil Coleman transitioned Porter into administrative work at the UI, most prominently in summer camps, promotions and marketing. It was Porter who turned “Tailgreat” into a nationally prominent promotion and introduced UI logo merchandise as a revenue stream for the athletic department. Other ideas of Porter’s that flourished were the “Go Illini Card”, the “Illini Pride” student support organization and “Hometown Heroes”.


He retired from his fulltime position at Illinois in 1999, but continued to serve A.D. Ron Guenther in a number of part-time roles.


In 2002 and ’03, Porter returned to coaching in Mahomet and guided the Bulldogs to a 44-7 dual meet record in 2002 and ’03. Porter was inducted into the Illinois Chapter of the National Wrestling Hall of Fame in 2012.


He and his wife, Pat, have been married for 60 years.


                            Sapora brothers

Wrestling's Sapora Brothers

Dec. 23, 2024

Of the 44 pairs of brothers who have earned varsity letters as members of the Fighting Illini wrestling program, the very first siblings—Joe and Allen Sapora—stand out above the others.


The natives of Renova, Pennsyslvania, a small lumbering community 178 miles northeast of Pittsburgh, matriculated to the University of Illinois and had legendary collegiate careers.


Joe, born in 1904, was recruited by then Illini coach Paul Prehn, but wrestled his final two seasons for Harold “Hek” Kenney. In 1929 and 1930, he was the nation’s premier grappler at 115 pounds, winning back-to-back NCAA and Big Ten individual titles. Team-wise, Sapora and his Illini teammates won Big Ten titles in 1928 and ’30 and placed second and fourth in the NCAA Championships in 1930 and ’29, respectively. Sapora went on to capture a pair of Amateur Athletic Union national freestyle titles for the New York Athletic Club, then became a professor of physical education and head coach at City College of New York. His biggest stars at CCNY were Henry Wittenberg, a 1948 gold medalist at the 1948 Olympics, and Jacob Twersky, a blind wrestler who was an NCAA finalist in 1942. Sapora retired from CCNY in 1968. He was inducted into the Helms Foundation Hall of Fame in 1994, two years after his death at the age of 87 in Daytona Beach, Fla. Sapora was a 2018 inductee into the Illini Athletics Hall of Fame.


Like his older brother, Allen was a dominant lightweight star at Illinois. The 126-pounder won the Big Ten title in 1937, then the NCAA crown in 1938. When he won the latter championship, it marked the first time that brothers won national titles. Sapora and his UI teammates won the Big Ten Championship in 1937 and placed second in the NCAA meet in 1938. Immediately afterwards, he became Kenney’s assistant with the Illini and continued in that role until he earned his doctorate degree in recreation. Sapora was a longtime member of the UI’s teaching staff in leisure studies. He also became an accomplished wrestling official, serving at five Illinois state championship meets. Born 112 years ago today, Allen Sapora died in 2004 at the age of 92.


In 1993, Illini wrestling named its Most Valuable Wrestler award in honor of the Sapora brothers.


                            Red Grange

Red Grange & The Silver Football

Dec. 20, 2024

One-hundred years ago this week—Dec. 21, 1924—a distinguished panel of 21 coaches and sportswriters named a Fighting Illini football star as the inaugural recipient of the “Tribune Trophy”.


Wrote the Chicago Tribune’s Harvey Woodruff in his lede, “Harold (Red) Grange of the University of Illinois was the Big Ten football player of greatest value to his team during the season of 1924.”


Grange’s 1924 statistics were greatly enhanced by his week three performance against Michigan. That, of course, was the day the University of Illinois dedicated Memorial Stadium. On that Oct. 18th afternoon, No. 77 rushed for 212 yards, passed for 64, and returned three kickoffs for 125 more, scoring five touchdowns altogether. In the six games Grange played in 1924, the Illini advanced the football seven-and-a-half yards every time he touched the ball.


Ironically, the runner-up for the award was an Illini freshman teammate of Grange in 1922. Ralph “Moon” Baker, a halfback who eventually transferred from Illinois to Northwestern, possessed triple-threat skills, spearheading the school’s emergence in the mid 1920s. As a sophomore in 1924, Baker gained particular notoriety when he drop-kicked two field goals against Notre Dame’s famed “Four Horsemen” squad at Chicago’s Soldier Field. Northwestern lore indicates that Baker’s feisty effort that day against the Fighting Irish ultimately inspired a Chicago writer to nickname NU’s teams the “Wildcats”, instead of more commonly referring to them as the “Purple” or the “Fighting Methodists”.


Grange selection as the “Tribune Trophy” winner—known as the “Silver Football”—was not unanimous. Big Ten coaches, who were not allowed to choose one of their own players for the award, swung their support toward Grange. Six of the nine votes went to the “Galloping Ghost”, while the remaining ballots were split between Baker, Iowa’s Leland Parkin, Purdue’s Ralph Claypool and Chicago’s Harry Thomas. Big Ten sportswriters’ votes leaned most heavily to Grange, then to Baker.


Since 1924, the only Illini to be similarly named Big Ten football’s MVP have included Alex Agase (1946), Bill Burrell (1959), Dick Butkus (1963), Jim Grabowski (1965), Don Thorp (1983) and Rashard Mendenhall (2007).


                            Pierre Thomas

Pierre Thomas: By the Numbers

Dec. 18, 2024

Former Fighting Illini football star Pierre Thomas celebrates his 40th birthday today.


A native of Lynwood, Ill. and an all-stater at Thornton Fractional South High School, he never earned more than honorable All-Big Ten honors at Illinois despite finishing his career as the No. 6 all-time rusher for the Illini.


Thomas trivia, by the numbers:

1         His ranking on Illinois’ career kickoff return yardage list

2         Seasons he was Illinois’ Most Valuable Player (2004 and ’05)

9         Number of career 100-yard rushing games at Illinois

20       Number of rushing touchdowns he scored as an Illini

21       Number of TDs he’s scored for the Saints

23       His jersey number with the New Orleans Saints

30       His jersey number at Illinois

XLIV    The Super Bowl game in which he played for the Saints

88       Number of touchdowns he scored in high school

99       Longest kickoff return (vs. Western Michigan, 9/18/04)

2,545  Career rushing yardage at Illinois


                            Cory Bradford

That's a Three ... Cory Bradford

Dec. 16, 2024

Twenty-four years ago today - Dec. 16, 2000 - fifth-ranked Illinois defeated seventh-ranked Arizona, 81-73, in a battle royale at Chicago’s United Center. Five near skirmishes between the Illini and the Wildcats resulted in 53 total fouls.


A crowd of 19,533 saw Cory Bradford break the NCAA record for consecutive games with a three-pointer. His trey late in the first half was his 74th in 74 career games, breaking Wally Lancaster’s 14-year-old record.


Bradford would go on to sink three-point field goals in 14 more games, setting a record that still stands today. A review of his “trey-mendous” streak:


*First game with a “three”: Nov. 11, 1998 vs. Wake Forest

*Last game with a “three”: Feb. 10, 2001 vs. Purdue

*Game in which his streak ended: Feb. 13, 2001 vs. Wisconsin

*When his first “three” came in overtime: Dec. 9, 2000 vs. Seton Hall

*Game in which the NCAA record was tied: Dec. 9, 2000 vs. Seton Hall

*Game in which the NCAA record was broken: Dec. 16, 2000 vs. Arizona


                           Dike Eddleman

Dike Eddleman & The National High School Hall of Fame

Dec. 13, 2024

Forty-one years ago today—Dec. 13, 1983—Fighting Illini legend Dwight “Dike” Eddleman was inducted into the National High School Hall of Fame.


Included among the second-ever class initiated into the Indianapolis-based organization, Eddleman was one of the first six prep athletes received. The Centralia, Ill. native joined an elite group that included Oscar Robertson of Indiana, Jesse Owens of Ohio, Bill Bradley of Missouri, Jim Ryan of Kansas and Ken Hall of Texas.


Eddleman’s high school coach, Arthur Trout, was one of 13 coaches, officials and administrators in the charter class of 1982.


Dike lettered in football, basketball and track and field from 1939-42. He was a three-time Illinois high school state high jump champion, while his 2,702 points in basketball led Centralia High to three state tournament berths and to the 1942 Illinois state title.


At the University of Illinois, Eddleman helped the Illini win the 1947 Rose Bowl, captained a Final Four hoops squad in 1949, and earned a medal at the 1948 Summer Olympic Games in London.


December 27 will mark the 102nd anniversary of Dike's birth. He died in 2001.

                           Don Freeman

Don Freeman

Dec. 11, 2024

Fifty-nine years ago today - Dec. 11, 1965 - Illinois’ Don Freeman scored 35 points as the Fighting Illini topped previously undefeated West Virginia, 96-86. Among his points were 15 free throws in 16 attempts.


Freeman, a native of Madison, Illinois, wound up his three-year Illini basketball career with a school record 1,449 points, including a single-season record 668 points in 24 games his senior year (1965-66). That mark stood until 2024 when Terrence Shannon Jr. scored 736 points in 32 games.


In 72 collegiate games, Freeman averaged 20.1 points per game.


The 6-3 guard played pro ball for eight different teams from 1968-76 and scored more than 12,000 points.


Freeman was inducted into the Illini Athletics Hall of Fame in 2019.


                           Dick Butkus

Illinois' Butkus Family

Dec. 9, 2024

Today would have been the 82nd birthday of former Fighting Illini football star Dick Butkus. Since Dick last wore Illinois’ orange and blue from 1962-64, two of his nephews have starred for the Illini gridders. Mark lettered four times from 1980-83 as a defensive tackle and his cousin, Luke, earned four varsity monograms as an offensive center, from 1998-2001. Charting the Butkus family: 


•Butkus jersey numbers: Luke, #71; Mark, #53; Dick, #50

•The tallest Butkus: Mark and Luke, 6’4” (Dick, 6’3”)

•The heaviest Butkus: Luke, 287 pounds (Mark, 260 pounds; Dick, 234 pounds)

•The best overall record: Mark, 27-18-1, .598 (Dick, 16-11-1, .589; Luke, 26-20-0, .565)

•The best Big Ten record: Mark, 24-11-0, .686 (Dick, 11-9-1, .548; Luke, 15-17-0, .469)

•The best home-field record: Mark, 15-6-0, .714 (Dick, 8-5-0, .615; Luke, 15-9-0, .625)

•Most tackles: Dick, 374 (Mark, 207; Luke, never played defense)

•Most All-Big Ten selections: Dick, 1963 and 1964 (Mark, 1983; Luke, 2001)


                           Bill Richart

Bill Richart

Dec. 6, 2024

Born on this date 106 years ago today—Dec. 6, 1918—was Frank “Bill” Richart. He was the University of Illinois’ Big Ten Conference Medal of Honor winner in 1940.


Richart, an athlete at Urbana High School, helped lead the Fighting Illini golf team to the league title in 1940. He also lettered for Illinois in 1939 and1946.


Richart served active duty at the Naval Aircraft Factory in Philadelphia for three and a half years during World War II, then returned to school at Illinois.


Richart, whose father was a professor at the U of I, earned B.S., M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in engineering, then taught for three years at Harvard University. While in Cambridge, he worked on developing a series of early warning radar stations that were eventually used to detect incoming Soviet bombers during the Cold War.


In 1952, Richart left Harvard for the University of Florida to teach the first college course fully devoted to soil dynamics. After 10 years at Florida, he was hired at the University of Michigan where he taught and did research for the remaining 24 years of his career. He received many awards from the American Society of Civil Engineering, including the highest award in his specialty field, the Terzaghi Award.


As a post-collegiate golfer, he was both the Ann Arbor City Champion and State of Michigan Senior Champion. Richart died at age 75 in 1994.


                           1964 Illini vs. Bruins Box Score

1964 Illinois-UCLA Game

Dec. 4, 2024

Sixty years ago today—Dec. 4, 1964—the Fighting Illini hit a single-game percentage record of its shots and broke defending NCAA champion UCLA’s 30-game winning streak, defeating Coach John Wooden’s Bruins by a score of 110 to 83 at the Assembly Hall.


Though UCLA guard Gail Goodrich took game honors with 25 points on eight field goals and nine of 10 free throws, Illinois’ beautifully balanced attack from six individuals in double figures was the story of the day. Hitting long shots over UCLA’s deep-sag defense, Coach Harry Combes’ team cashed in on 46 of its 79 shots for a school record efficiency of 58.2 percent. UI’s previous varsity mark was 56.3 percent against Butler in 1958.


Illini center Duane “Skip” Thoren tallied 20 points to pace the home team to its Friday night massacre in Champaign. He was closely followed in the scoring ledger by Bill McKeown’s 19 points, then 17 apiece from Don Freeman and Bogie Redmon, 16 from Tal Brody, and 10 from Larry Hinton.


The Illini would go on to finish the 1964-65 season with an 18-6 record and a 10-4 mark in Big Ten Conference play.


Wooden’s Bruins seemed to miss the steady direction of graduated All-America guard Walt Hazzard that evening against Illinois, but rebounded successfully the following day to beat host Indiana State, 112-76. then rattled off 12 more wins in a row before a Jan. 29 loss against Iowa on a neutral court. After that second loss, UCLA won its last 15 straight, including a 91-80 victory over Cazzie Russell’s Michigan team in the NCAA championship game.


UCLA would “slump” to a disappointing 18-8 record in 1965-66, but amazingly went on to be crowned back-to-back-to-back-to-back-to-back-to-back NCAA champs in 1966-67 (30-0), ‘67-68 (29-1), ‘68-69 (29-1), ’69-70 (28-2), ’70-71 (29-1), ’71-72 (30-0) and ’72-73 (30-0).




                           Ron Dunlap

Ron Dunlap

Dec. 2, 2024

Though he never realized his basketball potential with the Fighting Illini, Ron Dunlap wisely used his education to learn a lesson from what is considered to be one of the darkest periods in University of Illinois history.


The 6-foot-8-inch junior center from Chicago’s Farragut High School appeared to be blossoming into an outstanding player in December of 1967. After five games, Coach Harry Combes’ Illini had compiled a 4-1 record, including a 98-97 overtime victory over powerful Kentucky in Lexington. Dunlap was averaging 15 points and 12 rebounds per game, but his dream season almost instantly turned into a nightmare.


What would infamously become known as the "slush fund scandal” exposed that seven Illini athletes, including Dunlap, had been provided with small monthly stipends to assist them in school. At the time, the just-turned-21-year-old Dunlap was married and was the father of a daughter at the time.


Dunlap later told The News-Gazette’s Loren Tate that "It hadn't really occurred to me that I was doing anything wrong. When you're young, you respect your elders."


Ultimately, a trio of Illini coaches—Combes, assistant basketball coach Howie Braun and head football coach Pete Elliott—resigned under pressure, and the athletes lost their remaining eligibility to play in the Big Ten.


Several college coaches called upon Dunlap, but he decided to instead continue his scholarship and ready himself for his future. He graduated in 1968 from the U of I with a teaching degree. Dunlap was drafted by the Chicago Bulls in the second round of the 1968 NBA Draft. He also played briefly for the Phoenix Suns and the New York Nets, the later in the ABA with the Rockford Royals and with Israel in the European Leagues.


Following his brief basketball career, Dunlap spent several years teaching in his native Chicago. To supplement his family’s income, he began a long career as an umpire in Chicago’s famed 16-inch softball leagues, eventually being inducted into that association’s Hall of Fame. Dunlap became principal of Lincoln Elementary School in Appleton, Wisconsin in 1990. In 2011, he left his principal’s position and became minority services coordinator for the Appleton Area School District.


Born on this date in 1946, Dunlap died in 2019 at the age of 73.


                           Dick Butkus

Dick Butkus and the 1963 All-America Team

Nov. 25, 2024

Sixty-one years ago today - Nov. 25, 1963 - Fighting Illini linebacker Dick Butkus was named to the American Football Coaches Association’s All-America Football Team. No. 50’s 145 tackles that season stood as the school’s single-season record until 1976. Later in the ’63 season, the junior from Chicago was awarded the Silver Football Award as the Big Ten’s Most Valuable player. Others joining Butkus as first-team All-Americans in 1963 included:


End     Vern Burke, Oregon State

End     Lawrence Elkins, Baylor

Tackle Scott Appleton, Texas

Tackle Carl Eller, Minnesota

Guard Bob Brown, Nebraska

Guard Rick Redman, Washington

CENTER       DICK BUTKUS, ILLINOIS

Back   Roger Staubach, Navy

Back   Gayle Sayers, Kansas

Back   Sherman Lewis, Michigan State

Back   Jim Grisham, Oklahoma


                           Harry Combes

Harry Combes

Nov. 13, 2024

Forty-seven years ago today - Nov. 13, 1977 - former Fighting Illini basketball coach Harry Combes died at the age of 62.


The Monticello, Illinois native played guard and forward on the University of Illinois teams of 1935, ’36 and ’37, twice leading the Illini to Big Ten Conference titles. An All-Big Ten selection his junior and senior seasons, Combes also won the Conference Medal of Honor for proficiency in athletics and scholarship his final year.


Two years after his graduation, he began a highly successful nine-year prep coaching career at Champaign High School.


Combes succeeded Doug Mills as Illinois’ basketball coach in 1947 and led the Illini to Conference titles in three of his first five seasons. In 1949, ’51 and ’52, UI basketball clubs finished third at the NCAA tournament each year. Combes’s 20-year coaching record at Illinois was 316 wins and 150 losses, a mark that stood as the Illini record until it was broken by Lou Henson.


                           Memorial Stadium's colonnade

Veterans Day and the U of I

Nov. 11, 2024

Observed annually on November 11, Veterans Day (known as Armistice Day until 1954) was initiated by President Woodrow Wilson in 1919, exactly one year after World War I ended at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month.


Military training has been part of the University of Illinois curriculum for its entire history. Prior to UI instituting its Reserve Officers Training Corps (ROTC) program in 1917, the 1862 Morrill Act obligated land-grant universities to instruct its male students in military tactics.


UI students have faithfully answered the call into the nation’s armed forces. More than 9,000 Illini served in World War I and more than 20,000 entered service in World War II.


Altogether, 1,121 UI students have died in service, including 184 during World War I, 844 during World War II, 22 during the Korean War, 64 during the war in Viet Nam, and seven in other world hostilities.


Hundreds of Illinois’s student-athletes have been in uniform and at least five letter winners have been killed. The list of honored Illini athletes includes:


EDWARD WALLACE: Wallace lettered in baseball in 1911 for Coach George Huff and graduated in 1913. He rose to the rank of First Lieutenant in the Army and served with the 146th Field Artillery Regiment, 41st Division. Wallace died on Sept. 13, 1918, at the age of 28, just two months before the end of World War I. He is buried at Suresnes American Cemetery in France, Plot B, Row 16, Grave 6. His name is on one of the columns at Memorial Stadium.


HOMER WAHLSTON DAHRINGER: A native of Waukegan, Dahringer lettered in basketball in 1912 and ’13, and served in World War I. After taking artillery instruction at Samur, France, Lt. Dahringer was assigned to the First Aero Squadron. While on an observation mission, he died at the age of 28 on Sept. 17, 1918, just four days after Wallace’s death. His name is etched on one of the columns at Memorial Stadium and he is buried at Pineview Memorial Park in Lake County, Illinois.


ROBERT FERN RICHMOND, JR.: A letter winner in 1939 and ’41 for Coach Doug Mills’ Illini basketball team, Richmond was an African invasion veteran for the U.S. Navy, rising to the rank of Lieutenant. On May 16, 1944, he died at the age of 24 in a Navy plane crash in Virginia. Richmond is buried at the Lakeview Cemetery in Johnston City, Ill.


ANTHONY JAMES BUTKOVICH: A star running back for Coach Ray Eliot in 1941 and ’42, he was transferred for military training to Purdue University. In 1943, he led the Boilermakers and the nation in rushing in with 833 yards, scoring a record 16 touchdowns. Butkovich was a first-round selection in the 1944 National Football League Draft, but instead enlisted in the U.S. Marines. As a Corporal with the 6th Marine Division, 29th Regiment, he was killed in action on Apr. 18, 1945 at Okinawa. He is buried at St. Mary’s Cemetery in Canton, Ill.


JOHN BRUCE CAPEL: A three-time letter winner in the 1960s, Capel played on Illinois’s 1963 Big Ten and 1964 Rose Bowl championship team. He enlisted with the Marine Corps at age 23 and was sent to Vietnam in 1966. That year, on May 12, Lt. Capel died in combat when he was leading a 14-man patrol which was ambushed southwest of Da Nang by a large force of Viet Cong. Each year since 1967, the Illini football team recognizes their most courageous player with the Bruce Capel Award. He’s honored on Panel 7E, Line 51, of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, DC. The Glen Ellyn native is buried at his hometown’s Forest Hill Cemetery.


                           Luther Head

Luther Head

Nov. 8, 2024

Twenty-four years ago today - Nov. 8, 2000 - the University of Illinois signed Luther Head to a national letter of intent to play basketball.


As a Fighting Illini freshman for Coach Bill Self, he averaged 4.5 points and 1.9 rebounds while ranking second on the team in steals with 34.


Despite missing seven games due to a pelvic injury during his sophomore season, Head averaged 7.9 points and 2.8 rebounds, then boosted those numbers to 11.0 points and 3.8 rebounds as a junior.


During his fabulous senior campaign in 2004-05, Head was named First-Team All-Big Ten by the media and the league coaches, leading the Illini with an average of nearly 16 points per game. He set an Illinois single-season record with 116 three-point field goals made, including six treys in the NCAA semifinal game against Louisville. Head earned Consensus Second-Team All-America honors and made the NCAA Chicago Regional Team, as well as the Final Four All-Tournament Team.


He finished his collegiate career at Illinois as the school’s 19th all-time leading scorer with 1,295 points, ranked fourth in three-point field goals made (209) and ninth in steals (158). Head left Illinois as the school record holder for career NCAA Tournament games played (14) and points scored (162).


Drafted by Houston in the first round (24th overall) of the 2005 NBA Draft, he played with the Rockets for four seasons, averaging 9.9 points and 2.6 assists in 255 games. Head split the 2008-09 season between Houston and the Miami Heat, then played 47 games for the Indiana Pacers in 2009-10. He completed his NBA career with the Sacramento Kings in 2010-11.


                           Dee Brown

Dee Brown's 2004-05 Season

Nov. 6, 2024

Illinois basketball’s Dee Brown appeared in all 39 games during the 2004-05 season, leading the Fighting Illini men to an historic 37-2 record.



He was overwhelmingly productive in a great majority of the games, earning him consensus first-team All-America honors. While onlookers can only subjectively identify Brown’s best overall games, Illini Legends, Lists & Lore attempts to quantify his top performances of 2004-05, based on the following points system:


INDIVIDUAL PERFORMANCE POINTS

Two-point field goals = +2 points each (-2 points for each miss)

Three-point field goals = +3 points each (-3 points for each miss)

Free throws made = +1 point each (-1 for each miss)

Assists = +2.5 points each

Steals/Rebounds/Blocks = +1 point each

Turnovers = -2.5 points each


TEAM PERFORMANCE POINTS

Victory over ranked team = +10 points (-5 points for loss to ranked team)

Victory over unranked team = +5 points (-10 points for loss to unranked team)

Victory at home = +1 point (-3 points for loss at home)

Victory on neutral court = +2 points (-2 points for loss on neutral court)

Victory on road = +3 points (-1 point for loss on road)


Opp. (Date)                    Score            IndiPts+TeamPts =TotalPts

At Penn State (2/16/05) – UI 83, PSU 63 ….. 38+8= 46 total performance points

Vs. Gonzaga (11/27/04) – UI 89, GU 72 ….. 32+12= 44 total pts

Wake Forest (12/1/04) – UI 91, WF 73 ….. 25.5+11= 36.5 total pts

Chicago State (12/6/04) – UI 78, CSU 59 … 30+6= 36 total pts

Valparaiso (12/19/04) – UI 93, VU 56 ….. 27.5+6= 33.5 total pts

Longwood (12/27/04) – UI 105, LU 79 ….. 27.5+6= 33.5 total pts

Vs. Oregon (12/11/04) – UI 83, UO 66 ….. 23+6= 29 total pts

Northwestern (2/23/05) – UI 84, NU 48 ….. 21+6= 27 total pts

Ohio State (1/5/05) – UI 84, OSU 65 ….. 20+6= 26 total pts

Purdue (3/3/05) – UI 84, PU 50 ….. 19+6= 26 total pts


                           1916 Fighting Illini Football Team

Illini Defeat Minnesota's "Perfect Team"

Nov. 4, 2024

One-hundred-eight years ago today - Nov. 4, 1916 - the University of Illinois football team registered perhaps the biggest upset in school history. Coach Bob Zuppke’s squad was the defending Big Ten champ, but had lost most of its greatest stars to graduation, including Ralph Chapman, Harold Pogue and Potsy Clark. UI entered the game at Minneapolis with a modest record of 2-2 while the powerful Gopher squad had an unblemished mark of 4-0, having rolled over its competition by a points margin of 236 to 14. The Illini, who played the entire game with the same 11 men, jumped out on top of Minnesota, 14-0, then withstood a furious Gopher comeback. Illinois captain Bart Macomber admitted years later that he had purposely used stall tactics in the closing minutes, untying his shoes, breaking the string on his shoulder pads, losing his head gear, and miscalling signals in order to kill time. Other than its 14-9 loss that day to Illinois, Minnesota outscored its other six opponents 337-14.


Other unlikely Illini victories:

Nov. 18, 1950:           Illinois 14, No. 1 Ohio State 7

(OSU outscored its other eight opponents, 279-97)

Nov. 5, 1955:             Illinois 25, No. 1 Michigan 6

           (UM outscored its other eight opponents, 173-69)

Oct. 27, 1956:            Illinois 20, No. 1 Michigan State 13

           (MSU outscored its other eight opponents, 226-67)

Oct. 1, 1983:              Illinois 33, No. 4 Iowa 0

           (Iowa outscored its other 11 opponents, 362-156)

Oct. 23, 1993:            Illinois 24, No. 13 Michigan 21

           (UM outscored its other 11 opponents, 321-136)

                           President Andrew Draper

President Andrew Draper

Nov. 1, 2024

Andrew Sloan Draper served as the University of Illinois president during the some of the most formative years of the Fighting Illini athletics program.


UI’s Board of Trustees unanimously hired the 46-year-old on Apr. 13, 1894 to replace Acting Regent Thomas Burrill. Draper had served as Superintendent of Public Instruction in Cleveland and had established a distinguished career in both law and education. A house was built for him at the northeast corner of Wright and Green streets.


During the 10-year Draper administration, the university added a library building (currently known at Altgeld Hall), agriculture, engineering and chemistry buildings, and a Women’s Building (now called Bevier Hall). Colleges in medicine, dentistry, commerce and law were established while Draper served as president, while improvements included an automated university telephone system, the installation of a centralized power plant, addition of electricity in campus buildings, and the launching of UI’s student-operated newspaper, The Illini.


Intercollegiate athletics made huge strides during President Draper’s decade of service. A major highlight included Illinois’s charter membership in the Intercollegiate Conference of Faculty Representatives (eventually known as the Big Ten) in 1896.


On Nov. 1, 1894—130 years ago today—President Draper asked the student body to officially accept orange and navy blue as the university’s colors.


Draper resigned from his post in 1904 to become the State of New York’s Commissioner of Education. He died nine years later at the age of 64.


University of Illinois Presidents


1867-1880 – John M. Gregory

1880-1891 – Selim H. Peabody

1891-1894 – Thomas J. Burrill

1894-1904 – Andrew S. Draper

1904-1920 – Edmund J. James

1920-1930 – David Kinley

1930-1933 – Harry W. Chase

1933-1934 – Arthur H. Daniels

1934-1946 – Arthur C. Willard

1946-1953 – George D. Stoddard

1953-1955 – Lloyd Morey

1955-1971 – David D. Henry

1971-1979 – John E. Corbally, Jr.

1979-1995 – Stanley O. Ikenberry

1995-2005 – James J. Stukel

2005-2009 – Bernard J. White

2010            - Stanley O. Ikenberry (interim)

2010-2012 – Michael J. Hogan

2012-2015 – Robert A. Easter

2015-Present – Timothy L. Killeen



                           Chief Illiniwek, as portrayed by Lester Leutwiler

Chief Illiniwek's First Performance

Oct. 30, 2024

Ninety-eight years ago today—Oct. 30, 1926—Chief Illiniwek made his first appearance at a Fighting Illini athletic event.


Lester Leutwiler, son of University of Illinois professor O.A. Leutwiler, was the individual who performed the role. UI assistant marching band director Ray Dvorak is credited with starting the tradition.


In his recollection of that first performances, Leutwiler wrote, “As the band marched into the formation (spelling out the word “Penn”), the Chief ran from a hiding place north of the Illinois stands and led the band with his frenzied dance. The band stopped in the center of the field and played ‘Hail Pennsylvania’ while the Chief saluted the Penn rooters. William Penn, impersonated by George Adams (the Illinois drum major), came forward and accepted the gesture of friendship. Together, we smoked the peace pipe and walked arm in arm across the field to the Illinois side, amidst a deafening ovation.”


Leutwiler’s performance was so well received that he was asked to continue his performances at Fighting Illini football games, and he did so through the 1928 season.


                              Phil Knell

Phil Knell

Oct. 28, 2024

Fifty-eight years ago this week—Oct. 29, 1966—Fighting Illini defensive back Phil Knell set a school record by intercepting three passes from Purdue quarterback Bob Griese. The former Mahomet-Seymour star wound up with a total of seven picks that season, earning second-team All-Big Ten honors.


Combined with the three interceptions he had as a junior in 1965, Knell’s 10 career defensive snags tied him for fourth place on UI’s all-time list with Ron Bess, trailing Al Brosky’s 30 from 1950-52, George Donnelly’s 13 from 1962-64, and Red Grange’s 11 from 1923-25.


Inducted into the Mahomet-Seymour Hall of Fame in 2017, Knell excelled in athletics and academics. In four years as a football starter for Coach Leo Vitali, Bulldog teams were a perfect 32-0. He was a four-year letter winner on the basketball court, scoring a school-record 1,499 points and playing on teams that won three Sangamon Valley Conference titles. On the track, Knell set school records in five different events. He also was his class’s co-valedictorian in 1963.


He’s had a very successful career after graduating from Illinois in 1968, serving as Vice President of Sales and Marketing for Wilson Sporting Goods from 1973-83. Knell then served as a V.P. at ARA Services and Ameritech Cellular. He was President and CEO of Darome Teleconferencing, selling the business to MCI in ’95 for $45 million. He continued working for MCI as President and General Manager of Conferencing from 1995-2006.


Knell served on the Executive Advisory Board of Gryphon Investors in the San Francisco Bay Area from 2003-17. He’s been President of PDK Investments and Consulting in Irvine, Calif. since 2006.


                              Jim McMillen

Jim McMillen

Oct. 23, 2024

One-hundred-twenty-two years ago today - Oct. 23, 1902 - former University of Illinois football star Jim McMillen was born.


Before Red Grange joined the Illini varsity squad in 1923, McMillen was the team's star, earning All-America honors the season before. The burly all-star guard from Grayslake attended Libertyville High School prior to enrolling at the Urbana-Champaign campus.


During his senior season at Illinois in '23, McMillen created the holes through which Grange ran to fame. Both of the Illini standouts earned consensus All-America honors for Coach Bob Zuppke's 8-0 national champions.


McMillen also earned two letters in wrestling, graduating from Illinois with a degree in engineering. He played pro football from 1924 through 1928 with George Halas and the Chicago Bears, who were world champions in McMillen's rookie season. In 1931, Halas named his standout lineman vice president of the Bears organization. McMillen was a famous professional wrestler from 1924 through 1950 and could have continued with football, but found that wrestling was more lucrative. One of his most famous matches occurred in 1936 when he defeated wrestling legend "Strangler" Lewis.


McMillen served for the U.S. Navy in World War II as a lieutenant commander. He was an active citizen in Antioch, Ill., serving as chief engineer for the Lake County Forest Preserve and holding posts at the high school, on the city's fire department, and later as mayor for six years.


McMillen died in January of 1984 at the age of 81.


                              The week before the big game

Frank Williams

Oct. 21, 2024

Twenty-seven years ago today, Peoria Manual High School's Frank Williams committed to play basketball for the University of Illinois. He joined former teammates Sergio McClain and Marcus Griffin, then helped lead the Fighting Illini to three sensational seasons from 1999-2000 through 2001-02. The basketball career of Frank Williams, by the numbers:


2 - Number of times Williams was named Illini MVP

4 - Ended his UI career in fourth place with 212 steals

5 - Illinois' fifth player to win the Big Ten's Silver Basketball Trophy

11 - With 1,440 total points, he finished in 11th place on UI's career scoring list

14.3 - His points-per-game average at Illinois

20 - One of 20 players named to Illinois' All-Century Team

25 - Williams was the No. 25 pick in the 2002 NBA Draft

30 - His jersey number at Illinois

75 - UI's total team victories during Frank's three seasons

432 - Total number of assists Williams had for the Illini



                              The week before the big game

Flashback to 1924 - The week before the big game

Oct. 18, 2024

In 1924, the cities of Champaign and Urbana were approaching the 70th anniversary of their founding.

 

Illinois Power and Light and Westinghouse were lighting up the homes and businesses of the community. Folks kept their savings accounts at the Busey State Bank and the Citizens State Bank. They shopped at Gelvin’s Clothes Shop, Bresee Brothers, Joseph Kuhn, Spalding Drug Store, Bailey & Himes and Kirmse Jewelry. And local citizens were getting a Coca Cola at The Arcade, buying their favorite candies at Mosi-Over on Green Street, and getting their clothes laundered at White Line at 406 Main.

 

But the pride of the community was a gigantic new structure that stood in the southern part of town between First and Fourth Streets. Just 14 months earlier, in September of 1922, ground was broken for Memorial Stadium, the new home of the University of Illinois’ football team.

 

During the week preceding the stadium’s October 18th dedication game against the Michigan Wolverines, city and campus administrators were scrambling to welcome an estimated 50,000 visitors from distant cities. Fortunately, “hard roads” (i.e. concrete) were increasingly prevalent, yet travel remained problematical for the travelers who were fortunate to own Ford Model T’s, Chrysler’s Touring Car or a Buick McLaughlin.

 

Thousands of fans who came to the big game from Chicago used the railway systems. Fortunately, just weeks earlier in August of ‘24, the $7 million Illinois Central Depot opened on University Avenue, allowing significantly more convenient travel. Twenty-two trains, mostly from Chicago, each brought more than a thousand fans. Cinder platforms were constructed on the IC railway at Hessel Boulevard and other locations, where passengers would then make the half-mile walk to the stadium.

 

Where visitors would stay once they arrived in the Twin Cities proved to be extremely challenging. The approximately 600 rooms at Champaign’s Inman Hotel and the brand-new Urbana-Lincoln Hotel had all been reserved by March, so inns in Danville, Decatur and Springfield were all asked to cooperate for Champaign-Urbana’s big weekend. UI fraternity and sorority houses graciously opened their doors to those who were unable to find rooms and installed lines of cots. Approximately 500 local homeowners even provided overnight lodging. Others who were unable to secure a room spent the night in hotel lobbies or slept in their automobiles.

 

Author Tom Kacich, in his book Hot Type: 150 Years of the Best Local Stories from the News-Gazette, wrote: “There was so much traffic in town Friday night that it took 30 minutes to move a mile on Green Street. The motley caravan of flivvers of every conceivable vintage of flivverdom honked and roared and snorted their way in and out of the Homecoming crowds.”

 

Thirty-two Chicago police officers were imported by the city of Champaign to help with traffic control.

 

A week before the game, due to the erection of temporary north bleachers, the stadium’s seating capacity was increased to 67,000 and those extra tickets were quickly gobbled up.

 

At the stadium, behind locked doors, more than 20 workmen busily wielded brooms and scrubbing brushes, cleaning the pathways the led to the 18 miles of seats.

 

On Friday, the day before the big game, there were numerous events, including a 2 o’clock parade to the stadium that originated at the intersection of Wright and Daniel Streets. Three o’clock dedication exercises, led by Robert Carr, chairman of the stadium executive committee, featured flowery addresses from President David Kinley and Athletics Director George Huff. Colonel William Merry, commandant of the U of I’s ROTC, read the names of the men who gave their lives in World War I and to whom the columns were dedicated.

 

For those who were unable to secure a ticket to Saturday’s game, Chicago’s WGN Radio made arrangements for a first-ever broadcast from the stadium. Hundreds of others planned to stand in front of the News-Gazette office for a play-by-play account.

 

The first call through the megaphone that Red Grange had run 95 yards for a touchdown drew wild applause from the crowd that had gathered.


                              Jim Grabowski

Jim Grabowski's Greatest Games

Oct. 16, 2024

Fifty-nine years ago today - Oct. 16, 1965 - Jim Grabowski banged out 186 yards and two touchdowns on 30 carries to pass Red Grange’s career rushing record at Illinois. The host Fighting Illini beat Indiana by a score of 34-13. Overall, this was “Grabo’s” fourth-best game in terms of rushing yardage at Illinois. Number 31’s top 12 collegiate rushing performances:


239 yards       Vs. Wisconsin, 11/14/64

196 yards       At Wisconsin, 11/13/65

187 yards       At Northwestern, 11/20/65

186 yards       Vs. Indiana, 10/16/65

185 yards       Vs. Michigan State, 11/21/64

171 yards       Vs. UCLA, 10/24/64

163 yards       Vs. Purdue, 10/30/65

127 yards       Vs. Southern Methodist, 9/25/65

125 yards       Vs. Washington, 1/1/64 (Rose Bowl)

125 yards       At Michigan State, 10/2/65

110 yards       At California, 9/26/64

104 yards       At UCLA, 10/25/63


                              Tony Parrilli

Tony Parrilli

Oct. 14, 2024

On this date 63 years ago—October 14, 1961—Illini senior linebacker Tony Parrilli recorded 22 tackles, but he and his team fell by a score of 44-0 to host Ohio State in both team’s Big Ten season opener at Columbus. The Buckeyes went on to an 8-0-1 record and finished second in the national rankings.


Parrilli, a 5-11, 217-pound graduate of Proviso East High School, performed so spectacularly in his final collegiate season that his teammates selected him as the team’s Most Valuable Player. United Press International additionally selected him to its 1961 first-team All-Big Ten squad and as an honorable mention member of its All-America unit. He later played in the East-West Shrine Game and in the Hula Bowl. Altogether, Parrilli lettered for the Illini in 1959, ’60 and ’61.


Parrilli was selected by the San Francisco 49ers in the eleventh round of the 1961 National Football League Draft. He was released by the 49ers prior to the beginning of the 1962 season, then was signed by the Chicago Bears as a free agent. In 1963, Parrilli signed with the Washington Redskins, but released before the season due to a shoulder injury.


On New Year’s Eve, 1963, Parrilli attended a party at a bowling alley owned by former Bears teammate Mike Ditka. According to a Chicago Tribune article, Parrilli was accidentally but fatally shot by a police officer who was attempting to break up a restroom scuffle in which Parrilli and two others were involved. The officer later was placed on two years probation after being charged with reckless conduct.


                              1947 Illinois-Army game

1947 Illinois-Army game

Oct. 11, 2024

Playing on a Yankee Stadium field that just five days before had hosted Game 7 of the World Series and facing a team that hadn’t lost a game in nearly four years, Coach Ray Eliot’s sixth-ranked Fighting Illini football team were in in New York City 77 years ago today—Oct. 11, 1947—battling No. 5 Army.


Coach Red Blaik’s Cadets, the reigning three-time national champs, were in the midst of an unbeaten streak that dated all the way back to their 1943 season finale when they lost to Navy.


During that span of 1,413 days, Army had amassed a nearly perfect record of 29-0-1. The tie had also been at Yankee Stadium, a 0-0 draw against Notre Dame.


The Illini were a formidable team at that time, riding an eight-game winning streak that had included a 45-14 victory over UCLA in the 1946 Rose Bowl.


Illinois had a chance to break the defensive struggle with just 10 seconds left in the first half, having driven 51 yards from its own 27 to the Army 22 in 14 plays. The key efforts during the advance were a nine-yard run by Dike Eddleman and an 18-yard scramble by Ruck Steger that took the ball from the Army 24 to the six-yard line. However, the Cadet defense stiffened, forcing Eliot to send in Don Maechtle to try a field goal. Unfortunately, Lou Levanti’s pass from center to holder Tommy Gallagher wasn’t on target. Maechtle was able to get the kick in the air, but it was low and to the left of the uprights. It would turn out to be the Illini’s best chance to score all day.


Army’s foremost opportunity to score came when it returned an Eddleman punt 18 yards to the Illinois 24-yard line. However, UI’s defensive line of Wrenn, Al Mastrangeli and Levanti stiffened and the Illini were able to recapture the ball on downs.


A bad break nullified one final Illini attempt to score late in the game when Eddleman evaded four tacklers to return a punt 39 yards to the Army 16. But officials called clipping on the play and the ball was brought back to mid field.


When the final gun sounded, the scoreboard showed a 0-0 draw. It extended Army’s unbeaten streak to 31 games, though the Cadets would finally lose two weeks later at Columbia, 21-20. The Illini split their last six games of 1947 and ended with a 5-3-1 record.



                              A ticket to the 1937 Illinois-Notre Dame game

1937 Illinois-Notre Dame game

Oct. 9, 2024

On this date in 1937, with Germany’s Nazi troops just weeks away from launching a takeover of Austria overseas and only a day before the New York Yankees would complete its five-game World Series conquest of the cross-town Giants, Illinois and Notre Dame met on the football field for the first time since 1898.


A section of 1,200 student soldiers were among the 45,000 spectators that came to see the battle at Memorial Stadium that would end in a 0-0 tie.


On the gridiron that day, Coach Elmer Layden’s heavily favored and Top Ten ranked Fighting Irish were stymied by Bob Zuppke’s defensive unit. Notre Dame was held to just 170 total offensive yards and 10 first downs by Illinois, as Illini left end Joe Klemp repeatedly crashed past Notre Dame blockers. Klemp was ably supported by the defensive efforts of teammates Howard Carson, Jim McDonald, John Berner and Captain Lowell Spurgeon, allowing Irish passers to complete only four of 17 pass attempts.


Illinois’ offense was even less effective than Notre Dame, managing only 89 total yards of production.


Both teams punted 12 times and neither team’s placekicker was able to convert a field goal. Illini sophomore Mel Brewer was 0-for-2 on his tries, missing from 21 and 34 yards.


Its scoreless tie 87 years ago today against the Illini marks the only time in the now 12-game series history between the two schools that Notre Dame didn’t win.


                              Bob Wright and family

Coach Bob Wright

Oct. 7, 2024

Robert “Bob” Wright, patriarch of the University of Illinois’ Wright family, was born on this date 110 years ago.


The native of Roodhouse, Illinois was a football letter winner for Coach Bob Zuppke’s Fighting Illini in 1935. He also was a track and field standout for Coach Don Seaton’s 1936 Illini squad.


Perhaps his greatest individual athletic success came as head coach of Illinois’ track and field team from 1965-74. His 1972 squad finished second at both the Big Ten indoor and outdoor meets, tying for seventh at the NCAA Championships.


Among his greatest athletes were Rich Brooks, Mike Durkin, Charlton Ehizuelen, Ed Halik, Lee LaBadie, Rob Mango, Craig Virgin, and his own son, John Wright.


Bob’s grandson, John, also excelled as an Illini athlete, starring as a receiver on the football team. His great great grandson, John Paddock, was a single-game record-setting quarterback for Illinois in 2023.


His wife, Mary, was one of Champaign-Urbana’s most beloved citizens. Bob died on Nov. 4, 1996, at the age of 82.


                              Colleen War Barone

Colleen Ward Barone

Oct. 4, 2024

Celebrating her birthday today is former Fighting Illini volleyball superstar Colleen Ward Barone. An All-American in each of her two seasons—first-team in 2011 and second-team in 2010—her efforts helped lead Illinois to the national championship match during her senior campaign.


Her name is sprinkled throughout Illini volleyball’s record book and tops the list for single-match aces (9 vs. BYU in 2010).


Now married, she is a vice president at Northern Trust in Miami, Fla.


The product of Naperville North High School and transfer from the University of Florida recalled several moments during her career and remembered many of the athletes with whom she played:


•On Illinois ending Penn State’s 65-match Big Ten winning streak in 2010: “We didn’t let that intimidate us. It really fed into our competitive nature.”


•On UI’s three-hour, five-set victory at PSU in 2011: “We started our season off really strong (16th consecutive win in a 20-0 start). We were ranked No. 1, but it didn’t feel like we were No. 1 at that point because we knew we had the potential to be so much better. We knew that we had to keep improving.”


•On facing her former teammates, the Florida Gators, in the 2011 NCAA regional finals in Gainesville: “Knowing that I wanted to transfer to Illinois, I had the same exact feeling when we were watching the (NCAA Tournament) selection show. I just knew that we were going to end up playing Florida. Once it all came to reality, it was pretty cool to see. I really don’t remember the games very well, other than just the feeling of playing. It pretty much just went into my own little world and focused on playing the games, point to point.”


•On Illinois’ legendary match vs. Southern California in the 2011 NCAA semifinals: “The coaches did a great job of preparing us for the Final Four. An early loss in one of the games wasn’t going to scare us. USC came out to play and we were the same way. Every point really mattered. The final point is something we’ll all remember forever. Very long. Very competitive. A lot of amazing saves on both sides. That spirit reflected our team a lot from that season.”


•On UI’s loss in the championship match against UCLA: “Honestly, I can say going into the final that we did get a little overwhelmed. We just got a little bit out of our game and made more mistakes than we normally would, and we weren’t as aggressive as we should have been.”


                              Illini Baseball's Beginnings

The Beginning of Illini Baseball

Oct. 2, 2024

Exactly 145 years ago today—Oct. 2, 1879—as an extension of an oratorical competition between Illinois Industrial University (University of Illinois) and Illinois College, the two institutions faced off on the baseball diamond for what history reveals was the university’s very first intercollegiate game.


Reported The Illini later that week, “The Jacksonville ball nine came to the oratorical contest and played our nine on the afternoon of October 2. The game was called at the end of the fifth inning when the score stood 5 to 12 in favor of our boys. We are sorry that you were so badly beaten, Jacksonville.”


The Illini were led by its catcher, Comma Boyd, who served as both the captain and manager of the first team. Boyd was considered by his teammates as “the Babe Ruth of his time”. After graduating, he went on to become a successful farmer and a breeder of thoroughbred Hereford cattle in Sheffield (Illinois).


Illinois’ pitcher was W.T. Andrews. The remainder of UI’s first intercollegiate squad consisted of H.A. Nelson (1B), E.L. Kelso (2B), E.H. Swasey (SS), C.R. Huntley (3B), Harry Diffenbaugh (LF), T.E. McIlduff (CF), Morton Chase (RF), and Frank White (RF).


Baseball was actually played at the U of I four years prior to that initial intercollegiate game in 1879. The Illini mentioned the game numerous times in its editions, including a report about the first contest to be played outside of the university. That occurred on Apr. 26, 1878 when “a number of boys took advantage of the excursion rates and went to Danville. A promiscuous nine was selected and a game was played against the Danville Club.” Danville scored seven runs in the bottom of the ninth inning and won by a score of 13 to 10.


In April of 1879, The Illini extended an invitation to other teams to play, writing “Our (baseball) boys are getting in trim. Let us hear from some of the neighboring colleges and we will try and give them a rub.”


                              John Mackovic

John Mackovic

Sept. 30, 2024

Toomorrow (Oct. 1) marks the 81st birthday of former Fighting Illini football coach John Mackovic. Illinois’ 19th head coach was named to that post on February 3, 1988 by athletic director Neil Stoner.


Each of the four teams Mackovic directed earned bids to Bowl games and his 1990 club shared the Big Ten title. He became the first man to earn Conference Coach of the Year honors in each of his first two seasons. Less than 11 months after he was named head coach, Mackovic also became the school’s athletic director. He resigned both positions in December of 1991 to become head coach at the University of Texas.


Mackovic’s 10 most memorable victories at Illinois:


Oct. 1, 1988: Mackovic celebrated his 45th birthday with a victory at Ohio State, Illinois’ first triumph in Columbus in 21 years.


Nov. 5, 1988: Trailing 20-9 with less than four minutes remaining, quarterback Jeff George threw dramatic TD passes to Shawn Wax and Mike Bellamy. The Illini win, 21-20.


Sept. 4, 1989: Two touchdowns in the final six minutes help Illinois beat highly ranked Southern California on Labor Day night at the Coliseum.


Oct. 7, 1989: Howard Griffith (117 yards rushing) and Jason Verduzco (126 yards passing) led Illinois past Ohio State, 34-14, in Champaign.


Jan. 1, 1990: Illinois ended season at 10-2 with a 31-21 Citrus Bowl victory vs. Virginia.


Sept. 15, 1990: The Illini handed eventual co-national champion Colorado its only loss of the season.


Sept. 22, 1990: Howard Griffith scored an NCAA-record eight touchdowns in Illinois’ 56-21 victory over Southern Illinois.


Oct. 6, 1990: Illinois beat Ohio State for the third consecutive season, 31-20, at Columbus.


Oct. 20, 1990: Doug Higgins’ record-tying five field goals, including a game-winning 48-yarder in the last minute, helped Illinois defeat MSU, 15-13.


Oct. 12, 1991: Chris Richardson kicked a 41-yard field goal with only 37 seconds left to lead Illinois past Ohio State, 10-7.


                              Avery Brundage

Avery Brundage: By the Numbers

Sept. 27, 2024

Born 137 years ago—Sept. 28, 1887—was Fighting Illini legend Avery Brundage. His greatest fame came from 1952 to 1972 when his served as president of the International Olympic Committee (IOC).


Wrote Pulitzer Prize winning author David Maraniss in his book entitled “Rome 1960: The Olympics That Changed the World”, “I found Avery Brundage to be one of the most contradictory characters I’ve ever written about. He was not especially likeable, yet the fact that at some points in his career nearly every faction hated him for some reason or other seemed to me like a bit of a saving grace. His devotion to the Olympic movement was greater than his belief in anything else. He truly believed that the Olympic movement was greater than any ideology or religion.”


Brundage’s noted and often controversial career, by the numbers:


3         Number of varsity letters he earned as an athlete at the University of Illinois, including one in basketball and two in track and field.


17      Age at which he began classes at the U of I.


45      His age in 1928 when he replaced General Douglas MacArthur as president of the American Olympic Association.


87      His age at the time of his death on May 8, 1975, in West Germany.


1,200    The IOC’s share (in dollars) of television rights for the 1960 Olympic Games (Rome).


1912     Year of the Olympic Games (Stockholm, Sweden) in which he placed sixth in the pentathlon and 16th in the decathlon.


1952     Year in which Brundage was selected president of the IOC, 30 votes to 17 for Great Britain’s Lord Burghley.


7,700    Number of Asian art objects he donated to San Francisco’s Society for Asian Art, estimated to be worth 50 million dollars.


350,000     Amount of money Brundage bequested to the University of Illinois to fund scholarships for students interested in competing in sports who were otherwise unfunded.


                           Bill Burwell

Bill Burwell

Sept. 25, 2024

Though the borough of Brooklyn, N.Y. is best known as the longtime home of professional baseball’s Dodgers, its most prolific contribution has traditionally come from the sport of high school basketball.


Brooklyn’s Boys High School, located in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood, has produced an amazing collection of prep stars who went on to become world famous, including Hall of Famers Connie Hawkins and Lenny Wilkens.


Bill Burwell, another standout player from Boys High, became a prominent member of the University of Illinois’ 1963 Big Ten champions. At 6-8, 235 pounds, Burwell was by far the biggest Illini player on Coach Harry Combes’ squad. In three seasons—1960-61, ’61-62 and ’62-63—he averaged 15.3 points per game. In fact, when Burwell graduated, he ranked as UI’s third-leading scorer of all-time with 1,119 points. His top single-game scoring effort ironically came at New York’s Madison Square Garden (26 points).


Perhaps Burwell’s most important role with the Illini came as a rugged rebounder. He averaged nearly 10 boards per game, second only to teammate Dave Downey. Today, his 9.6 rebounds per game average is sixth-best in Illinois’ record book, trailing only Nick Weatherspoon (11.3), Skip Thoren (11.2), Downey (11.0), Don Freeman (10.3) and Dave Scholz (9.7). Burwell’s 21 rebounds versus Wisconsin on Feb. 19, 1962 once tied for the school record.


The team’s overall record during Burwell’s last two seasons was a respectable 35-14. 


Today would have been his 84th birthday. He died in 2021.


                           Erin Borske Gray

Erin Borske Gray

Sept. 23, 2024

Twenty-nine years ago today—September 23, 1995—sophomore Erin Borske (Gray) shattered Illini volleyball’s record for single-match kills, hammering 44 winners in 92 swings in Illinois’s near upset of sixth-ranked Penn State.


Though she only played two seasons in Champaign-Urbana, Gray plastered her name throughout UI’s record book. The product of Stagg High School in Palos Heights quickly made an immediate impact, earning Big Ten Freshman of the Year honors in 1994, amassing 478 kills and 355 digs. More than two decades later, her sophomore season total of 714 kills still stand as UI’s record. That earned her first-team All-America honors


Of Illinois’s top 10 single-game performances for kills, Gray holds the top two marks in that category (44 vs. Penn State and 41 vs. Minnesota) plus three others.


When her Illini coach, Mike Hebert, announced that he was leaving Illinois for Minnesota following the 1995 season, Gray announced her intentions to also leave the program.


"He was really the reason I was at Illinois," she said. "I respected him a lot and enjoyed playing for him. I didn’t really feel connected to the program if he wasn’t there."


Gray’s hopes to transfer to Arizona State never materialized, so she instead pursued a professional career in beach volleyball. She was Rookie of the Year and Player of the Year on the EVP Tour in 1998 and ’99, respectively. Gray retired in 2015 following several years on the circuit.


Today, she resides in Redondo Beach, Calif. and serves as assistant coach for that city’s sand beach team. Gray and her husband have five children.


                           Peter Palmer

Peter Palmer

Sept. 20, 2024

Born on this date in 1931 in Milwaukee and reared in St. Louis, Peter Palmer became an all-star football lineman and lettered at the University of Illinois in 1952 and ‘53.


There, he became the first music major to win a letter in football and probably the only gridiron hero to sing the National Anthem before games. Fresh out of college,


Palmer won a Chicago radio contest and that led him to Hollywood where most of the major studios butted heads, trying to sign him to contracts. Instead, he enlisted in the service.


At age 24, Palmer appeared on Ed Sullivan's program, where he was spotted was by Broadway producers who were putting together talent for the soon-to-be smash-hit production of Li’l Abner. The 6-foot-4, 220-pound Palmer performed on New York’s Great White Way from 1956 through 1959 in the role of Li’l Abner Yokum. In 1959, the Broadway show became a movie. Palmer also acted in five other movies, including the 1990 hit Edward Scissorhands.


He died on Sept. 21, 2021 at the age of 90.


                           Craig Swoope

Craig Swoope

Sept. 18, 2024

On this date 42 years ago, freshman defensive back Craig Swoope intercepted two passes and quarterback Tony Eason threw for 293 yards to lead Coach Mike White’s Fighting Illini past host Syracuse, 47-10.


SU’s Carrier Dome was the site for Illinois’ first indoor game since the turn of the 20th century.


Swoope’s defensive picks came in only his third collegiate game and were two of 12 career interceptions he made for the Illini. At the conclusion of his career, he ranked fourth in that category behind Al Brosky (29), Mike Gow (19) and teammate Mike Heaven (13).


The native of Fort Pierce, Fla. had 205 tackles altogether, just shy of placing him among Illinois’ top ten in defensive stops. Swoope co-captained the Illini as a senior in 1985 with Jack Trudeau and Chris White, earning All-Big Ten honors all four years he played in Champaign. His college career was marred by a federal indictment on drug charges in 1984, but he eventually was acquitted by a District Court jury.


Swoope was a fourth-round pick in the 1986 NFL Draft by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and also later played for the Indianapolis Colts. In 2008, Fort Pierce’s Westwood High School retired Swoope’s No. 20 jersey.


He now resides in Champaign-Urbana.


                           Tab Bennett

Tab Bennett

Sept. 16, 2024

Tab Bennett, former Fighting Illini football star and longtime Sports Information Director at the University of Illinois, was born 73 years ago yesterday. He died in 1994 at the age of 42.


Bennett got his nickname from the initials of his full name: Theodore Anthony Bennett.


As a junior in 1971, he earned All-Big Ten honors as a defensive end. An ankle injury cut short what could have been a promising professional career.


The Big Ten’s defensive all-stars of 1971:


DE      Tab Bennett, Illinois

DE      Mike Keller, Michigan

DT      Ron Curl, Michigan State

DT      George Hasenohrl, Ohio State

LB      Mike Taylor, Michigan

LB      Stan White, Ohio State

LB      Randy Gradishar, Ohio State

DB     Tom Darden, Michigan

DB     Eric Hutchinson, Northwestern

DB     Brad Van Pelt, Michigan State

DB     Craig Clemons, Iowa


                           Frederick Dodge

Frederick Dodge

Sept. 13, 2024

On this date 130 years ago—Sept. 13, 1894—thirty-four-year-old Professor Frederick H. Dodge was introduced as the new director of athletics at the University of Illinois. He succeeded Edward K. Hall, the UI’s very first A.D., who resigned three months earlier.


An 1884 graduate of Yale University, Dodge devoted his undergraduate athletic endeavors to rowing and did not participate in any other sports. Born in 1860, the native of Bangor, Me. was first employed as the chair of physical culture at Bates College in his home state, then moved on to become director of the Chicago Athenaeum’s gymnasium for three years, located at 59 East Van Buren Street.


Three weeks after Dodge was hired at Illinois, he brought on Louis Vail from the University of Pennsylvania to coach the Illini football team. Vail’s 1894 squad, his only one, had a 5-3 record.


In Dodge’s seventh week on the job as the Illini athletics director, the school’s official colors changed from green and white to orange and blue.


Under Dodge’s direction in 1895, Illinois organized a varsity track and field program and became a charter member of the nation’s first intercollegiate athletics conference that would come to be known as the Big Ten.


When Dodge departed Champaign-Urbana in June of 1895 for New Brunswick, N.J, he was replaced by George Huff.


Dodge served as director of Rutgers University’s Ballantine Gymnasium and also coached the Scarlet Knights’ track and gymnastics teams.


He later was director of Wee Lah Valle Camp for boys and girls at Schoodic Lake, Me.


Dodge died in 1932 at the age of 72 and was buried in Bethel, Me.


                           Joe Corley

Joe Corley

Sept. 11, 2024

Belated birthday greetings to former Fighting Illini NCAA champion Joe Corley who turned 93 years old yesterday.


A track and field athlete for Coach Leo Johnson, the standout athlete from St. Elmo High School won the 1954 NCAA individual title in the 220-yard hurdles finals with a time of :22.60. Corley and his teammates, including classmate and longtime friend Willie Williams, won eight consecutive Big Ten championships from 1951-54. He served as the Illini captain his senior season.


Corley was an ROTC student at the University of Illinois and was a member of the Tau Kappa Epsilon fraternity. Upon earning a degree in economics in 1954, he served in the U.S. Army from 1955-57. He was stationed at a Nike Missile Site in Chicago and continued to compete in track as a soldier. Corley was a 4th Army champion in the 100, 220 hurdles and the long jump and qualified for the 1956 Olympic Trials.


He returned to Champaign to serve as a fraternity manager and accountant for Bresee-Warner. Corley eventually became a successful real estate broker, manager and appraiser until his retirement in 2014. He immersed himself in a number of volunteer roles, including the C-U Convention & Vistors Bureau, the United Way, the UI Quarterback Club, the Illini Striders, the Christie Clinic Illinois Marathon and Meals on Wheels.


Corley's family includes four children, two stepchildren, 11 grandchildren and six great grandchildren.


                           Jim Grabowski

Jim Grabowski

Sept. 9, 2024

Former Fighting Illini running back and longtime football color analyst Jim Grabowski celebrates his 80th birthday today.


“Grabo” broke nearly all of Red Grange’s rushing records and played in the first two Super Bowls during a six-year career in the National Football League, but he will be remembered for much more than just his prowess on the athletic field at the University of Illinois.


The personable native of Chicago was an all-star in the classroom as well, earning Academic All-America acclaim in 1964 and ’65 and the Big Ten Medal of Honor in 1966.


Grabowski was inducted into the Academic All-America Hall of Fame in 1993, joining such notables as Princeton’s Bill Bradley, Notre Dame’s Joe Theismann and Southern Cal’s Pat Haden.


No. 3 in the Heisman Trophy balloting of 1965, Grabowski finished his brilliant Illini career as the Big Ten’s career rushing leader with 2,878 yards. He was the first-round pick of the Green Bay Packers in 1966, retiring after the 1971 season following a series of knee injuries. In January of 1995, Grabowski was selected to become a member of the College football Hall of Fame.


He served as color commentator for the Illini Football Radio Network for more than 30 years.


                           Lou Tepper

Lou Tepper

Sept. 7, 2024

Lou Tepper, Illinois’ 20th head football coach (from Dec. 31, 1991 through Nov. 25, 1995) celebrates his 79th birthday on Saturday (Sept. 7).


His first game directing the Illini came on New Year’s Eve at the John Hancock Bowl in El Paso, Tex., taking over for John Mackovic who, just a few weeks before, had been named head man of the Texas Longhorns.


Though his overall winning percentage was less than .500 (25-31-2), Tepper did lead Illinois to a number of landmark victories, including a pair of wins over Ohio State plus a victory and a tie at Michigan. He also coached consecutive Butkus Award winners in Dana Howard (1994) and Kevin Hardy (1995).


After coaching stints at Edinboro and Indiana of Pennsylvania, Tepper finished with a record of 101-75-2 as a head coach.


His most memorable games as head coach at Illinois:


Sept. 12, 1992: Illini jumped out to a 24-0 lead, then held on to top Missouri in Champaign, 24-17. Tepper was 2-1 against the Tigers.


Oct. 10, 1992: Illinois won its fifth consecutive game vs. Ohio State. The 18-16 triumph was its third straight win at Columbus.


Nov. 14, 1992: The underdog Illini battled third-ranked Michigan to a 22-22 stalemate. UM salvaged the tie on a field goal with just 16 seconds left in the game.


Oct. 23, 1993: Illinois won at No. 3 Michigan, 24-21, its first victory at Ann Arbor since 1966. The winning score came on a fourth-down, 15-yard pass from Johnny Johnson to Jim Klein in the final seconds.


Oct. 8, 1994: Backing up his prediction earlier in the week, linebacker Dana Howard willed the Illini past Ohio State, 24-10, its fourth straight victory at Columbus.


Dec. 31, 1994: On New Year’s Eve in Memphis, Illinois shut out East Carolina, 30-0, in the Liberty Bowl.


Sept. 16, 1995: Led by Simeon Rice’s defensive effort, Illinois topped No. 17 Arizona, 9-7, at Memorial Stadium.


Oct. 5, 1996: In the first overtime game in Big Ten history, the Illini dispatched Indiana, 46-43, in Champaign. It was Tepper’s final victory at Illinois.


                           Mitch Brookins

Mitch Brookins

Sept. 4, 2024

Forty-two years ago today—Sept. 4, 1982—Illini junior running back Mitchell Brookins scored three touchdowns and led Illinois past Northwestern at Memorial Stadium, 49-13.


Though the former Wendall Phillips High School star was only his team’s fourth-leading rusher against the Wildcats—behind Dwight Beverly, Richard Ryles and Thomas Rooks—nobody reached the end zone more frequently than No. 33 that day. Brookins scored on five-yard runs in both the first and second quarters, then added a third TD early in the fourth quarter on a 15-yard pass from Tony Eason.


He tallied seven more touchdowns in 1982. His best single-game rushing effort was as a freshman in 1980 when Brookins ran for 180 yards in Mike White’s coaching debut. He played his senior season as a wide receiver, averaging a team-best 21.7 yards per catch.


At the 1984 NFL Draft, the Buffalo Bills used their fourth-round pick to choose Brookins. He didn’t disappoint his new team that year, catching 18 balls for 318 yards, including a 70-yard TD.


Brookins died in an automobile accident in July of 1993 at the age of 32. He’s buried at Oakridge-Glen Oak Cemetery in Hillside, Ill.


                                       Isaiah Martinez

Isaiah Martinez

Sept. 2, 2024

Happy 30th Birthday to legend Isaiah Martinez, one of only four Fighting Illini varsity wrestling alumni to win two NCAA titles.


Recruited by Coach Jim Heffernan, Martinez travelled more than 2,100 miles to attend the University of Illinois from his home in Lemoore, California. He was redshirted as a true freshman, then began a dominating run of his Big Ten competition in the 2014-15 season.


in 2024-25, Martinez will serve as Illinois wrestling’s assistant coach for a third season.


I-Mart’s record-setting Illini career, by the numbers:


• 2                Number of times he won the Dike Eddleman Award as UI’s Male Athlete of the Year (2016 and ’17).


• 4                Big Ten championships he captured, one of only 16 conference wrestlers to accomplish that feat.


• 10            His ranking on Illinois’s career victory list.


• 16            Seasons between him (2015) and Iowa State’s Cael Sanderson (1999) in becoming college wrestling first undefeated freshman (35-0).


• 54            Consecutive matches he won from 11/9/14 to 1/23/16.


• 116         Career victories in 119 overall college matches (116-3).


• 157         Weight at which Martinez wrestled as a redshirt freshman and redshirt sophomore.


• 165         His wrestling weight in his final two collegiate seasons.


• 205         Career victories Martinez compiled at Lemoore High School (205-7)


• .900        His winning percentage in NCAA Tournament wrestling matches.


• .975        His career winning percentage, an Illinois record.


• 2018      Year Martinez was awarded the Big Ten Conference Medal of Honor for proficiency in athletics and academics.


                                       Garland "Jake" Stahl

Garland "Jake" Stahl

Aug. 30, 2024

A member of the 2020 Fighting Illini athletics Hall of Fame class, Garland “Jake” Stahl played nine Major League seasons.


Born in 1879, he was the third son of Henry and Eliza Stahl of Elkhart, Ill. Jake’s dad was a front-line Union soldier in the Civil War, surviving the Battle of Shiloh in Mississippi, a bloodbath where more than 23,000 individuals died.


After finishing tenth grade, Jake matriculated to the University of Illinois and became the school’s most celebrated athlete. He lettered four times in football (1899-1902) and three times in baseball (1901-03).


When the Major League’s Boston Americans lost its backup catcher to an injury, team owner Henry Killelea journeyed to Chicago to sign Stahl to an American League contract. Jake got into his first big league game on opening day (Apr. 20, 1903) and appeared in 40 games as a catcher, batting .239.


Stahl was dealt to the Washington Senators during the winter of 1904 and played three seasons in the nation’s capital, collecting more than 1,500 at bats. In that third season, he was promoted to skipper of the Senators at the age of 26, becoming the American League’s youngest-ever player/manager.


Following Washington’s disastrous 1906 season (55 wins and 95 losses), Stahl asked to be traded to the Red Sox. Instead, Senators management traded him to the Chicago White Sox. When Stahl refused to report, he spent the 1907 season working in his father-in-law’s bank, coaching the ’07 Indiana University baseball team, and playing semiprofessionally in Chicago.


The White Sox traded Stahl’s rights to the New York Highlanders. He spent the first 75 games of the 1908 season in the Big Apple, then was traded back to Boston to play first base.


Stahl enjoyed his best professional season in 1910, teaming with Hall of Famers Tris Speaker and Harry Hooper. Stahl tied for the A.L. lead in home runs with 10.

Amazingly, despite his long-ball success, Stahl opted to sit out the 1911 season and returned to his career as a banker at Washington Park National Bank on Chicago’s South Side.


New management in Boston convinced Stahl to come out of retirement in 1912, in part due to an offer to become a part-owner of the Red Sox. As Boston’s player-manager, the Red Sox ran away with the 1912 American League pennant, then beating Manager John McGraw’s talented New York Giants in the World Series. Stahl is said to have invested his winning World Series share in his father-in-law’s bank.


Stahl’s career unceremoniously ended in 1913 when he suffered a serious foot injury that required the removal of part of a bone in his right foot. While he continued to manage the Red Sox, he could not play first base. Following a mid-season argument with management, Stahl was released. Weeks later, the former Illini star announced that he was through with baseball.


Stahl immediately began his second career as a full-time banker in Chicago, but hard work and long hours took its toll. He suffered a nervous breakdown in 1920 and was placed in a Monrovia, Calif. sanitarium. Two year later, he contracted tuberculosis and passed away in September of 1922 at the age of 43.


Nine things you didn’t not know about Jake Stahl’s Major League career:

1)   He was a member of two World Series championship teams (as player for 1903 Boston Americans, the very first Series champ) and as player/manager for the 1912 Boston Red Sox).

2)   In 1904, he led all American League first basemen with 29 errors.

3)   He led the American League by being hit by a pitch 17 times in 1905.

4)   His 41 stolen bases in 1905 ranked third in the AL.

5)   He ranked second to the immortal Ty Cobb in triples in 1908 (Cobb had 20, Stahl had 16). Stahl ranked among the AL’s top seven in triples four times.

6)   He led the AL three times in batting strikeouts (1904, 1909 and 1910).

7)   Not only did he tie for the lead in AL home runs in 1910 with 10 (one every 53.1 at bats), he led the league in putouts as a first baseman and ranked fourth with 77 RBI.

8)   He currently ranks 233rd on the Major League career triples list with 87.

9)   He received one Baseball Hall of Fame vote in both 1938 and 1939.


                                         Jeff Markland

Defensive Debuts

Aug. 28, 2024

Fighting Illini coach Bret Bielema would love to see his team throw a shutout in Thursday night’s season opener vs. Eastern Illinois. However, in Illinois history, that’s only happened three times over the last 50-plus years in opening games.


The last time the Orange & Blue shut out its initial foe was 38 years ago when Mike White’s 1986 Illini blanked Louisville at Memorial Stadium, 23-0.


The king of Illini football shutouts in season openers is the immortal Bob Zuppke whose teams goose-egged their first opponent 15 times. Here are a few Illini defensive players who sparkled in season lid-lifting shutouts:


•Oct. 1, 1927: Zuppke’s Illini began what would become a national championship season with a 19-0 win versus Bradley. All-America lineman Robert Reisch, Butch Nowack and Russ Crane paced UI’s defensive effort.


•Sept. 25, 1948: The Illini handed visiting Kansas State a 40-0 defeat, the Wildcats’ 27th consecutive loss. Captain Herb Siegert, Dike Eddleman and Jim Valek star on defense for Coach Ray Eliot.


•Sept. 28, 1963: Illinois defensive backs George Donnelly, Mike Dundy and Jimmy Warren held California quarterback Craig Morton to just four completions in 15 attempts for 57 years. UI beat the Bears, 10-0, in Berkley.


•Sept. 14, 1974: Four of Illini linebacker Tom Hicks’ 16 stops halted Indiana runners inside the two-yard line. UI topped the Hoosiers, 16-0, in Champaign.


•Sept. 9, 1978: In one of the most infamous season openers in Illini history—a 0-0 tie with bottom-dweller Northwestern—linebacker John Sullivan racked up 15 tackles as UI limited the “Mildcats” to just 220 total offensive yards.


•Sept. 6, 1986: Junior linebacker Jeff Markland (pictured) led the Illini to a shutout victory over Louisville with a team-best 10 tackles. He performed at that position for the first five games of the ’86 season, then was moved by coaches to play fullback.

 

                                         Huddie Hellstrom

"Huddie" Hellstrom

Aug. 26, 2024

On this date in 1964, former three-sport Illini standout Norton E. “Huddie” Hellstrom died at the age of 68.


Born a first-generation American in 1896, Hellstrom was the son of Swedish immigrants. He attended Evanston Township High School, the same school that sent UI Hall of Famers Chuck Carney and Alex Agase to play for the Illini.


As a prep football player, Hellstrom’s senior team in 1916 won Suburban League in impressive fashion, not allowing any of its five opponents to score a single point. That same year, Evanston’s basketball team won the Stagg Tournament, referred to by many as the national high school championship. Hellstrom also starred as a baseball player, winding up as Evanston’s first athlete to win 12 varsity letters.


Shortly after after his graduation from Evanston, he fought in World War I, serving for the United States Navy.


Hellstrom lettered as an end for Coach Bob Zuppke’s football squad in 1920, but decided to focus his efforts on basketball and baseball for the remainder of his career.


Illini basketball coach Frank Winters inserted him into the starting lineup at forward with Carney in 1921, but he was sidelined with a leg injury the following season. Hellstrom captained coach Craig Ruby’s initial Illini club in 1923 at the age of 27.


With coach Carl Lundgren’s Illinois baseball club, he lettered from 1921-23 as an infielder. Both the 1921 and ‘22 Illini were Big Ten champions, losing only three times in two conference seasons. UI’s overall record over Hellstrom’s three seasons was 48-11-2.


At age 47, he rejoined the U.S. Naval Reserves and rose to the rank of lieutenant during World War II. After the war, Hellstrom moved his family to Fort Pierce, Florida where he was a realtor.


                                         Illini head coach Gary Moeller and Northwestern's                                                   Rick Venturi

Advancing to Head Coach

Aug. 23, 2024

Historically, the University of Illinois’ football program has been a launching pad for future head football coaches.


Former Fighting Illini assistant coaches who left Champaign-Urbana to seek head coaching jobs include Glenn Mason, Lloyd Carr, Joe Novak and Bob Sutton who all served as key aides to Gary Moeller during the late 1970s. Dick MacPherson, who was a graduate assistant coach on Ray Eliot’s 1959 squad, went onto success at UMass and Syracuse, then had a two-year stint as head coach of the New England Patriots.


Besides MacPherson, four other former Illini assistants—Sean Payton, Bill Callahan, Leslie Frazier and Brad Childress—also eventually became NFL head coaches.


Eliot and Lou Tepper, both Illinois assistants who subsequently became Illini head coaches, also are among the men on this top ten list in terms of victories:


123        Glenn Mason (123-121-1 at Kent St., Kansas & Minnesota)

122        Lloyd Carr (122-40 at Michigan)

111        Dick McPherson (111-73-5 at UMass, Syracuse and New England Patriots)

101        *Lou Tepper (101-75-2 at Illinois, Edinboro and Indiana-Pa.)

83           *Ray Eliot (83-73-11 at Illinois)

80           Sean Payton (80-48 at New Orleans Saints)

69           Walt Harris (69-85 at Pacific, Pitt and Stanford)

63           Joe Novak (63-76 at Northern Illinois)

62           Dee Andros (62-80-2 at Idaho and Oregon St.)

44           Bob Sutton (44-55-1 at Army)

*Includes coaching victories as head coaches at Illinois


                                         Carl Lundgren

Carl Lundgren

Aug. 21, 2024

The immortal George Huff called him “the greatest of all college baseball coaches.” An early sporting magazine, Athletic World, praised him as “the peer of all college baseball instructors.”


In any case, the name Carl Leonard Lundgren is permanently linked with University of Illinois success on the baseball diamond.


As a pitcher on the Fighting Illini nines of 1899-1902, “Lundy” led Illinois to Big Ten championships his sophomore and senior seasons. The esteem in which he was held by his fellow students was displayed by his election not only to the baseball team’s captaincy, but also to the presidency of UI’s senior class.


Lundgren went directly from Illinois into professional baseball, pitching for the Chicago Cubs for seven seasons. Twice the Cubbies were world champs, due in great part of Lundgren’s spectacular pitching which accounted for 92 Major League career victories.


After leaving the Cubs, he began his brilliant coaching career at Princeton as freshman coach, then went to Michigan as varsity coach, where he tutored future Hall of Famer George Sisler. Huff lured Lundgren back to Champaign to coach the Illini in 1921, where he directed Illinois to five conference titles in 12 seasons.


Lundgren died nearly 90 years ago on August 24, 1934, of a heart attack at the age of 54.


                                         Don Hansen

Don Hansen

Aug. 19, 2024

By a few historians, the collection of linebackers produced by the University of Illinois football program is second to none, and one of the most underrated players among that all-star group is 1960s standout Don Hansen.


A star recruit from Evansville, Indiana’s Reitz High School, Hansen began his Fighting Illini career as a fullback. He suffered a knee injury as a freshman and was moved to linebacker in 1963 where he played alongside Dick Butkus for the Big Ten champs. Hansen earned second-team All-Big Ten honors as a junior in 1964, then first-team laurels as a senior in ’65. Both seasons he gained honorable mention All-America acclaim.


Following impressive performances in three collegiate post-season all-star games, Hansen was selected in the third round of the 1966 NFL Draft by the Minnesota Vikings. He became the team’s Rookie of the Year for Coach Norm Van Brocklin. Hansen quit football following the 1967 campaign to partner in business with a relative in Evansville, but Van Brocklin talked him out of retirement to play for the ‘69 Atlanta Falcons. Highlighted by his selection as Atlanta’s Player of the Year in 1972, Hansen stayed with the Falcons through 1975. He started 70 of the teams 95 games during that seven-year period in Atlanta, while intercepting 10 passes and recovering 13 fumbles.


In 1976, Hanson played briefly for Seattle, then was traded to Green Bay where he concluded his 11-year NFL career in 1977.


Hansen was inducted into the Indiana Football Hall of Fame in 2014.


Today, Hansen celebrates his 80th birthday. He and his wife of 61 years, Sandy, reside in Snellville, Georgia. They have 11 grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.


                                         Amos Alonzo Stagg

Illini vs. Amos Alonzo Stagg

Aug. 16, 2024

Born 162 years ago today—August 16, 1862—Amos Alonzo Stagg, the “Grand Old Man of the Midway”, played a significant role in the history of University of Illinois football.


Very few individuals over the first 100 years of the college game were more respected than the former Yale University All-American. In fact, Stagg was a charter class member of the College Football Hall of Fame (1951) as both a player and a coach.


Stagg’s counterpart at Illinois, Bob Zuppke, had high praise for the 41-year head coach of the University of Chicago Maroons.


“The name and influence of A.A. Stagg will live a long time in the Western Conference and American football,” Zuppke said. “He and Fielding Yost and George Huff are the men who made the Big Ten what it is. Through the years, I found Yost’s teams tougher defensively than Stagg’s teams at Chicago. But on offense, Alonzo Stagg had no superior. He applied imagination to his attack. Back in the days when his material was on a par with that of the other universities in the conference, it may have looked from the stands as though his teams merely used mass power to bowl over the defense. Actually, his offense was shifty and deceptive.”


Among many innovations, Stagg pioneered the man-in-motion, the fake handoff, cross-blocking, the T-formation and the quick kick.


From Stagg’s first season in 1892 through following 17 campaigns, the Maroons had their way with Illinois, posting a 9-2-2 record. One of UC’s pair of losses during that span ultimately resulted in a forfeit because of a dispute with the officiating.


Once Zuppke arrived on the scene in Champaign in 1913, UC’s long reign took a southward turn. During Stagg’s final 20 seasons in Chicago (1913-32), Zup’s Illini held a 13-5-2 edge.


Other interesting notes about Illinois’s 37 battles against Stagg and the UC Maroons:


• Illinois posted a 17-16-4 records during Stagg’s time in Chicago, including an 8-7 mark in Champaign-Urbana.


• UI and UC played twice against Stagg’s first squad (1892), a team for which he both played and coached. In the first meeting (Nov. 16), Chicago was leading 10-4 when officials called the game on account of darkness. Illinois protested and officials eventually ruled that the 4-4 halftime score would stand as the final score. Stagg himself scored the touchdown that was ultimately nullified.


• Illinois was awarded a forfeit victory over Chicago in 1894 when officiating again decided the result. When UI’s R.J. Hotchkiss ran for a 90-yard touchdown, UC’s captained claimed that he had asked for timeout. When the umpire requested the Maroons to play ball, they refused.


• On Oct. 31, 1896, the date of the Illini’s first-ever Big Ten Conference game (then officially known as the Intercollegiate Conference of Faculty Representatives), Chicago prevailed at Illinois Field, 12-0.


• In 1910, UC played Illinois at its first-ever Homecoming game. Otto Seiler’s 38-yard drop-kick field goal provided the Illini with a 3-0 victory.


• When Stagg and Zuppke coached against each other for the first time, host Chicago beat Illinois, 28-7.


• On Nov. 3, 1923, in a downpour at Memorial Stadium’s first game, 60,000 fans watched Red Grange score UI’s only touchdown, handing Chicago its only loss of the season.


• Stagg’s Maroons snapped a 15-game Illini winning streak in 1924 with a 21-21 tie in Chicago.



• In 70-year-old Coach Amos Alonzo Stagg’s final game against the Illini (1932), Bob Zuppke’s squad snapped a 10-game Big Ten losing streak with a 13-7 victory at Stagg Field.


                                         Clyde Alwood

Clyde Alwood

Aug. 14, 2024

Clyde Alwood, the University of Illinois’ third-ever recipient of the Big Ten Conference Medal of Honor for athletic and academic excellence, died on this date in 1954 in his childhood hometown of Clinton, Ill.


The three-time letter-winning Fighting Illini basketball star, whose life ended from a fatal heart attack, was only 59. Alwood was visiting his childhood home to celebrate his mother’s birthday.


The 6-foot-4-inch center was a starter for Coach Ralph Jones’ 1915, ’16 and ’17 teams, units that posted a composite record of 42 victories and only six losses. During Alwood’s sophomore campaign, Illinois’ undefeated team (16-0) not only won the Big Ten title (12-0) but was also declared college basketball’s national champion.


In Alwood’s junior season, Illinois won its first eight games to extend UI’s winning streak to a school-record 28 victories in a row. The 1916 Illini lost only three of their 16 games and finished second in the conference standings.


The club that Alwood captained as a senior regained the conference title by posting a 10-2 record. He played alongside future UI Hall of Famers Ray Woods and George Halas that season.


Academically, Alwood majored in agriculture and upon graduation began operating a small farm near Marshall, Ill. Just two months after he received his UI degree, Bloomington High School hired him as its head basketball coach. That stint lasted only one season. Though he wasn’t sent overseas to fight during World War I, Alwood served in the U.S. Army as a YMCA instructor. Alwood eventually became a civil engineer with the Illinois Central Railroad, then a salesman in Indianapolis, Rockford and Beloit, Wis.


                                         Chuck Studley

Best Offensive Lines

Aug. 12, 2024

Which Fighting Illini football team of the past had the best single collection of centers, tackles and guards? It’s all very subjective, of course, because offensive linemen don’t have individual statistics like their buddies in the backfield and at wide receiver.


Logic says that Illinois’s most successful teams in terms of wins and losses and championships probably also had the best offensive lines. Researchers could perhaps look at past All-Big Ten teams to define who the greatest stars were. Or one might also study the NFL rosters of the past to determine UI players’ length of service as professionals.


So, we took all three factors into consideration, ranked them one to ten in each category, and assigned point totals to create our own grading system. We judged seven different Illini teams that won Big Ten titles—1946, 1951, 1953, 1963, 1983, 1990 and 2001—plus three other teams that had multiple all-star linemen—1950, 1959 and 2007. We gave 12 points to the top set of linemen in each category, then ascended to nine points for the second-ranked unit, eight for No. 3, and all the way down to one point for tenth place.


For example, the Coach Ray Eliot’s ‘51 team had a school-record three first-team All-Big Ten honorees among their offensive line: center Chuck Boerio, guard Chuck Studley and tackle Chuck Ulrich. The ’51 squad also had the best overall winning percentage at .950 (9-0-1 record). However, only Ulrich (five years) and Boerio (one year) played in the NFL, so the ’51 unit ranks lower in that category.


Admittedly, we bent the rules a bit when assessing Dick Butkus as a pro, “guessing” that the legendary linebacker who also played center at Illinois probably could have also flourished on the offensive side of the ball.


Here is Illini Legends, Lists & Lore’s ranking of UI’s offensive lines, from one to ten:


1.    29 points - 1951: Dan Sabino (C), Chuck Studley (G), Don Gnidovic (G), Bob Weddell (T) and Chuck Ulrich (T)


2.    28 points - 1963: Dick Butkus (C), Wylie Fox (G), Ed Washington (G), Archie Sutton (T) and Bill Minor (T)


3.    26 points - 2001: Luke Butkus (C), Dave Diehl (G), Bucky Babcock (G), Sean Bubin (T) and Tony Pashos (T)


4.    21 points - 1983: Bob Miller (C), Chris Babyar (G), Rick Schulte (G), Jim Juriga (T) and Bob Stowe (T)


5.    18.5 points - 1990: Curtis Lovelace (C), Cam Pepper (G), Tim Simpson (G), Brad Hopkins (T) and Tony Laster (T)


6.    15 points - 1959: Dave Ash (C), Bill Burrell (G), John Gremer (G), Joe Rutgens (T) and Cliff Roberts (T)


7.    14.5 points - 2007: Ryan McDonald (C), Martin O’Donnell (G), Jon Asamoah (G), Xavier Fulton (T) and Akim Millington (T)


8.    14 points - 1950: Bill Vohaska (C), Charles Brown (G), Chuck Studley (G), Bob Weddell (T) and Chuck Ulrich (T)


9.    12 points - 1946:  Mac Wenskunas (C), John Wrenn (G), Alex Agase (G), Lou Agase (T) and Bob Cunz (T)


10.  10 points - 1953: Herb Borman (C), John Bauer (G), Jan Smid (G), Bob Lenzini (T) and Don Ernst (T)


                                         Dave Wilson

Big Ten Rescinds Illini Probation

Aug. 9, 2024

Forty-two years ago this week - Aug. 10, 1982 - faculty representatives of the Big Ten Conference rescinded the probation of the University of Illinois football team.


There had been a fierce fight between the school and the Big Ten Conference over the eligibility of the quarterback Dave Wilson. In 1981, the Fighting Illini received a three-year probation for permitting Wilson to play, even though his grades at Fullerton Junior College averaged less than C-. When the Big Ten ruled Wilson ineligible, he sued the conference to allow him to play.


Because of Illinois’ continued defiance of the conference, the Big Ten threatened to expel the university.


UI Chancellor John Cribbet told a news conference, “We felt we had no alternative but to accept the sanctions or withdraw from the conference. Withdrawal might have appeared to be attractive. It may have been the easy way to resolve this. But the long-term academic relationship with the Big Ten is more important than any short-term gratification we might have received.”


Wilson ultimately signed a multi-year contract with the New Orleans Saints after he was denied a second year of competition at Illinois when a federal judge ruled his case should not be ruled by the courts.


                                         Chuck Flynn

Chuck Flynn

Aug. 7, 2024

Charles “Chuck” Flynn, the longtime sports information director at the University of Illinois, was born on this date in 1912.


He began teaching journalism at the UI in 1937, then in 1944 became UI’s director of athletic publicity. In 1956, Flynn became the director of public information for the university.


He left the UI in 1975 to work for the News-Gazette. He died Oct. 11, 2003, at the age of 91.


Here are some of the Fighting Illini’s most notable athletic events during Flynn’s time as SID:

 

  • 1944: Football star Buddy Young finished fifth in Heisman Trophy balloting.
  • 1945: Illini football teams began using airplanes to travel to away games.
  • 1946-47: UI won the Big Ten and played in its first-ever Rose Bowl game.
  • 1947: Senior track star Herb McKenley finished his record-breaking career at UI.
  • 1949: Illini basketball team played in the Final Four (also 1951 and ’52).
  • 1950: UI’s golf course in Savoy opened.
  • 1951-52: Illinois’ football team played in Rose Bowl.
  • 1951-52: Illini athletic teams won record eight Big Ten titles.
  • 1952: Football’s Al Brosky ended his career with an NCAA record eight interceptions.
  • 1955-56: UI’s gymnastic team won back-to-back national championships.


                                         Josh Whitman

Josh Whitman

Aug. 5, 2024

Happy 45th Birthday today to University of Illinois Director of Athletics Josh Whitman. The former Fighting Illini football player answered a series of questions for Illini Legends, Lists & Lore about his career as an athlete.


Who most inspired your career in sports?  “My dad (Mark) was a coach and a teacher. My earliest memories are playing catch or shooting baskets with my dad. No matter how tired he might have been, he always made time. He instilled in me a love of sports and competition that has defined much of my life.”


What was something your mom (Mary Beth) taught you that remains important to you today?  “My mom taught me to love reading. Growing up, when I wasn’t playing sports, you were likely to find my nose in a book. My mom, who was an elementary school teacher and later a school media specialist and librarian, always made sure I had access to tremendous books. Now, with our daughter almost two and our son just born, the thing I learned most from my mom and dad was how to be a loving, supportive, encouraging parent. They were the best.”


Growing up in West Lafayette, who was your favorite Boilermaker athlete? “I admired basketball player Steve Scheffler and football player Mike Alstott. Both were big, rugged, tough guys, and I was at a point in my life when I was starting to push myself athletically to compete at a high level. Those guys were tremendous role models for the work ethic and toughness required to be great.” 


What was your most memorable game at William Henry Harrison High School? “My senior year at Harrison, we competed in the state’s last single-class basketball tournament (as seen in the movie Hoosiers). In Indiana, winning the sectional, the state tournament’s opening round, was a really big deal. Because it was a single class, the opening round pitted us against all the other local schools. We hadn’t won the sectional since the early 1980s, but my senior year we defeated Lafayette Jefferson, our cross-town rival, to take the title. It was one of the most exciting experiences of my life. Our high school and community rallied around that team like nothing I had ever seen. Students camped outside the school to buy tickets as soon as they went on sale. It was pretty incredible.”


• Who was the most impressive basketball player you competed against in high school? I played against Kevin Garnett in an AAU tournament. That didn’t go so well.


                                         Tony Pashos

Tony Pashos

Aug. 2, 2024

Celebrating his 44th birthday on Saturday (Aug. 3) is former Fighting Illini football all-star Tony Pashos. Born in Palos Heights and a graduate of Lockport Township High School, his parents (Georgios and Despina) immigrated to the United States from Greece.


His career story, by the numbers:


2 -  Seasons he earned first-team All-Big Ten honors as an offensive lineman.


3 -  Number of languages Pashos speaks (English, Greek and German).


5 -  NFL Draft round in which he was selected by the Baltimore Ravens.


9 -  Number of varsity letters Pashos was awarded at Lockport High.


12 -  Illinois’ final AP team ranking in 2001, his junior season.


47 -  Consecutive career starts he made at Illinois.


79 -  Jersey number Pashos wore for the Illini and for most of his NFL player.


82 -  Number of career starts he made during his NFL career, including every game in 2006, ’07, ’08, 11 and ’12.


325 -  His playing weight as a pro.


2002 -  Season he served as an Illini co-captain and won the Bruce Capel Award as the team’s most courageous player.


                                         Cecil Coleman

Cecil Coleman

July 31, 2024

Fifty-two years ago tomorrow—August 1, 1972—Cecil Coleman began his seven-year reign as director of athletics at the University of Illinois. He assumed duties as AD when Gene Vance resigned.


A native of South Bend, Indiana, Coleman came to Illinois from Wichita State University and served as president of the National Association of Collegiate Director of Athletics (NACDA) during the 1972-73 season, his first at Illinois.


Though Coleman might not have been one of UI’s most popular athletic directors, he had a hand in numerous history-making decisions, including:


*October, 1973: Coleman headed up a $1.65 capital campaign to upgrade UI’s aging Memorial Stadium with artificial turf and lighting.


*June, 1974: Capping the establishment of UI’s new women’s intercollegiate athletics program, he hired Dr. Karol Kahrs to become UI’s first assistant director for women’s athletics.


*April, 1975: Coleman hired Lou Henson as head basketball coach. Henson went on to accumulate a record of 423-224 in 21 seasons.


*June, 1977: UI’s Memorial Stadium hosted the 1977 NCAA Track & Field Championships. Illinois also served as hosts for the 1979 national meet.


*April, 1979: Despite ultimately being dismissed as UI’s athletic director, Coleman had successfully improved the school’s image with the NCAA and had balanced UI’s athletic budget.


                                         Ray Nitschke

Ray Nitschke

July 29, 2024

Forty-six years ago today, Ray Nitschke was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio.


Other stars who joined the former Fighting Illini great in the Class of 1978 included Lance Alworth, Weeb Ewbank, Alphonse “Tuffy” Leemans and Larry Wilson.


Nitschke was born in Elmwood Park, Illinois. Due to the death of his father when Ray was three years old and the death of his mother shortly after his 13th birthday, he was raised by his older brother.


An all-state quarterback at Proviso East High School in 1953, Nitschke accepted a scholarship offer from the University of Illinois. Besides playing linebacker, he also was a rugged fullback, once scoring four touchdowns in a game against Iowa State.


The Green Bay Packers chose Nitschke as the 36th overall pick in the 1958 NFL Draft. He eventually became the anchor of a Packer defense that helped the franchise win five NFL championships and the first two Super Bowl games. Nitschke, the owner of retired Packers jersey No. 66, was named the NFL’s greatest linebacker in 1969.


In 1999, The Sporting News ranked him No. 18 when it chose the top 100 players in NFL history. Nitschke died at the age of 61 in 1998.

                                         Harry Coffeen

Harry Coffeen

July 27, 2024

Born on July 27, 1877, in Champaign was former Fighting Illini football and track letter winner Harry Coffeen.


The graduate of Champaign High School matriculated to the University of Illinois where he played football for head coach George Huff. In 1896, Coffeen played in Illinois’ very first Big Ten football game against Chicago and also participated in UI’s first Big Ten victory versus Purdue in 1897. He captained the Illini track and field in 1896.


Following his graduation, he attended graduate school at the University of Pennsylvania to study astronomy. Coffeen returned to Illinois in 1900 to teach engineering drawing, then moved on to Armour Institute in Chicago. At Armour, he was faculty manager of athletics and founded a chapter of Tau Beta Pi fraternity.


Coffeen eventually became a life insurance specialist for the Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Company, rising to president of the national association of agents of that company. He also served as president of Illinois’ Alumni Association for one year.


Coffeen passed away on September 14, 1924, in Chicago, at the age of 47.


                                         Jim Wright

Jim Wright

July 24, 2024

Though Illini fans more familiarly associate Jim Wright with Illinois basketball, few know that the longtime Urbana resident also was a two-time Big Ten pole vault champion.


He contributed to UI’s 1953 outdoor track and field team title with a winning vault of 13-feet, then both he and the team duplicated those championships the following season as well.


The Lawrenceville High School graduate wore jersey number 16 for Coach Harry Combes’ Illini basketball team. Wright earned three additional varsity letters at Huff Gym. As a sophomore in 1951-52, he and his UI teammates won the Big Ten title and advanced to the NCAA’s Final Four. Illinois’ ’52-53 squad finished second in the conference standings.


In 1953-54, Wright’s senior season, he became a starter alongside John Kerr, Paul Judson, Bruce Brothers and Max Hooper. Wright was the Illini’s third-leading scorer, averaging 8.4 points per game.


Following two seasons of military service, Combes brought Wright on in 1958 to become his second assistant coach. He served a total of 13 seasons for Combes, heading up Illinois’ scouting operation and coaching UI’s freshman team. Wright’s coaching highlight came in 1963 when the Illini won the Big Ten title.


When Harv Schmidt became Illinois’ coach in 1967, he retained Wright as his assistant until 1972. Wright began his C-U based insurance company in 1954 and continued it for a total of 58 years, most recently on South State Street in Champaign. His wife, Barbara, operated Wright Real Estate for several years.


They have two children, Jim, who resides in Gainesville, Fla., and Susan who lives in Jacksonville, Fla., plus five grandchildren. Jim and Barbara winter at Amelia Island in Florida. Today, Jim celebrates his 92nd birthday.


                                         Ralph Webster

Ralph Webster

July 19, 2024

Born on this date in 1906 was Fighting Illini wrestling’s first-ever All-American, heavyweight Ralph Webster.


A three-time letter winner from 1926-28 for Coach Paul Prehn, the Raccoon, Ind. native helped Illinois win three consecutive Big Ten championships. Webster’s Illini teams won 17 of its 19 dual meet matches during those seasons.


Though Webster never won an individual conference title, he accomplished his greatest singular fame at the first NCAA Championships in 1928, hosted in Ames, Iowa. After pinning Ralph Freese of Kansas in the semifinal match, he was pitted against Oklahoma State’s Earl McCready. Unfortunately for Webster, McCready won by fall in just 19 seconds.


Webster majored in Athletic Coaching at the University of Illinois, then became a lifetime employee of the Columbus (Ohio) Board of Education. Initially, he was a teacher and multi-sport coach at Columbus East High School. His greatest athlete at East High was Ohio State Buckeyes Hall of Famer Bill Willis, who Webster originally suggested to play for Coach Ray Eliot at Illinois. Unfortunately, OSU coach Paul Brown intervened and the rest, as they say, is Buckeye history.


Webster moved onto become the longtime athletics director of Columbus Walnut Ridge High School, retiring in 1974. He was inducted into the Ohio Coaches Hall of Fame in 1992.


Webster died on Feb. 28, 1976 in Bexley, Ohio.


                                         Johnny "Red" Kerr

Johnny "Red" Kerr

July 17, 2024

Today marks the 92nd anniversary of the birth of University of Illinois basketball legend John Graham “Red” Kerr. He was a member of the second class inducted into the Illini Athletics Hall of Fame (2018).


A person living today would need to be in his mid-to-late 70s to be able to remember the incredible career Kerr enjoyed as an Illini player or to be in his 60s to be able to recall his amazing consistency as an NBA star.


Today’s Illini Legends, Lists & Lore will attempt to refresh the memory of those senior citizens and to enlighten folks younger than them as to just how outstanding a basketball career Johnny “Red” Kerr had.


Did you know ...


•An eight-inch growth spurt before and during Kerr’s senior year at Chicago’s Tilden Technical High School changed his focus from soccer to basketball. Kerr had initially intended to attend Bradley University but changed his mind to play for the Illini following a visit from Irv Bemoras. Kerr ultimately was inducted into the Illinois Basketball Coaches Association.


•Kerr’s senior season as an Illini player, he averaged a school-record 25.3 points per game, passing Bemoras as UI’s career scoring leaders. Kerr’s career total of 1,299 points would be eclipsed until nine years later (by Dave Downey). The Chicago Tribune selected him as the Big Ten’s Most Valuable Player.


•The Syracuse Nationals chose Kerr as the sixth pick in the 1954 NBA Draft. The first five players selected included top pick Frank Selvy of Furman, then Bob Pettit, Gene Shue, Dick Rosenthal and Togo Palazzi.


•Playing the same position as Bill Russell and Wilt Chamberlain, Kerr played in the NBA All-Star Games in 1956 (4 points/8 rebounds), 1959 (7/9) and 1963 (2/2).


•Kerr averaged 11.15 rebounds for his game, a number that ranks 27th on the current all-time list. Just ahead of him on the list in 26th place is Kareem Abdul-Jabbar with 11.18 per game. Immediately following Kerr on the list are Hakeem Olajuwon (11.11), Dave DeBusschere (10.99) and Shaquille O’Neal (10.85).


•His NBA career ended on Nov. 4, 1965. His final career totals as a professional player included 905 games, 12,480 points and 10,092 rebounds. Kerr currently ranks among the top 60 on the NBA’s all-time scoring list.


•Kerr was a true NBA iron man, playing in a record 844 consecutive games. He held the record for 17 years, finally handing over his honor to Randy Smith on Nov. 3, 1982.


•On May 3, 1966, Kerr was named head coach of the Chicago Bulls. Though his first Bulls team had a win-loss record of 33-48, Chicago became the first expansion team to make the NBA playoffs in its inaugural season. Kerr was named NBA coach of the Year and is the only coach to receive the award after his team finished with a losing record.


•Players that Kerr tutored during his two seasons as the head coach of the Chicago Bulls (1966-67 and ’67-68) and the Phoenix Suns (1968-69 and ’69-70) include Jerry Sloan, Bob Boozer, Gail Goodrich and Dick Van Arsdale.


•He became the Chicago Bulls’ color commentator in 1975, serving alongside play-by-play announcer Jim Durham. Kerr remained in that role through the 2007-08 season, calling all six of the Bulls’ six championship campaigns.


•Kerr passed on Feb. 26, 2009, only hours after the death of fellow Bulls legend Norm Van Lier.


                                         Burt Ingwersen

Burt Ingwersen

July 15, 2024

Fifty-five years ago on this date in Fighting Illini history—July 15, 1969—University of Illinois legend Burt Ingwersen died at the age of 70.


Illinois’ first nine-letter winner, the Bryant, Iowa native won monograms in 1917, ’18 and ‘19 for Coach Bob Zuppke as an All-Big Ten and second-team All-America tackle.


George Halas, his Illini teammate, said Ingwersen had “the greatest spirit and desire of any football player I’ve ever known.” Illinois claimed the conference title in his junior season and the Big Ten and national championships in his senior year.


Ingwersen was a first baseman for Coach George Huff’s Illini baseball team in 1918, ’19 and ’20 and a forward for Coach Ralph Jones’s basketball squad during that same span.


Earning a UI civil engineering degree in 1920, he was hired by the Iowa Highway Commission. Ingwersen also played for Halas’s Decatur Staleys, forerunner of the Chicago Bears. Huff brought Ingwersen back to Illinois in 1921 as the school’s freshman coach in the three sports he’d previously lettered. He was Red Grange’s first collegiate coach.


When former Illini football letter winner Paul Belting was hired at athletics director by the University of Iowa in March of 1924, Belting’s first item of business was to find a replacement for football coach Howard Jones. He began negotiating with Notre Dame’s Knute Rockne to come to Iowa City. However, it turned out to only be a plot by Rockne to get a raise. When the Fighting Irish administration complied, Belting turned to the 26-year-old Ingwersen. In his first of eight years as the Hawkeyes’ head coach (1924-31), Ingwersen’s team had a 6-1-1 record, including a scoreless tie against Ohio State and a victory over Michigan. In five of his next seven years, Iowa had three winning teams and a pair of .500 ledgers, but he was fired following a 1-6-1 record in 1931.


Ingwersen then served as assistant coach at LSU and Northwestern, then entered the Navy in 1943, serving as a lieutenant commander and athletic director at North Carolina Pre-flight School in Chapel Hill.


He returned to Champaign-Urbana in 1945, helping Coach Ray Eliot teams win Big Ten titles in 1946, ’51 and ’53 as UI’s offensive and defensive line coach. When Eliot was replaced by Pete Elliott in 1960, Ingwersen continued in that role for seven more seasons, including the 1963 Big Ten championship campaign.


Following his retirement in 1966, Ingwersen remained active in Illini athletics, working with the grants-in-aid program.



He was married for nearly 45 years and had one son.


                                         Jack Beynon

Jack Beynon

July 12, 2024

Over the years, Rockford has sent a legion of special athletes to the University of Illinois, though few measure up to the accomplishments of 1930s Fighting Illini star John “Jack” Beynon.


Beynon was a three-sport star for Rockford High School, but he was best known as the star quarterback for the Rabs’ powerhouse 1930 football team. Outscoring its opponents by a cumulative score of 279-18, the talented signal caller ran for 20 touchdowns and passed for four more, including three to Rockford captain and future Illini teammate Bart Cummings.


As a player for Coach Bob Zuppke, Beynon helped the Illini rebound from back-to-back losing seasons in 1930 and ‘31. Coordinating a flea flicker-type offense that was based on principals of laterals and reverses, Beynon’s senior squad in 1934 raced to victories in each of its first six games and ended with a 7-1 mark. The highlights included a 14-13 win at Memorial Stadium versus Ohio State.


The game-winning touchdown against the Buckeyes in ’34 was eventually dubbed by scribes as the Flying Trapeze play. Starting at OSU’s 36-yard line, Illini fullback John Theodore took the ball on a direct snap and faked a dive into the line. Just before reaching the line of scrimmage, Theodore tossed a lateral to guard Chuck Bennis. Bennis dropped back and fired another lateral to halfback Les Lindberg, who sprinted to the right, then spun and fired a 25-yard cross field lateral to Beynon. The Illini captain, who had gone into the OSU secondary as though he was a potential receiver, had backtracked behind UI’s line of scrimmage. Beynon then tossed a perfect arching pass into the hands of Gene Dykstra for the deciding 36-yard TD.


Also a two-time letter winner for Coach Craig Ruby’s Illini basketball squad, Beynon was an iron horse for Zuppke’s football team in 1934, playing an estimated 297 of the 300 minutes during Illinois’s five Big Ten Conference games. He was rewarded with first-team all-league honors and second-team All-America kudos. Beynon played in the College All-Star game on a team that included future United States President Gerald Ford from Michigan.


He rejected a $150 per game offer to play for George Halas’s Chicago Bears to instead attend law school. From 1943-46, Beynon’s legal career was interrupted by a three-year Army stint during World War II.


Beynon ultimately become Winnebago County’s very first public defender in 1966. Five years later, he was appointed as an associate judge. In 1981, he became a Circuit Court judge in Rockford’s 17th district.


Jack Beynon, who was born on July 12, 1913 in Chicago, died on Oct. 17, 1989 at the age of 76.


                                         Kevin Anderson & Roger Federer

Kevin Anderson vs. Roger Federer

July 10, 2024

Six years ago this week - July 11, 2018 - for a total of four hours and 14 minutes, the tennis world was captivated by the 2018 Wimbledon quarterfinals dogfight between Fighting Illini alumnus Kevin Anderson and Roger Federer.


Predictably, experts pointed to past statistics and predicted that the match at the All England Club wouldn’t be close. After all, Federer hadn’t lost a single set in more than two year—34 in a row—and Anderson had never taken a set off of Federer in any of their four previous matches.


In the first set, Federer breezed past his six-foot-seven-inch opponent, winning 6-2. He dismantled Anderson’s typically stellar service game with three service breaks and held his own serve to love. In just 26 minutes, Federer disarmed both Anderson’s serve and his wicked forehand stroke.


Despite being schooled in set one, Anderson told the media corps afterwards that he just “tried to keep fighting. I kept telling myself that I have to keep believing that today is going to be my day.”


The lanky South African displayed remarkable resiliency in the second set, breaking Federer’s serve for the first time in a year and charging off to a 3-0 lead. However, the Swiss star managed to gather himself at the changeover and rallied for a 7-6 victory to take a 2-0 lead.


Except for Anderson himself, nary a soul expected that the former Illini star would rally against Federer. Yet Kevin remained quietly confident.


“Down two sets to love, I really tried my best to just keep fighting,” he said. “If you go out there with doubts, it’s not going to go your way.”


In set three, Federer held a match point with Anderson serving at 4-5. Kevin attacked with his forehand and got a huge break with Federer mishit a backhand passing shot. That play and a few unreturnable serves resulted in a 7-5 Anderson victory.


Said Federer after the match to the press, “I’m up two sets to one and so I wasn’t thinking of losing.”


But the quietly confident Anderson wasn’t about to concede anything either and he continued to play with a nothing-to-lose attitude. In fact, he was playing the best tennis of his life, making Federer play much faster than his normal pace. Anderson’s 6-4 victory the match at two sets apiece.


It would prove to be a legendary fifth set, staying even at 4-4, 8-8 and 10-10. At 11-11, Federer suffered a deadly error, making his first double fault of the match to give Anderson a break point. Anderson launched a 128 miles per hour serve to Federer’s backhand and the return sailed well out of bounds. Kevin Anderson humbly approached the net to shake Federer’s hand. The king of grass graciously patted Anderson’s chest in defeat and victory belonged to the former Illini.


“In the fifth set, I was really in the flow of the match,” Anderson said. “Beating Roger Federer here at Wimbledon will definitely be one that I’ll remember, but now I’ve got to get ready for my next match.”

Anderson, the eighth seed, made it past American John Isner in the semifinals. That match lasted more than six hours an included a 26-24 final set.


“I’m definitely not feeling as fresh now as I was coming into the week,” said Anderson in a major understatement.


Unfortunately, Anderson’s luck ran out in the Wimbledon finals, losing in straight sets to Novak Djokovic, 6-2, 6-2, 7-6.


“Novak beat up on me pretty bad in those first two sets,” Anderson told the crowd in his post-match address at Center Court. “I came within a point or two of pushing it to a fourth set, but Novak is the true champion of our sport. Hopefully, within the next 20 years, another South African will be standing here saying that they saw me playing here and that I served as an inspiration for them.”


Said Djokovic after the final match, “Kevin has had an incredible run. In today’s third set, he was the better player.”


Without question, the five-day period from July 11 through 15, 2018 will go down as the finest moment in Kevin Anderson’s career.


                                         Franklin "Pitch" Johnson

Franklin "Pitch" Johnson

July 8, 2024

Letterman, captain, record-holder, Olympian, Hall of Famer … Franklin Pitcher “Pitch” Johnson was all of these during a storied career that began with Coach Harry Gill’s University of Illinois track and field team.


One-hundred years ago today—July 8, 1924—Johnson enjoyed one of his proudest moments, racing by himself at the Stade Olympique near Paris, France. The unusual circumstance occurred in the seventh qualifying heat of the 110-meter hurdles of the Olympic Games when every other competitor except the native St. Louisian scratched. Qualifying for the semifinals with a run of :16.6, Johnson then participated in the first of three heats, but his time of :15.8 ultimately wasn’t good enough to make the finals.


A letter winner at Illinois in 1922, ’23 and ’24, Johnson captained the Illini during his senior season, leading the Orange and Blue to a sweep of the Big Ten indoor and outdoor championship meets. He equaled the world record in the 110 hurdles that season, posting a time of 14.8. The Illini also swept the conference crowns in Johnson’s sophomore season.


Upon returning from Paris, Johnson assisted Gill in coaching the 1924-25 Illini. In 1928, he became head coach at Drake University. He led the Bulldogs to ten conference championships and ultimately was inducted into the Drake Relays Hall of Fame. Johnson moved on to become Stanford’s head coach from 1941-43. When World War II ended in 1945, he went to the Philippines and Japan for the U.S. Army to organize and conduct the Pacific Army Olympics. Johnson entered private business in Southern California in 1947. In 2009, 42 years after his death in 1967, he was selected by the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association for that organization's hall of fame.


Johnson and his wife, Mary, had two sons, Franklin Jr. and Martin, both of whom competed in track at Stanford. Pitch Jr. was a pioneer in Silicon Valley venture capital and became a multi-millionaire through his company, Asset Management Company.


                                         John "Rocky" Ryan

John "Rocky" Ryan

July 5, 2024

John “Rocky” Ryan, one of Fighting Illini football’s most colorful players on Coach Ray Eliot’s early 1950s teams, was born 92 years ago today.


A 1950 graduate of Tolono’s Unity High School, the Rocket football teams on which Ryan played never lost a game. He also lettered in basketball and won the state of Illinois’s pole vault championship his junior year.


At 6-2 and 190 pounds, Ryan became a record-setting receiver for the Illini. As a sophomore in 1951 for the Big Ten champs, one of his two receptions that season was a six-yard touchdown catch to close out UI’s 40-7 Rose Bowl victory over Stanford.


Statistically, Ryan’s best season at Illinois came in 1952. He caught a school-record 45 passes for 714 yards and five touchdowns, including a 78-yard TD against Washington on Oct. 11, 1952. The performance earned Ryan second-team All-Big Ten honors and honorable mention All-America laurels.


Ryan was involved in an incident following Illinois’s Nov. 8, 1952 game at Iowa. Immediately following the conclusion of the Illini’s 33-13 victory, Hawkeye fans began to throw apples at UI’s player as they were leaving the field. One unfortunate Iowa supporter’s jaw was broken by a powerful Ryan punch following the fan’s advancement on the Illini player. The episode played a role in the two schools not playing a football game against each other for 15 years.


As a senior in 1953, the big redhead helped lead Illinois to a share of the Big Ten title with 16 receptions for 308 yards and four TDs. Ryan ended his career as the Illini record holder for catches (63), receiving yards (1,041) and receiving touchdowns (9).


He was a second-round pick by the Philadelphia Eagles in the 1954 National Football League Draft (21st overall pick), but his professional career was delayed by service in the United States Army.


Ryan played three NFL seasons, primarily with the Eagles, starting nine of the 28 games in which he played. Ryan’s final four pro games were as a member of the Chicago Bears. Altogether, he caught six passes for 188 yards and had two interceptions for 55 yards.


Upon retirement from football, Ryan worked in Champaign-Urbana for Illinois Bell, Prudential Insurance and JM Jones/SuperValu. He and his wife, Lucille, had four children and 10 grandchildren. Many members of the family still reside in the Twin Cities.


Rocky Ryan died on Nov. 3, 2011, at the age of 79.


                                         The Flag at Memorial Stadium

"Fourth of July" Illini

July 3, 2024

Happy 248th birthday to America on Thursday. On this patriotic day, we salute the “Fourth of July” Fighting Illini. Selected as the honorary captain of this patriotic unit is basketball legend Marcus Liberty.


ESPN’s Chris Berman didn’t help us with our research but here are our other “Independence Day” honorees: 


Johnny “Red, White & Blue” Kerr, basketball, 1952-54

Harry “Thomas” Jefferson, football, 1954-56

Gimel President, football, 2016

Kameno “Liberty” Bell, football, 1989-91

Wayne “Let Freedom” Ring, golf, 1945-47

Jenna “Independence” Hall, softball, 2003-06

Casey “George” Washington, football, 2019-21

Richard “Benjamin” Franklin, fencing, 1976-77

Betsy “Ross” Nagel, swimming, 1997-2000

Chesley Freeland, track, 1909

“Uncle Sam” Rebecca, football, 1950-51

Don Freeman, basketball, 1964-66

Susan Land (of the Free), tennis, 1994-97

Alexander “Hamilton” Palczewski, football, 2018-21

Jason Bill (of Rights), track, 2003-06

Jolette Law, basketball coach, 2007-12

Kenneth “Patriotic” Song, fencing, 1986-89

Miller Pflager, soccer, 1933-34


                                         George Huff

George Huff & The Anti-Betting Campaign

July 1, 2024

On May 14, 2018, the United States Supreme Court nullified a 1992 federal law that barred individual states for deciding for themselves whether to allow wagering on athletic events. If the old idiom was accurate, it was a day the University of Illinois’s “Father of Athletics” George Huff rolled over in his grave.


L. M. “Mike” Tobin, UI’s publicity director during Huff’s reign as athletics director, chronicled his boss’s efforts in a series of notes he wrote to preserve Illini history.

Just a month after the infamous “Black Sox Scandal” at the 1919 World Series, Huff personally witnessed the wagering frenzy when the Fighting Illini football team traveled to Columbus for its November 22 date against Ohio State. The lobby of Illinois’s own hotel was converted into a betting ring on the game, a contest won by the Illini, 9-7. Huff’s experience in Ohio ultimately was transformed into his own personal campaign against sports wagering.


“When gambling or betting is allowed to take hold of a sport, crookedness of some sort is bound to arise,” said Huff. “Betting on the success of the Orange and Blue defenders should never be tolerated. Leaders of college athletics here should do their utmost to prevent such a practice creeping into our university. I have always been opposed to student gambling and wish to see it entirely banished, for it is a practice out of keeping with the high ideals and standards of students at Illinois.”


UI’s student newspaper, the Daily Illini, joined forces with Huff and began an anti-betting editorial campaign during the fall of 1920.


“The game of football has not been reduced to the level of baseball’s present status,” the DI wrote. “There is no denying, however, that gambling has hurt football, is hurting it on the Illinois campus today, and if unchecked can proceed to the sport’s ruin.”


Soon, Dean Charles Thompson of UI’s College of Commerce joined the effort, crystallizing sentiment against betting.


“Student opinion is the only thing that can save football,” Thompson said. “If the students would get together and ride the first professional gamblers out of town on a rail, they would soon be freed front the taint of gambling on football. The worst thing about it is the constant temptation the football players themselves be subjected to. Five thousand dollars would look very big to a player who was having a hard time making his way through school.”


Prior to Illinois football’s 1920 season finale in Champaign against Ohio State, Huff addressed the Champaign Rotary Club.


“We want no such disgraceful scenes as were enacted at last year’s game in Columbus,” Huff said. “I believe there is a strong sentiment among students against betting and the business men of Champaign and Urbana should also do their part. Beyond a doubt, we can deal a body blow to gambling on football games.”


The athletic department distributed a placard to help the crusade. It read as follows:

IN ORDER TO DO ITS PART TOWARD PROTECTING COLLEGE SPORT FROM HARMFUL INFLUENCE, THIS PLACE WILL REFUSE TO HOLD BETS OF UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS ATHLETIC CONTESTS!


Signs were displayed in every local hotel, billiard hall and other places that might have been asked to back either Illinois or the opposing team.


The University Pan-Hellenic Council joined the drive as well, publishing a resolution regarding gambling, which read: “Resolved that the fraternities of the University of Illinois stand opposed to gambling on all University athletic contests; that any organized house violating this rule be suspended from the council for a period of one year; and that copies of this resolution be sent to the inter-fraternity councils of the Big Ten Conference.”


At the season-ending football banquet on November 29, 1920, Huff thanked those who had helped in the campaign, saying, “The anti-betting campaign has produced remarkable results.”


                                         Charles Flachmann

Charles Flachmann

June 21, 2024

One of the University of Illinois’ most brilliant athletes during the 1930s was swimmer Charles Flachmann.


Born June 21, 1913, in St. Louis, Mo., he starred for Coach Ed Manley’s Fighting Illini as a freestyle sprinter. Flachmann lettered in 1933, ’34 and ’35, winning NCAA 50-meter free titles as a junior (:23.8) and senior (:23.0). He also was the NCAA’s 100-meter champ in 1935 (:52.4).


Flachmann dominated the ‘35 Big Ten meet, leading the field in dash events and as anchorman on the record-setting 440 yard relay team. He was an art major at Illinois.


In 1944, during World War II, Flachmann served as a coordinator of swimming for the 7th Army Air Force in the Central Pacific. He taught water survival courses for nurses who evacuated wounded soldiers over frequent flights across the Pacific Ocean.


When Flachmann returned to civilian life, he worked as an insurance broker in St. Louis and also was an amateur artist. He died at the age of 69 in 1983.



                                         Jake Hansen

Jake Hansen

June 19, 2024

Had it not been for a torn ACL in game six of his senior season, former Fighting Illini linebacker Jake Hansen just might have concluded his collegiate career on top of Big Ten football’s list for forced fumbles.


The native of Tarpon Springs, Fla., who celebrates his 26th birthday today, was on a pace to not only leave Illinois as the school’s all-time leader in that category, but he also was just three away from tying the all-time Big Ten record. With 12 forced fumbles to his credit, Hansen needed to jar only one more ball loose from an opponent’s grasp to tie Hall of Famer Simeon Rice for the all-time Illini mark.


However, an unfortunate physical setback in 2021 against Wisconsin wiped out all of those very realistic statistical objectives.


Among all-time Illini, Hansen was in celebrated defensive company, having notched one more forced takeaway than future NFL star Whitney Mercilus (11) and two more than former teammate Stanley Green (10).


Former Coach Bill Cubit’s staff first noticed Hansen’s potential at Florida’s East Lake High School, though Jake had already pledged his future to Iowa State. When a Cyclone coaching change took place and Lovie Smith assumed duties as the Illini head coach, the course began to shift for both Jake and his dad, former BYU star Shad Hansen.


“When you’re a defensive player—especially a linebacker—there’s no better person to play for than Lovie,” the elder Hansen remembered. “From Jake’s perspective, it was like hitting the lottery.”


Illinois’ No. 35 saw action in every game that freshman season (2016), but his spirit was deflated the following August when he suffered a season-ending knee injury in fall camp.


“I’m not a very patient person,” Hansen said, “so I had to wait for my time. It gave me a chance to see the game from a different perspective.”


Months and months of therapy got Hansen back on the field for the 2018 season opener against Kent State and he responded with an eye-popping effort, totaling a school-record-tying six tackles for loss among his 15 stops. At the season-ending banquet, Hansen was presented with the Bruce Capel Award for courage, dedication and accomplishment.


In 2019, Hansen earned All-Big Ten honorable mention from both the coaches and the media, despite missing the final four games with an injury. In the COVID season of 2020, he continued to elevate his play, leading the nation in forced fumbles (7) and graduating to second-team All-Big Ten. Figuring that his draft status was at its peak, Hansen announced plans to leave the college ranks and begin training for a spot in the NFL. A conversation with new Illini head coach Bret Bielema convinced to return to Illinois for a sixth season in 2022.


Unfortunately, in game six against Wisconsin, Hansen tore his ACL, prematurely ending his collegiate career. He continued his classwork and graduated in December of 2021 with a Master’s degree in Recreation, Sport, and Tourism.

 

In two seasons with the NFL's Houston Texans, Hansen has appeared in 25 games and compiled 37 tackles.


                                         Andy Dixon

Andy Dixon

June 14, 2024

Thirty-nine years ago today - June 14, 1985 - Andy Dixon was promoted to head equipment manager at the University of Illinois, succeeding Marion Brownfield.


A former national speed skating champion, Dixon was an all-state football player at Champaign Central High School under Coach Tom Stewart. In Central’s 1970 victory over Danville Schlarman, Dixon rushed for 187 yards and three touchdowns.


He was recruited to Wyoming in 1972 by his first coach, Fritz Shurmur, and later played for Coach Fred Akers. Dixon was the Cowboys’ leading rusher in 1973, averaging 5.4 yards per attempt on 90 carries. He was the team’s top scorer in 1975, a season when he also co-captained Wyoming. After graduating from UW with a bachelor’s degree in education, the NFL’s Dallas Cowboys gave him a free agent tryout.


Dixon taught and coached for three years at Cheyenne Central High School in Wyoming and for one additional year in Las Vegas. Brownfield hired him as the Fighting Illini’s assistant equipment manager in 1981. Twenty one years later, in 2002, Dixon was honored as the Athletic Equipment Manager Association’s National Equipment Manager of the Year. He retired in 2010.


He and his wife, Cheryl, have two daughters, Whitney and Andrea, and are residents of Champaign.


                                         Karen Brems

Karen Brems

June 12, 2024

In 1983-84, University of Illinois women’s gymnast Karen Brems became the first Fighting Illini athlete to be named as the school's Athlete of the Year and the Big Ten Conference Medal of Honor Award winner in the same season.


As a youngster in Urbana, she idolized gymnasts like Olga Korbut and Nadia Comaneci, dreaming of herself becoming an Olympic competitor one day.


Under the tutelage of Coach Bev Mackes at Illinois, Brems qualified for the NCAA Championships as a sophomore in 1982, but eventually realized that she would probably fall short of her aspirations to become an Olympian.


“I thought I was pretty much done in competitive sports,” she said.


Brems continued to be a fitness enthusiast, so she took up running and cycling, then competing in triathlons. Cycling turned out to be much kinder to her body and she quickly advanced from regional and national meets to the Tour de France and world championship competition. In 2000, Brems accomplished her Olympic dream, competing in the Sydney, Australia games.


At the 2016 USA Cycling Cyclocross National Championships in Asheville, N.C., Brems won the Master Women’s 50-54 title, riding for SunPower Racing.


Celebrating her birthday on June 13th, she now lives in Palo Alto, Calif., working for Hewlett Packard as a software engineer.


                                         Charlie Finn

Charlie Finn

June 10, 2024

Champaign’s Charlie Finn was one of those individuals who easily qualified as an Illini “Super Fan”, but the man who would have celebrated his 91st birthday today always took his pride a couple of inches further than most.


A four-year manager for Coach Ray Eliot’s Illinois football teams and the squad’s senior manager in 1954, the Gibson City native directed a student staff of 18 individuals that served 140 players. They executed a wide variety of responsibilities, assisting the coaches and equipment staff with the organization of practices and games.


During Finn’s years at Illinois, the Illini won the Big Ten and national championships in 1951, registered a 40-7 victory over Stanford in the ’52 Rose Bowl, and claimed another conference title in ’53.


Following his graduation from Illinois in 1955 with a marketing degree and two years of active duty in the Army, he began a long career in the furniture business, including five years with his family’s company in Gibson City, then nearly 30 years with Kroehler Manufacturing in Naperville, on the West Coast, in Minneapolis, Dallas and Westerville, Ohio. When Kroehler went out of business, he became a partner in a company called Professional Furniture Marketing.

  

Finn was always a very active supporter of his alma mater, serving as a member of the Dean’s Business Council. He received the Alumni Association’s Loyalty Award in 2004. Finn was a season ticket holder for 35 years and was a member of the DIA’s Loyalty Circle for 10 years.


On August 23, 2013, his play “Red Grange: The Galloping Ghost Returns to the Virginia Theater” was presented in Champaign.


Finn and his wife of 64 years, Blanche, had two children and two grandchildren. Charlie died in December of 2018.


                                         Mac Wenskunas

Mac Wenskunas

June 7, 2024

Some 67 years after his death in a tragic automobile accident, Georgetown, Illinois’ Michael “Mac” Wenskunas remains as his Vermilion County hometown’s most famous native son.


Born June 8, 1922, Wenskunas was a two-sport star at Georgetown High, winning all-state honors as a football halfback in his senior year (1939). He remained out of school until 1941 when he enrolled at the University of Illinois and joined Coach Bob Zuppke’s final Illini team.


Wenskunas played defensive center at just 181 pounds for rookie coach Ray Eliot’s 1942 squad, and was twice named “Big Ten Center of the Week.”  He enlisted in the Marines following that sophomore season and was sent to the University of Notre Dame for training. He eventually was commissioned as a second lieutenant at Quantico, Va.


“Old 23”, as his teammates called him, Wenskunas returned to the U of I in time for the Illini’s 1945 season. He played virtually all 60 minutes in every one of Illinois’s nine games and was named UI’s Most Valuable Player.


As UI’s senior captain in 1946, Wenskunas helped the Illini win six of their seven Big Ten games and capture the Big Ten crown. Illinois went on to defeat UCLA in the Rose Bowl, 45-14, finishing fifth in the Associated Press’s final ranking. So popular was Wenskunas that Illinois’s Oct. 5, 1946 game at Memorial Stadium was “Mac Wenskunas Day.”


A 25-year-old Wenskunas became head football coach at Quincy College in 1947. His three Quincy teams went 4-3 (1947), 7-2 (1948) and 8-1 (1949). Wenskunas was inducted into Quincy’s Hall of Fame in 1974.


In 1950, Wenskunas became head coach at North Dakota State. He was relieved of his duties after four seasons, going 11-21-1.


He then became a salesman for the Josten Jewelry Company and lived with his wife and four children in Decatur.


On Aug. 3, 1957, Wenskunas, his wife, and three others were killed in a two-car collision near Boody, Ill. He’s buried at Calvary Catholic Cemetery in Decatur.


                                         Penn State Nittany Lions

Penn State Joins the Big Ten

June 5, 2024

On this date 34 years ago—June 5, 1990—it was announced that Pennsylvania State University had joined the Big Ten Conference.


Just four months into his first term of commissioner of the conference, Jim Delany first seriously entertained the suggestion brought to him by then University of Illinois President Stanley Ikenberry, a Penn State graduate. Delany’s sister had attended Penn State as a graduate student, so he knew of PSU’s reputation as a strong academic institution and its rich history in athletics.


“The Big Ten hadn’t changed since Michigan State became a member in 1949,” said Delany, “but I thought the opportunity to expand towards the east coast was a no brainer.”


Following months of study and discussion, the process climaxed with a vote at a meeting in Iowa City. It was unanimous: Penn State was in.


“History has since proven that it was a tremendous fit for both sides,” said Delany.


                                         Renee Carr-Foster

Renee Carr-Foster

June 4, 2024

Former Fighting Illini track and field standout Renee Carr-Foster, whose name is sprinkled throughout the University of Illinois record book, celebrates her birthday on June 4th.


A star sprinter at Science Park High School in Newark, N.J., Coach Gary Winckler helped her become a five-time All-American and a 14-time Big Ten champion. Carr-Foster, Celena Mondie-Milner and Leticia Beverly helped Winckler’s 1989 Illini capture Big Ten indoor and outdoor team championships. Carr-Foster also starred for Illinois’ 1988 conference champs.


She left Illinois as the school record-holder in the 400-meter dash (53.88 in 1990) and was a member of the top 4z100 and 4x400 relay squads.


Now married and living in Piscataway, N.J., Carr-Foster’s daughter, Janee, ran track at Montclair State.


Renee Carr-Foster’s Big Ten titles:

1986 (outdoors) … 4x100m relay

1987 (indoors) … 4x400m relay

1987 (outdoors) … 4x100m relay and 4x400m

1989 (indoors) … 400m dash and 4x440y relay

1989 (outdoors) … 400m dash, 4x100m relay and 4x400m relay

1990 (indoors) … 400m dash and 4x400m relay

1990 (outdoors) … 400m dash, 4x100m relay and 4x400m relay


                                         1947 Big Ten Track & Field program

1947 Big Ten Track & Field

May 31, 2024

Seventy-seven years ago today—May 31, 1947—Fighting Illini teams capped a fabulous athletics season with a historic 39-point victory at the Big Ten Championships by Coach Leo Johnson’s track and field squad.


In capturing its third consecutive outdoor title, Illinois athletes claimed six individual titles and tied for a seventh. The Illini rolled up 69 ½ points, more than doubling the total of runner-up Wisconsin’s 30 ½ points. The only more significant margin in Big Ten track history was recorded 41 years earlier in 1906 when Michigan out-distanced Chicago by 42 points.


Performing in front of a crowd of 10,000 spectators at Northwestern’s Dyche Stadium, the Illini’s most disappointing moment came in the first event—the mile run—when Wisconsin’s 18-year-old freshman Don Gehrmann dethroned UI’s 1946 champ Bob Rehberg, the second-place finisher.


The second race—the 440-yard dash—was won by Illini senior Herb McKenley who circled the track in a time of :47.4. Moments later, McKenley placed fifth in the 100 dash, but teammate Bill Mathis more than made up for his teammate’s disappointing finish with a winning time of :09.8.


McKenley bounced back with a victory in the 220-dash (:21.5), while teammate Bill Cook placed fourth in the race.


In high jump competition, Illinois’s Dwight “Dike” Eddleman cleared the bar at 6’5 ¾”, an inch higher than Wisconsin’s Gil Hertz and Tom DeYoung. UI’s Harry Anderson achieved his best outdoor jump in two years (6’3 ¾”), tying for fourth place.


The two-mile run saw Illini senior John Twomey beat Indiana’s Don Snyder, finishing in a time of 9:33.5.


Champaign native and future Illini Hall of Famer Bob Richards tied for the pole vault title with Northwestern’s Billy Moore and Wisconsin’s Tom Bennett with a jump of 13’8”.


The day’s best race was in the mile relay, the meet’s final event. Charles Beile opened for Illinois and gave UI second-leg McKenley the baton in fifth place. The Jamaican regained lost ground and handed the stick to LeRoy Vranek for the third lap. Rehberg, the Illini anchor, outraced Ohio State’s Ed Porter in the final 440 yards, nipping his Buckeye rival by a yard at the tape to win the title.


                                         Will Thomson

1954 Big Ten Track & Field

May 29, 2024

Seventy years ago today - May 29, 1954 - Illinois’ Willard "Will" Thomson and Willie Williams each won two events and led Illinois to the Big Ten Track and Field Championship at Purdue University. The Illini out-distanced second-place Michigan, 57 to 40 1/7.


Thomson captured titles in the 120 high hurdles (:14.4) and the 220 low hurdles (:24.1) while Williams was victorious in both the 100 dash (:09.8) and the 220 dash (:21.9).


As one of Galva, Illinois’ most accomplished athletes, Thomson eventually became a national champion for Illinois in the 120 hurdles and won a total of six Big Ten hurdles championships under the tutelage of Coach Leo Johnson.


Soon after Thomson’s graduation from the U of I, he began his career with General Motors in Dayton, Ohio. However, in 1957, Thomson returned to his hometown to work in his grandfather’s company, Dixline Corporation. Eventually, Will replaced his father, Willard, and spent 45 years as president and chairman of the company, one of the city’s oldest businesses. 


In 2010, Will Thomson was named as Galva’s Citizen of the Year by the Galva Chamber of Commerce.



                                         Cam McDonald

Cam McDonald

May 27, 2024

Cam McDonald, one of only three five-time varsity letter winners in Fighting Illini baseball history, marks his 24th birthday today.


The multi-positional standout from Ladd, Ill. and graduate of Spring Valley Hall High School will be best remembered for his iron-man durability, starting 219 of the 220 Illini games in which he appeared. The only game McDonald didn’t start came on Feb. 21, 2020 against Western Carolina when he entered the lineup as a pinch hitter.


His Illinois career also was highlighted by setting a new program record for reaching base safely in 63 consecutive games (May 8, 2021 through May 27, 2022). During that amazing span, he hit .345 and earned 71 bases on balls.


McDonald broke into the collegiate ranks with a bang in 2019, starting all 57 Illini as a freshman. A .281 batting average and a team-high 34 RBI landed him a spot on the All-Big Ten rookie team.


After slumping during the COVID-shortened 2020 season, he raised his batting average 100 points (.249) in 2021, starting all 44 games and playing flawlessly in the outfield on 96 chances.


McDonald’s junior year performance in 2022 was spectacular, hitting .363 with seven home runs and 59 runs batted in through 53 starts. His average over Illinois’ last 24 games that season was .444, earning him second-team All-Big Ten honors.


In the recently concluded 2023 campaign, McDonald collected at least one hit in 41 of UI’s 53 games, batting .286. He wound up with a .289 career average.


McDonald’s name will be sprinkled amongst the top performers in multiple Illini career categories, including hits (eighth with 254) and RBI (ninth with 162). His 44 career doubles and 364 total bases finished just shy of making those top ten registers.


Academically, McDonald received his bachelor’s degree a year ago in Recreation, Sport and Tourism. In 2023, he received his graduate certificate in Strategic Leadership and Management.


Illini Career Hits Leaders

1.    297, Tim Richardson (1980-83)

2.    289, Craig Marquie (1997-2000)

3.    286, Andy Schutzenhofer (2000-03)

4.    268, Dave Payton (1984-87)

5.    263, Dusty Rhodes (1995-98)

6.    257, Todd McClure (1996-99)

7.    256, Brian McClure (1993-96)

8.    254, Cam McDonald (2019-23)

9.    250, Ryan Hastings (2004-08)

10. 247, Branden Comia (2019-23)


                                         The Brown boys - Kent (left) and Dee

Kent Brown

May 24, 2024

Happy 61st Birthday to Kent Brown, University of Illinois' former Associate Athletics Director for Communications. The 1981 graduate of Atwood-Hammond High School earned both his bachelor’s (journalism) and master’s degrees (sports management) from Illinois and became assistant director of sports information for the Illini in 1989. In 1996, Brown was named sports information director at Kansas State, working with Coach Bill Snyder’s nationally ranked football team. At KSU, his efforts helped quarterback Michael Bishop finish second in the 1998 Heisman Trophy balloting. Brown returned to Champaign-Urbana in 2000 to head up Illinois’ communications office. Among the athletes he helped promote include Dee Brown, Frank Williams, Deron Williams and Brian Cook.

 

Kent Brown’s Top 10 Illini Media Personalities:

1.    Bill Self – “Never witnessed anyone who handles media like him.”

2.    Nathan Scheelhaase – “Was team spokesman for four years, through thick and thin.”

3.    Dee Brown – “Loved the attention and had more fun with the media experience than anyone I’ve been around.”

4.    Brit Miller – “Folksy, home-spun charm with everyone he spoke to. Watch ‘The Journey’.”

5.    Simeon Rice – “We think he made up words whenever doing interviews.”

6.    J Leman – “He’s honest and has a big personality.”

7.    John Groce – “Very close to Bill Self in terms of a coach knowing how to play the media game.”

8.    Lucas Johnson – “Made life fun for everyone (except for Lute Olson), including media.”

9.    James Augustine – “Not the biggest personality during his era, but his goofiness played great with the media.”

10. Kendall Gill – “Took media seriously, yet was friendly and accommodating.”


                                         George Walker

George Walker

May 22, 2024

On this date 76 years ago – May 22, 1948 – Fighting Illini speedster George Walker came within a whisker of a world record in one event and was victorious in two others as Illinois defeated Michigan State in a dual meet at Memorial Stadium.


The 5-foot-11, 165-pound senior from Chicago won the 100-yard dash (:09.7), the high hurdles (:14.3), and then the 220-yard low hurdles in an Illinois and Stadium record time of :22.6. Only the legendary Jesse Owens’ world record time of :22.5 was faster than Walker’s performance at that time.


Exactly one month later in Evanston, at a Big Ten-Pacific Coast Conference all-star track meet, Walker teamed with Indiana’s Tom Mitchell, Ohio State’s Dick Maxwell and Northwestern’s Bill Porter to set a new world mark in the 480-yard shuttle hurdle relay event (:56.8).


Walker, who competed for Coach Leo Johnson at Illinois from 1945-48, was an instant success for the Illini as a freshman. He won both the low and high hurdles at the 1945 Big Ten indoor meet, then the 100 dash and both hurdles events outdoors. At the NCAA meet that year, Walker captured individual titles in the 120 highs (:14.9) and the 220 lows (:24.0).


As a senior in 1948 at the NCAAs, he won the 400-meter intermediate hurdles event (:52.4) and placed sixth at 110 meters.


At the 1948 Olympic Trials at Northwestern’s Dyche Stadium, Walker barely missed qualifying for the Americans in the 400-meter hurdles.


He recorded a master’s degree from the UI in 1950, then was hired by St. Augustine’s College in Raleigh, N.C. At the historically black institution, Walker served as chairman of the department of health and education and as the head track coach and athletic director. During his 11 years at St. Augustine, Walker also coached boxing and wrestling and served as an assistant coach in football and basketball.


In 1966 when his father fell ill, Walker returned to his hometown of Robbins, Ill. to become assistant principal of the Posen-Robbins School District. He served in that capacity until the late 1980s.


Walker died in October of 2003 at the age of 77.


                                         Steve Greene

Steve Greene

May 17, 2024

Steve Greene, former University of Illinois football star and UI Director of Development, celebrates his 70th birthday today.


A four-year letter winner under head coach Bob Blackman from 1971-75, he wrapped up his career with 1,228 rushing yards, a total that ranked 12-best at the time his eligibility ended. Greene’s best single effort was a 121-yard game against Indiana.


The 1976 UI graduate serves more than 20 years with Illinois’ Office of Athletic Development. Greene’s first 13 years as a staff member were spent in Chicago where he managed the I Fund office. He also was Director of Development for the athletic department.


Today, the Mahomet resident is an independent management and fundraising consultant.


                                         1988 Illini Golf Team

1988 Big Ten Golf Champs

May 15, 2024

On this day in University of Illinois men’s golf history - May 15, 1988 - Coach Ed Beard’s Fighting Illini breezed to the school’s first Big Ten team title in 47 years, outdistancing runner-up Ohio State by 20 strokes.


The victory at Savoy’s 6,596-yard Orange Course snapped a streak of six consecutive first-place finishes by Ohio State. Illinois’ team win capped a sensational improvement from last place just three seasons earlier in 1985.


The Illini quintet of seniors Mike Small and Don Edwards, junior Steve Stricker, and sophomores Kevin Fairfield and Heath Crawford overwhelmed a Buckeye squad that was led by Chris Smith and Anthony Adams.


Stricker’s four-round, nine-under-par total of 279 won medalist honors and included a round of 69 and three of 70 strokes. He was 14 shots better than Smith and teammate Small.


The final day of competition was made much more difficult by extremely windy conditions.


“I remember the wind blowing over tents,” Beard said. “Steve and Mike both played the last nine holes in a gale, but we were used to it.”


Small agreed with his coach, saying “I think the wind got to other teams and really messed them up.”


Illinois, which last won the Big Ten championship in 1940 and ’41, collected its seventh team title altogether.


                                         Josh Klimek

Josh Klimek

May 13, 2024

Josh Klimek, whose name is most closely associated with home runs in the Fighting Illini baseball record book, set a Big Ten record in another category 28 years ago today.


In a May 20, 1996 game against Chicago State, Cougar pitchers wisely avoided the UI slugger by walking him an Illinois Field record four times. This, of course, occurred during a season in which Klimek would slam a record 26 home runs, seven more than the 19 that Forry Wells had hit in 1994 and the 19 that Scott Spiezio belted in 1992.


A multi-sport star at St. John Vianney High School in St. Louis, Klimek had baseball scholarship offers from Michigan State, Clemson and UCLA, and a combined baseball/soccer offer from St. Louis University.


During his big season in 1996, Klimek said he remembered no one particular home run above the other.


“What stood out to me were the hot streaks I got in,” he said. “ I think I had a stretch of six or seven games where I hit at least one. I was always more of a gap-to-gap hitter with some decent power, but never hit with this much power in one season.”


In eight minor league seasons, primarily spent with the Milwaukee Brewers organization, Klimek hit 80 home runs but, at age 28, decided to leave baseball before he was able to reach the majors.


“Once you start reaching that certain age and haven't made it yet, your chances diminish,” he said. “I could have continued to play but I had a semester at the U of I to complete in order to graduate. It was something I really wanted to do and it was going to be easier the younger I was.”


Klimek was able to complete his degree in sports marketing. He's worked at Midwest Bankcentre in St. Louis since 2003.


Klimek’s favorite home run hitters:


1. Darryl Strawberry – “He was my guy growing up. Smooth swing with power.”

2. Ken Griffey Jr. – “Sweet lefty swing.”

3. Albert Pujols – “Best all around hitter of my generation. Consistent.”

4. Mark McGwire – “Pure power, with or without help.”

5. Barry Bonds – “Great short swing.”

6. Stan Musial – “I admired the way he modestly played the game.”

7. Fred McGriff – “Nice lefty swing.”

8. David Ortiz – “His massive hack/swing and glowing personality.”

9. Chipper Jones – “Great switch hitter with power from both sides of the plate.”

10. Alex Rodriguez – “Great all around hitter.”


                                         William Woolston

William Woolston

May 10, 2024

Sixty-seven years ago today—May 10, 1957—Dr. William H. Woolston died at the age of 67 in Albuquerque, N.M.


“Woolie”, as he was known by his University of Illinois football and basketball teammates, was a native of Geneva, born in January of 1890. He transferred to Illinois after a year of initially attending Cornell University.


On the gridiron, Woolston was a talented halfback and fullback for Coach Arthur Hall, and also was the team’s punter and placekicker. As a 20-year-old sophomore in 1910, he was an integral member of the undefeated, unscored-upon Big Ten champs. Woolston captained the 1912 Fighting Illini and received second-team all-conference honors that year.


In basketball, he lettered as an Illini guard for Coach T.E. Thompson in 1910-11 and ’11-12, captaining the latter squad.


After graduating from Illinois in 1913 with a degree in science, Woolston studied medicine at Northwestern University. He interned at Chicago’s St. Luke’s Hospital, then served at Cook County Hospital. In 1917, Woolston became a lieutenant for the U.S. Army Medical Service in France during World War I. He also was a professor at the University of Chicago’s School of Medicine.


While working in the Chicago hospitals, Woolston was exposed to and diagnosed with tuberculosis. He suffered a series of acute pulmonary hemorrhages and, in an attempt to improve his health, moved to Albuquerque, N.M. in 1922 to begin a distinguished surgical practice. Dr. Woolston, known as “Uncle Billy” to his colleagues at Presbyterian Hospital, practiced general surgery and gynecology. Later in life, he was President of the Southwestern Medical Association.


He had an unusual habit of whistling in the operating room so that he could obstruct his air column, inflating his lungs to absorb additional oxygen.


Woolston and his wife, Alice, were beloved residents of Albuquerque. Their son, Timothy, became a respected attorney in the community, serving in that capacity for 50 years.


                                         Lowell Hamilton

Lowell Hamilton: By the Numbers

May 3, 2024

Happy 58th Birthday to former Flying Illini starter Lowell Hamilton. From 1985-86 through 1988-89, his Illini basketball teams compiled an overall record of 99-33 and 50-22 in Big Ten contests. Hamilton’s ’88-89 Illini made it to the Final Four with a 31-5 record.


Ranked as the nation’s top high school player by Street & Smith Magazine, Hamilton struggled as an Illini freshman. Averaging just 3.7 points and 1.7 rebounds, he came off the bench in each of the 24 games in which he appeared in ’85-86.


Hamilton started 22 of Illinois’s 31 games as a sophomore, averaging 10.8 points and 3.9 rebounds.


As a junior, he split time with Jens Kujawa at center, starting only six of the 33 contests in which he played.


Hamilton enjoyed his greatest success as a senior, averaging 13.6 points, ranking behind Nick Anderson (18.0), Kenny Battle (16.6) and Kendall Gill (15.4). Co-captaining the Flying Illini with Battle, he scored at least 10 points in 27 of his team’s 36 games that year.


Today, he’s a physical education teacher and the junior varsity basketball coach at Tallulah Falls High School in northeast Georgia. Hamilton and his wife, Adrianna, have three children.


Lowell Hamilton’s career, by the numbers:


1              Number of three-pointers he scored at Illinois (of three career attempts).


8              Hamilton was one of eight children in his family.


9              Seasons he played professionally overseas (Turkey, Greece and Israel).


11.6       His points per game average in UI’s five 1989 NCAA Tournament games.


12           Top single-game rebounds performance (at Indiana, 3/4/89).


13.9       His scoring average as a senior at Illini home games.


20           Hamilton is one of only 20 Illini players who averaged at least 10 points per game during a four-year career.


24           His single-game high-point game (vs. LSU, vs. Georgia Tech and vs. Iowa, all during the 1988-89 season.


45           Jersey number at Illinois.


.534       His shooting percentage from the field as an Illini.


.694       Illinois basketball’s winning percentage in Big Ten games during his four seasons.


.892       Providence St. Mel High School’s winning percentage during Hamilton’s four years as a starter.


1,241    Total points he scored during his Illini career, 29th on UI’s list of top point producers.


1985     Year he was selected as the Chicago Sun Times Class A Player of the Year.


                                         Brian Bock

The 1981 Illini Baseball Team

May 1, 2024

Forty-three years ago this week—May 3, 1981—the Fighting Illini baseball team swept Northwestern in a Big Ten-ending series. The 4-1 and 6-0 victories gave Illinois a final conference record of 11-3, enough to send it into the first-ever Big Ten playoffs.


Todd Schmitke supported Randy Conte’s three-hit gem in the opener with a two-RBI single. In the second game, Dave Wuethrich hurled a complete-game shutout. The two wins lifted Illinois’ record to 34-23, breaking a single-season record of 32 set by UI’s 1928 team.


When Coach Tom Dedin made a preseason prediction that his ’81 Illini baseball team would win the Big Ten’s West Division, many followers arched their eyebrows and had a cynical snicker. And coming off an 18 and 33 record in 1980, who could blame them. Illinois’ 4-13 spring-training record, which included eight games against Oklahoma and Oklahoma State, made the skeptics’ doubt grow even more, but it didn’t dampen Dedin’s enthusiasm. Once the Illini began their home schedule, their confidence grew with each passing game.


Riding a talented group of hitters and a staff of adept pitchers, the Illini won 15 of its next 17 games. The top half of the lineup, including Tim Richardson (.372), Todd Schmitke (.362), Brian Bock (.347), Brian White (.312) and Dave Rear (.300), combined for 33 home runs and 178 RBI.


Once it got on base, the team stole a team-record 113 bases. UI’s pitching staff, including right-handers Dave Wuethrich (8-3), Dennis Johnson (5-1) and Randy Conte (8-5), were nearly unbeatable in Conference games and freshman Jeff Innis supplied terrific relief pitching.


The Illini finished 11-3 in the West, but stumbled in the Big Ten playoffs.


“This group has learned how to win,” said Dedin. “They gave us a hell of a year.”


                                           Dike Eddleman

Illini & The Drake Relays Hall of Fame

Apr. 29, 2024

On this date 47 years ago—April 29, 1977—Fighting Illini track and field legends Harry Gill and Leo Johnson were among six charter class members inducted into the Drake Relays Coaches Hall of Fame. They joined Wisconsin’s Tom Jones, Texas’s Clyde Littlefield, Drake and Kansas’s Bill Easton, and Drake’s Major John Griffith. Griffith latter would later serve as the first Commissioner of the Big Ten Conference (1922-24).


Gill, a native of Orillia, Ontario, Canada, came to the University of Illinois from Beloit College. He guided Illini track and field fortunes from 1904-29, then again from 1931-33. In 1921 he organized the very first NCAA championship in any sport, and his Illini won the inaugural event in addition to a second title in 1927. Gill died in 1956 at the age of 80.


Johnson, Illinois’ head coach from 1938-65, was a football and track star at Decatur’s Millikin College, then returned to serve as head coach of all of Big Blue sports in 1923. He guided Fighting Illini teams to 17 Big Ten titles and three national championships. Johnson died in 1982 at the age of 88.


The complete list of eleven Illini coaches and athletes in the Drake Relays Hall of Fame (established in 1959):


1959 - Harold Osborn, High Jump and Decathlon

1959 - Dwight “Dike” Eddleman, High Jump

1963 - Lee Sentman, Illinois, Hurdles

1966 - George Kerr, Illinois, 880

1967 - Milton Angier, Illinois, Javelin

1977 - Harry Gill, Illinois, 1904-33

1977 - Leo Johnson, Illinois, 1938-65

1987 - Charlton Ehizuelen, Illinois, Long Jump/Triple Jump

1991 - Gary Wieneke, Illinois, 1975-2003

2010 - Perdita Felicien, Illinois, 100mH/Relays

2010 - Gary Winckler, Florida State/Illinois, 1982-2008

2019 - Celena Mondie-Milner, Illinois, Sprints/Relays

2019 - Mike Turk, Illinois, 2011-present


                                           Jimmy Collins and Dick Nagy

Jimmy Collins & Dick Nagy

Apr. 26, 2024

On the same month and day, but four years apart, two of Illinois basketball’s greatest assistant coaches were hired by Lou Henson.


On April 26, 1979, Dick Nagy joined Tony Yates as a Henson assistant, replacing Les Wothke who had left Illinois to become head coach Western Michigan. Nagy needed no introduction to Henson or his basketball philosophies. He had played for Henson at Hardin-Simmons and was the captain of Henson’s final squad in Abilene in 1996. At the time, Nagy was just three years out of high school ball in Syracuse, N.Y. From the 1979-80 season through the ’95-96 season, he helped Henson’s Illini post winning Big Ten records in 14 of those 17 campaigns. During that span, Illinois won one Big Ten title, placed second three times, and finish third four times. Nagy went on to serve as Jimmy Collins’ assistant at UI-Chicago for five additional seasons and helped the Flames achieve their first-ever NCAA Tournament appearance.


It was on April 26, 1983 that Collins was named to the Illini staff. Like Nagy, Collins also was a native of Syracuse and a former Henson pupil. Collins was a senior All-America guard at New Mexico State in 1970, the year NMSU made its only NCAA Final Four appearance. He then was drafted 11th overall in the 1970 NBA Draft and played two seasons. Collins joined Henson’s Aggie staff as a graduate assistant coach in ‘72, then moved to Chicago four years later. He was a probation officer in Chicago when Henson hired him to replace Tony Yates. In Collins’ very first season at Illinois—1983-84—Illinois tied for the Big Ten title. Though the Illini wouldn’t again reach that championship level over the next dozen seasons, UI placed second twice, third three times, and fourth four times. Collins became UIC’s head coach in 1996-97 and continued in that role for 13 more years. The Flames made three NCAA Tournament appearances and qualified for the NIT one other time.


Jimmy Collins and Dick Nagy’s Top Ten Memories of the 1988-89 Season


1.    Mar. 26 vs. Syracuse: The Illini earned a spot in the Final Four.

2.    Dec. 19 vs. Missouri: Kenny Battle scored 28 points as UI improved its record to 18-0. Illini overcame an 18-point deficit.

3.    Mar. 4 at Indiana: Nick Anderson hit a miracle three-pointer at IU’s Assembly Hall.

4.    Mar. 24 vs. Louisville: Illinois won its 30th game behind Anderson’s 24 points.

5.    Jan. 22 vs. Georgia Tech: Illini earned No. 1 ranking with a two-overtime victory.

6.    Dec. 22 at LSU: Illini crushed the Tigers by 27 points in Baton Rouge, scoring a school-record 127 points.

7.    Mar. 11 at Michigan: UI won a school-record 27th game at Ann Arbor.

8.    Feb. 9 vs. Ohio State: Stephen Bardo held Buckeye star Jay Burson to nine points.

9.    Jan. 25 vs. Indiana: Illini snapped league-leading Indiana’s 13-game victory streak.

10. Mar. 8 vs. Iowa: Lowell Hamilton, Battle and Anderson played their final home game. Kendall Gill returned to the Illini line-up.


                                           Ray Poat

Ray Poat

Apr. 24, 2024

Eighty-seven years ago—Apr. 18, 1937—Illini right-hander Ray Poat, a sophomore from Chicago’s Lindblom High School permitted only 28 Ohio State Buckeyes to bat in a nine-inning, 10-strikeout, 3-1 Illinois victory. Three days later, he turned in another spectacular performance against the University of Chicago, striking out a dozen Maroon batters and allowing just two hits in a 7-0 Illini win.


In his only full season with Coach Wally Roettger’s Illini varsity squad, Poat posted a perfect 9-0 record, racking up 69 strikeouts against only 12 walks in nearly 76 innings on the mound. Though he may have taken a back seat to teammate and future Hall of Famer Lou Boudreau in the newspaper clippings, it was the six-foot-two-inch Poat who earned Big Ten Most Valuable Player honors for the conference champs.


Poat’s father—Joseph Vander Poaten—had emigrated from the The Netherlands shortly before Ray’s birth on Dec. 19, 1917. Upon his arrival at New York City’s Ellis Island, United States officials shortened the family name to Poat. The family eventually settled in Chicago’s Hyde Park neighborhood where Ray became an acclaimed hurler for the Lindblom Eagles. Once he got to the University of Illinois, he pledged to the Phi Kappa Psi fraternity and majored in chemical engineering.


In the early portion of his junior year (1939), Poat had season-ending surgery for a chipped bone in his right elbow, ultimately marking the end of his collegiate career. Shortly after the end of the season, he got married, hastening his urgency to sign a contract with the Cleveland Indians organization.


After posting a 15-4 record with Leaksville-Draper-Spray of the Class D Bi-State League, Poat was promoted to the Cedar Rapids Raiders. There he went 29-14 over the next two seasons, prompting his call up to the Indians in 1942, where former Illini teammate Boudreau would be his manager.


Poat made his Major League debut on Apr. 15, 1942 against the Detroit Tigers, but allowed four runs on eight hits in three innings. A week later, the Indians optioned him to Indianapolis of the American Association. At Indy, he compiled a 15-8 record and was recalled to the big club in September. Facing the White Sox on September 8 at Comiskey Park—a stadium located just a few blocks away from his childhood home—Poat got his first win, tossing a 10-0 shutout in front of friends and family.


He stayed with the Indians in 1943 and ’44 but went just 6-13. Poat took a leave of absence from baseball in 1945 to help support the World War II effort, working as a chemist in a Chicago-based government facility. He returned to pitch after the war, though at the minor league level. Two fairly successful seasons got Poat an invitation to join Manager Mel Ott’s New York Giants in August of ’47. He finished the year with a 4-3 record and a 2.86 ERA and the Giants doubled his salary to $12,000. Poat pitched another season and a half for New York before being traded to the Pittsburgh Pirates in June of 1949. Another trip to the minors prompted Poat to end his baseball career at the age of 32 and he moved his family back to the Chicago area where he began a chemistry career with the Corn Products Refinery in Argo, Ill.


In portions of six big league seasons from 1942-49, Poat had a record of 22 wins and 30 losses in 116 appearances, striking out 178 batters in 400 innings.


He passed away in April of 1990 at the age of 72 and is buried in Oak Lawn.


                                           Rick Howat

Rick Howat

Apr. 22, 2024

Fifty-three years ago today—April 22, 1971—Rick Howat became only the second Fighting Illini player named as an Academic All-American, joining Dave Scholz who was similarly honored in 1968 and ’69.


Among those joining Howat on the 1971 Academic All-America team were UCLA’s Sidney Wicks, Kansas’s Bud Stallworth and South Carolina’s John Roche.


Howat, who led the state in scoring at Downers Grove North High School with a 32.7 points per game average in 1967, lettered in 1969, ’70 and ’71 under Coach Harv Schmidt. He was a starter in his final two seasons at Illinois, playing alongside Randy Crews, Greg Jackson, Nick Weatherspoon, Mike Price and Nick Conner.


Howat was particularly instrumental as a senior, captaining the team, averaging 20.7 points per game, earning second-team All-Big Ten honors, and being voted the squad’s Most Valuable Player. In a two-point Illini home-court victory against Wisconsin that season, he scored a career-best 31 points, including UI’s last 10. Eighteen days later, at the Chicago Stadium, Howat’s 30-point performance helped Illinois top Austin Carr and Notre Dame in overtime.


He graduated from the U of I with a business degree with a 4.4 grade point average (5.0 scale). Howat was chosen by the Milwaukee Bucks in the 1971 NBA Draft, but instead made a six-year commitment to serve in the Army reserves. After service, he returned to Illinois to receive a master’s degree in teaching.


Howat joined the staff at Addison Trail High School in 1974, teaching American history and government. He coached the Blazers’ sophomore team for five seasons, then became ATHS’s head coach for the next 15 years, winning a pair of conference titles. Howat left coaching in 1995, but returned six years later to become the freshman coach at Hinsdale Central (2001-06).


                                           Lee Sentman

Lee Sentman

Apr. 19, 2024

Ninety-four years ago today—April 19, 1930—Lee Sentman set one world record and a quartet of other Fighting Illini athletes matched another at the Kansas Relays in Lawrence, Kan.


With a crowd of 20,000 fans looking on and with University of Illinois legend Avery Brundage serving as the meet’s referee, Decatur junior Lee Sentman led off the record-setting day with an all-time mark of :14.6 in the 120-yard high hurdles. He glided flawlessly over the ten 42-inch high barriers, finishing well ahead of Iowa’s George Saling.


Later in the day, Illinois’s 440-yard sprint relay unit—made up of senior Ernest Useman, junior James Cave, junior Charles Dickinson and senior James Paterson—ran the 440 yards in an all-time college record time of 41 seconds flat. Their clocking tied the world mark.


Sentman is one of the University’s most unheralded athletes ever. In addition to his sterling performance in Kansas 90 years ago, he also tied the collegiate record in the 220 low hurdles at the 1930 NCAA championship meet and tied the world mark at 120 yards at the 1931 Big Ten meet. When he died in 1996 at the age of 86, Sentman’s time of 7.4 seconds in the 60-yard high hurdles, set in 1931, remained as the sixth-fastest time ever recorded at an Illini athlete in that event.


Exceptional in the classroom as a civil engineering major, Sentman was awarded the Big Ten Conference Medal of Honor in 1930. During World War II, he served as an executive officer to the chief of construction at General Dwight Eisenhower’s headquarters.


Sentman and his wife, Esther, eventually settled in Champaign where he became a renowned construction executive. Their son, Lee Sentman III, was an Illini fencer and in 1958 also was accorded the Conference Medal of Honor award.


                                           George Huff (right) and Carl Lundgren

George Huff

Apr. 17, 2024

One-hundred-seventeen years ago today—Apr. 17, 1907—on the day of his departure to Boston to become manager of the Red Sox, Illini baseball coach George Huff was honored between innings at Illinois’ season-opening home victory against Wabash.


Reported the Champaign Daily Gazette, “Illinois Field rang with cheers for ‘G”. He responded with well-chosen words. He didn’t need to tell us that he hated to leave. That was self-evident. Coach Huff left last evening for his new field of work, the highest hopes, best wishes and sympathies of the entire Illini aggregation going with him. The team’s winning its first college game of the season shows promise of a prosperous season. ‘G’ has given the men a good start and the vital part of the training of this year’s team in over.”


After only 14 days in Boston, with his team compiling a mediocre 2-6 record, Huff came to grips with the fact that he wasn’t enjoying his new job. His grand experiment with professional baseball ended when handed in his resignation and boarded the first westbound train he could catch back to Illinois. Never again did the thought of managing in the "bigs" cross his mind.


                                           Lee Eilbracht

Top Big Ten Batting Averages

Apr. 15, 2024

In 1946, Illinois’ Lee Eilbracht compiled an Illini record .484 average in nine conference games, collecting 15 hits in 31 at bats, and claiming the Big Ten batting title.


The all-time Big Ten record for single-season average was established in 1961 by Michigan’s Bill Freehan, a future 11-time Major League all-star player for the Detroit Tigers. Freehan’s .585 average is considerably better than the second-best mark on the conference list.


Top Big Ten averages (since 1939):

.585 … 1961 - Bill Freehan, Michigan, 1951

.532 … 1998 - Jason Trott, Ohio State, 1998

.514 … 1985 - Randy Wolfe, Michigan, 1985

.500 … 1950 - Bill Skowran, Purdue, 1950

.500 … 1983 - Fred Erdmann, Michigan, 1983

.500 … 1995 - Scott Weaver, Michigan, 1995

.485 … 1955 - George Smith, Michigan State, 1955

.484 … 1946 - Lee Eilbracht, Illinois, 1946

.476 … 1991 - Mike Smith, Indiana, 1991

.475 … 1980 - John Hotman, Iowa, 1980

                                           Cecil Coleman

Cecil Coleman

Apr. 12, 2024

Born on this date in 1924 was former University of Illinois athletic director Cecil Coleman.


He assumed those duties on Aug. 1, 1972, replacing Gene Vance.


Coleman was hired from Wichita State University after one year in that role. His task at Illinois was to keep the athletic department’s $2.47 million budget in order and to monitor the department from running astray of NCAA rules and regulations.


Among the men the former Fresno State head football coach and athletic director hired were Gene Bartow and Lou Henson in basketball, and Gary Moeller in football. When the United States Congress passed Title IX regulations in 1972, mandating equal opportunity for women, Coleman hired Karol Kahrs to oversee the assignment of bringing women’s athletics under the Athletic Association’s umbrella. In 1974, he presented Kahrs with an initial budget of $82,500 for UI’s seven-sport women’s program.


Coleman was released from his duties by Illinois in April of 1979. He became the first commissioner of the Midwestern City Conference in 1980, a basketball league that included Loyola of Chicago, Butler and St. Louis. The MCC eventually evolved into the Horizon League and, today, that conference’s highest individual award is the Cecil Coleman Medal of Honor.


Following a short illness, Coleman died in February of 1988 in Urbana at the age of 63.


                                           Kendra Gantt

Kendra Gantt

Apr. 8, 2024

From Kansas City to Peoria to Kuwait City … that’s been the trajectory of former Illini women’s basketball player Kentra Gantt’s life through her first 61 years. Today is her birthday.


Recruited to the University of Illinois in 1981 by Coach Jane Schroeder, the former Peoria Richwoods High School all-star flourished from 1981-85.


Gantt averaged 10.4 points and 7.5 rebounds as a freshman, 21 points and 8.6 rebounds as a sophomore, 13.8 points and 6.0 rebounds as a junior, and 8.6 points and 5.8 rebounds as a senior. She finished with 1,526 points and 803 rebounds, both ranking second on Illinois’s career lists.


One Illini record Gantt still holds today is the single-game mark for points. As a sophomore on January 3, 1983, against Kent State, she scored 32 points in the first half on 15-of-17 shooting, then tallied 17 more in the second half for a record 49 total points.


“Everything I threw up went in,” Gantt remembered. “I could have done back flips and cartwheels, and the ball still would have gone in.”


She graduated from Illinois with degree in speech communications, but fulfilled her lifelong fantasy in January of 1987 by enlisting in the Army.


“I always wanted to wear a maroon beret and jump out airplanes,” Gantt said.


Her unit helped capture Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega in 1989, then she served as the only female in an all-male platoon in Operation Desert Storm, better know as the first Gulf War. Gantt was a member of the Air National Guard from 1992-95.


She began a five-year career as a professional wrestler in 1995, training at one point with the Ultimate Warrior.


In 2000, Gantt was employed by the United States Department of Veteran Affairs in Fayetteville, North Carolina, then became an independent government contractor three years later, moving to Iraq. There she served as a bodyguard, protecting workers who were reinstalling power and lights in the dangerous, war-torn country.


Following a year’s respite in Peoria in 2004, Gantt was employed by URS Corporation in Kuwait City, specializing in logistics. She’s been based for the last 14 years at Camp Arifjan, a U.S. installation that serves the Air Force, Navy, Marine Corps and Coast Guard.


In 2022, she was inducted into the Illinois Basketball Coaches Association Hall of Fame.


                                           Stephen Bardo

Stephen Bardo

Apr. 5, 2024

Happy 56th Birthday to Flying Illini alum Stephen Bardo.


The son of Dr. Harold Bardo, former Southern Illinois University athlete and longtime director of SIU’s Medical/Dental Education Preparatory Program, was recruited to Illinois by Lou Henson.


The former Carbondale Terriers star was a member of a class that included Kendall Gill, Larry Smith, Jeff Finke, Phil Kunz and Jim Green. Henson started Bardo in the last eight games of his freshman season (1986-87), then 21 times as a sophomore.


As a junior in 1988-89, he was a key member of the 31-5 Illini team that made it all the way to the Final Four. Including his senior campaign that saw Illinois go 21-8, his four Illini teams had a cumulative record of 98-31 (.760). Bardo was the Big Ten’s Defensive Player of the Year in ’88-89 and earned third-team All-Big Ten honors his senior year.


He was a second-round pick of the Atlanta Hawks in the 1990 NBA Draft and played portions of three NBA seasons, then several more overseas.


Bardo was the radio analyst for the Illini from 2000-05 and, today, serves as an analyst for the Fox Network.


His top scoring games as an Illini:

 

20 points             vs. Michigan (1/15/90)

18 points             vs. Purdue (2/21/90)

17 points             at Iowa (2/5/89)

17 points             vs. Austin Peay (12/8/87)

16 points             at Indiana (3/11/90)

16 points             vs. Indiana State (12/8/89)

16 points             vs. Georgia Tech (1/22/89)

16 points             at Minnesota (2/12/87)


                                           Doug Mills

Doug Mills

Apr. 3, 2024

Eighty-eight years ago today—Apr. 3, 1936—Doug Mills 28-year-old assistant coach signed a contract to become the University of Illinois’ ninth head basketball coach.


Replacing Craig Ruby, who had tendered his resignation two months earlier to athletic director George Huff, Mills’ annual compensation of $4,000 was approximately one-tenth of one per cent of the amount that Brad Underwood agreed to this past week.


In his deal with Huff, Mills retained his post as UI’s freshman football coach. Newspaper reports indicated that another Ruby assistant, Wallie Roettger, also was a finalist to direct the Illini basketball program.


From 1927-30, Mills’ career as an Illini football and basketball athlete was highlighted by both individual and team success. He was a two-time all-conference basketball player for Ruby and a three-year letter winner on the gridiron for Bob Zuppke, leading his teammates to a pair of Big Ten football titles.


As Illinois’ first-year coach, Mills’ 1936-37 squad included star forwards Lou Boudreau and Harry Combes. That season, the Illini had a Big Ten best 10-2 record and an overall mark of 14-4. Although Illinois didn’t win any conference titles over following four seasons, he was busy building a winner. Mills was struck recruiting gold in the state of Illinois when he enticed Andy Phillip from Granite City, Ken Menke from Dundee, Art Smiley from Waterman, Gene Vance from Clinton and Art Mathisen from Dwight. The quintet, known collectively as the “Whiz Kids”, were simply magical in 1941-42 and ’42-43, winning consecutive Big Ten championships.


Altogether, over 11 seasons, Mills’ Illini teams won nearly 70 per cent of their games. In nine of those seasons, Illinois had a winning Big Ten record, including a perfect 12-0 mark in 1942-43.


Following the 1946-47 season, Mills stepped down from his basketball duties to devote full-time attention as Illinois’ athletic director, a job he inherited in 1941 at the age of 33.


The final years of Mills’ administration were marred by a Big Ten investigation of Illinois’ football and basketball programs, and he gave up his post in November of 1966.


Suffering from ill health, Mills died on Aug. 12, 1983 at the age of 75. He was buried at Roselawn Cemetery in Champaign.


                                           Lester Leutwiler (Oct. 30, 1926) as Chief Illiniwek

Lester Leutwiler

Apr. 1, 2024

Today marks the 117th anniversary of the birth of Lester Glenn Leutwiler, the first man chosen to portray Chief Illiniwek at the University of Illinois.


The UI sophomore from Urbana was the son of Oscar Leutwiler, longtime head of UI’s Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering. Leutwiler, an Eagle Scout, was interested in Indian lore.


In his recollection of the final portion of that first performance On Oct. 30, 1926, Leutwiler wrote, “As the band marched into the formation (spelling out the word “Penn”), the band stopped in the center of the field and played ‘Hail Pennsylvania’ while the Chief saluted the Penn rooters. William Penn, impersonated by George Adams (the Illini drum major), came forward and accepted the gesture of friendship. Together, we smoked the peace pipe and walked arm in arm across the field to the Illinois side, amidst a deafening ovation.”


Leutwiler’s performance was so well received that he was asked to continue his performances at future Fighting Illini football games.


The tradition continued until Feb. 21, 2007, when Chief Illiniwek was retired by the University.


                                           Robert Archibald

Robert Archibald

Mar. 29, 2024

Today (Mar. 29) would have been former Fighting Illini basketball star Robert Archibald’s 44th birthday. He died suddenly on January 23, 2020.


Born in Paisley, Scotland, he was the son of Scottish legend Bobby Archibald. Robert began his basketball career with Queen Anne High School, but concluded his prep years at Wildwood, Missouri’s Lafayette High School when his father relocated the family to the United States.


Coach Lon Kruger recruited the 6-foot-11-inch Archibald to Illinois, but success came slowly. In his first two seasons—1998-99 and 1999-2000—Archibald scored in double figures only three times in 62 games. As a junior, his skills sharpened significantly and he became Illinois’s leading scorer (7.2 points per game) and rebounder (4.5 rebounds per game) off the bench. He also averaged 1.13 blocked shots in Big Ten games, ninth best among conference players. By far, Archibald’s greatest highlight that third season came in the team’s final game of the year. He scored 25 points and grabbed seven rebounds against Arizona in the NCAA Midwest Regional Finals and was named to that region’s all-star team.


Archibald’s senior campaign was clearly the best of his career, averaging 10.6 ppg , 5.5 rpg, 1.3 assists and 1.1 blocks for the 2002 Big Ten co-champs. League coaches named him to their third-team all-conference unit and the media gave him honorable mention.


The Memphis Grizzlies selected Archibald in the second round of the 2002 NBA Draft, becoming the first Scot ever to be chosen. After appearing in only 12 games as a rookie, he was traded to the Phoenix Suns. In December of 2003, within the course of a week, Archibald was dealt to the Orlando Magic and then to the Toronto Raptors.


In 2004, he transferred his professional game to Europe, performing over eight seasons in Spain and Ukraine. Perhaps Archibald’s premier basketball moment came in 2012 where he played for Great Britain at the London Olympics. The Brits lost consecutive games against Spain (79-78), Brazil (67-62), the Russian Federation (95-75) and Australia (106-75).


He returned to the state of Illinois and, benefitting from the economics degree he earned from the University of Illinois, became an agent for State Farm Insurance in Elmhurst.


Following his death, his family created the Robert Archibald Student-Athlete Health and Wellness Fund.


                                           Kenneth "Tug" Wilson

Tug Wilson - Big Ten Commissioner

Mar. 27, 2024

Kenneth “Tug” Wilson was an outstanding Illini athlete who went on to compete in the Olympics, a successful coach and a renowned scholastic administrator, but his highest profile in nearly 83 years of life was as the second Commissioner of the Big Ten Conference.


Born in Atwood, Ill., on this date in 1896, it was in March of 1945, following the death of Major John Griffith, when Wilson was elevated from his role as Northwestern University’s Director of Athletics to one of college athletics’ most prominent positions.


Wilson was attending a meeting of the ten athletic directors at Chicago’s Sherman Hotel where the conference’s office was located. In the 1967 book entitled The Big Ten that he authored with Jerry Brondfield, Wilson described the scene he encountered.


“The scheduled December meet in 1944 was a dramatically sad one,” Wilson wrote. “Major Griffith had not been in the best of health, but insisted on conducting the meeting, and at the end of the day the directors were going to join the faculty representatives at the University Club for dinner. L.W. St. John (Ohio State’s athletic director) and I were waiting in the (hotel) lobby for the Major to come downstairs. After a long wait, Saint asked me to go up and see what was keeping him. The Major’s door was open. I walked in and found him dead on the floor. It was a terrific shock, for he had been my best friend through many years. The meetings were cancelled and the following Monday the ten directors carried Major Griffith to his grave.”


Shortly after Griffith’s funeral, athletic directors St. John, Guy Mackey of Purdue and Doug Mills of Illinois proposed that Wilson be promoted to replace Griffith as head of the conference. League faculty representatives approved the directors’ recommendation the following March and Wilson assumed the role two months later.


Under Wilson’s direction of the Big Ten from 1945 to 1961, he guided the league out of World War II and into the modern era. These were some of the moments the conference experienced during Wilson’s commissionership:


1945-1961: Big Ten teams dominated the NCAA swimming and diving championships, winning 14 of the 17 team titles during Wilson’s period as commissioner.


1946: The University of Chicago formerly withdrew from the Conference.


1946: Big Ten officials voted to enter an agreement with the Pacific Coast Conference to establish an annual match-up in the Rose Bowl football game. Illinois defeated UCLA in the first meeting (Jan. 1, 1947).


1946 and 1947: Illinois won NCAA titles in track and field (followed by Minnesota in 1948).


1947 and 1948: Michigan football was the national champion.


1948: It was voted that Michigan State College be admitted to conference membership.


1952: Michigan State football was the national champion.


1953: Michigan won the Big Ten’s first NCAA title in baseball. (followed by Minnesota in 1956 and 1960).


1954: Ohio State football was the national champion.


1957: Michigan won the conference’s first NCAA title in tennis.


1959: A new recruiting regulation is enacted to allow member schools to pay travel expenses for a prospect’s campus visit.


1960: Led by Jerry Lucas, Ohio State won the NCAA basketball title.


                                           Deron Williams

Illini Basketball's Most Exciting Game Ever

Mar. 25, 2024

Tomorrow marks the 19th anniversary of what most Fighting Illini basketball fans refer to as the most exciting game ever.


On March 26, 2005, with a berth in the Final Four on the line, top-ranked Illinois and No. 9 Arizona battled in a game for the ages at the Allstate Arena in Rosemont. Trailing 75-60 with four minutes left, Illinois staged an improbable 20-5 run, sending the game into overtime.


In OT, a combination of two three-pointers by Deron Williams and one two-pointer by both Roger Powell and Luther Head accounted for one point more than Lute Olson’s squad, with the Illini prevailing by a score of 90-89.


As one sportswriter wrote afterwards, “Keep the bus running, and point it toward St. Louis.”  The Illini heroes, in no particular order, included:


Roger Powell—scored 16 points, including a huge dunk in overtime.


Luther Head—despite a sore hamstring, he tallied 20 points, including five three-pointers, and made four crucial steals.


Deron Williams—hit a game-tying three-pointer with 38 seconds remaining in regulation, ending with a team-high 22 points and 10 assists.


Jack Ingram—made two game-changing steals, including one that led to Williams’ electrifying game-tying shot.


Dee Brown—among his game statistics were 15 points, seven assists and three steals.


James Augustine—scored only four points, but his defensive play in the middle was a key to the victory.


Rich McBride—hit one of his two three-point tries.


Warren Carter—made both of his free throw attempts and grabbed two rebounds in just three minutes of play.


                                           Bob Norman

Bob Norman

Mar. 20, 2024

Sixty-six years ago today—March 22, 1958—heavyweight Bob Norman became only the second Fighting Illini wrestler to win back-to-back NCAA individual championships. What’s even more amazing is that he achieved his accomplishments in his only two varsity letter-winning seasons at Illinois.


As a scrawny 125-pound freshman in 1946 at Cicero’s Morton High School, Robert James Norman originally planned to be a swimmer, but his times weren’t good enough to make the team. A friend suggested that he go out for wrestling. A significant growth spurt between his freshman and sophomore years—12 inches and 50 pounds— and the expert tutelage of Morton coach Bill Vohaska, a former Illini two-sport star, transformed Norman into the school’s first-string heavyweight and a starting lineman with the football team.

 

Upon his graduation from high school, Norman enlisted with the Marine Corps, training in Quantico, Va.

When his service ended, the 22-year-old enrolled at the U of I to study agriculture. Norman played briefly for Coach Ray Eliot’s Illini football team, but a serious knee injury abruptly ended his gridiron career.

 

Norman recuperated for the next several months and eventually knocked on the door of Illini wrestling coach Buell “Pat” Patterson to offer his services. Fortunately, this meeting precipitated Norman’s pathway into three different Halls of Fame.


He sparkled early and often for the 1957 Illini, capturing his first Big Ten title in the conference meet in Evanston. At the NCAA Championships in Pittsburgh, Norman rumbled to the heavyweight finals with convincing victories against opponents from Kent, Oklahoma A&M and Maryland. He faced future Green Bay Packers Hall of Famer Henry Jordan of Virginia in the title match and triumphed again, this time by a 6-1 score.

 

Norman’s 1958 performance was equally brilliant. Shortly after winning his second consecutive conference crown in Champaign, he took an unblemished 17-0 record to the NCAA Championships in Laramie, Wyo. Consecutive wins over foes from Utah State, Oklahoma State and BYU placed Norman against Oklahoma’s Gordon Roesler, the 1956 national champ. In that match Norman won by a score of 7-4.


The 27-year-old Illini senior finished with a career collegiate record of 36-0-1, including a phenomenal 22 pins.


Norman was voted into the Illinois Wrestling Coaches Association Hall of Fame in 1977 and the Amateur Wrestling Hall of Fame in 1978. He was inducted into the University of Illinois Athletics Hall of Fame last year.


Norman went on to work as a state highway engineer and as the owner of a carpentry business. His son, Tim, lettered three times with the Illini football team (1977, ’78 & ’80) and his grandson, Jake, lettered for UI’s wrestling team from 2007-10. Now 88 years old, Bob Norman resides in Delavan, Wis.


                                           New York Times - March 21, 1951

Illinois Beats Undefeated Columbia

Mar. 20, 2024

It was a winning streak that stretched 32 games and 398 days, but it all ended in the first round of the NCAA Tournament at the world’s most famous arena, and at the hands of the Fighting Illini basketball team, 73 years ago today—Mar. 20, 1951.


The Columbia Lions, playing under 29-year-old acting head coach Lou Rossini, were one of the hottest of the 16 teams selected for the national collegiate playoff. Not only did the Lions stand at No. 3 in the Associated Press rankings, they entered the tournament as the school’s only undefeated team (23-0) and the first Ivy League team to finish its regular season unbeaten (12-0). Their average margin of victory was slightly more than 20 points per game.


Coach Harry Combes’ Illini club was ranked fifth by AP and 14 of its last 15 regular season games but had lost at Kansas State six days earlier in what Illinois’ record book refers to as an NCAA “warmup” game.


Predictably, the crowd of 17,107 at Madison Square Garden—located just four miles from Columbia’s campus—was overwhelmingly pro Lions. The majority of the fans cheered wildly as the first half ended in a 45 to 38 Columbia lead. The Lions maintained their lead until less than 10 minutes remaining when Illinois finally slipped ahead, 59-57. A final Lions’ scoring drive pulled them within two points at 73-71, but UI guard Rod Fletcher’s drive to the basket gave Illinois a bit of breathing room en route to a 79-71 final score.


Don Sunderlage’s brilliant ball handling helped him score a game-high 25 points for the Illini and Ted Beach added 22 more on 10-of-17 long-range shooting.


Two nights later, the Illini defeated North Carolina State, 84-70, setting up a match against top-rated Kentucky on Mar. 24. In that one, UI fell to the Wildcats in the final 12 seconds, 76-74, ending the Illini’s dream for a national title.


                                           Glenn Butzer

Glenn Butzer

Mar. 19, 2024

March 19th marks the 136th anniversary of the birth of Glenn Butzer, the captain of the University of Illinois’ only undefeated and unscored upon football team.


The All-America and two-time All-Western guard was a premier defender and, in additional to being an elite blocker, occasionally served as a ball carrier for Arthur Hall. “Whist”, the nickname by which he was known to his teammates, was a native of Hillsdale, located in northwestern Illinois.


Butzer first lettered in 1908 and ’09 for the Fighting Illini, but his greatest fame was realized in 1910. That squad became only the second conference team and just the 13th in college football history to achieve a perfect record and not yield a single point to its opponents.


In succession, Illinois defeated Millikin (13-0), Drake (29-0), Chicago (3-0), Purdue (11-0), otherwise undefeated Indiana (3-0), Northwestern (27-0) and Syracuse (3-0). That 1910 season was when the University celebrated its very first Homecoming at old Illinois Field.


The three Illini teams (1908-09-10) for which Butzer lettered compiled a cumulative record of 17 victories, three losses and one tie.


After graduating from Illinois in 1911, Butzer enjoyed a respectable professional career, including a 19-year stint as the superintendent of roads in Illinois’ Livingston County. A generous man, the longtime Pontiac resident often gave summer jobs to U of I students.


A giant of a man in his day, Butzer tipped the scales at nearly 250 pounds, but his health took a fatal turn in 1933. At the age of 46, he passed away from a long bout with cancer.


                                           Abe Saperstein (left) & Wilt Chamberlain

Abe Saperstein

Mar. 15, 2024

Fifty-eight years ago today - Mar. 15, 1966 - Abraham M. “Abe” Saperstein died at the age of 63.


Though he never played varsity sports, he attended the University of Illinois during the same period of history that George Huff headed the UI athletic department.


Despite only standing slightly more than five feet tall, the British-born Saperstein competed in baseball, basketball and track as a high school student in Chicago, but was said to have never been given a tryout for Illinois’ basketball team. He later played guard for the Chicago Reds, a semi-pro team, from 1920 to 1925.


Saperstein began his role as coach and promoter in 1927 when he directed the Savoy Big Five, named after Chicago’s famous Savoy Ballroom. Renamed the Harlem Globetrotters a year later, his all-black barnstorming team initially played serious basketball and dominated games across the country, winning 397 games and losing just 32 in their first three years. When it became increasingly difficult to locate willing opponent, Saperstein conceived the idea of a fancy and comedic style of play. Basketball upheld racial barriers through the end of the 1940s and did not allow blacks to mix with whites, but because the Globetrotters were perceived by the public as entertainers and not athletes, they were able to gain entry into venues heretofore disallowed.


The demand for the Globetrotters was enormous in the 1950s and Saperstein eventually fielded three separate units in the United States, plus an all star international squad.


Saperstein was enshrined in the Basketball Hall of Fame five years after his death in 1966.


                                           George Huff

George Huff

Mar. 13, 2024

Longtime Champaign News-Gazette sportswriter Eddie Jacquin remembered George Huff:


“’G’ Huff was just one of the folks. He was a plain man of simple habits and honest frankness. He liked the open country and in later years his greatest joy was to go with his family for a trip in the car. Persons entering his office never had to worry about their reception. He would peer over his glasses at someone waiting outside his office. ‘Are you waiting for me?’, he would exclaim, raising  his voice almost to a shout. ‘Well, come in!’, he would say, beckoning with his left hand. ‘G’ Huff never rode the fence. If a decision was to be made, he would make it. He might say, ‘Now, if I am wrong, I’ll take the blame, but that’s the way I see it.’ He didn’t believe in elaborate approaches to a subject, nor was he much for verbal perambulating. Simplicity was just a part of his nature. That seemed to have been a part of his success in coaching baseball. ‘These games are really not as hard as some of these boys make it out to be,’ he would say kindly. ‘If they would only use horse sense and do things the easy, natural way, rather than the different way.’ In his declining years, ‘G’ never missed an Illinois baseball practice when the weather was favorable and his health would permit. If it was a chilly day, he would ask to be driven close to the baseball field where he could look upon the youngsters playing the game he loved so well. He was a great lover of youngsters, and often made arrangements that boys of grade school age be permitted to see the varsity baseball games without charge.”



                                           Aerial View of 1870s University of Illinois

Happy Anniversary

Mar. 11, 2024

One-hundred-fifty-six years ago today—March 11, 1868—the Illinois Industrial University (University of Illinois) celebrated its opening of nine days earlier with inaugural ceremonies. President John Milton Gregory, both members of his faculty, 77 students and a bevy of town folk gathered in a large hall on the third floor of University Hall, known by its moniker “The Elephant.”


In “Hot Type”, a 2002 book authored by Tom Kasich, the weather outside was described as being miserable. The town’s newspaper, The Union & Gazette, colorfully described the conditions. “It seemed all the elements in nature had combined to make the day disagreeable and the occasion of a failure, for overhead it was dark and lowering, underfoot an almost unfathomable depth of mud, and between and lying loose was rain and water enough to make ducks or the student of hydraulics supremely happy.”


Inside, however the ceremonies were jubilant. Decorated in red, white and blue, a large portrait of George Washington hung over the speaker’s platform. Following a performance of the new University Anthem, speeches were presented by Gregory and Superintendent of Public Instruction Newton Bateman, then the crowd sang “America” and offered a series of toasts.


Other miscellaneous notes about the campus in 1868, plus events that were happening around the world 150 years ago:


• The University’s library opened with 1,092 total volumes, including 289 books about law and politics, 269 concerning history and biography, 240 general literature volumes, 104 books about education, 92 regarding science, 59 about philosophy, and 39 concerning agriculture.


• On May 16, 1868, then again on May 26, President Andrew Johnson was acquitted by one vote in an impeachment trial by the U.S. Senate.


• On May 30, 1868, Memorial Day was first observed in the United States.


• On July 28, 1868, following its ratification by the necessary three-quarters of U.S. states, the 14th Amendment, guaranteeing to African Americans citizenship and all its privileges, was officially adopted into the U.S. Constitution.


• On Nov. 3, 1868, Republican Ulysses S. Grant defeated Democrat Horatio Seymour in the presidential election.


• On Dec. 25, 1868, President Johnson granted an unconditional pardon to all Civil War rebels.


                                           Illinois' 1952 Big Ten wrestling champs

Championship Saturday - 1952

Mar. 8, 2024

Seventy-two years ago today—March 8, 1952—four University of Illinois teams ended their seasons winning Big Ten championships.

 

In Champaign, Coach Leon Johnson’s Illini track and field team stormed from behind to win the last four individual events and retain its second consecutive Big Ten indoor title. A sellout crowd of nearly 5,000 at the Armory watched freshman Ron Mitchell high jump 6-7 ¼ to break Dike Eddleman’s 1947 record.

Sophomore Henry Cryer won the half-mile race in a conference record time of 1:52.9. Other Illini titlists included Joe McNulty in the high hurdles, Dick Coleman in the pole vault and Willie Williams in the low hurdles.  Illinois scored 59.6 points, edging Michigan with 52.

 

In Ann Arbor, the Illinois wrestling team topped host Michigan, 28-21. Coach B.R. Patterson’s Illini won their first title since 1947. Illinois wouldn’t win another wrestling team championship until 2005. The only Illini titleist was 137-pounder Norton “Pete” Compton.

 

At Bloomington, Ind., Coach Charlie Pond’s Illini men’s gymnastics team topped Michigan State, 94 ½ to 85 ½, to claim their third straight conference title. Illinois individual champions included tumbling and all-around winner Bob Sullivan, and side-horseman Frank Bare.

 

And, on the basketball court, Illinois lost at Wisconsin, 58-48, but still captured the Big Ten championship. Led by Johnny “Red” Kerr, the Illini finished with a 12-2 record.


                                           Audie Matthews

Audie Matthews

Mar. 6, 2024

Forty-six years ago today – Mar. 6, 1978 – University of Illinois basketball teammates honored senior Audie Matthews by choosing him as their Most Valuable Player for the second consecutive season.


That moment at the Fighting Illini basketball banquet climaxed what many 1970s recruiting experts figured would never happen in the first place: an African American star committing to play for an Illini roster that at the time was all white.


Matthews, who starred at Bloom High School and who had earned Parade Magazine first-team All-America honors alongside Moses Malone, Phil Ford and others, was being courted by more than a half dozen basketball powers, including UCLA. He ultimately pledged allegiance to new Illini coach Gene Bartow and assistant Tony Yates on May 14, 1974.


As a freshman, the 6-5 guard/forward struggled mightily, averaging just 3.8 points per game, well below the nearly 27 per game he posted a year before as a prep. Matthews was considerably more productive in his sophomore campaign, posting averages of 11.3 points and 5.3 rebounds. A factor in that improvement in 1975-76 was Lou Henson becoming his new head coach.


In Matthews’ third campaign, he took his game to a higher level. Despite averaging only 13 field goal attempts per game, the junior captain led the Illini in scoring (16.0 ppg). Matthews reached double figures in all but two of the 30 games he played, including five contests of 20 points or more. As a result, he was named his team’s MVP.


Matthews’ statistical numbers dipped a bit as a senior in 1977-78, primarily because of the more talented cast that surrounded him. Joining Audie in the scoring attack were Mark Smith, Eddie Johnson, Rich Adams, Neil Bresnahan, Levi Cobb, Rob Judson and Reno Gray. Starting all 27 games and averaging 12.1 points per game, Matthews was voted the squad’s best player for a second consecutive season.


He wound up his Illini career as the school’s No. 7 career scorer with 1,210 points. Only Nick Weatherspoon (1,481), Dave Scholz (1,459), Don Freeman (1,449), Dave Downey (1,360), John Kerr (1,299) and Rich Adams (1,223) tallied more. Matthews also wound up 12th on UI’s all-time rebounding list.


A sixth-round pick of the Detroit Pistons in the 1978 NBA Draft, he chose instead to play in Australia, first for Brisbane, then for Sydney. The 1980 Illinois Basketball Coaches Association Hall of Fame inductee has settled in Queensland, Australia where he is a businessman and operates basketball clinics.


                                           Yoshi Hayasaki

Yoshi Hayasaki

Mar. 4, 2024

Happy 77th Birthday to longtime Fighting Illini gymnastics coach and USA Gymnastics Hall of Famer Yoshi Hayasaki.


Born in Osaka, Japan, in 1947, he journeyed to America in 1965. The experiences he endured were captured by his daughter, Erika Hayasaki, in a 2015 story she wrote for Zócalo Public Square. The former News-Gazette intern, now Associate Professor of Literary Journalism at the University of California, Irvine, titled her feature “Somersaulting Into America.”


Seventeen-year-old Yoshi was invited to America in a letter from University of Washington professor and head gymnastics coach Eric Hughes. While on sabbatical in Japan, Hughes had scouted talent and spotted the 5-foot-3 Osaka city champion. If Yoshi could earn admittance to UW, the letter stated, he would be guaranteed a scholarship and could compete on the Huskies team.


Hayasaki’s parents, Miyo and Shoichi, knew little about the United States except for the bombs it had rained on their city during World War II, reducing their home to ashes.


“Still,” wrote Erika, “the thought of America electrified my dad.”


Said Yoshi, “I saw my future. It was like a blueprint.”


The Hayasaki family couldn’t afford to send their son to his new world on an airplane, so they instead sought out a cargo ship.


“On July 30, 1965,” Erika wrote, “shortly after graduating from high school, her father boarded the S.S. Idaho, which was transporting logs from Yokohama to Longview Washington. The trip cost $300.”


Yoshi’s sleeping quarters were in the bowels of the ship, just inches from where the waves of the Pacific Ocean slammed incessantly. He was seasick for most of the 12-day voyage.


Upon reaching the U.S. mainland, Yoshi enrolled as a foreign exchange student at a high school in Issaquah, Washington, to learn English and prepare for his college acceptance tests. At night, he stood in front of a mirror, practicing English words. It took three tries to pass the exam, but he finally was able to enroll at Washington.



Despite suffering an Achilles injury early on in his collegiate career, Hayasaki’s perseverance eventually paid dividends, winning NCAA all-around titles in both 1970 and ’71.


A second Achilles tear ultimately ended his career as an athlete, so he now had the difficult decision about whether to return to his roots in Japan. Hayasaki’s future came into focus in 1973 when University of Illinois athletic director Cecil Coleman offered him the opportunity to become head coach of the Illini.


It proved to be a wise choice. Recruiting internationally, Hayasaki’s program began its upward surge. In 1981, bolstered by Brazilians Gilberto Albuquerque and Gilmarico Sanches, and Finland’s Kari Samstein, the Illini won their first Big Ten title in 21 years. Eight years later, Hayasaki’s Illini captured the NCAA crown.


He retired from the U of I in 2009 and today teaches the sport at his private gym in Champaign, the Hayasaki Gymnastics Center.


                                           1987 Illinois-Indiana program

'87 Illini upset Indiana

Mar. 1, 2024

Thirty-seven years ago today—March 1, 1987—a record 16,793 fans, all waving orange pom-pons, said goodbye to three Fighting Illini seniors and helped repel the nation’s third-ranked team.


ABC-TV, with Keith Jackson and Dick Vitale at the microphones, was in town for the Sunday afternoon clash between Coach Bob Knight’s league-leading and third-ranked Indiana Hoosiers and Lou Henson’s No. 14 Illini.


The Hoosier lineup was centered around eventual Big Ten Player of the Year Steve Alford. His supporting class included senior classmate Daryl Thomas, juniors Dean Garrett and Keith Smart, and sophomore Ricky Calloway.


Henson countered Alford with a star of his own in senior all-conference first-teamer Ken Norman. Seven-foot sophomore Jens Kujawa, seniors Tony Wysinger and Doug Altenberger, and freshman Stephen Bardo rounded out Illinois’s starting five.


The Illini had begun the Big Ten portion of their 1986-87 campaign with four consecutive wins, but it was five especially demoralizing losses in recent weeks that had placed extraordinary stress on Henson and his coaching staff. Particularly painful were a pair of massive come-from-behind overtime defeats at the hands of Gene Keady’s fifth-ranked Purdue Boilermakers and a third OT loss to Tom Davis’s No. 2 Iowa Hawkeyes. Those three losses came by a total of five points.


“Are you a bad coach when you lose to basketball teams ranked in the top six?” Henson asked the media at his weekly press conference.


Now came the visiting Hoosiers into Champaign-Urbana. Many Illini fans expected the worse, but their hometown favorites gave them plenty to holler about during the game’s first twenty-three minutes. Norman was Illinois’s hero in the early portion of the contest, scoring nineteen points during a 31-14 streak that turned a 26-19 deficit into a 50-40 advantage.


Predictably, Indiana rallied, leveling the score at 57-all with just seven-and-a-half minutes remaining. A “here we go again” air of despair set in with the Assembly Hall attendees, but those fears would soon turn into cheers.


As the game came down the stretch, Norman successfully stroked a 15-footer. Altenberger followed by hitting the target with a pair of three-point missiles and Kujawa converted a hook shot and two free throws to put the Illini on top, 69-65 with 1:47 remaining. IU’s Smart then slammed home an alley-oop pass from Alford to cut the lead in half.


When the Hoosiers rebounded Tony Wysinger’s off-target 16-footer, Knight called time out with :39 left to set up their final play. However, instead of going inside to the 6-foot-10-inch Garrett to tie the score, Knight daringly strategized a winning three-point shot for Alford. IU’s star successfully dribbled by Altenberger, but the 6-8 Norman alertly switched to guard Alford on his desperate heave beyond the arc. When the shot caromed off the rim, Bardo grabbed the rebound with :04 seconds left to ultimately secure the Illini’s 69-67 victory.


Said Henson afterwards, “Our seniors deserve most of the credit, but let’s not forget Kujawa’s four big points and the all-around play of Bardo.”


Illinois would go on to win in regular-season finales at Michigan and at Michigan State, but lost a one-point decision in its opening -round NCAA Tournament game against Austin Peay.


Indiana, on the other hand, wouldn’t lose again. Following its home-court victory six days later over Ohio State to clinch a share of the Big Ten title, Knight’s Hoosiers rattled off six consecutive wins in the Big Dance, including a 74-73 victory over Syracuse in the championship game in New Orleans.


                                            Rich Jones

Rich Jones

Feb. 28, 2024

Fifty-eight years ago today—Feb. 28, 1966—behind a magnificent 30 points and 20 rebounds performance from Rich Jones, the Fighting Illini defeated Purdue, 98-81. The victory lifted Illinois’ record to 7-5, just two games behind league-leading Michigan.


Said UI coach Harry Combes about his talented second-year player, “Rich improved more his sophomore year than any Illinois player in history. If he takes up where he left off, he has a brilliant future ahead.”


Unfortunately, there would be only five more Illini games in Jones’ future. On Dec. 22, 1966, UI representatives met with Big Ten and NCAA officials in Chicago regarding irregularities in the athletic department’s financial aid program.


The very next day, the Conference suspended a dozen Illini football and basketball players, one of whom was Rich Jones. An investigation showed that Jones had received payments of $35 per month from a local businessman/booster.


Facing a two-year suspension, he transferred to his hometown to play for Memphis State. Jones sat out the balance of the 1966-67 season, then led the Tigers in scoring in ’67-68 and ’68-69.


Jones’ professional career began in 1969 with the Dallas/Texas Chaparrals, but he played only two games. The 6-6 shooting forward’s career flourished in Dallas from 1970-71 through ’72-73, averaging 16 points and eight rebounds. Jones played three more seasons in the ABA, two for San Antonio and one for the New York Nets. He continued to average 16 points per game from 1973-74 through ‘75-76. Jones spent his final season, 1976-77, in the NBA with the Nets after the two leagues merged.


Last December, he turned 77 years old.



                                            Jack Robinson

Jack Robinson

Feb. 26, 2024

He was a war hero, a University of Illinois athlete and graduate, a professional wrestler, a two-sport Fighting Illini coach, and a high school Hall of Fame honoree. Born 100 years ago today was former Fighting Illini head wrestling coach and assistant football coach Jack Robinson.


A prep star at Thornton Township High School in Harvey, Robinson was named to his posts in May of 1968 by then Illini director Gene Vance. Though Illinois’ wrestling program never achieved the success he had hoped for (overall dual meet record of 27-50-1), Robinson produced a number of successful athletes, including John Fregeau, Bruce Kirkpatrick, Randy Chirico, Darrell Robinson, Randy Sulaver, Mike Levanti and Andy Passaglia.


At the age of 19, Robinson enlisted in the U.S. Army’s Pathfinder School and asked to be assigned to World War II’s front line. He was sent to the Pacific and was one of the first 32 paratroopers to land in the retaking of the Philippines. Robinson also served in New Guinea and was with the first troops into Tokyo after the atom bomb was dropped.


After the war ended, he enrolled at the University of Illinois. Robinson graduated in 1950 as a physical education major and was a member of both UI’s wrestling and football squads. Immediately upon graduation, he joined Thornton Township’s faculty and coaching staff. His Wildcat wrestlers won four state championships, with more than 20 individual champions and 60 place winners. As a sideline job in the early ‘50s, Robinson was an undefeated pro wrestler who performed under the moniker “Little Samson.”


In 1960, Robinson became head football and wrestling coach at the newly opened Thornridge High school. His 1966 Falcons were undefeated and voted the mythical state champs.


Following his five years at the U of I, Robinson became defensive coordinator at Utah State, but returned to Thornridge in 1975 as athletic director. He came back to coaching in 1981 at Utah’s SkyView High School, then rejoined Utah State’s coaching staff under Chis Pella. Robinson returned to Utah’s high school ranks in 1986, leading Mountain Crest to the 3A championship, earning Coach of the Year honors. After retiring in 1987, he continued as a consultant for a short time.


In 1979, Robinson was inducted into the Illinois Wrestling Coaches and Officials Association Hall of Fame and in 2011was honored by the IWCOA with a Lifetime Achievement Award.


Robinson died at the age of 87 in June of 2011 in Saint George, Utah.


                                            Demetri McCamey

The Final Game at Huff Gym

Feb. 23, 2024

Sixty-one years ago today, in front of a capacity crowd on a Saturday afternoon, the sixth-ranked and Big Ten-leading Fighting Illini men’s basketball team played its 417th and final game at venerable Huff Gym.


Coach John Erickson’s Badgers, led by 6-4 forward Ken Siebel, scorched the nets at a .741 clip from the field in the first half to take a 44-41 lead over Illinois. The second half was a completely different story with the Illini outscoring Wisconsin, 48-33, en route to an 89-77 victory. Four of the five Illinois starters scored 17 points or more, led by Dave Downey’s 22 points and Bill Burwell’s 21.


Eagle-eye marksmanship by the Illini from the free throw line—a Big Ten-record 19-of-20 performance—was another defining factor. Bill Small’s free throw with 24 seconds left was the final point scored at Huff by the Illini men.


Illinois’s final game of the 1962-63 season occurred nine days later when it played at the Assembly Hall for the very first time. More than twice as many fans (16,137) were able to see the Big Ten co-champions at the Hall than the 6,912 who were in attendance at the Huff finale.


Illinois men’s basketball all-time records, decade-by-decade, at Huff Gym:


25-14 (.641) -- 1920s (1925-26 through 1928-29)

75-23 (.765) -- 1930s (1929-30 through 1938-39)

99-15 (.868) -- 1940s (1939-40 through 1948-49)

106-17 (.862) -- 1950s (1949-50 through 1958-59)

34-9 (.791) -- 1960s (1959-60 through 1962-63)


339-78 (.813) -- Total



                                            Demetri McCamey

Demetri McCamey: By the Numbers

Feb. 21, 2024

Today, Demetri McCamey, who wore jersey number 32 from 2007-08 through 2010-11 for the Fighting Illini basketball team, celebrates his 35th birthday.


The name of the 6-3 guard from St. Joseph High School is mentioned throughout Illinois’s record book, including first on the lists for career games (139) and single-game assists (16). 


McCamey, a first-team All-Big Ten selection by coaches and media as a junior and a third-team all-conference pick as a sophomore and senior, might well be slighted by historians when ranking Illini guards. As evidence, we present McCamey collegiate achievements, by the numbers:


2 – McCamey’s ranking on Illinois’s career assists list. Bruce Douglas compiled 765 assists, just 32 more than McCamey.


4 – Only Eddie Johnson (1,658), Dee Brown (1,512) and Cory Bradford (1,481) attempted more field goals than McCamey (1,404).


6 – McCamey converted all six of the 3-pointers he tried against Purdue on Mar. 14, 2008. He’s tied with Doug Altenberger (6-of-6 vs. Wisconsin on Feb. 7, 1987).at the top of UI’s list in that single-game category.


16 – On Feb. 20, 2010, at Purdue , he handed out an all-time Illini single-game record 16 assists.


22 – Number of times McCamey scored 20 points or more. Four other times he scored 19 points and seven other times he scored 18 points.


31 – In his 24th career game as an Illini freshman—against Indiana on Feb. 7, 2008—he scored what would prove to be the most points he’d score at Illinois.


87 – In the all-time record 139 Illini games he played, McCamey scored in double figures 87 times.


138 – His 138 career steals fell just outside of UI’s individual career top ten.


236 – McCamey’s 236 career 3-point field goals are more than Trent Frazier (230, through last the Feb. 12 game at Nebraska) Rich McBride (216), Brandon Paul (211) and Luther Head (209).


254 – In Illini history, only Deron Williams (264 in 2004-05) had more single-season assists than McCamey did as a junior in 2009-10 (254).


.583 – Illinois basketball’s winning percentage during McCamey’s four-year collegiate career. The Illini had a .625 winning percentage in McCamey’s final three seasons.


.798 – During his Illini career, McCamey was on the floor nearly 80 per cent of the time (4,374 of a possible 5,480 minutes).


1,718 – McCamey ranks seventh among UI’s career scoring leaders with 1,718 points.


4,374 – Only Dee Brown (4,698) logged more career minutes played than McCamey’s 4,374. Demetri fouled out only twice.


                                            Howie Judson

Howie Judson

Feb. 16, 2024

Today marks the 98th anniversary of the birth of former Fighting Illini baseball and basketball star Howard “Howie” Judson.



In basketball, the Hebron High School standout used his one-hand shot to win a berth on the state of Illinois’s prestigious all-state all-star squad. Joining Judson on that unit were future Illini teammates Dick Foley (Paris), Roy Gatewood (Salem), Bob Morton (Elgin), Jim Seyler (Centralia) and Gordon Gillespie (Kelvyn Park).


Coach Doug Mills’ back-to-back Big Ten champs had lost the “Whiz Kids” to service in World War II, so he needed to restock his lineup.


“My dad got a telephone call to find out if I could come down there and play basketball,” Judson said. “I told him I’d be there as soon as I could. So I got there and looked up Doug Mills and said ‘Here I am!’”


Freshmen Judson, Morton and Gillespie advanced directly to Illinois’s starting lineup for the 1943-44 campaign. That season, in game five against Coach Adolph Rupp’s powerful Kentucky squad, Judson scored 16 of Illinois’s 43 points in a two-point victory over the eventual 19-2 Wildcats.


“Oh, yes, that was one I’ll never forget,” Judson said. “Rupp told Mills after the game, ‘My God, where’d you get that kid?!?’”


The following season, he averaged 8.5 points per game, slightly better than his 8.0 average in ’43-44.


Though he admitted that basketball was his favorite sport, Judson’s strong suit athletically was as a baseball pitcher. In 11 career Big Ten Conference games on the mound, he struck out 97 hitters in 98 innings. The 6-1 righthander posted a 5-3 record in league contests.


Following Judson’s sophomore season at Illinois in 1945, he pitched in various summer leagues, most notably for the Sycamore Sons. That August, he was drafted into service with the U.S. Navy. Judson was honorably discharged three months after World War II ended.


In the spring of 1946, Major League Baseball scouts were closely watching Judson’s progress, including Chicago White Sox manager Ted Lyons. Despite being limited to only partial vision because an infection in his left eye, the twenty-year-old Judson was signed by the Sox and pitched for Waterloo. He finished with 16 wins and a 2.58 earned run average.


Judson made his big-league debut for the White Sox on April 22, 1948 against the Detroit Tigers and a lineup that included George Kell and Hoot Evers. He suffered the loss after giving up four hits and three runs in seven innings. He got his first pitching victory against Lou Boudreau’s eventual World Series champion Cleveland Indians on May 16 that year. Judson finished the season with a 4-5 record and a 4.78 ERA.


In 1949, despite lowering his ERA to 4.58, Judson lost 14 of his 15 decisions.


His ERA dropped below 4.00 in 1950 (3.94) and he emerged as a dependable reliever. His 46 mound appearances tied for third in the America League. Records of 5-6 (1951) and 0-1 (1952) followed for Judson with the White Sox, then he was traded to the Cincinnati Reds.


Judson appeared in only ten games for the Reds in 1953 (0-1 record) but got significantly more action the following season. In 37 appearances in 1954, he posted a 3.95 ERA in slightly fewer than 100 innings.


A back injury caused Judson to return the minors, and he wouldn’t again pitch in the big leagues. Ultimately, he hung up his spikes at the age of 33. His final statistics as a Major League pitcher saw him log 615 total innings, post a lifetime record of 17-37, and a respectable 4.29 ERA.


Judson and his wife, Martha, were married for 52 years before her death in 2007.


The former Hebron star is ten years older than two younger brothers—Paul and Phil Judson—who also lettered at Illinois, and is nearly thirty-two years senior to his nephew, Rob, a four-time Illini basketball letter winner. Howie’s great niece, Kristin Judson (Rob’s daughter), played basketball at Miami University.


A longtime resident of Winter Haven, Fla., he died on Aug. 18, 2020.


                                            Dr. Jacob Kinzer Shell

Jacob Kinzer Shell

Feb. 14, 2024

Dr. Jacob Kinzer Shell, a man instrumental in the founding of the Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) and the University of Illinois’s fourth athletic director, was born on this date in 1862 in Harrisburg, Pa.


After attending Central High School in Philadelphia., Shell became a talented football player at the University of Pennsylvania, lettering four times in the late 1870s and early ‘80s. He graduated with a degree in medicine and dentistry.


Shell was a multi-sport athlete, competing in track and field, baseball, lacrosse, golf, cricket, wrestling and boxing. He held national championships as a middleweight in the latter two sports in 1888 and ’89.


It was as a result of a boxing bout in which Shell’s opponent was given the title in an unfair decision that the AAU was formed in 1888, standing for pure amateurism against the questionable tactics of the National Athletic Association of America, then in full control of amateur athletics in the United States. For 34 years, Shell served as an official handicapper of the AAU’s Middle Athletic Association.


He initially held coaching and teaching positions at the University of Vermont, Shortlidge Academy in Concordville, Pa., and Swarthmore College. Shell coached Swarthmore’s football team from 1888-1898, compiling an overall record of 58-40-4.


On Sept. 23, 1898, Shell was hired by the U of I, being appointed director of the men’s gymnasium and professor of physical training/athletics director. In December of 1899, supervised by Shell, UI’s Athletic Association adopted a new constitution. That same month the Intercollegiate Athletic Conference, eventually known as the Big Ten, invited Indiana and Iowa to become members.


With Shell as director and George Huff as the coach, Illinois’s baseball team won its first conference championship on June 5, 1900. Just four days later, the University’s men’s gym caught fire and the Athletic Association lost a then staggering $7,000 worth of property. Among the items lost were most of the UI’s all-time championship banner and trophies.


Shell resigned his position at Illinois on May 29, 1901, to became athletics director at his alma mater. He remained in that position at the University of Pennsylvania until 1905. It is said that Shell had the record of never having missed one of the annual UP relay meets during his lifetime.


He and his wife, Emma were married for 56 years and had five children. Shell died at the age of 78 on Dec. 10, 1940, in Philadelphia.


                                            Dee Brown

Jersey No. 11

Feb. 12, 2024

Nineteen years ago today, Dee Brown hit two long three-point field goals to seal top-ranked Illinois’ 70-59 victory at the Assembly Hall over No. 20 Wisconsin.


Dee Brown's 1,812 career points currently rank fourth on UI’s all-time list.


Others who have worn jersey No. 11 include:


John Orr, 1945

Jack Burmaster, 1947-48

Don Sunderlage, 1950-51

William Ridley, 1954-55-56

Roger Taylor, 1957-58-59

Ben Louis, 1966-67-68

Bob Windmiller, 1969-70

Dave Roberts, 1973-74-75

Tom Schafer, 1983-84

Rennie Clemons, 1991-92-93

Ayo Dosunmu, 2019-21

Alfonso Plummer, 2022

Niccolo Moretti, 2024


                                            Bill Hapac

Bill Hapac

Feb. 9, 2024

Eighty-four years ago this week - Feb. 10, 1940 - Illinois defeated Minnesota, 60-31, at Huff Gym as the Illini’s Bill Hapac broke the Big Ten single-game scoring record with 34 points.


Scoring 13 field goals and eight free throws, he eclipsed the previous mark of 30 points by Indiana’s Ernie Andres (1938). Hapac’s record-breaking points came on a 35-foot bank shot. More than 100 of Hapac’s fellow townsmen from Cicero were in the crowd of 5,402.


Players who have since broken the Big Ten men’s basketball scoring record:

 

Sequence of the Big Ten men’s basketball single-game scoring marks since 1938

30 points        Ernie Andres, Indiana, 1938

34 points        Bill Hapac, Illinois, 1940

40 points        Andy Phillip, Illinois, 1943

48 points        Jerry Lucas, Ohio State, 1960

52 points        Terry Dischinger, Purdue, 1961

56 points        Jimmy Rayl, Indiana, 1962

57 points        Dave Schellhase, Purdue, 1966

61 points        Rick Mount, Purdue, 1970



                                            justin Hardee

Justin Hardee

Feb. 7, 2024

Celebrating his 30th birthday today is former Fighting Illini football star Justin Hardee. Primarily playing wide receiver throughout his collegiate career at Illinois, Hardee now is a third-year player for the NFL’s New York Jets.


Recruited by Tim Beckman’s staff out of Cleveland’s Glenville High School, Hardee played a total of 49 games for the Illini in 2012, ’13, ’14 and ’16. He had 72 catches for a total of 841 yards, twice recording games of more than 100 receiving yards. Hardee’s most memorable performance came as a senior against Northwestern when he had nine catches for 125 yards. He also stood out in the classroom his final season, winning Academic All-Big Ten honors.


Hardee earned his bachelor’s degree from the University of Illinois in December of 2014, majoring in communications. He later achieved a pair of master’s degrees, one in sports management and one in education.


The NFL’s Houston Texans signed Hardee to a free agent contract in May of 2017, then he caught on with New Orleans’ practice squad in early September of that same year. Sixteen days later, he was promoted to the Saints’ active roster. In week nine of his rookie season, Hardee won NFC Special Teams Player of the Week honors when he blocked a punt and returned it for a touchdown.


Hardee played in all 16 of his team’s games each of the next two seasons, then resigned with New Orleans in March of 2020. A groin injury last November sidelined him for five weeks, but he got back into action in time for New Orleans’ NFL Playoffs run. The Saints beat the Chicago Bears in the Wild Card game, but fell to the Super Bowl bound Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the NFC divisional playoffs.


Hardee put his U of I degrees to work by opening a Papa John’s Pizza franchise on Tulane Avenue in New Orleans’ burgeoning medical district. He also has established a charity organization called the Hardee Cares Foundation. It supports Sarcoidosis awareness, honoring his mother who passed away from the disease.


                                            Illini football's 1992 freshman class

Football's 1992 Freshman Class

Feb. 5, 2024

Thirty-two years ago today—Feb. 5, 1992—new Fighting Illini football coach Lou Tepper celebrated the completion of his first recruiting class, a small but quality-filled 14-man group.


Announced that day by Tepper as one of the top prospects was East St. Louis High School running back Chris Moore, who had just completed a record-breaking senior campaign for the state champion Flyers. Unfortunately, Moore’s shortcomings in the classroom didn’t allow him to come to Champaign-Urbana and he instead attended NAIA member Culver-Stockton. Another Flyer, linebacker Dennis Stallings, also was signed by the Illini.


Besides Moore, two other highly acclaimed running backs who were inked by Tepper’s staff included Cincinnati LaSalle’s Ty Douthard and O’Fallon’s Rodney Byrd. Both Douthard and Byrd would go on to be four-time Illini letter winners.


Beaver Falls, Pa. quarterback Scott Weaver was the only signal caller signed by Tepper that day.


Supposedly, the final player to be offered a scholarship by Tepper that year was a Mount Carmel High School defensive lineman named Simeon Rice. Rice was influenced to join the Illini because former Caravan teammates J.J. Strong, Pete Gabrione and Charles Edwards who were already at Illinois. Rice rapidly moved up the depth chart and eventually became a four-time All-Big Ten performer, a two-time All-American, and the third pick in the 1996 NFL Draft.


Four of the 14 signees—Hazelwood East’s DeMontie Cross, Lyons Township’s Will Lepsi, Paducah, Ky.’s Saydee Mends-Cole, and Chicago Vocational’s William Morris —never lettered for Illinois. Three 1992 freshman walk-ons—Glenbard South’s Tom Claussen and Chris McPartlin, and Mount Carmel’s Don Veronesi—eventually did win monograms for the Illini.


Members of the 1992 freshman class that went on to letter for Tepper included:


Rodney Byrd (1993, ’94, ’95 & ’96) – The fullback from O’Fallon High School became an Illini co-captain in 1996 and wound up his collegiate career by playing in 44 games. Information regarding his whereabouts today is unavailable.


Tom Claussen (1996) – A defensive lineman from Glenbard South, Claussen lettered in his senior season at Illinois, accumulating 17 tackles in 10 games. No information was available as to what he’s doing today.


Ty Douthard (1993, ’94, ’95 & ’96) The former Cincinnati LaSalle running back concluded his Illini career with 1,851 rushing yards and 1,250 receiving yards. Today, he is an associate at World Financial Group in Greater Indianapolis and is a regular attender at Illini games.


Jason Dulick (1993, ’94, ’95 & ’96) A star at St. Louis University High, Dulick racked up big yardage as a wide receiver. In four seasons, he caught 169 passes for 2,004 yards and 15 touchdowns. He wound up his collegiate career as UI’s second-leading career receiver. Dulick is  now a teacher and the head football coach at Gateway STEM High School in St. Louis.


Martin Jones (1994 & ’95) After encountering minor criminal charges during his time at Illinois, the former Cincinnati Aiken standout receiver left Illinois after two letter-winning seasons. Today, he is a real estate investor for MJ Investment Group in his hometown.


Chris Koerwitz (1994, ’95 & ’96) The Oshkosh, Wis. native played center for Lou Tepper, lettering three times. A middle school principal in Riverton, his son went on to play college football at SIU.


Jay Kuchenbecker (1995 & ’96) A product of York High School, Kuchenbecker started all 11 games at right guard in 1996. He’s now a real estate broker for Compass in Greater Chicago.


Paul Marshall (1993, ’94, ’95 & ’96) The Naperville North High School standout was a defensive line starter in his final 28 Illini games, totaling 88 tackles as a senior. Marshall now serves as director of sales for Fresenius Medical Care in Greater Phoenix.


Chris McPartlin (1994) A star at Glenbard South, McPartlin lettered in his junior season as a linebacker. Today, he directs Up Campus Student Living in Greater Chicago.


Simeon Rice (1992, ’93, ’94 & ’95) Rice impressed the coaching staff from his very first practice, eventually establishing new Illini records in every category for tackles for loss and quarterback sacks. He went on to a 12-year NFL career with the Arizona Cardinals, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Denver Broncos and Indianapolis Colts. He’s now on the ballot for the Pro Football Hall of Fame. After football, Rice began a career in the entertainment industry, directing a feature-length film in 2015. He is a member of Illini athletics’ Hall of Fame.


Dennis Stallings (1994, ’95 & ’96) Stallings enrolled at Illinois in 1992 but did not actually play until 1994. He was a sixth-round pick in the 1997 NFL Draft and played three seasons for the Tennessee Oilers. Nowadays, Stallings works for Gastroenterology Care Specialists in Mount Julien, Tenn.


Don Veronesi (1993) A teammate of Simeon Rice at Mount Carmel, he lettered as a defensive back his sophomore season. Today, he owns Veronesi Carpentry Services in Crown Point, Ind.


Scott Weaver (1993, ’94, ’95 & ’96) Hailing from Joe Namath’s hometown in Beaver Falls, Pa., Weaver was an effective quarterback for Lou Tepper. In his four Illini seasons, he passed for 3,212 yards and 15 touchdowns. He’s now territory manager at Electrostim Medical Services in Grand Rapids, Mich.


                                            Ray Demmitt 

Ray Demmitt

Feb. 2, 2024

Born 140 years ago on this date was University of Illinois baseball player Charles Raymond “Ray” Demmitt.


A native of Illiopolis, Ill., the 5-8, 170-pound outfielder lettered in 1905 and ’06 for coach George Huff. The ’05 Illini finished second in the Big Ten, then took the title the following season with an 8-3 league record.


Demmitt began his Major League Baseball career at the age of 25 in 1909 for the New York Highlanders (who became the Yankees in 1913). In his rookie season, he shared the outfield with Hall of Famer “Wee Willie” Keeler, batting .246 in 123 games. His four home runs in ’09 ranked sixth among American League hitters.


It was in 1909 that he appeared on one of the earliest sets of tobacco baseball cards. In mint condition today, Demmitt’s card now brings a price of more than $4,000.


On Dec. 16, 1909, he was traded to the St. Louis Browns. He only appeared in 10 games in 1910 and wouldn’t appear again on a big league roster for another four years.


In 1914 Demmitt played one game for the Detroit Tigers, then was purchased by the Chicago White Sox for $2,500. He hit .258 for the Sox, including a pair of home runs and 46 runs batted in. Demmitt only appeared in 10 games in 1915, being released early in the year. After a year in the minors, he caught on again with the Browns in 1917 and spent that year and two more in St. Louis. His 61 RBI in 1918 ranked seventh in the A.L.


Career-wise, he played in 498 big league games altogether, averaging .257 through seven seasons. Ray Demmitt died on Feb. 19, 1956 at the age of 72 and is buried in the Mount Pulaski Cemetery.


                                            Luke Guthrie 

Luke Guthrie

Jan. 31, 2024

Happy 34th Birthday to former Fighting Illini golf star Luke Guthrie.


The two-time state champion from Quincy High School is one of only 15 men in Big Ten history to win multiple individual conference titles. Besides Guthrie, three other Illini players—Richard Martin, Steve Stricker and Nick Hardy—are included in that exclusive company.


Guthries two Big Ten wins were among seven career collegiate tournaments he captured.


Through 138 career rounds as an Illini golfer, Guthrie averaged just 72.08 strokes per 18 holes. In two of his four years, he averaged less than 72 a round (71.19 as a senior in 2012 and 71.36 as a junior in 2011).


Guthrie’s Illinois squad won the Big Ten team title all four of his letter-winning seasons and finished among the top 21 team in NCAA play each time. UI’s best placing, nationally, during his collegiate stint was when it tied for fifth place in 2011.


Guthrie’s college career was sprinkled with individual honors, including twice earning All-Big Ten first team and twice winning All-America accolades, including first-team laurels as a junior. He was awarded the Big Ten Conference Medal of Honor for proficiency in athletics and academics as a senior.


As a professional, Guthrie has won two tournaments. His victories at the Albertsons Boise Open and the WNB Golf Classic came in back-to-back September 2012 efforts. Guthrie has participated in four major tournaments, including two U.S. Opens (2013 and ’14) and the 2013 PGA Championship and British Open.


Guthrie and his wife, Kaitlyn, have a son and reside in Jacksonville Beach, Fla.


                                            Ray Eliot 

This Day in Illini History

Jan. 29, 2024

Sixty-one years ago today – Jan. 29, 1963 – University of Illinois alumni Red Grange and George Halas were among the 17 players, coaches and officials elected as charter members of the Pro Football Hall of Fame. This prestigious group also included Jim Thorpe, Curly Lambeau, Bronco Nagurski, Dutch Clark, Sammy Baugh and Ernie Nevers.


Other notable events on this date in Illini history:


Jan. 29, 1942: Ray Eliot was announced as Illinois’ new football coach, replacing Bob Zuppke.


Jan. 29, 1949: Illini basketball overcame a 20-7 deficit and beat Minnesota at Huff Gym, 45-44. It was the Gophers’ first loss in 14 games.


Jan. 29, 1979 – Linebacker Dick Butkus was unanimously selected as a Pro Football Hall of Famer. Others inducted that year were Johnny Unitas, Ron Mix and Yale Lary.


Jan. 29, 1981: Illinois defeated Michigan State in East Lansing for the first time in 10 years. Eddie Johnson led the Illini with 19 points.


Jan. 29, 1983: A career-high 29 points by Derek Harper led Illinois past host Michigan. It was Lou Henson’s first coaching victory at Ann Arbor in eight tries.


Jan. 29, 2003: Thirteenth-ranked Illinois beat visiting Michigan, 67-60, as Brian Cook scored 26 of his 30 points in the second half.


Jan. 29, 2005: Playing before more than 300 former players, coaches and administrators who were reuniting to celebrate the centennial season of Illinois basketball, the Illini defeated Minnesota by 23. Illinois improved its record to a perfect 21-0.


Jan. 29, 2009: No. 19 Illinois saw its 20-game winning streak against Minnesota come to an end, losing 59-36 at Williams Arena. It was the Gophers’ first triumph over the Illini since Feb. 3, 1999.


Jan. 29, 2014: Former Illini star Mannie Jackson presented a $3 million gift to the University of Illinois in support of a Basketball Hall of Fame in his name.


Jan. 29, 2021: No. 19 Illinois upset No. 7 Iowa at the State Farm Center, 80-75, in a game that featured 22 lead changes. Ayo Dosunmu (25 points) and Trent Frazier (24) paced the Illini.


Jan. 29, 2022: Da’Monte Williams’ follow-up dunk with 1:34 left put Illinois ahead of host Northwestern in a 59-56 Illini victory at Evanston.


                                Joe Rutgens

Joe Rutgens

Jan. 26, 2024

Today (Sunday) marks the 85th birthday of Joe Rutgens, one of the University of Illinois’ least publicized football stars.


Recruited by Ray Eliot in 1956 out of LaSalle-Peru High School, Rutgens was an outstanding 6-2, 245-pound tackle. He earned first-team All-Big Ten honors as both a junior (1959) and senior (1960) at Illinois.


Rutgens was a first-round pick in both the 1961 NFL and AFL Drafts, chosen third by the Washington Redskins and fourth by the Oakland Raiders. He chose to sign with Coach Bill McPeak’s Redskins, wearing jersey number 72 for nine seasons (1961-69).


Rutgens was chosen for the 1963 and ’65 Pro Bowls. He played for Coach Vince Lombardi in his final season as a pro.


In 2008, Rutgens was selected as one of the top 10 defensive lineman in Illinois history.


Today, he resides in Spring Valley, Ill. with his wife, Donna.

 

 

1961 NFL Draft – First Round

1. Tommy Mason, HB, Tulane                    Minnesota Vikings

2. Norm Snead, QB, Wake Forest              Washington Redskins

3. JOE RUTGENS, T, ILLINOIS                  WASHINGTON REDSKINS

4. Marlin McKeever, LB, USC                       L.A. Rams

5. Mike Ditka, E, Pittsburgh                          Chicago Bears

6. Jimmy Johnson, B, UCLA                           San Francisco 49ers

7. Tom Matte, HB, Ohio State                       Baltimore Colts

8. Ken Rice, T, Auburn                                      St. Louis Cardinals

9. Bernie Casey, B, Bowling Green           San Francisco 49ers

10. Bobby Crespino, E, Mississippi          Cleveland Browns

11. Billy Kilmer, QB, UCLA                            San Francisco 49ers

12. Herb Adderley, B, Michigan State    Green Bay Packers

13. Bob Lilly, T, Texas Christian                Dallas Cowboys

14. Art Baker, FB, Syracuse                          Philadelphia Eagles


                                Lee Eilbracht

Lee Eilbracht

Jan. 24, 2024

Seventy-two years ago today, Lee Eilbract was named acting head coach of the Fighting Illini baseball team, replacing Wally Roettger who had died the previous September.


Eilbracht lettered three years as a player (1943, ’46 and ’47). He had a celebrated career as Illinois’ head coach, compiling 515 victories against 393 losses and six ties in 27 seasons. He had 41 more wins than Itch Jones (474 in 15 years) and 201 more than George Huff (314 in 23 years).


Eilbracht’s Illini teams won four Big Ten titles. Fourteen of his Illinois players eventually went on to play Major League Baseball:


Ethan Blackaby: Milwaukee-NL (1962-64) … Career: .120 average, 0 HR, 1 RBI


Bob Burda: St. Louis (1962 & ’71); San Francisco (1965-66, 1969-70); Milwaukee-AL (1970); Boston (1972) … Career: .224 average, 13 HR, 78 RBI


John Felske: Chicago-NL (1968) and Milwaukee-AL (1972-73) … Career: .135 average, 1 HR, 9 RBI


Tom Fletcher: Detroit (1962) … Career: 1 game


Tom Haller: San Francisco (1961-67); Los Angeles-NL (1968-71); Detroit (1972) … Career: .257 average, 134 HR, 504 RBI


Jim Hicks: Chicago-AL (1964-66); St. Louis (1969); California (1969) … Career: .163 average, 5 HR, 14 RBI


Ken Holtzman: Chicago-NL (1965-71, ’78); Oakland (1972-75); New York-AL (1976-77) … Career: 174-150, 3.49 ERA


Dick Hyde: Washington (1955-60); Baltimore (61) … Career: 17-14, 3.56 ERA


Bobby Klaus: Cincinnati (1964) and NY Mets (1964-65) … Career: .208 average, 6 HR, 29 RBI


Gary Kolb: St. Louis (1960, 62-63); Milwaukee-NL (1964-65); New York-NL (1965); Pittsburgh (1968-69) … Career: .209 average, 6 HR, 29 RBI


Em Lindbeck: Detroit (1960) … Career: 2 games


Herb Plews: Washington (1956-59) and Boston (1959) … Career: .262 average, 4 HR, 82 RBI


Lou Skizas: New York-AL (1956); Kansas City (1956-57); Detroit (1958); Chicago-AL (1959) … Career: .270 average, 30 HR, 86 RBI


Ed Spiezio: St. Louis (1964-68); San Diego (1969-72) and Chicago-AL (1972) … Career: .238 average, 39 HR, 174 RBI


                                Walter Mendenhall

Walter Mendenhall

Jan. 22, 2024

During his two varsity-letter-winning seasons with the University of Illinois football team in 2005 and 2007, Walter Mendenhall didn’t establish any Illini rushing records. However, today, on his 38th birthday, no can say that his life hasn’t been a success story.


As the Executive Director of the not-for-profit Male Mogul Initiative, his Chicago-based program has changed the lives of hundreds of the Windy City’s young people.


Established in 2016, Mendenhall’s enterprise is a mentorship, leadership and entrepreneurial program that’s targeted at high school students of color. It allows participants to gain practical and applicable knowledge that can lead to success and productivity in a business, student organization or community. Mendenhall’s organization strives to build self-confidence, develop character, inspire academic excellence, and cultivate leadership skills.


“My passion is to motivate, educate and teach the youth of today how to be successful and how to discover their dreams,” Mendenhall said. “Very few people want to be on the front lines communicating and working with young people. Just knowing that there are lives and young minds that are waiting to be transformed and to be nurtured drives me. I realized that I had a gift for inspiring and motivating. The more you persevere, the more you work hard, the better you will become, and the more success you will gain.”


As a U of I junior in 2007, only receiving limited playing time, Mendenhall had sunk into a deep, dark depression.


"One night, I was laying in bed, contemplating taking my life because nothing was going right," he said. "I was like 'God, I need to know if you are really REAL right now because I don't know if I'm going to live to see tomorrow.' And, suddenly, I felt a presence and a calmness that I'd never felt before. That was when I realized that I was here for a bigger purpose and it was not necessarily to just play football.”


Mendenhall transferred from Illinois to Illinois State in 2008 in an effort to reach his athletic potential and accomplished his mission with the Redbirds, rushing for nearly 800 yards and 11 touchdowns.


Life challenged Walter Mendenhall IV from the beginning. His parents had divorced when he was a young child. His dad (Walter III) wasn't present in his life for a while and a variety of other obstacles were constantly jumping in Walt's path. With his mother (Sibyl) working as an accountant during the day and at a grocery store in the evening to make ends meet, nine-year-old Walt was often responsible for babysitting his younger brother (Rashard) and sister (Vanessa) in their tiny two-bedroom apartment in Skokie.


"I had a lot of responsibility at a very, very early age and had to grow up a lot faster than the average kid," he said. "I was mature at a very, very young age and saw the world a little bit differently than a lot of my peers."


When his mother left her accountant job to become a youth minister at a church on the far south side of Chicago, a decision was made that Walt and Rashard would spend the last two years of their Niles West High School career with their coach, Joe Galambos.


"Coach Joe helped us have an environment that was conducive for success," Mendenhall said. "He had two boys himself and showed us how a family unit is supposed to be. Coach Joe (an electrician by trade) also influenced my business mindset."

Energized by his mother's persistent message about education, Mendenhall began to build upon the sociology degree he had earned at the University of Illinois.


"The classes I took at Illinois exposed me to the way the world works in terms of capitalism, racism and classism," he said.


He completed his Master’s degree in 2013 and is now completing his Ph.D. in organizational leadership.


“My message for the youth of today is ‘Do not be the exception; change the rule’”, Mendenhall says.”


Younger brother Rashard, an Illini and NFL standout, credits Walt with “inspiring me with the leadership qualities he possesses.”


“Walt is the one who pushed me and showed me what drive was,” said Rashard.

With each individual he meets, Mendenhall quickly addresses three questions: Who are you? Why do you matter? What is your purpose?

"It's the foundation of everything I do," he explained. "When you don't know the answers to those three central questions, you're likely to make decisions that aren't conducive to your success."



                                Elwood Brown

Elwood Brown

Jan. 19, 2024

Though records aren’t conclusive, Elwood Brown might well be the only coach in Big Ten Conference history to coach a league game on the very day he was hired.


One-hundred-eighteen years ago tomorrow - January 20, 1906 – athletics director George Huff appointed the 22-year-old Wheaton College coach and Chicago YMCA employee as the University of Illinois’s first men’s basketball coach. Brown had played for Wheaton but was unable to complete his degree due to financial constraints.


Of the Conference’s seven charter members, Illinois and Chicago were the last two Big Ten schools to add basketball as a varsity sport. Leo Hana, an assistant in the UI gymnasium, was appointed by Huff in December of 1905 to issue a call for candidates for the first team. More than a hundred men came out for the initial practice and that number was eventually reduced to fifteen, nine for the varsity squad and five for a second team. One of those fifteen choices, Roy Riley from Sutton, Nebraska, assisted Hana in drilling his teammates. Then on January 20th, The Illio wrote that “a professional basketball coach (Brown) was employed for the remainder of the season.”


In UI’s very first Big Ten game, Brown started Riley at center, Floyd Talmage and Kays (first name unknown) at the forwards, and Ed Ryan and Hugh Ray at the guards. Talmage scored 16 of Illinois’s 27 points in its three-point victory over visiting Indiana. The balance of the season didn’t fare as well for Brown and his Illini team, winning only four of their last 12 and finishing with a 6-8 record.


After the season, Brown returned to Chicago to take over as the YMCA’s Physical Education Director. He followed that with a similar stint in Salt Lake City (1907-09). Brown moved to the U.S. Philippine Islands in January of 1910 to direct Manila’s YMCA. There, he introduced basketball and volleyball, and soon after set up a sports program for Filipino government employees. Brown also is credited with designing a network of public playgrounds in Manila.


In 1911 Brown became Director of Athletics of the Manila Carnival, a festival that showcased American and Philippine culture and tourism. He then used the Carnival to promote sports in Asia. The event became recognized as the “Far East Olympics”, including teams from China and Japan.


Towards the end of World War I in 1918, American General John Pershing appointed Brown as Director-General of the Inter-Allied Games. Two years later, Brown represented the International Olympic Committee in South America and helped organize the South American Athletic Federation. He became a renowned speaker and addressed the IOC at three different events.


Brown also became the Philippines first Scoutmaster, organizing the Boy Scouts in that country in 1910.


Just three weeks short of his 41st birthday, Brown died of complications from a heart attack in March of 1924 in New Jersey. He’s buried at Little Wood Cemetery in Kane County.


                                J.C. Caroline

J.C. Caroline

Jan. 17, 2024

Today would have been former Fighting Illini football Hall of Famer J.C. Caroline’s 91st birthday. He died in 2017.


Forty-three years ago (1981), Caroline was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame. He was joined in the induction class by such former football dignitaries as Ara Parseghian, Sam Huff, Merlin Olsen and Eddie LaBaron.


Other trivia about J.C. Caroline:


•               As a sophomore in 1953, Caroline rushed for a Big Ten record 1,256 yards, shattering Red Grange’s Illini single-season record.

•               Of the myriad of stars Ray Eliot coached during his 18 years at Illinois, he rated No. 26 at the very top of his list.

•               Caroline averaged six yards every time he rushed the ball from scrimmage, totaling 1,696 yards on 287 attempts.

•               J.C. dropped out of school before his senior season at the UI to sign with Montreal of the Canadian Football League.

•               George Halas of the Chicago Bears signed Caroline as a defensive back in 1956.

•               J.C. retired as a pro player in 1965 after 10 seasons, playing with three championship teams.

•               Caroline served as assistant coach at Illinois from 1967-76, then coached briefly at Urbana High School.


                                Wayne McClain

Wayne McClain

Jan. 15, 2024

Today would have been former Fighting Illini assistant basketball coach Wayne McClain’s 69th birthday. He joined Illinois’s staff following a seven-year career at Peoria’s Manual High School where he directed the Rams to Class AA state championships in 1995, ’96 and ’97.


Then Illini coach Bill Self initially hired McClain at Illinois in 2001. He stayed with the Illini when Bruce Weber succeeded Self for the 2003-04 season and continued as Weber’s assistant through the 2011-12 campaign.


During McClain’s 11 seasons on the bench, the Illini won 261 of their 378 games, a winning percentage of .690. He died in October of 2014.



The longest-serving Illini assistant basketball coaches:

31                Howie Braun, 1937-67

17                Dick Nagy, 1980-96

15                Jim Wright, 1958-72

13                Jimmy Collins, 1984-96

13                Wally Roettger, 1937-49

11                Wayne McClain, 2002-12

9                   Tony Yates, 1975-83

9                   Mark Coomes, 1986-94

9                   Jay Price, 2004-12

7                   Dick Campbell, 1968-74


                                George BonSalle

George BonSalle

Jan. 12, 2024

On this date in 1957, the Fighting Illini basketball team won at Wisconsin, 79-63, behind a game-high 21 points by senior center George Bon Salle. A product of Chicago’s Loyola Academy, Bon Salle was an outstanding pivot man for Coach Harry Combes, earning first-team All-Big Ten honors in 1956. Here is Bon Salle’s career story, by the numbers:

 

1              Illinois’ top scorer during the 1955-56 season, averaging 19.5 points per game

 

2              Bon Salle’s two children both played college sports: daughter Jackie played volleyball at Florida State and son Andrew played basketball at American University.

 

3              Number of NBA games he played (for the NBA’s Chicago Packers during the 1961-62 season).

 

7              Seventh overall pick in the first round of the 1957 NBA Draft (by the Syracuse Nationals).

 

17.3       Career scoring average for the Illini in 56 games.

 

22           His jersey number at Illinois.

 

36           Collegiate-high points he scored against Minnesota in 1956.

 

225        Pounds he carried on his 6-foot-8-inch frame.


970        Total points he scored at Illinois, good for 49th place all-time at UI.


1959     Year he played with the U.S. Pan American Games team, winning the gold medal.


                                Simeon Rice

Simeon Rice

Jan. 10, 2024

Twenty-nine years ago today - Jan. 10, 1995 - Fighting Illini football star Simeon Rice announced that he would return to play his senior year at Illinois.


Rice went on to have a sensational senior season in 1995, being a finalist for the Rotary Lombardi Award. He holds the single-season record for tackles for loss (23) and Illinois’ career mark with 44.5 quarterback sacks. He also recorded five tackles for loss in four different games.


Rice was drafted by the Arizona Cardinals in the 1996 National Football League draft, starting 15 of 16 games during his rookie season. Altogether, he played five seasons with the Cardinals, then moved on to Tampa Bay where he stayed for six seasons.


In his final season (2007), he played briefly for both the Denver Broncos and the Indianapolis Colts.


Rice played 251 career games in the NFL, notching 122 sacks and 25 forced fumbles.


                                Harry Gill

Harry Gill

Jan. 8, 2024

Born Jan. 9, 1876, in Coldwater, Ontario, Canada was Fighting Illini Track and Field Hall of Famer Harry Lovering Gill. During a 29-year coaching career from 1904-29, then again from 1931-33, his University of Illinois teams produced an amazing 22 Big Ten championships.


Today, the week of the 148th anniversary of his birth, we’ll tell Harry Gill’s story, by the numbers:


1 – From 1906 to 1915, Gill’s teams lost only one of 81 dual meets.


2 – His teams won NCAA championships in 1921 and 1927.


6 – Illini track and field squads swept all six indoor and outdoor Big Ten championship meets during the 1920, ’21 and ’22 seasons.


35 – Points scored by Gill’s Illini track athletes at the 1924 Olympic Games, more than any other nation.


79 -- Gill’s Illini teams won 79 percent of their Big Ten dual meets, compiling a record of 81 victories against only 22 losses and two ties. Including non-conference competition, the Illini had a success rate of 82 percent (111-24-2).


80 – He died on Aug. 31, 1956, at the age of 80 in Orilla, Ont. Gill had suffered a two years earlier.


1901 -- Became track and field coach at the University of Iowa, then served the following two seasons at Beloit College before joining George Huff’s Illini staff in 1904.


1903 – Won America’s professional all-around championship, clearing 6-feet-2-inches in the high jump, throwing 145 feet in the hammer, 45-8 in the shot, 30 feet in the 56-pound weight, and running 16.8 seconds in the high hurdles.


1907 – Gill’s 1907 Illini squad won its first of 22 Big Ten championships during his tenure.


1918 – He founded his own track and field equipment company 105 years ago. By 1955, Harry Gill Company manufactured 90 percent of the equipment used in the United States.


1932 -- Gill was invited to coach the Canadian Olympic Team in 1932 but declined the offer.


1977 -- When Drake University established its Relays Hall of Fame 46 years ago, Gill and fellow Illini coach Leo Johnson were among the six coaches included in his charter class.


2017 – He was one of 28 men and women selected in the charter class of the Illini Hall of Fame.


                                Stephen Steinhaus

Stephen Steinhaus

Jan. 5, 2024

Though he lettered for the Fighting Illini as a walk-on in 1994, that worthy achievement is a long way from being Stephen Steinhaus’s pinnacle career milestone. The former Addison Trail Scholar-Athlete of the Year, who celebrates his 51st birthday today, has transformed his four-year experience at the University of Illinois into becoming one of the United Kingdom’s most unique educators. He currently serves as Principal at the Solihull Academy in Coventry, an institution that serves high school level students at risk.


A 6-3, 260-pound offensive lineman who wore jersey No. 61 for Coach Lou Tepper’s Illini, Steinhaus may not have matched the athletic talent of linemates Tim Simpson and Brad Hopkins, but his brilliance in the classroom was second to none.


“I walked on as an 18-year-old with a mullet and was practicing—and getting my backside handed to me—against future pros like John Holecek, Brad Hopkins, Kevin Hardy, and Dana Howard,” Steinhaus said. “A lot of people might have walked away, but I didn’t. On a daily basis, I got to see what hard work and professional preparation looked like.”


After graduating from the U of I with a Bachelor of Arts degree in English/Language Arts Teacher Education (1995), Steinhaus earned a Master of Philosophy degree (1996) from the UK’s University of Birmingham’s Shakespeare Institute, and a Master’s in English (1998) from the University of Hawaii at Manoa.


Steinhaus has subsidized his education through a wide variety of jobs. Among his experiences, he’s been a nightclub bouncer, a performer and artistic director for an eight-piece rhythm and blues musical group called The Doctor Teeth Big Band, trained to be a professional wrestler, worked as a college counselor, taught English, and served as a drama instructor.


Steinhaus’s career path to Solihull Academy has included positions at numerous UK institutions, including Stratford-Upon-Avon College, the Alcester Grammar School, Trinity Catholic School, the Ipsley Academy, and the Whitley Academy. He’s also led three international tours for 15-18 year olds with The Comedy of the Physical project, a combination of slapstick, improv, clowning, stage combat/wrestling, and live music.


Steinhaus, his wife (Lynsey) and two sons (Isaac and Saul) currently reside in Leamington Spa, England.


                                Darryl Usher

Darryl Usher

Jan. 3, 2024

Today would have been former Fighting Illini receiver Darryl Usher’s 59th birthday.


He died on Feb. 24, 1990 in a double homicide in Phoenix, Ariz. at the age of 26.


Recruited by Coach White to the University of Illinois in 1983 from San Mateo, Calif., the 5-8, 168-pound speed-burner starred in both football and as a sprinter on the track team.


Usher played sparingly on UI’s ’83 Big Ten champs, but his strong work ethic helped him attain second-team All-Big Ten honors as a senior in 1987. That season, he led the Illini in receiving (43 for 723 yards and four touchdowns), kickoff returns (15 for 445 yards, 29.7 yards per return) and punt returns (37 for 308 yards, 8.3 ypr). His production earned him Illini Most Valuable Player honors.


                                George Donnelly

George Donnelly

Jan. 1, 2024

Sixty years ago today - Jan. 1, 1964 - Illinois defensive back George Donnelly picked off two interceptions as the Fighting Illini topped the Washington Huskies in the 1964 Rose Bowl, 17-7.


The 6-2, 191-pound defensive safety from DeKalb had three interceptions during Illinois’ 1963 championship season. In 1964 Donnelly won first-team All-America honors from the Football News, Time Magazine, The Sporting News and the New York Daily News. He also played in numerous all-star games, including the East-West Shrine Bowl, the Hula Bowl, the Senior Bowl and the College All-Star Game. Illini teammates Dick Butkus and Jim Grabowski also won All-America acclaim that season.


Donnelly had 13 career interceptions, including eight his senior year. He served in the Air Force prior to attending college. His sister was Illinois’ representative in the 1961 Miss Universe competition. Donnelly played three seasons (1965-67) for the NFL’s San Francisco 49ers, starting 18 of the 33 games in which he played. His son, Patrick Donnelly, and his nephew, Tyler Donnelly, also played for the Illini.


Donnelly in the 1965 NFL Draft:

 

1.        Tucker Frederickson (Auburn), New York Giants

2.        Ken Willard (North Carolina), San Francisco 49ers

3.        Dick Butkus (Illinois), Chicago Bears

4.        Gale Sayers (Kansas), Chicago Bears

5.        Craig Morton (California), Dallas Cowboys

6.        Steve DeLong (Tennessee), Chicago Bears

7.        Donnie Anderson (Texas Tech), Green Bay Packers

8.        Jack Snow (Notre Dame), Minnesota Vikings

9.        Clancy Williams (Washington State), Los Angeles Rams

10.      Lawrence Elkins (Baylor), Green Bay Packers

11.      Tom Nowatzke (Indiana), Detroit Lions

12.      Joe Namath (Alabama), St. Louis Cardinals

13.      GEORGE DONNELLY (ILLINOIS), SAN FRANCISCO 49ERS


                                Fred Smith

1982 Liberty Bowl

Dec. 29, 2023

The 1982 Fighting Illini football season will be remembered for many reasons.


The year began with a highly successful “Tailgreat” promotion and a big win over Northwestern in Memorial Stadium’s first-ever night game.


It was the season Tony Eason established an all-time record for passing proficiency.


And it was the year that Illinois went “Bowling” for the first time in 19 years.


Forty-one years ago today, Coach Mike White’s Fighting Illini were pitted against Alabama in the Liberty Bowl. It was a game that would turn out to be the final one for the Crimson Tide’s legendary Paul “Bear” Bryant. Bryant, who won more games than any other coach in college football, announced his retirement two weeks before, making the bowl game one of the season’s top attractions.


The night was clear and the 34-degree weather favored Alabama’s wishbone attack. Illinois trailed the Tide, 7-6, at the half, as Alabama defenders repeatedly pummeled Eason with a ferocious pass rush. On three occasions, crushing Alabama tackles forced Eason from the game.


Despite a record 423 yards passing by Eason, Illinois dropped a 21-15 decision, giving the Bear his 323rd and final collegiate victory.


                                Fred Smith

Fred Smith

Dec. 26, 2023

Christened with one of the world’s most common names, today’s University of Illinois football fans are excused for not recognizing the name of Frederick Smith. He was hand-picked by George Huff to become the Fighting Illini’s sixth head football coach, but only stayed in Champaign-Urbana for one season before becoming head football and baseball coach at Fordham.


Smith’s 1900 roster included several athletes who would become Illinois legends, including future Illini coach Arthur Hall, future UI Hall of Famers Jake Stahl and Carl Lundgren, and longtime assistant coach Justin Lindgren. Compiling a 7-3-2 overall record, Smith’s squad posted seven consecutive shutouts to begin the campaign. An eighth shutout followed a few weeks later when Illinois battled Indiana to a 0-0 tie in Indianapolis.


A native of New York City, Smith was an exceptional athlete at Princeton University. The 1897 Princeton graduate earned scattered All-America honors for his play as a quarterback for the football team and all-star accolades as a second baseman and catcher for the Tigers’ baseball squad. Major League Baseball’s Boston Red Caps (later known as the Braves) offered him a contract to play, but for unknown reasons he declined to sign.


Following his single year at Illinois, Smith was hired by Fordham University in his hometown to become the Rams head football and baseball coach. In his four seasons with the football team, Fordham had a cumulative record of 17-6-3, while in five seasons as the baseball coach the Rams had a mark of 213-66. One of his Fordham players, Ed Walsh, pitched for the Chicago White Sox for 15 seasons, twice leading the American League in strikeouts. Walsh was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1946.


While he was coaching, Smith concurrently served as an engineer for New York City. He died in February of 1923, shortly after his 50th birthday, and is buried in Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx.


                                1988 Illinois-LSU Basketball Game

1988 Illinois-LSU Game

Dec. 22, 2023

Thirty-five years ago today—December 22, 1988—Illinois’ Flying Illini basketball team put on a Pete Maravich-type performance, scoring a school-record 127 points in a 27-point victory against the LSU Tigers at the Maravich Assembly Center.


Coach Lou Henson’s fifth-ranked club entered the game on a scoring rampage, having averaged 96.3 points per game over its first eight contests, including 100-plus point games vs. Duquesne, Arkansas-Little Rock and Tennessee Tech.


Running Henson’s motion offense, Illinois shot 73 percent from the field in the first 20 minutes, jumping off to a 61-51 lead at halftime. The Illini onslaught continued in the second half, hitting 13 of its first 16 points and reaching the 100-point mark (100-76) with 8:52 remaining. When Tigers freshman star Chris Jackson fouled out, Henson began to substitute liberally. In fact, no Illini player got more than 25 minutes of action.


Illinois starters scored at will, led by 27 from Kendall Gill, 24 from Lowell Hamilton and 21 from Stephen Bardo. Altogether, six Illini players tallied in double figures.


Wrote Bardo in his book “The Flying Illini”, “It wasn’t that LSU was bad, we were just starting to understand how good we really could be and it was one of those games when everything seemed to come together at the right time. Dale Brown, LSU’s head coach, thanked Coach Henson for not running the score up on them because we could have easily scored 150 that night.”


After the game, Brown told the media, “I think Illinois is the finest group of athletes I’ve ever seen in this gym. Lou has some wonderful thoroughbreds.”


The Illini would tally 100 points or more four additional times in 1988-89, including a 118-point gem on Senior Night at the Assembly Hall against 15th-ranked Iowa.


                                (L to R) Mark Coomes, Jimmy Collins and Dick                                          Nagy

Illini Basketball Assistant Coaches

Dec. 20, 2023

Geoff Alexander, Tim Anderson and Chester Frazier are all in their third season as full-time assistant coaches to Illini basketball head coach Brad Underwood. It’s a nice stretch of service for the Illini trio, but they’ve got a long way to go to catch up with nine other assistants who logged eight or more years as assistant coach at Illinois. Spending the most years at Illinois was Howard Braun who totaled seven seasons as an aide to Doug Mills (1937-38 through 1941-42 and 1945-46 through 1946-47), then 20 more seasons as Harry Combes’ assistant (1947-48 through 1966-67). The second-most tenured assistant basketball coach at Illinois is Dick Nagy who spent 17 seasons with Lou Henson. The list of longest-serving Illini full-time assistants:

 

27 years    Howard Braun (1937-38 through 1941-42 and                        1946-46 through 1966-67)

17 years    Dick Nagy (1979-80 through 1995-96)

15 years    Jim Wright (1957-58 through 1971-72)

13 years    Wally Roettger (1936-37 through 1948-49)

13 years    Jimmy Collins (1983-84 through 1995-96)

11 years    Wayne McClain (2001-02 through 2011-12)

9 years       Jay Price (2003-04 through 2011-12)

9 years       Tony Yates (1974-75 through 1982-83)

8 years       Mark Coomes (1986-87 through 1993-94) 



                                Dick Butkus and Kevin Hardy

History of the Butkus Award

Dec. 18, 2023

Thirty-eight years ago this week—Dec. 16, 1985—the very first Butkus Award was presented to Oklahoma sophomore Brian Bosworth.


Established in honor of University of Illinois All-America linebacker Dick Butkus, it is the seventh-oldest major college football award. Only the Heisman Trophy (1935), the Maxwell Award (1937), the Outland Trophy (1946), the Walter Camp Award (1967), the Lombardi Award (1970), and the Davey O’Brien Award (1977) are older than the Butkus.


Honoring college football’s premier linebacker, the Butkus Award was inaugurated by the Orlando (Fla.) Downtown Athletic Club. Steve Finley, DAC chairman, said “there was only one name at the top of the list. In the history of football, Dick Butkus is the contemporary linebacker.”


Said Butkus in 1985, “This is a pretty neat honor to be chosen to have an award like this named after me. I can only hope that today’s players will remember who I am.”


The Butkus Award’s initial selection panel of nine included college football announcer Keith Jackson, coaching legends Ara Parseghian and Charlie McClendon, super scout Gil Brandt, and five college football writers.


Over 39 presentations of the award, eight universities have had multiple winners. Alabama and Oklahoma have each had four winners, Notre Dame has had three, while Illinois, Georgia, Penn State, Ohio State and Florida State have each had two honorees. While Bosworth won back-to-back Butkus Awards in 1985 and ’86, the only school to have had consecutive winners with two different players was Illinois with Dana Howard in 1994 and Kevin Hardy in ’95.


Orlando’s DAC expanded the award to high school and NFL linebackers in 2008.


Among the 39 college players who have won the Butkus, nine competed for Big Ten Conference teams:


1989 – Percy Snow, Michigan State

1991 – Erick Anderson, Michigan

1994 – Dana Howard, Illinois

1995 – Kevin Hardy, Illinois

1997 – Andy Katzenmoyer, Ohio State

1999 – LaVar Arrington, Penn State

2005 – Paul Posluszny, Penn State

2007 – James Laurinaitis, Ohio State

2022 – Jack Campbell, Iowa


                                Ralph Fletcher

Ralph Fletcher

Dec. 15, 2023

The University of Illinois’s Fletcher family is legendary in Fighting Illini history and the head of the clan, Ralph Fletcher, assumes as significant a position as anyone in his tribe.


Born 125 years ago today—December 15, 1898—in Morris, Illinois, Fletcher and his younger brother, Bob, played football together for Bob Zuppke from 1918 through 1920.


As a sophomore, the versatile halfback helped the Illini win the Big Ten title. A year later, Fletcher and his Illini teammates captured both the Big Ten and national championships.


One of his most famous games was played against Chicago in 1919 at Illinois Field when he scored a touchdown, converted the point after TD, and kicked a field goal, accounting for all ten points in an Illini shutout. Two games prior to that, Fletcher place-kicked the winning field goal against Iowa in a 9-7 victory. In 1920 as a senior, his kick against Chicago was the only score in a 3-0 win.


Fletcher also lettered as a starter for Coach Ralph Jones’s Illini basketball team in 1918-19, playing in a lineup that included Burt Ingwersen and Tug Wilson.


After graduating from Illinois in 1919, Fletcher served as head football and basketball coach at West Aurora High School from 1920-28, winning three conference championships and losing in the ‘28 basketball state finals to Canton. He then coached at Waukegan for the following two years, and returned to West Aurora in 1930. Fletcher assumed a similar position at Glenbard High School in 1936 before coming back to the U of I as head freshman football coach in 1939.


Fletcher was promoted to varsity backfield coach in 1942 and also served as Illinois’s head golf coach from 1944-66.


Two of Fletcher’s sons became Illini athletes. Rod was a consensus first-team All-American basketball player for Coach Harry Combes in 1952, while his oldest son, Pete, lettered in golf in 1950.


In 1989, Ralph Fletcher was inducted into West Aurora High School Sports Hall of Fame. He died in January of 1967 at the age of 68.


                                Tonja Buford-Bailey

Tonja Buford-Bailey

Dec. 13, 2023

Tonja Buford-Bailey—an individual whom many call the University of Illinois’s greatest female athlete—celebrates her birthday today.


A four-time state hurdling champ at Meadowdale High School in Dayton, Ohio, she became the Fighting Illini’s most outstanding athlete from 1990-93, eclipsing records in track and field nearly every time she ran.


Today, she directs the Buford Bailey Track Club in Austin, Tex. and has been married to former NFL player Victor Bailey for nearly 30 years. Her son, Victor Bailey Jr.—nicknamed “VJ”—played basketball at the University of Tennessee. Her daughter, Victoria, is an outstanding volleyball player.


Tonja Buford-Bailey’s career story, by the numbers:


2              She twice was named United States Track and Field/Cross Country Coaches' Association (USTFCCCA) Midwest Region Head Women's Coach of the Year.


3              Buford-Bailey competed in the Olympic Games three different times (1992, 1996 and 2000), earning a bronze medal in ’96 in the 400 meter hurdles behind Jamaica’s Deon Hemmings and American Kim Batten.


4              Named Big Ten Athlete of the Year in women’s track and field four times. In 1992, she won four events: the 100-meter dash, the 100-meter hurdles, the 400-meter hurdles, and was a member of the winning 4 x 100 relay hurdles team.


10           Earned All-America acclaim for Illinois on 10 occasions.


29           Number of Big Ten track and field individual and relay champs she tutored as an Illini head coach (13 indoors, 16 outdoors)


25           Buford-Bailey concluded her Illini career with a record 25 Big Ten individual and relay titles, two more than the previous conference record held by Wisconsin’s Suzy Favor.


28           She was a member of the Illinois Athletics Hall of Fame inaugural class of 28 members.



52.62    Buford-Bailey’s mark of 52.62 seconds in the 400 hurdles on Aug. 11, 1995 ranks as the seventh-best time on the all-time world list.


55.12    Her time (in seconds) when she won the 1992 NCAA title in the 400 meter hurdles.


2008     Became head coach of the Illini women’s track and field squad when Gary Winckler announced his retirement.


2012     She served as an assistant coach for Team USA’s track and field squad for the 2012 Olympic Games in London, England.


2016     Year she was named USATF Nike Coach of the Year at the University of Texas, becoming the first female to be honored since the inception of the award in 1998.


2018     Named interim head coach of the University of Texas women’s track and field program.


                                Don Freeman

Don Freeman

Dec. 11, 2023

Fifty-eight years ago today - Dec. 11, 1965 - Illinois’ Don Freeman scored 35 points as the Fighting Illini topped previously undefeated West Virginia, 96-86.


Among his points were 15 free throws in 16 attempts.


Freeman, a native of Madison, Illinois, wound up his three-year Illini basketball career with a school record 1,449 points, including a single-season record 668 points his senior year (1965-66). That mark still stands today.


In 72 collegiate games, Freeman averaged 20.1 points per game. The 6-3 guard played pro ball for eight different teams from 1968-76 and scored more than 12,000 points.



                                 Jeff George

Jeff George: By the Numbers

Dec. 8, 2023

Today marks former Illini all-star quarterback Jeff George’s 56th birthday. He’ll be remembered for leading Illinois to the 1988 All-American Bowl and the 1990 Citrus Bowl, then surviving in the NFL for 15 seasons. George’s career story, by the numbers:


8:        Number of NFL teams with which he played – Colts (1990-93), Falcons (1994-96), Raiders (1997-98), Vikings (1999), Redskins (2000-01), Seahawks (2002), Bears (2004) and Buccaneers (2005).


11:      His jersey number at Illinois.


78:      Total number of NFL No. 1 draft picks in history, of which he’s one.


154:    Number of passing touchdowns he threw during his NFL career.


1985:   Year he was presented the Dial Award as the national high-school scholar-athlete of the year at Indianapolis’s Warren Central High School.


1987:   Year he transferred from Purdue to Illinois.


1990:   Year he was the first draft pick of the Indianapolis Colts.


1997:   Season he led the NFL in passing yards (3,917).


27,602:   Passing yards he accumulated as an NFL quarterback.


50,000,000:     Approximately, in dollars, his career salary as an NFL player. He signed the richest rookie contract (at the time) for $15 million with the Colts in 1990.


                                 Coach Doug Mills and his Whiz Kids

The Whiz Kids Reunite

Dec. 6, 2023

Seventy-seven years ago today—Dec. 6, 1946—the Whiz Kids reunited at Huff Gym.


Wrote Daily Illini staffer (and future NBC-TV star) Gene Shalit the next day, “The Whiz Kids came back to Huff Gym last night. And before 7,785 fans—the largest home crowd in Illinois’s history—they proved that they are indeed the wizards of old. It took them only 20 minutes to humble Cornell College, 49-13, and then they retired for the night.”


The 87-39 victory was the first appearance for the Whiz Kids senior quartet of Andy Phillip, Jack Smiley, Ken Menke and Gene Vance since Mar. 1, 1943, the date they’d last played together as a unit. A call to service during World War II prompted their departure.


Coach Doug Mills’ 1942-43 Illini were a well-oiled, nearly flawless unit, having compiled a 17-1 overall record and a perfect 12-0 record in Big Ten play. Just days before the NCAA Tournament began, the Army drafted Menke, Smiley and then fellow Whiz Kid Art Mathisen, leaving only Vance and Phillips. But Mills made a decision in February of 1943 that all five supported.


“If all five guys couldn’t not get a chance to play in the tournament,” Vance told the Chicago Tribune in 2005, “then two of us shouldn’t either. So, we didn’t play. It was the right choice.”


The tournament went on without Illinois. Ultimately, Wyoming beat Georgetown in the 1943 NAA title game.


What happened during the Illini foursome’s nearly 30 months of military service took both a physical and emotional toll.


Phillip, a standout from Granite City’s 1940 state champions, had served as a first lieutenant in the Marine Corps during the war. He had seen men in his platoon at Iwo Jima die around him. According to Phillip’s former Boston Celtics teammate, the late Tommy Heinsohn, those war-time encounters strengthened him as a pro.


“Andy was tough-minded,” Heinsohn told a Tribune interviewer in Phillips’ obituary. “I think that experience in the second World War really helped build him as a player. When things weren’t going the way you’d like them to go, Andy was there to help you overcome.”


Smiley came to Illinois from Waterman High School. Serving with the Army’s 106th division as an artillery corporal, he was engaged in one of the war’s deadliest skirmishes, the Battle of the Bulge. It was written that Smiley once fired his Howitzer for 96 continuous hours. His division reported a 90 percent casualty rate during the combat. Smiley’s return to the Illini for the 1946-47 season was capped when he was named UI basketball’s Most Valuable Player.


Menke, who played for Dundee High School’s 1938 state champs, served with the Army’s 193rd Field Artillery Battalion in the European theater of operation from 1943-46.


Vance, a native of nearby Clinton, wore a U.S. Army uniform during World War II duty in Europe, then also later during the Korean conflict. He earned two Bronze stars, a decoration awarded for heroic achievement and service.


Said Vance years later of the Whiz Kids, “We just had five guys who played off each other well, didn’t have specific roles, and nobody care who scored all the points as long as we were winning.”



                                 D.A. Points

1964 Illinois-UCLA Game

Dec. 4, 2023

Fifty-nine years ago today—Dec. 4, 1964—the Fighting Illini hit a single-game percentage record of its shots and broke defending NCAA champion UCLA’s 30-game winning streak, defeating Coach John Wooden’s Bruins by a score of 110 to 83 at the Assembly Hall.


Though UCLA guard Gail Goodrich took game honors with 25 points on eight field goals and nine of 10 free throws, Illinois’ beautifully balanced attack from six individuals in double figures was the story of the day. Hitting long shots over UCLA’s deep-sag defense, Coach Harry Combes’ team cashed in on 46 of its 79 shots for a school record efficiency of 58.2 percent. UI’s previous varsity mark was 56.3 percent against Butler in 1958.


Illini center Duane “Skip” Thoren tallied 20 points to pace the home team to its Friday night massacre in Champaign. He was closely followed in the scoring ledger by Bill McKeown’s 19 points, then 17 apiece from Don Freeman and Bogie Redmon, 16 from Tal Brody, and 10 from Larry Hinton.


The Illini would go on to finish the 1964-65 season with an 18-6 record and a 10-4 mark in Big Ten Conference play.


Wooden’s Bruins seemed to miss the steady direction of graduated All-America guard Walt Hazzard that evening against Illinois, but rebounded successfully the following day to beat host Indiana State, 112-76. then rattled off 12 more wins in a row before a Jan. 29 loss against Iowa on a neutral court. After that second loss, UCLA won its last 15 straight, including a 91-80 victory over Cazzie Russell’s Michigan team in the NCAA championship game.


UCLA would “slump” to a disappointing 18-8 record in 1965-66, but amazingly went on to be crowned back-to-back-to-back-to-back-to-back-to-back NCAA champs in 1966-67 (30-0), ‘67-68 (29-1), ‘68-69 (29-1), ’69-70 (28-2), ’70-71 (29-1), ’71-72 (30-0) and ’72-73 (30-0).


                                 D.A. Points

D.A. Points

Dec. 1, 2023

Happy forty-seventh birthday to former Fighting Illini star Darren Andrew “D.A.” Points, currently an active participant on the Professional Golf Association (PGA) Tour.


Born in Pekin in 1976 and the 1993 Class AA medalist at Pekin High School, Points originally chose to play collegiate golf at LSU. Following his sophomore season with the Tigers, the three-time Illinois Amateur champion decided to transfer to the University of Illinois and play for Coach Ed Beard.


The 6-1, 195-pound right-hander sparkled during his two seasons with the Illini (1998 and ’99), earning first-team All-Big Ten honors both years. Points was the medalist at three different tournaments during his Illini career and tied for twelfth place at the 1999 NCAA Tournament.


Points began competition on the PGA circuit in 2002 and has won three individual titles. His first victory was at the 2011 AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am, shooting rounds of 63, 70, 71 and 67. He also won the pro-am competition that year with comedian Bill Murray. Points won more than $2 million in purses that year.


His top money-earning season came in 2013 ($2.7 million) when he won the Shell Houston Open and finished thirtieth in the FedEx Cup standings.


Points’ most recent victory was in 2017 at the Puerto Rico Open. He’s had nineteen top ten finishes and fifty-four top twenty-five placings. Points’ best finish in a major tournament was when he tied for tenth at the 2011 PGA Championship. Through 18 professional seasons, his career earnings total $11.8 million.


A neck injury has limited Points to just thirteen starts in 2019.

 

He now resides in Windermere, Fla. with his wife, Lori, and his daughter, Laila Jane.


                                 Dee Brown and Bruce Weber

2005 Illini-Tar Heels Rematch

Nov. 29, 2023

Revenge was on the mind of Coach Bruce Weber’s Fighting Illini basketball team 18 years ago today – Nov. 29, 2005 – as Illinois and North Carolina met for the first time since the 2005 NCAA championship game at the Edward Jones Dome in St. Louis.


Though the rosters were a bit different than the contest played 239 days earlier, pride was on the line for the undefeated and 12th-ranked Illini (5-0) and Coach Roy Williams’ unbeaten Tar Heels (3-0). This time the game was played in Chapel Hill at the Dean Smith Center, a site where UNC had won 21 consecutive games. Angering Illinois even more was the gigantic banner that hung in the arena’s rafters, reminding the Illini of their failure on April 4.


Weber, who’d broken his ankle a day earlier working in his yard, hobbled on the sidelines with a protective boot, played the rematch with only four of the nine athletes who’d appeared in the title game (James Augustine, Dee Brown, Rich McBride and Warren Carter) while only reserves Reyshawn Terry and David Noel returned for North Carolina.


The second half of the late-night game began with the score tied at 35-all, but Illinois bounced ahead by five on a long-distance bomb from Brian Randle and a short jumper by Brown. A three-pointer by freshman Jamar Smith extended UI’s lead with 49-40 at the 14:49 mark, but over the next five minutes North Carolina whittled the margin to just three points. A 10-point burst by Illinois increased its lead to 61-48 at the 7:42 mark, but a pair of Tar Heel three-pointers and six-of-six free-throw shooting by UNC freshman Tyler Hansbrough made the score 64-62, in favor of Illinois. Now just 3:20 remaining on the clock.


After the teams traded buckets, UI’s Smith misfired on the front end of a 1-and-1 with just 17 second left, but Randle beat everyone to the rebound and quickly passed the ball to Brown, who made two crucial free throws to seal UI’s 68-64 victory.


Said Roy Williams afterwards, "That was a fun basketball game. If you didn't care who won, fans had to enjoy that.”


                                 Darrick Bownlow

Darrick Brownlow

Nov. 27, 2023

On this date 34 years ago today - Nov. Nov. 27, 1989 - Illinois linebacker Darrick Brownlow was named Big Ten football’s Defensive Player of the Year by the media, while teammate Moe Gardner was the pick of the coaches for that honor.


One week after his honor from the Conference, Brownlow finished second to Colorado’s Alfred Williams in the 1990 Butkus Award voting. He was also one of the final 10 for that award the two previous seasons.


Helping lead the Illini to a share of the Big Ten Championship in 1990, the Indianapolis native ended that season with 161 tackles and nine tackles for loss, winning first-team All-Big Ten honors for the third straight year.


Brownlow finished his Illini career with 483 tackles, second only to John Sullivan (1974-78).


He was drafted in the fifth round of the 1991 NFL Draft by the Dallas Cowboys. Brownlow also played for the Tampa Bay Bucs (1992-93), the Cowboys again (1994), the Washington Redskins (1995-96) and the Chicago Bears (1997).     


                                 1990 Illini Football Media Guide

1990 Illini-Wildcats Game

Nov. 24, 2023

Thirty-three years ago today—Nov. 24, 1990—Illinois’s football team rode the broad shoulders of Howard Griffith and gained a share of their first Big Ten title in seven seasons.


Entering the regular-season finale, Coach John Mackovic’s Fighting Illini needed Lady Luck to smile upon them. Not only did Illinois need to defeat pesky Northwestern minus the services of injured seniors Moe Gardner, Curt Lovelace and Frank Hartley, they’d need some upsets to occur around the league.


Entering the weekend, Iowa (6-1) held a half-game lead over Ohio State (5-1-1) and a full one-game margin over Illinois (5-2), Michigan (5-2) and Michigan State (5-2). For the Illini to have an opportunity to tie for the conference championship, Minnesota would need to defeat the Hawkeyes in the Twin Cities and the No. 15 Wolverines would have to beat the No. 19 Buckeyes in Columbus. Fortunately for Illinois, both the Gophers (31-24) and Michigan (16-13) responded accordingly. In the latter game, a 37-yard field goal on the last play of the game was the difference. In East Lansing, MSU squeaked by Wisconsin, 14-9, to work itself into position for a co-championship.


That left it up to Illinois to take care of business. The Illini were more than ready, bolting off to a 21-0 first-quarter lead on its first three possessions. A pair of defensive interceptions by UI’s Quintin Parker on Northwestern’s first two drives resulted in short touchdown runs by Griffith and Steve Feagin. Illinois’s third drive was capped by a 14-yard touchdown toss from Jason Verduzco to Jeff Finke.


“Things were flying so fast,” said NU coach Francis Peay, “that I’m not really sure what happened.”


Two Northwestern touchdowns and a Wildcat field goal cut Illinois’s lead to 21-17 after three quarters, but Griffith’s second TD with just five-and-a-half minutes left in the fourth provided the Illini with what would prove to be the game-winning score. Final score: Illinois 28, Northwestern 23.


Griffith made his final game at Memorial Stadium a memorable one, rushing for an Illinois record 263 yards on 37 carries. That broke Jim Grabowski’s 26-year-old record (239 yards vs. Wisconsin in 1964).


In the locker room afterwards, officials from Tampa’s Hall of Fame Bowl extended a New Year’s Day game bid to Illinois. It guaranteed the first time in school history that the Illini would participate in three consecutive bowl games.


                                 Ray Gallivan

1924 Illini-Buckeyes Game

Nov. 22, 2023

Ninety-nine years ago today – Nov. 22, 1924 – Coach Bob Zuppke’s Illinois football team hosted the Ohio State Buckeyes, attempting to right the ship in a season when things had begun so promisingly. However, there was one huge problem facing the Fighting Illini this day. They’d be playing without the services of injured superstar running back Red Grange.


A week before at Minnesota, in a stunning 20-7 loss, Illinois’s famed No. 77 had suffered torn ligaments in his right shoulder when he was fallen upon—out of bounds—by an overzealous Gopher tackler. With his arm being supported by a sling and dressed in civilian clothes, Grange could only look on from the sideline. Just 35 days earlier, the Galloping Ghost had run wild against Michigan in Memorial Stadium’s dedication game, but there would be no encore performance on this cold afternoon against Ohio State.


Also injured against Minnesota was Illini junior quarterback Harry Hall, so Zup called upon a pair of lesser-used reserves—William Green from Rockford and Ray Gallivan from Urbana—to fill Grange and Hall’s respective roles.


Despite UI’s depleted ranks, the 5-1-1 Illini remained the favorite against Coach John Wilce’s Buckeyes. OSU entered the day with an unusual record of two victories, two losses and three ties, and had been particularly stingy on defense, allowing only 38 total points in their previous seven games.


As the game began, the Buckeyes appeared ready to compete. Midway through the first quarter, OSU recovered a fumble on Illinois’s 29-yard line. However, it could no advance further on its next three plays. On fourth down, the Buckeye placekicker missed a short field goal. That change in momentum allowed Gallivan to start gallivanting. He burst through the line, shed three prospective tacklers, and ran 40 yards to OSU’s 35-yard line. Two more sizable gains by Gallivan got Illinois down to the Buckeye 10, but forward progress stalled and Earl Britton missed a field goal attempt.


After OSU’s punt on the subsequent drive, Illinois regained possession. Once again, Gallivan sparkled. He caught a pass from Britton that took the pigskin to the 12-yard line. Two short Illini runs by Wallie McIllwain and Green preceded Gallivan’s plunge over the goal line. It would prove to be the only score all afternoon. Illinois won by a score of 7-0, extending its series record lead over Ohio State to 7-4-2.


Gallivan ended the day with a hundred yards rushing, allowing Illinois to keep the series trophy, a hearty, live turtle that the schools had nicknamed “Illibuck”. (Note: Illibuck ultimately died on April 14, 1926, and was replaced by a wooden replica.)


As for Gallivan, himself, he lettered twice more for Zuppke, then became a successful prep coach at Whiting High School in northern Indiana. When World War II broke out, Gallivan left his coaching position to join the United States Coast Guard. He returned to Whiting High in 1946 and retired in 1954 to become the school’s principal, then superintendent of all Whiting Public Schools.


Gallivan died on Sept. 15, 1974 at the age of 71 and is buried in Champaign’s St. Mary’s Cemetery.


                                 Action from the 2022 Illini-Wildcat game

Illini-Wildcat Season Finales

Nov. 20, 2023


For 10 of the last 11 years, including this coming Saturday’s game at Memorial Stadium, Northwestern has been the Fighting Illini football team’s regular-season finale opponent. The only time that a Wildcat-Illini match-up hasn’t happened over the last decade was the unusual COVID season of 2019.


Since Illinois football’s very first campaign in 1890, the Land of Lincoln’s intrastate rivals have previously been paired against each other in the finale a total of 56 times. In those late November matches, Northwestern holds the edge with 29 victories, 26 losses and one tie.


A review of some of Illinois’ most memorable regular-season finales against Northwestern:


Nov. 27, 2021: Illinois dominated the Wildcats from beginning to end in its 47-14 victory. In capturing the Land of Lincoln Trophy for the first time since 2014, Illinois’ individual heroes were quarterback Brandon Peters (242 yards passing) and Chase Brown (112 yards rushing).


Nov. 22, 2001: Illinois wrapped up a share of the Big Ten title for the first time since 1990 on Thanksgiving Day, then was rewarded with a sole championship two days later when Ohio State beat Michigan. As they had throughout the season, Illinois seniors played a big role in the 34-28 victory that boosted UI’s record to 10-1. Quarterback Kurt Kittner completed 33 of his 43 passes for 387 yards and four touchdowns.


Nov. 18, 2000: Coach Randy Walker’s Wildcats secured a conference co-championship with its dominating 61-23 victory in Evanston. NU running back Damien Anderson scored a school-record four touchdowns in just three quarters.


Nov. 24, 1990: It was the Howard Griffith Show as No. 22 Illinois held off determined Northwestern, 28-23. The victory gave Illinois a four-way share of the Big Ten title. Griffith’s 263-yard rushing effort smashed the Illini single-game mark of 239 yards set by Jim Grabowski in 1964. Griffith also scored two touchdowns, breaking Red Grange’s career mark.


Nov. 25, 1989: Eleventh-ranked Illinois demolished host Northwestern, 63-14, then accepted an invitation to play in the Florida Citrus Bowl. UI’s offensive explosion against the winless Wildcats was the most an Illini team had scored in Big Ten play since 1908.


Nov. 19, 1983: Thousands of Illini fans turned Dyche Stadium into a sea of Orange and Blue, cheering on Illinois to an historic 56-24 victory. UI’s nine wins in a full round-robin Big Ten slate made it the winningest single-season conference team ever. Jack Trudeau’s four touchdown passes, including two to Tim Brewster, and Thomas Rooks’ 138 rushing yards topped Illinois’ individual highlights.


Nov. 21, 1953: Illinois’ 39-14 victory over Northwestern gave it a share of the Big Ten championship with Michigan State. In a vote by Big Ten athletic directors the following day, the Spartans were chosen to represent the conference at the Rose Bowl game.


Nov. 24, 1951: Sam Rebecca’s 17-yard field goal provided Illinois with the only points it needed, defeating Northwestern, 3-0. Not only did the victory give Illinois its first Big Ten title since 1946, it was UI’s first against a Wildcat team coached by Bob Voigts.


Nov. 23, 1946: Three quick touchdown strikes catapulted Illinois to its first conference title since 1928 and its first-ever Rose Bowl invitation. One of the Illini TDs was a 53-yard run by Art Dufelmeier, an ex-army air corp bombardier who had spent 11 months in a German prison camp during World War II.


Nov. 21, 1908: The first time that Illinois and Northwestern were matched against each other in the season finale occurred 114 years ago. Illini QB Pom Sinnock’s remarkable passing performance (14-of-17) resulted in a 64 to 8 victory.


                                 Andy Kaufmann

Andy Kaufmann

Nov. 17, 2023


Today marks Andy Kaufmann’s 54th birthday. He’ll be remembered in Fighting Illini basketball lore for his dramatic, last-second three-pointer that beat Iowa in 1994.


However, he initially became a legend in Illinois high school basketball at Jacksonville by leading the state in scoring in both his sophomore and junior seasons. His 3,160 points as a Crimson ranked second only to the 3,358 scored by Charlie Vaughn of Tamms High from 1954-58.


A look at Andy Kaufmann’s career, by the numbers:


1.5: Seconds remaining when he received a three-quarter-court pass from T.J. Wheeler, then hit a game-winning shot to beat No. 9 Iowa.


7: Three-pointers made vs. Missouri on Dec. 19, 1990 (14 attempts).


10: Where he ranks on Illinois’ all-time scoring list with 1,533 points.


14.9: Scoring average during his career at Illinois.


21.3: His team-leading scoring average during the 1990-91 season.


34: His jersey number at Illinois.


46:  Points he scored vs. vs. Wisconsin-Milwaukee on Dec. 3, 1990, second-best single-game scoring mark in Illini men’s history.


660: Points he scored for the Illini during the 1990-91 season, just eight shy of Don Freeman’s Illini record in 1965-66.



918: Career number of free throws he attempted during his prep career at Jacksonville High School, a national record.



                                 Jannelle Flaws

Jannelle Flaws

Nov. 15, 2023


Illinois soccer’s career and season record-holder for goals scored, Jannelle Flaws, celebrates her birthday today.

 

The former Glenbrook South High School star’s collegiate career began slowly, redshirting her first season in 2010. Flaws was recovering from a knee injury that she’d suffered during her final high school season.


The two-time all-stater departed Glenbrook South after setting the Titans’ career records for goals (145) and points (329). As an Illini redshirt freshman in 2011, Flaws tallied three goals and three assists, but her knee injury flared up again in 2012, sending her to the training room for the entire campaign.


In 2013, Flaws started in 22 of her 23 appearances for UI coach Janet Rayfield and notched an Illinois record 23 goals. Rayfield said Flaws knew what she was aiming at the whole time.


“There were two things that would make you think that it could happen,” Rayfield said about her star. “Her greatest strength was her ability to score goals. Secondly, she cared about the stats. Jannelle knew the Illini records and the Big Ten records. She even tracked the leading goal scorers across the country every season. She was one of those athletes that saw records as something to go after, so I am not surprised she achieved that success.”


Following the 2013 season, conference coaches selected Flaws as the Big Ten Forward of the Year, while Illinois named her the Dike Eddleman Female Athlete of the Year.


And though Flaws never reached that lofty scoring level again, she continued to pace the Illini in scoring in her junior and senior seasons, tallying 17 goals in 2014 and 11 more in 2015. That gave her an Illini record 54 career goals in 84 games, seven more than Tara Hurless had scored during her Hall of Fame career from 2001-04.


What were the characteristics that set Flaws apart from other players Rayfield coached?


“Athletically, I would say it was her ability to push herself to her limits in those competitive moments,” Rayfield said. “But that is also tied to her firm belief that she could impact the outcome. She is one of those athletes that, with the game tied, wants to take the last shot and wants the outcome to rest on her shoulders. It wasn’t just confidence because lots of athletes are confident. It was conviction. And it wasn’t ego. She wanted the ball because she wanted to win and she was willing to accept the responsibility to make that happen.”


Most recently, Flaws resided in Germany and played for SV Meppen in the German Women’s Bundesliga.


                                 Josh Whitman

This Date in Illini History

Nov. 13, 2023


Twenty-four years ago today—Nov. 13, 1999—Coach Ron Turner’s Fighting Illini football team became bowl eligible with a 46-20 victory at Ohio State, its most lopsided win against the Buckeyes in 70 years. It marked the first time in school history that the Illini had won at OSU and at Michigan in the same season. Tight end Josh Whitman (pictured) caught two of quarterback Kurt Kittner’s four touchdown passes, while fullback Jameel Cook was the recipient of 100 of Kittner’s 221 passing yards.


In the previous four meetings between the two schools, Ohio State had beaten Illinois by a combined margin of 171-9.


Other memorable moments in Illini history that have occurred on Nov. 13:


• One-hundred-eight years ago (Nov. 13, 1915), Potsy Clark and Jesse Nelson scored touchdowns in a 17-3 win against Wisconsin that improved UI’s record to 4-0-2.


• On this date in 1943, referees pulled Illini players out of the locker room after Illinois assumed that its game against Ohio State had ended in a 26-26 tie. Officials ruled that UI was offside on the final play, allowing Buckeye freshman John Stungis to kick a game-winning 23-yard field goal.


• On Nov. 13, 1965, Illinois handed Wisconsin its worst loss since 1916, shutting out the Badgers, 51-0, in Madison. While the Illini defense held UW to minus four yards rushing, UI’s Jim Grabowski ran for 196 yards on a Big Ten record 38 attempts.


• Forty-six years ago today (Nov. 13, 1977), longtime Illini basketball coach Harry Combes died at the age of 62.


• On Nov. 13, 1982, Tony Eason threw three first-half touchdown passes and Mitchell Brookins rushed for three TDs as Illinois crushed Indiana, 48-7, in the regular season finale at Bloomington.


• Clint and Susan Atkins announced a $2.5 million donation for an Illini tennis center 36 years ago today.


• Thirty-two years ago (Nov. 13, 1991), Coach Lou Henson’s basketball staff signed Richard Keene and Chris Gandy to letters of intent.


• On Nov. 13, 2010, Demetri McCamey and D.J. Richardson led No. 13 Illinois past Coach Bruce Weber’s former team, SIU, 85-63.


                                 Memorial Stadium's Colonnade

Memorial Stadium's Columns

Nov. 10, 2023


Two-hundred stately 22-foot, Doric-style columns grace each side of the University of Illinois’ Memorial Stadium, memorializing the 188 men and one woman who lost their lives in World War I.


In 2002, the U of I broadened the stadium's original allegiance to honor those who gave their lives in our nation's wars. The memorial honors 948 alumni, students, faculty and staff who gave their lives in the nation's wars and conflicts since 1918. Their names are engraved on an impressive limestone tablets at the passages to Memorial Stadium's east and west colonnades, alongside the names of their fallen World War I associates.


On Oct. 17, 1924, as part of the dedication exercises for Memorial Stadium, 1916 UI graduate Lewis Sarrett read his work, entitled “Ode to Illinois”. The closing stanza of Mr. Sarrett’s stirring poem:


Know that the broken hosts

Of martial-moving ghosts,

Who gave to a warring world their last full breath,

And won to immortality in death,

Hovering in stadium shaft and tower height,

In memorial court and buttressed peak,

Shall watch for you, and speak

To you of Great Moments in a Greater Fight.

O Men of Illinois, in war and peace and play,

So may we live that when the crucial fight is won,

And the long race run,

These spirits of an elder day

Shall bend to each of us and say:

Well done! Well done!

Yours is the will to win. Well done, my prairie son.


                                 Walt Kersulis

Walt Kersulis

Nov. 8, 2023


While his career may not have created many headlines, East St. Louis High School star Walter “Slip” Kersulis accomplished something only six other Illinois football players ever accomplished: lettering four times in football and four times in a second sport.


Born 97 years ago today, Kersulis is the only one of the six men who lettered, served in the military, then returned to campus to complete his collegiate career. An Army soldier during World War II, Kersulis lettered in Illini football and basketball—in 1944 and ’45 respectively—as a true freshman. Three years later, he returned to campus and lettered three more times in each sport.


Playing for Coach Ray Eliot, Kersulis was a standout receiver, leading the ’48 team in receptions for 22 for 329 yards. Career-wise, he’s believed to have finished his eligibility as UI’s all-time leading receiver with 37 catches for 532 yards and six touchdowns. Following his senior season, he was selected to play in the 1950 College All-Star Game against the Philadelphia Eagles. Teaming with Eddie LaBaron. Leon Hart, Leo Nomelini, Doak Walker, Charlie “Choo Choo” Justice and others, the All-Stars stunned the Eagles, winning 17-7.


As a 6-4 forward/center, Kersulis played for Coach Doug Mills as a freshman during the 1944-45 season, tallying 90 points. but was greeted by a new coach when he returned from service. For Coach Harry Combes, Kersulis averaged four points per game from 1948 through 1950.


He played one season (1950-51) as a professional in the National Professional Basketball League for the Louisville Alumnites. He eventually became manager of the date processing department for Reynolds Metals Company in Richmond, Va.


Kersulis died on Apr. 12, 1973 at the age of 46 from a case of acute myeloid leukemia. He is buried with his wife, Jean, at Woodlawn Cemetery in Urbana.


Illini four-year football letter winners who also lettered four times in a second sport:


Don Sweney

Football: 1893-1894-1895-1897

Track & Field: 1893-1894-1895-1898


James Cook

Football: 1898-1900-1901-1902

Baseball: 1900-1901-1902-1903


Claude Rothgeb

Football: 1900-1902-1903-1904

Track & Field: 1902-1903-1904-1905


Walt Kersulis

Football: 1944-1947-1948-1949

Basketball: 1945-1948-1949-1950


Russell “Ruck” Steger

Football: 1946-1947-1948-1949

Baseball: 1947-1948-1949-1950


Forry Wells

Football: 1990-1991-1992-1993

Baseball: 1991-1992-1993-1994


                                 The 1997-98 Illini basketball poster

Revisiting the 1997-98 Big Ten Champions

Nov. 6, 2023


As Brad Underwood’s team prepares to open the University of Illinois’ 119th season Monday evening at the State Farm Center, the 2023-24 campaign marks the 26th anniversary of the school’s 1998 Big Ten championship team.


Because of the departure of three-time team Most Valuable Player Kiwane Garris and classmate Chris Gandy to graduation, Big Ten media predicted 26 years ago that the Illini would finish in the bottom half of the conference standings. Second-year coach Lon Kruger did return seven underrated seniors to his 1997-98 squad, including an upperclass quintet of Jerry Hester, Brian Johnson, Jarrod Gee, Kevin Turner and Matt Heldman that comprised the starting lineup in 31 of Illinois’ 33 games that season and accounted for 84 percent of its scoring.


The 1997 portion of UI’s ’97-98 season began slowly, losing to formidable teams from Louisville, St. John’s, St. Louis, Missouri and UCLA. Illinois was only 3-2 through its first five Big Ten contests in January, but then strung together 10 victories in its last 11 regular-season games to finish in a tie with Michigan State in the final conference standings.


Here’s a 2023 look at several of the members of the 1997-98 Illini and what they’re doing today:


COACH LON KRUGER: After departing Champaign in 2000 to take the reins of the NBA’s Atlanta Hawks (2000,-03) Kruger finished his career with college stints at UNLV (2004-11) and Oklahoma (2011-21). His collegiate coaching career ended with 674 victories and 432 losses.


KEVIN TURNER: The first-team All-Big Ten selection and ’97-98 team co-MVP is now an iron worker in Chicago and has three kids, ages 16, 14 and four.


JERRY HESTER: The ’98 co-MVP and third-team all-conference pick finished his career tenth on UI’s career scoring list. He now operates the highly successful Hester Insurance Group in Chicago.


MATT HELDMAN: One of Illinois’ top three-point shooters that season, Heldman and his father, Otis, died in an automobile accident in Libertyville in October of 1999.


BRIAN JOHNSON: A three-time Academic All-Big Ten honoree and the 1998 winner of the Kenny Battle Inspiration Award, Johnson currently is Senior Director of Engineering at Gloo in Barrington Hills.


JARROD GEE: He averaged eight points and five rebounds per game for the 1998 Big Ten champions. After a recent stint as a patrol officer in Stafford, Tex., Gee now serves as a youth intervention specialist for the Chicago Public School System.


JELANI BOLINE: A senior member and participant in 28 of Illinois’ 33 games that season, Boline resides today in Fort Worth, Tex. with his wife and two sons.


DAVID FREEMAN: The seventh senior member of the ’97-98 Illini squad and a product of Champaign Central High School now is a professional actor and producer in West Hollywood, Calif. and the strategic advisor for Mesh++.


ARIAS DAVIS: The lone junior 25 years ago for the Illini was a 2016 inductee into the Waycross-Ware County Sports Hall of Fame (Georgia).


VICTOR CHUKWUDEBE: A sophomore forward that year and a participant in all 33 games, he’s now an administrator for Success Academy in South Bend, Ind.


JEFF REICHARDT: The ’97-98 sophomore is now a project and program manager for IBM Global Business Services in Chicagoland.


SERGIO McCLAIN: McClain played in all 33 games that season and averaged three points and three rebounds. In 2011, he developed the 217309 Pipeline Foundation in honor of his father, former Illini assistant coach Wayne McClain.


AWVEE STOREY: Though his stay at the University of Illinois was brief, Storey went on to star at Arizona State and then play in the NBA (2004-08). Today, he is an assistant coach for the Maine Celtics of the NBA G League.


RICH BEYERS: A freshman on the ’97-98 Illini who eventually transferred to play at Illinois State, Rich Beyers most recently coached at Father McGivney High School in Glen Carbon, Ill.


                                 The 2019-20 Illini basketball team

Illini Basketball's Most Improved Seasons

Nov. 3, 2023


So, will the 2023-24 edition be the most improved Illinois men's basketball team ever? In terms of comparing winning percentages from one season to the next, probably not. That particular record will almost certainly remain with the 1907-08 Illini team that bettered its winning percentage from .091 in 1906-07 (1-10 record) to .769 a year later (20-6). Statistically, this year’s squad would have to win more than ninety percent of its games, so you probably can rule that out.


Here are Illinois’ eleven most improved men’s basketball teams and reasons why they got so much better from one year to the next:


1.  1-10 in 1906-07 (.091 winning percentage) to 20-6 in 1907-08 (.769) … improvement of plus .678

(Why the improvement? Coach Fletcher Lane’s only Illini squad benefitted from a 22-day Southern trip in mid-December to early January that got victories from several YMCA and club teams. It cooled off during the Big Ten season, finishing with a 6-5 conference mark. By the way, future International Olympic Committee President Avery Brundage was a member of that team.)


2. 11-13 in 1967-68 (.458) to 19-5 in 1968-69 (.792) … improvement of plus .334

(Why the improvement? Harv Schmidt’s ’68-69 club won all ten of its non-conference games and nine of its fourteen league contests, thanks to the return of stars Mike Price, Dave Scholz and Jodie Harrison. The addition of sophomore center Greg Jackson’s 16.4 points per game proved to be the most legitimate spark.)


3. 12-21 in 2018-19 (.363) to 21-10 in 2019-20 (.677) … improvement of plus .314

(Why the improvement? The addition of Kofi Cockburn and the maturation of Ayo Dosunmu, Giorgi Bezhanishvili and Andres Feliz led Brad Underwood's third team to a final Associated Press ranking of No. 21.


4. 5-12 in 1927-28 (.294) to 10-7 in 1928-29 (.588) … improvement of plus .294

(Why the improvement? Veteran coach Craig Ruby added Charles “Bur” Harper and Elbridge May from ’27-28’s outstanding freshman class to returning vets Doug Mills, Ernie Dorn and Earl Drew. That helped Illinois improve its conference record from 2-10 to 6-6.)


5. 9-15 in 1960-61 (.375) to 15-8 in 1961-62 (.652) … improvement of plus .277

(Why the improvement? Four returning starters—Dave Downey, Jerry Colangelo, Bill Burwell and Bill Small—all gave Coach Harry Combes double-figure scoring in ’61-62, but the contribution from Bob Starnes (9.6 points and 6.4 rebounds) gave Illinois the extra boost it needed.)


6. 14-18 in 1998-99 (.438) to 22-10 in 1999-2000 (.689) … improvement of plus .251

(Why the improvement? Illinois’s momentum from its improbable run in the ’99 Big Ten Tournament and the addition of Frank Williams, Brian Cook and Marcus Griffin helped Coach Lon Kruger’s Illini improve by eight games in ’99-00 and finish 21st in the AP national poll.


7. 16-19 in 2007-08 (.457) to 24-10 in 2008-09 (.706) … improvement of plus .249

(Why the improvement? Senior leadership from Chester Frazier and Trent Meacham, and the double-figure scoring of Demetri McCamey, Mike Davis and Mike Tisdale aided Illinois as it climbed from a tie for ninth in the Big Ten to a tie for second.)


8. 8-18 in 1974-75 (.308) to 14-13 in 1975-76 (.519) … improvement of plus .211

(Why the improvement? The change in head coaches from Gene Bartow to rookie coach Lou Henson got the proud Illini program back on the right track. The emergence of freshman forward Rich Adams also was a big plus.)


9. 13-14 in 1977-78 (.482) to 19-11 in 1978-79 (.633) … improvement of plus .151

(Why the improvement? The Illini’s 15-game winning streak began the ’78-79 season with two more victories than the year before, but a mid-season injury to Steve Lanter caused a precipitous downfall in the second half.)


10T. 15-19 in 2015-16 (.441) to 20-15 in 2016-17 (.571) … improvement of plus .130

(Why the improvement? Having injured star Tracy Abrams back in the lineup was probably the biggest reason for improvement for Coach John Groce’s ’16-17 unit. It recorded four victories in its last five Big Ten games and won two more in the NIT.)


10T. 13-15 in 1991-92 (.464) to 19-13 in 1992-93 (.594) … improvement of plus .130

(Why the improvement? Andy Kaufmann added 17.3 points per game to an Illinois lineup that it was missing from the year before. Freshman Richard Keene bombed away for 8.3 ppg more. The Illini tied for third in the Big Ten and got back to the NCAA Tournament.)


                                 President Andrew Draper

President Andrew Draper

Nov. 1, 2023

Andrew Sloan Draper served as the University of Illinois president during the some of the most formative years of the Fighting Illini athletics program.


UI’s Board of Trustees unanimously hired the 46-year-old on Apr. 13, 1894 to replace Acting Regent  Thomas Burrill. Draper had served as Superintendent of Public Instruction in Cleveland and had established a distinguished career in both law and education. A house was built for him at the northeast corner of Wright and Green streets.


During the 10-year Draper administration, the university added a library building (currently known at Altgeld Hall), agriculture, engineering and chemistry buildings, and a Women’s Building (now called Bevier Hall). Colleges in medicine, dentistry, commerce and law were established while Draper served as president, while improvements included an automated university telephone system, the installation of a centralized power plant, addition of electricity in campus buildings, and the launching of UI’s student-operated newspaper, The Illini.


Intercollegiate athletics made huge strides during President Draper’s decade of service. A major highlight included Illinois’s charter membership in the Intercollegiate Conference of Faculty Representatives (eventually known as the Big Ten) in 1896.


On Nov. 1, 1894—129 years ago today—President Draper asked the student body to officially accept orange and navy blue as the university’s colors.


Draper resigned from his post in 1904 to become the State of New York’s Commissioner of Education. He died nine years later at the age of 64.


                                 Mike Hatfield

Mike Hatfield

Oct. 30, 2023

Happy 67th Birthday to Mike Hatfield, a longtime member of the Fighting Illini athletics staff.


During his nearly four decades at the University of Illinois, he served as academic counselor for the Illini football and basketball teams for eight years, then directed the athletic ticket office for the following 10. “Hat’s” final 11 years with the Division of Intercollegiate Athletics were with the “I” Fund. As an Illini administrator, he held vital roles during 12 bowl games (two Rose Bowls) and 24 post-season basketball tournaments (two Final Fours). Hatfield concluded his service with the DIA in 2010 as Executive Director of the Varsity I Association.


A member of the Hoopeston Area High School Athletics Hall of Fame, Hatfield initially competed collegiately at Parkland College, earning two letters each with the Cobras’ cross country and track and field squads. He was a three-time NJCAA state champion in Region IV and six times earned All-Illinois honors. Hatfield is a member of Parkland’s Athletics Hall of Fame, inducted last February.


He transferred to Eastern Illinois University and was a member of EIU’s NCAA Division II Champion cross country team in 1977. Hatfield earned All-America honors in track and field as a steeplechase runner. His time of 8:52.0 was the nation’s best effort of 1979 and it stood as the Panthers’ record in that event for 26 years. Hatfield earned both his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from EIU and also is a member of the University’s Athletics Hall of Fame (1997).


Hatfield served at Cal State-Fullerton just prior to joining the Illini staff.


He recently retired from a longtime appointment at UI’s St. John’s Catholic Newman Center.


                                 Marcus Liberty

Marcus Liberty

Oct. 27, 2023

One of the most decorated Fighting Illini basketball recruits of all-time, Marcus Liberty, celebrates his 55th birthday today.


A three-year regular at Chicago’s King High School, the 6-8 Liberty led the Cougars to the Class AA state championship his junior year. As a senior, his 26.5 points and 12 rebounds per game earned him the title as 1987’s “Mr. Basketball” in Illinois.


After sitting out his freshman season, Liberty became an important member of the famed Flying Illini in ’88-89, coming off the bench to average eight points and four rebounds per game. As a senior, he was UI’s second-leading scoring (17.8 ppg) and its top rebounder (7.1).


Drafted in the second round of the 1990 NBA Draft, Liberty played two seasons with Denver, then split the 1993-94 season between the Nuggets and Detroit.


Today, Liberty directs his own youth program (Liberty Edge Basketball) in Sarasota, Fla. and Chicago. He also has launched a non-profit business for underprivileged kids called Sportuity. Its mission is to support, empower and motivate youth through sports and education. To donate, contact Liberty at mliberty@marcusliberty.com.


His advice to the current generation is simple.


“I tell them to come early to the gym and stay late,” Liberty said. “You have to master your skills and respect the game. And you have to put forth the effort to make your teammates better. I hope that the younger generation listens to me.”


***


Marcus Liberty recently “constructed” his ideal basketball player, identifying exceptional qualities from athletes he’s either played with or against:


BEST BALL HANDLER (Larry Smith, Illinois): “I don’t think he had a chance to showcase his ball handling as much as he could have because of the system that we had. Larry had some smooth moves and he could break you down.”


BEST LONG-RANGE SHOOTER (Glen Rice, Michigan): “Glen Rice was a helluva shooter. If you gave him any space, the ball was going up, and nine times out of ten, it’s probably going to go all net. Glen Rice was the long bomber.”


FIERCEST REBOUNDER (Nick Anderson, Illinois): “I’m going to stick with one of my teammates. At 6-5, Nick played above the rim and rebounded the ball as well as anyone.”


BEST PASSER (Steve Smith, Michigan State): “Steve was a throwback 6-8 point guard. He could pass the ball really, really well. I did play one year in the pros against Magic (Johnson), so, of course, he’d be right there, too.”


BEST DRIVER (Rumeal Robinson, Michigan): “Rumeal had a powerful body and drive through the smallest spots. You were like ‘How did he do that?’


MOST COMPETITIVE DEFENDER (Kenny Battle, Illinois): “I’ve got to go with Kenny. That’s a no brainer. He knew how to play the passing lanes really, really well, and a lot of teams didn’t figure that out. Kenny had enough speed to recover back to his man and contain him as well. He was quicker than most power forwards.”


BEST LEADER (B.J. Armstrong, Iowa): “He was one of those generals out there on the court. He could shoot the ball, too. When it was time for B.J. to score, he could score. When it was time to set the table, he could do that for his teammates. Among the pros I played against, I would have to say Magic was the best team leader.”


                                 Dave Wilson

Single-Game Passing Leaders

Oct. 25, 2023

Forty-three years ago on this date in Fighting Illini history--Oct. 25, 1980--quarterback Dave Wilson passed for 318 yards, but Illinois fell to host Michigan, 45-14. Combined with his 425-yard performance the week before vs. Purdue, Wilson’s two-game total of 743 yards sets an all-time Illini record for consecutive contests. llinois’ single-game passing leaders:


                                   YARDS          COMP-ATT        OPPONENT, DATE

1. Dave Wilson          621 yards       43-69              Ohio State, 11/8/80

2. Tony Eason            479 yards       37-51              Wisconsin, 10/23/82

3. Juice Williams        462 yards        26-41             Minnesota, 10/11/08

4. Wes Lunt                456 yards       35-50              Western Kentucky, 9/6/14

5. Juice Williams        451 yards       26-42              Missouri, 8/30/08

6. Nate Scheelhaase 450 yards       38-57              Indiana, 11/9/13

7. Jason Verduzco     431 yards       31-59              Missouri, 9/14/91

8. Jon Beutjer            430 yards       35-57             California, 9/20/03

9. Jon Beutjer            426 yards       28-38             San Jose St., 9/21/02

10. Dave Wilson        425 yards       35-58             Purdue, 10/18/80


                                 Jim McMillen

Jim McMillen

Oct. 23, 2023

One-hundred-twenty-one years ago today - Oct. 23, 1902 - former University of Illinois football star Jim McMillen was born.


Before Red Grange joined the Illini varsity squad in 1923, McMillen was the team’s star, earning All-America honors the season before. The burly all-star guard from Grayslake attended Libertyville High School before enrolling at the Champaign-Urbana campus.


During his senior season at Illinois in ’23, McMillen created the holes through which Grange ran to fame. Both of the Illini standouts earned consensus All-America honors for Coach Bob Zuppke’s 8-0 national champions.


McMillen also earned two letters in wrestling, graduating from Illinois with a degree in engineering.


He played pro football from 1924 through 1928 with George Halas and the Chicago Bears, who were world champions in McMillen’s rookie season. In 1931, Halas named his standout lineman vice president of the Bears organization.


McMillen was a famous professional wrestler from 1924 through 1950 and could have continued with football, but found that wrestling was more lucrative. One of his most famous matches occurred in 1936 when he defeated wrestling legend “Strangler” Lewis. McMillen served for the U.S. Navy in World War II as a lieutenant commander.


He was an active citizen in Antioch, Illinois, serving as chief engineer for the Lake County Forest Preserve and holding posts at the high school, on the city’s Fire Department, and later as mayor for six years.


McMillen died in January of 1984 at the age of 81.


                                 Jeff Trigger

Jeff Trigger

Oct. 20, 2023

There aren’t many folks in Champaign between the ages of 20 and 70 who aren’t familiar with Jeff Trigger. Whether you were a former Central High School football player or swimmer, a Fighting Illini football fan in the 1960s, or just sat in the front seat beside him when you were learning to drive, the personable Champaign native had relationships with a lot of people.


Growing up on Columbia Street, Trigger’s dad (Ken) was an engineering professor at the University of Illinois. As a teenager, young Jeff sold programs at Illini football games in the late 1950s and enjoyed watching all-stars named Burrell, Nitschke and Easterbrook. For Illinois games he didn’t attend, he and older brothers Jim and Tom could hear the roars of Memorial Stadium from their back yard.


Trigger eventually became a standout athlete alongside Bill Huston for Coach Tommy Stewart’s Maroons football team in the early 1960s, playing linebacker and tight end. He also was a standout swimmer at Champaign High with future Illini Kip Pope, and competed in track and field as well. The summer after Trigger graduated, UI coach Pete Elliott offered him a football scholarship to his hometown school. Wearing No. 39 for the Orange and Blue, he lettered as a linebacker for Elliott in 1966, then twice more for head coach Jim Valek in ’67 and ’68.


Trigger’s sophomore season in ’66 was particularly memorable. Illinois’s 6-4 record included a home victory over Ohio State and a road win at Michigan.


Though the 1968 Illini finished with a 1-9 record, Trigger especially remembers a narrow 31-24 loss against eventual national champion Ohio State and a 14-0 victory over an Alex Agase-coached Northwestern team.


Upon his graduation with a degree in physical education, Trigger returned to Champaign High in the fall of 1969 to teach and coach. He became the Maroons’ head swimming coach and continued in that role for 34 years. Assisted by Bob Miller, Champaign’s team finished third in the state in 1997. Among the swimmers Trigger mentored—“so many great kids, I never want to slight any of them”—included Dan Trupin, Tyler McGill, Tommy Lockman, Mark Tomlin, Tom Folts, Bill Werstler, Will Sensenbrenner and Mark Sinder.


On the football field, Trigger initially served as a volunteer coach for Stewart, then served for 14 years with fellow with Rich Wooley on Stewart’s staff.


“I always thought I had the best of both worlds because I got to play for Tommy and later, after I graduated, I got to coach for Tommy,” Trigger said. “He was such a great person and motivator. You just didn’t want to disappoint him. His philosophy was to keep things simple, though he could be very innovative, too. As an assistant coach, he would give me some freedom. It was the best situation I could hope for.”


When Wooley took over as Central’s head coach, Trigger continued as an assistant for five more seasons. 


Trigger became CCHS’s head coach in 1989 and stayed in that role for 12 seasons. He was assisted by Lou Due.  Trigger stayed one additional year as an assistant when Jeff Hasenstab took over the Maroons in 2001.


Among the hundreds of fine football athletes that Trigger helped tutor include John Levanti, Andy Dixon, Billy and Dennis Stahl, three Anastasia brothers (Derek, Mike and Dana), Ricky Aeilts, Todd Peat, Bill and Paul Hobbs, three Rogers brothers (Alex, Daryl and Elliott), Terrayel Cartmill; Dan O’Neill, John Skillings, Willie Summerville, and J Leman.


Hundreds of Champaign’s young people know Jeff Trigger as a favorite driver’s training instructor, a role he retired from in November of 2018.


Trigger and his wife, the former Carolyn Burch from Urbana, celebrated their 53rd anniversary this past summer. Their son, Jeff Jr., resides with his family in Fort Worth, Texas.


Trigger celebrates his 76th birthday on Saturday.


                                 Rich Kreitling

This Day in Illini History

Oct. 18, 2023

Forty-eight years ago today—Oct. 18, 1975—Fighting Illini placekicker Dan Beaver booted a nine-year-old Big Ten record 57-yard field goal vs. Purdue. Beaver’s kick still stands as Illinois’ record, outdistancing a 55-yarder by Doug Higgins in 1990 and a 54-yarder by Taylor Zalewski in 2012. Other memorable Illini moments on this date in history:


Oct. 18, 1913: In his first Big Ten game as Illinois’ coach, Bob Zuppke led the Illini past Northwestern, 37-0.


Oct. 18, 1919: Ralph Fletcher’s 30-yard field goal near the end of the third quarter helped Illinois top Iowa, 9-7, before a crowd of 6,470 at Illinois Field.


Oct. 18, 1941: Coach Bob Zuppke collected his 131st and final victory as Illinois’ coach, defeating Drake, 40-0.


Oct. 18, 1958: Rich Kreitling (pictured) caught touchdown passes of 83 and 66 yards from quarterback Bob Hickey, spurring Illinois to a 20-8 win vs. Minnesota.


Oct. 18, 2000: In a 70-page report prepared for UI’s Board of Trustees Judge Louis Garippo offered a summary of the history of Chief Illiniwek. Of 18,000 responses, nearly 80 percent were pro-Chief.


Oct. 18, 2003: Jessica Belter registered 12 kills, 11 digs and eight blocks in a 3-1 Illini volleyball victory over Michigan.


Oct. 18, 2008: Behind 172 rushing yards by Jason Ford, A.J. Jenkins’ 96-yard kickoff return and 130 receiving yards from Arrelious Benn, Illinois clobbered Indiana, 55-13.


                                 Hiram Hannibal Wheeler

Hiram Hannibal Wheeler

Oct. 16, 2023

Lettering in the Spring of 1904, Hiram Hannibal Wheeler was the first African American to be awarded a varsity monogram at the University of Illinois.


Born in Chicago in 1881 and the son of Lloyd Garrison Wheeler, Hiram studied agriculture at the U of I. Intellectually, he followed in the footsteps of his very successful father, the former business agent for Alabama’s Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute. As a young man, Lloyd Wheeler became the first African American attorney who was admitted to the Illinois State Bar.


Hiram participated in football in 1903 and ‘04 for Coach George Woodruff, joining fellow African American Roy Young, the first black man to letter for Illini football. Wheeler lettered in as a sprinter for rookie coach Harry Gill in 1904. In a dual meet with Purdue on May 13, 1904, he became the first African American to be victorious in a track event, winning the 100-yard dash (:10.6).


After graduating university, Wheeler remained in Urbana and was employed by his alma mater as a clerk in the UI's agriculture department.


During World War I, he was training in New York as an Army soldier. In early October of 1918, Wheeler was home in Urbana with his wife and four children on a three-week furlough and was scheduled to depart for France in the capacity as an Army secretary. Unfortunately, he was a victim of the Spanish influenza pandemic and died at his home 812 West Clark Street 105 years ago today—Oct. 16, 1918—just shy of his 37th birthday.


Wheeler is buried at Urbana’s Woodlawn Cemetery.


                                 Tim Brewster

Tim Brewster

Oct. 13, 2023

Former Fighting Illini tight end Tim Brewster celebrates his 63rd birthday today.


A native of Phillipsburg, N.J., he originally enrolled at Pasadena City College. He walked onto Mike White’s 1981 team, joining a recruiting class that included quarterback Jack Trudeau.


After redshirting in ’81, Brewster set a record for receptions by a tight end with 46 catches for 550 yards. His senior season in ’83 was even more impressive, tying David Williams for the team lead with 59 grabs.


Despite only playing two seasons, Brewster finished his collegiate career in third place on Illinois’ career receptions list (105 for 1,178 yards). He tried out for both the New York Giants in 1984 and for the Philadelphia Eagles in ’85, but didn’t make the final cut either time.


Brewster began his college coaching career as a grad assistant in 1986 at Purdue under Leon Burtnett, then was hired as head coach at Lafayette, Indiana’s Central Catholic High School. In two seasons as CCHS, the team had a record of 15-8.


Brewster was an unpaid volunteer assistant for Mack Brown’s North Carolina Tar Heels in 1989 and impressed Brown so much that he became a fulltime assistant at UNC for the next eight years.


Brewster followed Brown to Texas following the 1997 season and was the Longhorns’ tight ends coach through the 2001 campaign. He decided to give the NFL a try and was hired by the San Diego Chargers in 2002. Following three seasons in San Diego, he moved to the Denver Broncos in 2005 and ’06.


On Jan. 17, 2007, Brewster was named as head coach at the University of Minnesota. In his three-and-a-half seasons with the Gophers, Brewster had only one winning record and was terminated midway through the 2010 campaign.


Over the past 13 seasons, he's held jobs at Florida State (2013-17), Texas A&M (2018), North Carolina (2019), Florida (2020-21) and Jackson State (2022).


He's currently Deion Sanders' tight ends coach for the Colorado Buffaloes.


Brewster and his wife, Cathleen, have three sons.


                                 Frank Rokusek

Frank Rokusek

Oct. 11, 2023

Born on this date 121 years ago today—Oct. 11, 1902—was 1920s Fighting Illini football star Frank Rokusek.


Captain of the 1924 Illinois team, he was a blocking end for running back Red Grange.


Said Grange of Rokusek, “I got the publicity for the long runs I made, but without ‘Roke” clearing the way, I wouldn’t have gotten loose for a lot of them.”


The three years Rokusek lettered—1922, ’23 and ’24—the Illini won the Big Ten and national championships his junior year and finished 6-1-1 his senior season. In 1927, he joined Bob Zuppke’s coaching staff, mentoring Illinois’ ends.


Rokusek eventually began a career in insurance and also held a reserve officer’s commission. In 1942, he was attached to the Third Air Force headquarters at MacDill Field in Tampa, Fla. as a special service offer.


On Oct. 15, 1944, he boarded a transport plane flight in Athens, Ga., headed to Tampa, but died when the plane crashed. Rokusek was 42 years old.


                                 1937 - Illinois vs. Notre Dame

Oct. 9, 1937 - Illinois vs. Notre Dame

Oct. 9, 2023

On this date in 1937, with Germany’s Nazi troops just weeks away from launching a takeover of Austria overseas and only a day before the New York Yankees would complete its five-game World Series conquest of the cross-town Giants, Illinois and Notre Dame met on the football field for the first time since 1898.


A section of 1,200 student soldiers were among the 45,000 spectators that came to see the battle at Memorial Stadium that would end in a 0-0 tie.


On the gridiron that day, Coach Elmer Layden’s heavily favored and Top Ten ranked Fighting Irish were stymied by Bob Zuppke’s defensive unit. Notre Dame was held to just 170 total offensive yards and 10 first downs by Illinois, as Illini left end Joe Klemp repeatedly crashed past Notre Dame blockers. Klemp was ably supported by the defensive efforts of teammates Howard Carson, Jim McDonald, John Berner and Captain Lowell Spurgeon, allowing Irish passers to complete only four of 17 pass attempts.


Illinois’ offense was even less effective than Notre Dame, managing only 89 total yards of production.


Both teams punted 12 times and neither team’s placekicker was able to convert a field goal. Illini sophomore Mel Brewer was 0-for-2 on his tries, missing from 21 and 34 yards.


Its scoreless tie 86 years ago today against the Illini marks the only time in the now 12-game series history between the two schools that Notre Dame didn’t win.


                                 Dick Butkus

Rest in Peace - Dick Butkus (1942 - 2023)

Oct. 6, 2023

Celebrating the life of the greatest linebacker in the history of football.

                                 Colleen Ward Barone

Colleen Ward Barone

Oct. 4, 2023

Celebrating her birthday today is former Fighting Illini volleyball superstar Colleen Ward Barone. An All-American in each of her two seasons—first-team in 2011 and second-team in 2010—her efforts helped lead Illinois to the national championship match during her senior campaign.


Her name is sprinkled throughout Illini volleyball’s record book and tops the list for single-match aces (9 vs. BYU in 2010).


Now married, she is a vice president at Northern Trust in Miami, Fla. 


The product of Naperville North High School and transfer from the University of Florida recalled several moments during her career and remembered many of the athletes with whom she played:


On Illinois ending Penn State’s 65-match Big Ten winning streak in 2010: “We didn’t let that intimidate us. It really fed into our competitive nature.”


On UI’s three-hour, five-set victory at PSU in 2011: “We started our season off really strong (16th consecutive win in a 20-0 start). We were ranked No. 1, but it didn’t feel like we were No. 1 at that point because we knew we had the potential to be so much better. We knew that we had to keep improving.”


On facing her former teammates, the Florida Gators, in the 2011 NCAA regional finals in Gainesville: “Knowing that I wanted to transfer to Illinois, I had the same exact feeling when we were watching the (NCAA Tournament) selection show. I just knew that we were going to end up playing Florida. Once it all came to reality, it was pretty cool to see. I really don’t remember the games very well, other than just the feeling of playing. It pretty much just went into my own little world and focused on playing the games, point to point.”


On Illinois’s legendary match vs. Southern California in the 2011 NCAA semifinals: “The coaches did a great job of preparing us for the Final Four. An early loss in one of the games wasn’t going to scare us. USC came out to play and we were the same way. Every point really mattered. The final point is something we’ll all remember forever. Very long. Very competitive. A lot of amazing saves on both sides. That spirit reflected our team a lot from that season.”


On UI’s loss in the championship match against UCLA: “Honestly, I can say going into the final that we did get a little overwhelmed. We just got a little bit out of our game and made more mistakes than we normally would, and we weren’t as aggressive as we should have been.”


Does that loss to UCLA still linger in her mind? “Oh, my god, all the time. As an athlete and as a competitive person, I wish we could play that again.”


On coach Kevin Hambly: “He was perfect for our team, such a personable coach. Once every other week each player would have a meeting with him on their own. He’d ask how our classes were going, how our life was going, or if there was anything we wanted to talk about. We felt like more of a family than just a team. All of our coaches and staff were a really unique group of people.”


                                 An early Illini baseball player

The Beginning of Illini Baseball

Oct. 2, 2023

Exactly 144 years ago today—Oct. 2, 1879—as an extension of an oratorical competition between Illinois Industrial University (University of Illinois) and Illinois College, the two institutions faced off on the baseball diamond for what history reveals was the university’s very first intercollegiate game.


Reported The Illini later that week, “The Jacksonville ball nine came to the oratorical contest and played our nine on the afternoon of October 2. The game was called at the end of the fifth inning when the score stood 5 to 12 in favor of our boys. We are sorry that you were so badly beaten, Jacksonville.”


The Illini were led by its catcher, Comma Boyd, who served as both the captain and manager of the first team. Boyd was considered by his teammates as “the Babe Ruth of his time”. After graduating, he went on to become a successful farmer and a breeder of thoroughbred Hereford cattle in Sheffield (Illinois).


Illinois’ pitcher was W.T. Andrews. The remainder of UI’s first intercollegiate squad consisted of H.A. Nelson (1B), E.L. Kelso (2B), E.H. Swasey (SS), C.R. Huntley (3B), Harry Diffenbaugh (LF), T.E. McIlduff (CF), Morton Chase (RF), and Frank White (RF).


Baseball was actually played at the U of I four years prior to that initial intercollegiate game in 1879. The Illini mentioned the game numerous times in its editions, including a report about the first contest to be played outside of the university. That occurred on Apr. 26, 1878 when “a number of boys took advantage of the excursion rates and went to Danville. A promiscuous nine was selected and a game was played against the Danville Club.” Danville scored seven runs in the bottom of the ninth inning and won by a score of 13 to 10.


In April of 1879, The Illini extended an invitation to other teams to play, writing “Our (baseball) boys are getting in trim. Let us hear from some of the neighboring colleges and we will try and give them a rub.”



                                 Avery Brundage

Avery Brundage: By the Numbers

Sept. 27, 2023

Born 136 years ago this week—Sept. 28, 1887—was Fighting Illini legend Avery Brundage.


His greatest fame came from 1952 to 1972 when his served as president of the International Olympic Committee (IOC).


Wrote Pulitzer Prize winning author David Maraniss in his book entitled “Rome 1960: The Olympics That Changed the World”, “I found Avery Brundage to be one of the most contradictory characters I’ve ever written about. He was not especially likeable, yet the fact that at some points in his career nearly every faction hated him for some reason or other seemed to me like a bit of a saving grace. His devotion to the Olympic movement was greater than his belief in anything else. He truly believed that the Olympic movement was greater than any ideology or religion.”


Brundage’s noted and often controversial career, by the numbers:


3              Number of varsity letters he earned as an athlete at the University of Illinois, including one in basketball and two in track and field.


17           Age at which he began classes at the U of I.


45           His age in 1928 when he replaced General Douglas MacArthur as president of the American Olympic Association.


87           His age at the time of his death on May 8, 1975, in West Germany.


1,200    The IOC’s share (in dollars) of television rights for the 1960 Olympic Games (Rome).


1912     Year of the Olympic Games (Stockholm, Sweden) in which he placed sixth in the pentathlon and 16th in the decathlon.


1952     Year in which Brundage was selected president of the IOC, 30 votes to 17 for Great Britain’s Lord Burghley.


7,700    Number of Asian art objects he donated to San Francisco’s Society for Asian Art, estimated to be worth 50 million dollars.


350,000                Amount of money Brundage bequested to the University of Illinois to fund scholarships for students interested in competing in sports who were otherwise unfunded.


                                 Bill Burwell

Bill Burwell

Sept. 25, 2023

Though the borough of Brooklyn, N.Y. is best known as the longtime home of professional baseball’s Dodgers, its most prolific contribution has traditionally come from the sport of high school basketball. Brooklyn’s Boys High School, located in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood, has produced an amazing collection of prep stars who went on to become world famous, including Hall of Famers Connie Hawkins and Lenny Wilkens.


Bill Burwell, another standout player from Boys High, became a prominent member of the University of Illinois’ 1963 Big Ten champions. At 6-8, 235 pounds, Burwell was by far the biggest Illini player on Coach Harry Combes’ squad. In three seasons—1960-61, ’61-62 and ’62-63—he averaged 15.3 points per game.


In fact, when Burwell graduated, he ranked as UI’s third-leading scorer of all-time with 1,119 points. His top single-game scoring effort ironically came at New York’s Madison Square Garden (26 points).


Perhaps Burwell’s most important role with the Illini came as a rugged rebounder. He averaged nearly 10 boards per game, second only to teammate Dave Downey. Today, his 9.6 rebounds per game average is sixth-best in Illinois’ record book, trailing only Nick Weatherspoon (11.3), Skip Thoren (11.2), Downey (11.0), Don Freeman (10.3) and Dave Scholz (9.7). Burwell’s 21 rebounds versus Wisconsin on Feb. 19, 1962 once tied for the school record.


The team’s overall record during Burwell’s last two seasons was a highly respectable 35-14.  


Today would have been his 83rd birthday. He died in February of 2021.


                                 Howard Griffith

Griff's Record Day

Sept. 22, 2023

September 22, 1990 is a date that is steeped in history for University of Illinois football. It was a day that Howard Griffith penciled his name into the NCAA record book beside those of Red Grange, Jim Brown and Arnold Boykin.


Not only did the illini senior gain 208 yards on 21 attempts, it was a day when an amazing 38 percent of his runs ended up in the end zone. Surprisingly, after the first quarter, Illinois trailed visiting Southern Illinois, 21-7. That’s when Griffith went into overdrive, scoring three touchdowns in the second quarter and four more in the third period.


His eighth TD came with 1:25 left in the third quarter, breaking two NCAA records. Not only did Griffith snap the national mark for touchdowns in a game—seven, by Mississippi’s Arnold Boykin in 1951—the 48 points he accounted for that day broke the immortal Jim Brown’s record of 43 points scored for Syracuse against Colgate in 1956.


Griffith’s eight touchdowns:

 

1.        1st quarter – 5-yard run

2.        2nd quarter – 51-yard run

3.        2nd quarter – 7-yard run

4.        2nd quarter – 41-yard run (tied Illinois’ record for first-half TDs)

5.        3rd quarter – 5-yard run

6.        3rd quarter – 18-yard run (broke Red Grange’s UI record for single-game                   TDs)

7.        3rd quarter – 5-yard run

8.        3rd quarter – 3-yard run (broke the NCAA record for touchdowns by                           Mississippi’s Arnold Boykin & the NCAA record for total points by                           Syracuse’s Jim Brown)


                                 Bob Dintelmann

Bob Dintelmann

Sept. 20, 2023

Bob Dintelmann, former Illinois distance runner and winner of the 1957 Big Ten Conference Medal of Honor, celebrates his 88th birthday on Thursday (Sept. 21).


The Belleville native answered an ad in the Daily Illini and walked on to Coach Leo Johnson’s track and field squad in January of 1954. A few weeks later, Dintelmann placed third at the Big Ten indoor track championship. In the spring of 1957 at the Drake Relays, he ran a 4:11.5 mile, placing second behind Iowa’s Charles “Deacon” Jones who won the event in a time of 4:10.8. Dintelmann’s time would have established an Illini record, but Illinois had a rule that didn’t permit a non-winning time to be a record.


Illinois’ ’57 team captain also placed second in the Big Ten’s 880 as a senior, both indoors and outdoors. As a member of the Illini cross country team in the Fall of 1956, distance coach Ed Bernauer directed Dintelmann and teammates Tom Luker, Frank Hedgcock and Verland Sheuring to fourth place at the NCAA Championships.


After graduating from Illinois in 1957 with a degree in floriculture, Dintelmann served two years of military duty. He initially began his career in landscaping with the State of Illinois’ Department of Agriculture, then returned to Belleville to help his father and brother run Dintelmann Nursery. He retired in 1997 after 28 years with the family business.


Today, Dintelmann remains active in local community service, volunteering for the Scott Field Heritage Air Park, the Turkey Hill Grange, the Belleville Optimist Club and BEACON. He and his wife, Joyce, celebrated their 66th anniversary on Aug. 31. Their family includes five children and 15 grandchildren.



                                 FAU v Illinois

First-Time Foes at Memorial Stadium

Sept. 18, 2023

In five days (Sept. 23), Florida Atlantic makes its inaugural trip to Champaign-Urbana to take on the suddenly surging Fighting Illini at Memorial Stadium.


Since the University of Illinois’ venerable football arena initially entertained gridiron events in 1923, UI has hosted a total of 56 different opponents that it had never before met. Coach Tom Herman's Owls become No. 57 on a first-battle list that stretches back 100 years.


From Nov. 17, 1923, when Mississippi A&M (now Mississippi State) became UI’s original non-conference foe in Champaign, to the Fall of 2021 when the University of North Carolina at Charlotte and the University of Texas at San Antonio played at Memorial Stadium, Illini teams have racked up an impressive record of 40 victories against only 14 losses and one tie in those situations.


The list of first-time foes to play in Champaign includes:

 

• Seven in-state institutions (Bradley in 1927, DePaul in 1936, Illinois State in 1944, Southern Illinois in 1985, Northern Illinois in 1992, Eastern Illinois in 2006, and Western Illinois in 2007)


• Six future or current PAC 12 foes (Washington in 1950, Oregon State in 1965, Washington State in 1969, Oregon in 1970, Arizona State in 1987, and Utah in 1988)


• Five eventual Big 12 schools (Iowa State in 1927, Kansas State in 1948, West Virginia in 1960, Baylor in 1976, Houston in 1991)


• Three current or future ACC teams (Pittsburgh in 1943, North Carolina in 1971, and Louisville in 1986)


• Two eventual Big Ten opponents (Penn State in 1954 and Rutgers in 2005)


• And two military academies (Army in 1929 and Navy in 1979).


                                 Frederick Dodge

Tony Yates

Sept. 15, 2023

Tony Yates, one of Lou Henson’s first assistant coaches, was born 86 years ago today.


Following a spectacular prep career in Cincinnati, he served in the Air Force for four years. At the age of 23, Yates walked on at the University of Cincinnati and started at point guard for Bearcats coach Ed Jucker. The team’s most valuable defensive player, Yates helped lead UC to NCAA championships in 1961 and ’62 and a near miss of a third consecutive crown in 1963, his senior season.


During those three seasons, Cincinnati had a cumulative record of 82-7. Following his graduation from UC, Yates spent three years in business and public service, then two more scouting for the Cincinnati Royals before returning to his alma mater in 1972 to become as assistant coach.


He became Gene Bartow’s assistant at Illinois in 1974, then stayed for eight more seasons with Henson, through 1982-83. He was an outstanding recruiter for the Illini, bringing such players as Audie Matthews, Eddie Johnson, Mark Smith and Derek Harper to play for the orange and blue.


Yates became UC’s head coach in 1983, serving six seasons and winning 70 times in 170 games.


He was a member of the University of Cincinnati Athletics and Ohio Basketball Halls of Fame, and died on May 16, 2020.


                                 Frederick Dodge

Frederick Dodge

Sept. 13, 2023

On this date 129 years ago—Sept. 13, 1894—thirty-four-year-old Professor Frederick H. Dodge was introduced as the new director of athletics at the University of Illinois. He succeeded Edward K. Hall, the UI’s very first A.D., who resigned three months earlier.


An 1884 graduate of Yale University, Dodge devoted his undergraduate athletic endeavors to rowing and did not participate in any other sports. Born in 1860, the native of Bangor, Me. was first employed as the chair of physical culture at Bates College in his home state, then moved on to become director of the Chicago Athenaeum’s gymnasium for three years, located at 59 East Van Buren Street.


Three weeks after Dodge was hired at Illinois, he brought on Louis Vail from the University of Pennsylvania to coach the Illini football team. Vail’s 1894 squad, his only one, had a 5-3 record.


In Dodge’s seventh week on the job as the Illini athletics director, the school’s official colors changed from green and white to orange and blue.


Under Dodge’s direction in 1895, Illinois organized a varsity track and field program and became a charter member of the nation’s first intercollegiate athletics conference that would come to be known as the Big Ten.


When Dodge departed Champaign-Urbana in June of 1895 for New Brunswick, N.J, he was replaced by George Huff.

Dodge served as director of Rutgers University’s’ Ballantine Gymnasium and also coached the Scarlet Knights’ track and gymnastics teams.


He later was director of Wee Lah Valle Camp for boys and girls at Schoodic Lake, Me.


Dodge died in 1932 at the age of 72 and was buried in Bethel, Me.


                                 George Huff

This Date in Illini History

Sept. 11, 2023

When the clock strikes 1:30 p.m. today—Monday, September 11—it will mark exactly 101 years since University of Illinois athletics director George Huff ceremoniously broke ground for the structure that would be dubbed Memorial Stadium.


Wrote a Daily Illini reporter about the occasion, “After Mr. Huff’s spadeful of rich black dirt and grass had fallen into the empty wagon and while the band played “Fight Illini”, President David Kinley and (former Alumni Association president) Robert Carr descended from the truck (which had served as a speaking platform) to break the sod.”


Others that wielded imperious shovels include Board of Trustees member Laura Evans, Mrs. Janet Kinley (the president’s wife), Alumni president Edward Barrett, Professor James White (supervising architect of the U of I), C.J. Rosebery (secretary of the stadium committee), former Dean Eugene Davenport, W.E. Ekblaw (co-founder of UI’s Homecoming tradition), and Assistant Dean F.H. Rankin. Afterwards, all of the 500 townspeople in attendance were invited to step forward and dig.


Said President Kinley during his address, “The stadium represents a series of three thoughts. The first is to recommend physical education to the students of the University. The stadium will be a concrete expression of the opportunity it will afford for all students through intramural sports. The second is its memorial feature, showing the sacrifice of Illini in the past. The third feature is that the students have built it with contributions from alumni and friends.”


English Brothers of Champaign served as the stadium’s general contractor. They were joined in the massive project by the Barth Electric Company (electricians), Peoria’s Walsh and Slattery (plumbing), and St. Louis’s Sodeman Heat and Power Company (heating and ventilation).


The materials included 12 million pounds of cement, 45,000 tons of sand and gravel, 112,000 cubic feet of cut stone, five million cubic feet of brick, 1,600 tons of reinforcing steel and 1,600 tons of structural steel.


Other memorable football-related moments that have occurred on Sept. 11 at Memorial Stadium:


Sept. 11, 1976: Illini defenders turned two blocked punts into touchdowns and James Coleman and Chubby Phillips combined for 146 rushing yards as Illinois topped Iowa, 24-6, in the season opener.


Sept. 11, 1982: Tony Eason threw for 301 yards, including 124 yards to receiver Oliver Williams, as Illinois dispatched visiting Michigan State, 23-16. In the second quarter, Big Ten referee Rich McVay suffered a massive heart attack, eventually dying at Champaign’s Burnham Hospital.


Sept. 11, 1999: Greg Lewis, Michael Dean and Josh Whitman all caught touchdown passes from quarterback Kurt Kittner as Illinois defeating favored San Diego State, 38-10.


Sept. 11, 2010: Illinois pummeled visiting SIU, 35-3, thanks to two touchdown passes by Nathan Scheelhaase and two rushing TDs by Mikel Leshoure.


                                 Chuck Bennis

Chuck Bennis

Sept. 8, 2023

Selected in 1990 by University of Illinois fans as a member of the twenty-five-man All-Century Team was Chuck Bennis, a 1930s standout player for Coach Bob Zuppke.


The Lincoln, Illinois native was elected co-captain of UI’s 1934 squad and also lettered as an end and a guard the previous two seasons. Each of the three Illini teams he played on posted winning overall records, but the ’34 squad was clearly the best. Consecutive victories over Ohio State (14-13), Michigan (7-6) and Army (7-0) highlighted Illinois’s 7-1 record that year. Only a 7-3 defeat at Wisconsin blemished an otherwise perfect mark.


In his book entitled “Illinois, Zup and I”, Bennis said his greatest individual game was the ’34 contest at Michigan. During that one-point victory in Ann Arbor he recovered two fumbles, one on the Michigan 10-yard line that gave the Illini their first scoring opportunity. He also tackled Wolverine runners six times for losses and finished the game with 15 tackles.


Among Bennis’s Illini teammates were first-team All-Big Ten halfback Gil Berry and quarterback Jack Beynon. Bennis himself won second-team all-star honors in 1934.


He graduated from Illinois in 1935 with a degree in education, turning down an opportunity to play for the NFL’s Chicago Bears. Bennis coached at Lincoln High School, then became as assistant for Zuppke at Illinois. He got out of coaching and began work as a coal miner. From 1942-44 during World War I, Bennis enrolled with the U.S. Navy, spending nine months in the Pacific and serving aboard four aircraft carriers. His primary role was as a communications officer for two admirals.


Upon his discharge, he became president of the Pluto Corporation of French Lick, Ind. Bennis also had a stint at acting, appearing in the R.K.O. movie entitled “The Big Game.” He eventually turned to farming.


Forty-one years ago today, he became the ninth former Illini honored with the Varsity I Achievement Award, joining such illustrious individuals as Buddy Young, Ray Eliot and George Halas.


Chuck Bennis died in 2006 at the age of 95.


                                 Denise Fracaro Juriga

Denise Fracaro Juriga

Sept. 6, 2023

There was no doubt in Mike Hebert’s mind who was the University of Illinois volleyball program’s most important player in his early years as UI’s head coach. In his 1993 book entitled “The Fire Still Burns”, Hebert wrote about the young lady from Lockport named Denise Fracaro who he called “the catalyst for our success.”


Now married for 34 years to former Illini football star Jim Juriga—a former Denver Bronco who eventually became a veterinarian—Denise’s teams improved from 5-25 as a sophomore in 1983 to 39-3 as a senior in ’85.


“Denise represented the transition from the old system to the new,” Herbert wrote. “And she’d resisted it at first; she hadn’t been eager to buy into our new system. She was more comfortable doing things the old way in 1983. In 1984, she started to come around and was kind of on the fence about how we were doing things. But when she came back in ’85, she came back as our captain and had a terrific season. She was our emotional and spiritual leader, and our performance leader on the floor. More than any other player, Denise embodied the transition of the Illini program from celler-dweller to contender.”


Hebert especially remembered his senior’s efforts in a 1985 match when the unbeaten Illini (19-0) traveled to Minneapolis to play the Gophers.


“It came down to game five, and we were losing 10-2, with the winning streak on the line. Worse than that, as far as Denise was concerned, we were getting beaten up at Minnesota again. We took our second timeout and gathered around the bench. Denise came to the huddle and was absolutely possessed. I’ll never forget her words: ‘I’m a senior this year and I am not losing to this team again,’ she said. ‘I am not leaving this building without beating Minnesota.’ And she made good on her vow, bringing us back for a 16-14 victory.”


“That is my strength,” said the four-time Illini letter winner. “That’s still me. I am an emotionally charged person. I really believe that when you have your mind focused, it’s amazing what happens. It’s amazing to see the other team start to tank. When you are believing what you’re doing, you can see in their eyes that they’re starting to fold, they’re starting to back down. And then that fires you even more. You’re looking through that net and you’re like ‘Oh, yeah, this is happening.’ You’ve got to have the players, too, and we did. We had smart players, really smart. We were not the most athletic. We were not the tallest. But when you have chemistry and you’re smart … oh my gosh, it’s amazing! Fun was the key. Mike let us have a lot of fun out there.”


Denise Fracaro Juriga’s name is still prominent in the Illini volleyball record book. Thirty-five years after last wearing the Orange & Blue, she still holds UI’s single-season records for solo blocks (44 in 1985) and total blocks (227 in ’85).


She’ll celebrate her birthdaylater this week in Batavia with her husband, a daughter (Kimberly, who’s currently getting a doctorate in veterinary medicine at UIUC) and two sons (Jake, an instructor at the Naval Academy, and Luke). Following an all-star career at Western Michigan, Luke is currently a free agent center with the NFL’s Philadelphia Eagles.


Denise’s memories of coaches, teammates and events:


ON MIKE HEBERT: “Mike knew what he wanted to establish. His attitude was ‘clean house, set the tone, and get rid of whoever couldn’t cut the mustard’. I really bought into the things he was trying to do. I didn’t care that much for volleyball until Mike came. I went to Illinois for the education and Mike made volleyball real. He made a huge impact on me.”


ON ASSISTANT COACH DON HARDIN: “I loved the combination of Mike and Don. Don had to play a role that did not make him the most liked, but he had a great way of occasionally letting you know that you really mattered.”


                                 Art Gerometta

Art Gerometta

Sept. 4, 2023

Today marks the 98th anniversary of the birth of 1943 University of Illinois football letter winner Arthur “Art” Gerometta.


Playing as a 5-foot-10-inch, 190-pound freshman guard for second-year Illini coach Ray Eliot, Gerometta starred as a prep at Gary, Indiana’s Emerson High School. He was on the UI campus for less than a full calendar year when he received an appointment to the U.S. Military Academy (Army) and an invitation to join Coach Earl “Red” Blaik’s Cadets’ football team.


Other than his own teammates, Gerometta’s experience as a letterman on the 1944, ’45 and ’46 Army teams is very likely unequalled by any other individual who’s ever played college football. Consider the following facts of success about those three Cadet squads and the men who comprised them:


1)   Army didn’t lose a single game (9-0 in ’44, 9-0 in ’45 and 9-0-1 in ’46).

2)   In 22 of 24 national polls, Army ranked as the No. 1 team in college football (No. 2 for two weeks).

3)   During 28 games over three seasons, the Cadets outscored their opponents by a margin of 1,179 to 161.

4)   On eight occasions over three seasons, Army defeated a Top Ten opponent, including the No. 2 ranked team three times.

5)   Two Cadet teammates (Doc Blanchard in 1945 and Glenn Davis in 1946) won the Heisman Trophy.

6)   Including Blanchard and Davis, seven Army teammates have been inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame.

7)   Four of the Army coaches for which Gerometta played are also members of the Hall of Fame.


Gerometta’s contributions expanded well beyond the gridiron, serving his country for five years. In Korea (1949-51), he fought bravely with the 1st Calvary Division, earning the Silver Star (for gallantry in action against an enemy), the Bronze Star (heroic or meritorious achievement or service) and the Purple Heart (those wounded or killed while serving).


When Gerometta returned from overseas, he became a West Point instructor in Military Topography & Graphics and helped to coach the Cadet football team. He resigned from the Army in 1954 and returned to his home in Gary to form the Gerometta Construction Company.


In 1962, Gerometta was inducted into the Gary Sports Hall of Fame and, 30 years later, became a member of the Indiana Football Hall of Fame.


He died in Portage, Ind. in 2000 at the age of 74.


                                 Albert Austin Harding

This Date in Illini History

Sept. 1, 2023

Forty years ago today (Sept. 1, 1983), the David Wilson case, a bizarre three-and-a-half year eligibility dispute that severely strained relations between the University of Illinois and the Big Ten Conference, ended when attorney Bob Auler received an out-of-court settlement check of more than $100,000. Other memorable moments on this date in Fighting Illini history:

 

1922: Champaign’s English Brothers Construction signed a contract to build Illinois’ Memorial Stadium. The stadium opened for business on Nov. 3, 1923, just 429 days afterwards.

 

1942: After carrying an “interim” tag for nearly 13 months, Doug Mills was named Illinois’ permanent athletic director.

 

1946: Illini athletic officials declared a sellout at Memorial Stadium for the Sept. 28 game vs. Notre Dame.

 

1948: Professor Albert Austin Harding (pictured), director of University of Illinois Bands, retired after a 43-year career.

 

1976: Karol Kahrs’ position as assistant director for women’s athletics became a fulltime job.

 

1984: Illinois topped Northwestern, 24-16, in its earliest football season opener ever. Jack Trudeau passed for 315 yards, including a record 208 yards to David Williams, as the Illini stretched its Big Ten winning streak to 11 in a row.

 

1994: Sixteen months after Illinois announced it was eliminating men’s varsity programs in swimming and fencing plus men’s and women’s diving, the U.S. Court of Appeals ruled that UI did not violate Title IX or the Equal Protection Clause of the U.S. Constitution when it eliminated the men’s but not the women’s swimming team.

 

2001: Brandon Lloyd, who was sidelined in 2000 with a broken leg, scored twice on eight catches as Illinois rolled past host California, 44-17.

 

2012: UI’s defense held Western Michigan to minus six rushing yards as Coach Tim Beckman won his first game as Illini coach.


                                 Garland "Jake" Stahl

Garland "Jake" Stahl

Aug. 30, 2023

A member of the 2020 Fighting Illini athletics Hall of Fame class, Garland “Jake” Stahl played nine Major League seasons.


Born in 1879, he was the third son of Henry and Eliza Stahl of Elkhart, Ill. Jake’s dad was a front-line Union soldier in the Civil War, surviving the Battle of Shiloh in Mississippi, a bloodbath where more than 23,000 individuals died.


After finishing tenth grade, Jake matriculated to the University of Illinois and became the school’s most celebrated athlete. He lettered four times in football (1899-1902) and three times in baseball (1901-03).


When the Major League’s Boston Americans lost its backup catcher to an injury, team owner Henry Killelea journeyed to Chicago to sign Stahl to an American League contract. Jake got into his first big league game on opening day (Apr. 20, 1903) and appeared in 40 games as a catcher, batting .239.


Stahl was dealt to the Washington Senators during the winter of 1904 and played three seasons in the nation’s capital, collecting more than 1,500 at bats. In that third season, he was promoted to skipper of the Senators at the age of 26, becoming the American League’s youngest-ever player/manager.


Following Washington’s disastrous 1906 season (55 wins and 95 losses), Stahl asked to be traded to the Red Sox. Instead, Senators management traded him to the Chicago White Sox. When Stahl refused to report, he spent the 1907 season working in his father-in-law’s bank, coaching the ’07 Indiana University baseball team, and playing semiprofessionally in Chicago.


The White Sox traded Stahl’s rights to the New York Highlanders. He spent the first 75 games of the 1908 season in the Big Apple, then was traded back to Boston to play first base.

Stahl enjoyed his best professional season in 1910, teaming with Hall of Famers Tris Speaker and Harry Hooper. Stahl tied for the A.L. lead in home runs with 10.


Amazingly, despite his long-ball success, Stahl opted to sit out the 1911 season and returned to his career as a banker at Washington Park National Bank on Chicago’s South Side.


New management in Boston convinced Stahl to come out of retirement in 1912, in part due to an offer to become a part-owner of the Red Sox. As Boston’s player-manager, the Red Sox ran away with the 1912 American League pennant, then beating Manager John McGraw’s talented New York Giants in the World Series. Stahl is said to have invested his winning World Series share in his father-in-law’s bank.


Stahl’s career unceremoniously ended in 1913 when he suffered a serious foot injury that required the removal of part of a bone in his right foot. While he continued to manage the Red Sox, he could not play first base. Following a mid-season argument with management, Stahl was released. Weeks later, the former Illini star announced that he was through with baseball.


Stahl immediately began his second career as a full-time banker in Chicago, but hard work and long hours took its toll. He suffered a nervous breakdown in 1920 and was placed in a Monrovia, Calif. sanitarium. Two year later, he contracted tuberculosis and passed away in September of 1922 at the age of 43.


Nine things you didn’t not know about Jake Stahl’s Major League career:


1)   He was a member of two World Series championship teams (as player for 1903 Boston Americans, the very first Series champ) and as player/manager for the 1912 Boston Red Sox).

2)   In 1904, he led all American League first basemen with 29 errors.

3)   He led the American League by being hit by a pitch 17 times in 1905.

4)   His 41 stolen bases in 1905 ranked third in the AL.

5)   He ranked second to the immortal Ty Cobb in triples in 1908 (Cobb had 20, Stahl had 16). Stahl ranked among the AL’s top seven in triples four times.

6)   He led the AL three times in batting strikeouts (1904, 1909 and 1910).

7)   Not only did he tie for the lead in AL home runs in 1910 with 10 (one every 53.1 at bats), he led the league in putouts as a first baseman and ranked fourth with 77 RBI.

8)   He currently ranks 233rd on the Major League career triples list with 87.

9)   He received one Baseball Hall of Fame vote in both 1938 and 1939.


                                 Robert Reitsch

Dandy Defensive Debuts

Aug. 28, 2023

As a defensive specialist, Fighting Illini head coach Bret Bielema would love to see his team throw a shutout in next Saturday’s season opener vs. Toledo. However, in Illinois history, that’s only happened three times over the last 51 years in opening games. The last time the Orange & Blue shut out its initial foe was 30 years ago when Mike White’s 1986 Illini blanked Louisville at Memorial Stadium, 23-0. The king of Illini football shutouts in season openers is the immortal Bob Zuppke whose teams goose-egged their first opponent 15 times.


Here are a few Illini defensive players who sparkled in season lid-lifting shutouts:


•Oct. 1, 1927: Zuppke’s Illini began what would become a national championship season with a 19-0 win versus Bradley. All-America lineman Robert Reisch, Butch Nowack and Russ Crane paced UI’s defensive effort.


•Sept. 25, 1948: The Illini handed visiting Kansas State a 40-0 defeat, the Wildcats’ 27th consecutive loss. Captain Herb Siegert, Dike Eddleman and Jim Valek star on defense for Coach Ray Eliot.


•Sept. 28, 1963: Illinois defensive backs George Donnelly, Mike Dundy and Jimmy Warren held California quarterback Craig Morton to just four completions in 15 attempts for 57 years. UI beat the Bears, 10-0, in Berkley.


•Sept. 14, 1974: Four of Illini linebacker Tom Hicks’ 16 stops halted Indiana runners inside the two-yard line. UI topped the Hoosiers, 16-0, in Champaign.


•Sept. 9, 1978: In one of the most infamous season openers in Illini history—a 0-0 tie with bottom-dweller Northwestern—linebacker John Sullivan racked up 15 tackles as UI limited the “Mildcats” to just 220 total offensive yards.


•Sept. 6, 1986: Junior linebacker Jeff Markland led the Illini to a shutout victory over Louisville with a team-best 10 tackles. He performed at that position for the first five games of the ’86 season, then was moved by coaches to play fullback.


                                 Chase Brown

Memorable Opening-Game Plays

Aug. 25, 2023

Nothing helps fans enjoy games more than a memorable play, especially in a season opening contest. In Illinois’ 2000 opener, a 62-yard run by Rocky Harvey paced the Illini to a convincing 35-6 victory over Middle Tennessee. One season before that, Eugene Wilson’s 65-yard punt return led UI past Arkansas State. And, in Illinois’ 1991 season-opening win vs. East Carolina, Mike Poloskey recorded a record-tying four quarterback sacks. Here are some other big plays by the Illini in recent lid-lifters:

 

1975: Scott Studwell returned an interception 29 yards for a touchdown as Illinois beat host Iowa, 27-12.

 

1980: In Mike White’s coaching debut, Illinois took advantage of a 53-yard touchdown run by Mike Holmes to defeat Michigan State.

 

1984: In the earliest season-opener ever, David Wilson’s first-quarter 33-yard reception from Jack Trudeau gave Illinois a 7-0 lead. The Illini went on to defeat Northwestern, 24-16.

 

1989: A tipped-pass reception by Shawn Wax resulted in a 53-yard touchdown, beginning Illinois’ comeback victory on national television vs. Southern California.

 

1994: It wasn’t a victory, but Simeon Rice had one of his best efforts vs. Washington State, sacking Washington State’s quarterbacks five times.

 

2001: Brandon Lloyd’s 49-yard TD catch in the second quarter helped Illinois destroy host California in the season opener, 44-17.

 

2005: It was only a two-yard effort, but Pierre Thomas’ overtime touchdown completed Illinois’ come-from-behind victory vs. Rutgers in Ron Zook’s coaching debut.


2022: In Illinois' 38-6 season-opening victory against Wyoming, the Illini opened the game with a bang on their first drive of the season. Junior Chase Brown took his first carry of the season 38 yards up the right sideline before senior Tommy DeVito connected with Brown for 14-yard touchdown pass one play later on his first pass attempt as an Illini.

                                 Basketball's Rick Howat

Illinois' Top Athletes of 1970-71

Aug. 23, 2023

Fifty-three years ago, during the 1970-71 athletics season, the University of Illinois' athletic program consisted of 11 men’s varsity teams. And while there were no conference team titles, a number of athletes had admirable performances.


The unofficial Illini Athlete of the Year—chosen by the Daily Illini in that era—was distance runner Lee LaBadie. His overwhelmingly spectacular accomplishment came on May 11, 1971, when in a dual meet against Southern Illini he became the first Big Ten Conference undergraduate to break the four-minute barrier in the mile run. That day, LaBadie ran his first 440 yards in 60 seconds, but his pace slowed to 2:03 after the first half mile. Then he began to pour on the coals, touring the next quarter mile in :57.5. LaBadie ran the final 440 yards in :58.3, finishing his record mile in an unprecedented time of 3:58.8. At the 1970 Big Ten cross country championship, he placed tenth, then won the mile run at the conference’s ’71 outdoor meet.


Seven other Illini star athletes from 1970-71:


WES DIXON: This Illini junior outfielder was a solid choice as Coach Lee Eilbracht’s Most Valuable Player in the Spring of 1971. In 18 Big Ten games, Dixon had the conference’s third-best average (.410), trailing Purdue’s Terry Wedgewood (.467) and Michigan State’s Rob Ellis (.413) in the batting race. His performance earned him second-team All-Big Ten honors.


DOUG DIEKEN: Illini football’s MVP in the Fall of 1970 was Streator senior tight end Doug Dieken, repeating the honor he’d won in ’69. For a third straight season, UI’s No. 82 led the team in receiving, this particular season with 39 receptions for 537 yards. Only John Wright ended his career with more grabs (159) than Dieken’s 89. The following Spring, Dieken was a sixth-round pick of the Cleveland Browns, spending 14 seasons in the stadium beside Lake Erie.


RICK HOWAT: The MVP of Coach Harv Schmidt’s 1970-71 Illini basketball team averaged 20.6 points per game in 23 contests and 18.7 in 14 league appearances. A second-team selection on the court, the former Downers Grove North High School guard totaled just shy of 900 career points as an Illini. Howat sparkled in the classroom as an Academic All-American.


PAUL HUNT: Just a sophomore, Hunt won the Big Ten floor exercise title in 1971 for Coach Charlie Pond. He completed the season by winning All-America laurels. The following season, Hunt won the NCAA title. He now owns a gymnastics academy in Midvale, Utah, and is widely known for his comic parodies as a women’s gymnast.


KEN BARR: Paul Hunt’s Illini teammate was a standout on the side horse (aka pommel horse), capturing the Big Ten title in that event in both 1971 as a junior and again in ’72. Barr, a product of Mt. Prospect High, became a three-time All-American at Illinois.


JOE BURDEN: Burden was a sophomore member of the All-Big Ten golf team in 1971, advancing from the team’s No. 6 player to No. 1 that Spring. A few weeks later, he began an improbable run to playing in the U.S. Open, qualifying at the Medinah Country Club in suburban Chicago, then playing with the likes of Lee Trevino (the eventual champ) and Jack Nicklaus at Pennsylvania’s Merion Golf Club.



MARK KOSTER: Koster was one of Illini three titlists at the 1971 Big Ten outdoor track & field meet, capturing first place and setting a UI varsity record in the 440-yard intermediate hurdles with a time of :50.9. At the conference’s indoor championship, the Champaign High grad narrowly lost by three-tenths of a second in the 600-yard run finals.



                                 Jocelynn Birks

Jocelynn Birks

Aug. 21, 2023

Happy Birthday today to three-time Fighting Illini volleyball All-American Jocelynn Birks. The Lyons Township High School product was a third-team honoree was a sophomore (2013), second-team as a junior (2014), and honorable mention as a senior (2015). The outside hitter from Willow Springs joins Mary Eggers, Nancy Brookhart and Jordyn Pouler among Illinois’ three-time All-Americans. Birks is in her ninth season as a coach for the 1st Alliance of Chicago Volleyball Club.


Birks’ career, by the numbers:


1 - Her ranking on Illinois’ career kills and attack attempts lists (1,972 and 5,656).


2 – Twice named a unanimous All-Big Ten performer.


3 – Number of post-season NCAA Tournaments in which Birks’ Illini competed.


4 – In each of her four seasons (2012-15), Birks led the Illini in kills and attack attempts every year.


7 – Birks’ jersey number at Illinois.


8 – She is one of eight volleyball players who’ve been chosen as UI’s top female athlete, joining Mary Eggers, Laura Bush. Tina Rogers, Cristy Chapman, Colleen Ward, Jordyn Poulter and Jacqueline Quade.


9 – Birks’ ranking on UI’s digs list (1,159).


25 – Number of times an Illini team on which Birks played defeated a Top 25 opponent.


33 – Number of 20-kill matches she had during her career, second only to Laura DeBruler’s 36.


74 – Birks’ height in inches.


2016 – The year in which she shared Dike Eddleman Athlete of the Year honors with wrestler Isaiah Martinez.


2,218 – Points scored during Birks’ career, a total that ranks second behind only Mary Eggers’ 2,298.5.


                                 Ken Holtzman

Ken Holtzman's 1969 No-Hitter

Aug. 18, 2023

Tomorrow, the only University of Illinois baseball alum to throw a no-hitter in a Major League Baseball game will celebrate the 54th anniversary of his legendary gem. Ken Holtzman, a 1965 letter-winning pitcher for Coach Lee Eilbracht, held the Atlanta Braves without a hit at the Wrigley Field that day in 1969, thanks significantly to a strong Lake Michigan breeze blowing over the left-field wall.


Returning to Chicago from a successful 12-game West Coast swing, the first-place Cubbies came into the Tuesday afternoon contest twenty-nine games over .500. Third-baseman Ron Santo’s three-run home run in the bottom of the first off knuckleballer Phil Niekro provided Holtzman with an early cushion.


Chicago’s 23-year-old left-hander, in his fifth season with the Cubs, breezed through the early innings, tossing strike after strike. No. 30 relied primarily on his pinpoint fastball on that 76-degree day at the Friendly Confines. In the top of the seventh, Holtzman faced eventual home run king Hank Aaron in what would prove to be the most crucial moment of the game. The Hammer hit Holtzman’s 2-2 pitch as well as he could.


“I had pitched long enough to recognize the crack of the bat and the trajectory,” Holtzman told newspaper reporters after the game. “When you throw a pitch like that, especially to a guy like Hank Aaron, I’m thinking, ‘OK, well now the score is 3-1.’

 

Initially, Cubs leftfielder Billy Williams assumed the ball was gone, too, then quickly remembered the strong wind that afternoon. He backed up into the “well” at the ivy-covered wall, then lifted his glove triumphantly.

 

Said Aaron afterwards, “It was the hardest ball I ever hit. I don’t know why or how it stayed in the ballpark. I thought for sure that I hit a home run and, sure enough, the wind blew it right back to Billy Williams. Every year at Cooperstown, Billy always reminds me about that play.”


In the top of the ninth inning, Holtzman had to face the Braves’ top of the order. Felipe Alou popped up to shortstop and Felix Millan grounded to third base. Now Holtzman’s flirtation with a no-hitter stood between only him and Aaron. When Atlanta’s future Hall of Famer grounded to Beckert at second, a wild celebration ensued, marking Chicago’s first no-hitter since 1960.

 

Unfortunately, it proved to be one of the Cubs’ last highlights of 1969. They would win only 15 of their final 40 games, finishing eight games behind the New York Mets in the National League East final standings.

 

For Holtzman, however, success continued for the most part over his final ten big league seasons. He threw a second no-hitter in 1970, this time against the Cincinnati Reds. He was traded to the Oakland A’s in 1972, joining a Charlie Finley staff that included Vida Blue, Jim “Catfish” Hunter and John “Blue Moon” Odom. During his four years in Oakland, Holtzman’s cumulative 77-55 win-loss record helped the A’s win four straight American League West Division titles and three World Series championships. His career statistics with the Cubs, A’s, Orioles and Yankees included a 174-150 and a 3.49 earned run average.

 

During his only season with the Illini (1965), Holtzman had a 6-2 record and struck out 72 hitters in 57 innings. He was Illinois’s Most Valuable Player and earned third-team All-Big Ten honors. Today, at the age of 77, Holtzman resides in his hometown of St. Louis, Missouri.


                                 Amos Alonzo Stagg

Illini vs. Amos Alonzo Stagg

Aug. 16, 2023

Born 161 years ago today—August 16, 1862—Amos Alonzo Stagg, the “Grand Old Man of the Midway”, played a significant role in the history of University of Illinois football.


Very few individuals over the first 100 years of the college game were more respected than the former Yale University All-American. In fact, Stagg was a charter class member of the College Football Hall of Fame (1951) as both a player and a coach.


Stagg’s counterpart at Illinois, Bob Zuppke, had high praise for the 41-year head coach of the University of Chicago Maroons.


“The name and influence of A.A. Stagg will live a long time in the Western Conference and American football,” Zuppke said. “He and Fielding Yost and George Huff are the men who made the Big Ten what it is. Through the years, I found Yost’s teams tougher defensively than Stagg’s teams at Chicago. But on offense, Alonzo Stagg had no superior. He applied imagination to his attack. Back in the days when his material was on a par with that of the other universities in the conference, it may have looked from the stands as though his teams merely used mass power to bowl over the defense. Actually, his offense was shifty and deceptive.”


Among many innovations, Stagg pioneered the man-in-motion, the fake handoff, cross-blocking, the T-formation and the quick kick.


From Stagg’s first season in 1892 through following 17 campaigns, the Maroons had their way with Illinois, posting a 9-2-2 record. One of UC’s pair of losses during that span ultimately resulted in a forfeit because of a dispute with the officiating.


Once Zuppke arrived on the scene in Champaign in 1913, UC’s long reign took a southward turn. During Stagg’s final 20 seasons in Chicago (1913-32), Zup’s Illini held a 13-5-2 edge.


Other interesting notes about Illinois’s 37 battles against Stagg and the UC Maroons:


• Illinois posted a 17-16-4 records during Stagg’s time in Chicago, including an 8-7 mark in Champaign-Urbana.


• UI and UC played twice against Stagg’s first squad (1892), a team for which he both played and coached. In the first meeting (Nov. 16), Chicago was leading 10-4 when officials called the game on account of darkness. Illinois protested and officials eventually ruled that the 4-4 halftime score would stand as the final score. Stagg himself scored the touchdown that was ultimately nullified.


• Illinois was awarded a forfeit victory over Chicago in 1894 when officiating again decided the result. When UI’s R.J. Hotchkiss ran for a 90-yard touchdown, UC’s captained claimed that he had asked for timeout. When the umpire requested the Maroons to play ball, they refused.


• On Oct. 31, 1896, the date of the Illini’s first-ever Big Ten Conference game (then officially known as the Intercollegiate Conference of Faculty Representatives), Chicago prevailed at Illinois Field, 12-0.


• In 1910, UC played Illinois at its first-ever Homecoming game. Otto Seiler’s 38-yard drop-kick field goal provided the Illini with a 3-0 victory.


• When Stagg and Zuppke coached against each other for the first time, host Chicago beat Illinois, 28-7.


• On Nov. 3, 1923, in a downpour at Memorial Stadium’s first game, 60,000 fans watched Red Grange score UI’s only touchdown, handing Chicago its only loss of the season.


• Stagg’s Maroons snapped a 15-game Illini winning streak in 1924 with a 21-21 tie in Chicago.



• In 70-year-old Coach Amos Alonzo Stagg’s final game against the Illini (1932), Bob Zuppke’s squad snapped a 10-game Big Ten losing streak with a 13-7 victory at Stagg Field.


                                 Clyde Alwood

Clyde Alwood

Aug. 14, 2023

Clyde Alwood, the University of Illinois’ third-ever recipient of the Big Ten Conference Medal of Honor for athletic and academic excellence, died on this date in 1954 in his childhood hometown of Clinton, Ill.


The three-time letter-winning Fighting Illini basketball star, whose life ended from a fatal heart attack, was only 59. Alwood was visiting his childhood home to celebrate his mother’s birthday.


The 6-foot-4-inch center was a starter for Coach Ralph Jones’ 1915, ’16 and ’17 teams, units that posted a composite record of 42 victories and only six losses. During Alwood’s sophomore campaign, Illinois’ undefeated team (16-0) not only won the Big Ten title (12-0) but was also declared college basketball’s national champion.


In Alwood’s junior season, Illinois won its first eight games to extend UI’s winning streak to a school-record 28 victories in a row. The 1916 Illini lost only three of their 16 games and finished second in the conference standings.


The club that Alwood captained as a senior regained the conference title by posting a 10-2 record. He played alongside future UI Hall of Famers Ray Woods and George Halas that season.


Academically, Alwood majored in agriculture and upon graduation began operating a small farm near Marshall, Ill. Just two months after he received his UI degree, Bloomington High School hired him as its head basketball coach. That stint lasted only one season. Though he wasn’t sent overseas to fight during World War I, Alwood served in the U.S. Army as a YMCA instructor. Alwood eventually became a civil engineer with the Illinois Central Railroad, then a salesman in Indianapolis, Rockford and Beloit, Wis.


                                 Luke Altmyer

Transfer Quarterbacks

Aug. 7, 2023

Enrolling at Illinois this past Spring is quarterback Luke Altmyer. He has three years of eligibility remaining after transferring from Mississippi. In 2022, Altmeyer played in four games, with one start at quarterback, and redshirted the season. He completed 8-of-17 passes on the season for 125 yards and two touchdowns.


Transfer quarterback starts at Illinois since 2014:


2014 – Wes Lunt started 7 of UI’s 13 games

2015 – Lunt started all 12 games

2016 – Lunt started 7 of 12 games

2017 – Only original Illini players started at quarterback

2018 – A.J. Bush started 9 of 12 games

2019 – Brandon Peters started 11 of 13 games

2020 – Peters started 5 of UI’s 8 games

2021 – Peters started 9 games, Art Sitkowski started 3 games

2022 - Tommy Devito started 13 games


                                 Matt Bullock

Matt Bullock

Aug. 4, 2023


Before Bob Nicollette, Skip Pickering, Al Martindale and Randy Ballard, David Madison “Matt” Bullock reigned over the Fighting Illini athletic training room. For 34 years, Bullock’s face was as familiar as any to the athletes of the University of Illinois. From Red Grange to the Whiz Kids, one newspaper article estimated that Bullock came into contact with more than 40,000 athletes from 1913 to 1947.


Born in Maysville, Kentucky on August 4, 1886—137 years ago today—Bullock’s professional career began as a trainer of trotting and pacing horses. Eventually, he moved to Champaign-Urbana where he worked at the UI Dairy. That’s where Director of Athletics George Huff offered him a job as custodian of the storeroom at what would come to be known at Kenney Gym. Within a few weeks, UI’s very first trainer, Willie McGill, soon had Bullock assisting him. When McGill left for a job at Northwestern in 1916, Bullock was promoted by Huff to head both UI’s training and equipment departments.


Bullock once told a reporter that a competent trainer was one having a “thorough knowledge of anatomy and physiology. He must be a student of human nature and possess a sense of humor that will enable him to cope with all students. He must be morally sound, intellectually honest, have a cool head, and an ability to be mentally alert at all times. Add to all these qualities a thorough loyalty to his organization and a mindfulness that things must be done right for safety of the participants.”


He continued, “Each time I could relieve a boy of pain, fix his bloody nose, tape his ankles, or soothe a floor burn, and send him back in to the contest with the fiery spirit to win, it was a personal thrill to me. When these boys are hurt so badly that they can’t possibly get back in the game, and I hear them talk about getting back ‘just to tackle that guy once more’ or ‘to score one more basket’, it sent a tinge down my spine.”


Bullock said that his greatest thrill came at Minnesota in 1916 when an undermanned Illini football squad defeated the Gophers’ famed “perfect team” that was otherwise undefeated and outscored the remainder of its six opponents, 339-14.


In 1962, Bullock was among twenty-six individuals initially inducted into the Helms Athletic Foundation’s Trainers Hall of Fame. He and his family resided for thirty years on West Park Street in Urbana. He died in October of 1953 at the age of 67. His pall bears included Ray Eliot, Doug Mills, Bert Ingwersen and Chuck Flynn.


Said Eliot of Bullock, “I can’t think of a finer man that Matt or one who had more friends. He was a friend of everyone who came in contact with him. He was one of Illinois’s most illustrious sons.”


                                 Tony Pashos

Tony Pashos ... By the Numbers

Aug. 2, 2023


Celebrating his 43rd birthday on Thursday (Aug. 3) is former Fighting Illini football all-star Tony Pashos. Born in Palos Heights and a graduate of Lockport Township High School, his parents (Georgios and Despina) immigrated to the United States from Greece. His career story, by the numbers:


2  - Seasons he earned first-team All-Big Ten honors as an offensive lineman.


3  - Number of languages Pashos speaks (English, Greek and German).


5  - NFL Draft round in which he was selected by the Baltimore Ravens.


9  - Number of varsity letters Pashos was awarded at Lockport High.


12  - Illinois’ final AP team ranking in 2001, his junior season.


47  - Consecutive career starts he made at Illinois.


79  - Jersey number Pashos wore for the Illini and for most of his NFL player.


82  - Number of career starts he made during his NFL career, including every game in 2006, ’07, ’08, 11 and ’12.


325  - His playing weight as a pro.


2002  - Season he served as an Illini co-captain and won the Bruce Capel Award as the team’s most courageous player.


                                  Dick Tamburo

Dick Tamburo

July 31, 2023

On this date 51 years ago—July 31, 1972—newly appointed University of Illinois director of athletics Cecil Coleman hired 42-year-old Dick Tamburo to be the chief assistant on his staff.


He joined the Illini after a short stint as the assistant director at Kent State. Tamburo assumed the duties previously performed by Ray Eliot, overseeing personnel and athletic facility operations. He was on the Illini staff when women’s varsity athletics was introduced at the U of I and served in that role for six years.


Tamburo was a standout athlete at New Kensington High School in Pennsylvania, about 20 miles northeast of Pittsburgh. He and seven of his Red Raider teammates went on to college football football for Coach Biggie Munn’s powerful Michigan State football teams of the early 1950s. From 1950-52, the Spartans compiled a cumulative record of 26-1, winning the national championship each of those last two seasons. Tamburo was MSU’s Most Valuable Player and a consensus All-American in 1952.


Spartan coach Duffy Daugherty, an assistant during Tamburo’s career, said “Dick is one of the roughest and smartest linebackers I ever saw. But his most important asset was heart. The bigger and tougher the opposition, the bigger and tougher Tamburo was.”


He was selected in the fourth round of the 1953 NFL Draft by the Cleveland Browns and briefly played in the Canadian Football League. Following two years of service in the Army from 1955-56, Tamburo joined former teammate Frank Kush’s football staff at Arizona State (1958-66), then Ray Nagel’s staff at Iowa (1967-70).


He departed Champaign-Urbana in 1978 to become the athletic director at Texas Tech, then returned to Tempe to head up the Sun Devils’ athletic staff (1980-85). During Tamburo’s tenure at ASU, the baseball team won the 1981 NCAA title.


His final post in administration was as A.D. at the University of Missouri from 1988-92.


Following his years in Columbia, Tamburo returned to the Phoenix area and lived there until his death on Feb. 24, 2020.


                                  Tina Rogers-Smith

Tina Rogers-Smith

July 28, 2023

When Tina Rogers-Smith began with the Illini volleyball team in 1990, fans remarked about how tall she was. But when the Mt. Pulaski star graduated from the University of Illinois in 1994, everyone simply observed how good she was.


At 6-3, longtime mentor Mike Hebert called Smith “the most dominating outside hitter I’ve ever coached.”


She missed two weeks of her sophomore season following knee surgery, but a more serious injury occurred in late November of 1992 at Michigan State when she broke a joint in her ankle. Through therapy and rehab, she made it through the balance of the season, one in which Illinois won the Big Ten title and she earned second-team All-America honors.


More in-depth surgery followed and her recovery was long and hard.


“It was a long road and it troubled the beginning of my senior season,” said Smith. “That was both a physical and emotional struggle.”


Still, she fought through the pain and repeated as an All-Big Ten selection. Smith is quick to point out that Mike Hebert was much more than just her volleyball coach.


“I cannot quantify the amount of respect I have for him.”

 

Her crowning achievement came in the spring of ’94 when she was named Illinois’ Female Athlete of the Year, beating a field of stars that included Tonya Williams, Mandy Cunningham, Becky Biehl, and teammate Kristin Henriksen.

 

Most of Smith’s professional career has centered around the banking, finance and mortgage industry, and today she is a Correspondent Mortgage Banking Underwriter for the State Bank of Lincoln.


Today, Tina Rogers-Smith celebrates her birthday. Her family includes a daughter, Faith, who played basketball at Millikin University, and a son, Jaxson.


                                  Robert "Bunker" Jones

Robert "Bunker" Jones

July 26, 2023

Citizens of Champaign-Urbana from the 1940s through the mid 1970s might remember Robert “Bunker” Jones as a respected member of Champaign’s Police Department, but did you know that he once was a letter winner on Ray Eliot’s 1945 Fighting Illini football team?


Born 97 years ago today in West Frankfort, Jones was an outstanding athlete for the Frankfort Community High Redbirds. From 1942-43 through 1944-45, he led FCHS to three straight appearances to the Illinois prep championships at Huff Hall in Champaign. The Redbirds’ best chance to win the state title came in Jones’ sophomore season, but the 6-4 center was badly injured in Frankfort’s victory over Decatur. Jones teamed with future Northwestern University Hall of Famer Max Morris as the Redbirds set a school record with 32 wins.


As a senior, Jones earned All-State honors in both basketball and football. Anchored by Jones in 1944-45, FCHS tallied a school-record 35 basketball victories.


Jones was successfully recruited by Coach Eliot to play for the Illini football team and he lettered as a freshman in 1945, playing guard and serving as a placekicker. He also made Coach Doug Mills’ Illinois basketball team as a rookie, but did not letter.


Jones transferred to Southern Illinois University and lettered for the Saluki football team in 1947.


Jones returned to Champaign-Urbana in 1949 to marry Barbara Wilson of Urbana. He joined the Champaign police force and continued in that role for more than 25 years. Jones was a member of the Policemen's Benevolent and Protective Association of Illinois, the Illinois Police Association and the Varsity I Men's Association.


His family included two daughters and a son, plus five grandchildren. Bunker Jones died in 2003, just a few weeks shy of his 77th birthday.


                                  Jim Wright

Jim Wright

July 24, 2023

Though Illini fans more familiarly associate Jim Wright with Illinois basketball, few know that the longtime Urbana resident also was a two-time Big Ten pole vault champion. He contributed to UI’s 1953 outdoor track and field team title with a winning vault of 13-feet, then both he and the team duplicated those championships the following season as well.


The Lawrenceville High School graduate wore jersey number 16 for Coach Harry Combes’ Illini basketball team. Wright earned three additional varsity letters at Huff Gym. As a sophomore in 1951-52, he and his UI teammates won the Big Ten title and advanced to the NCAA’s Final Four. Illinois’ ’52-53 squad finished second in the conference standings. In 1953-54, Wright’s senior season, he became a starter alongside John Kerr, Paul Judson, Bruce Brothers and Max Hooper. Wright was the Illini’s third-leading scorer, averaging 8.4 points per game.


Following two seasons of military service, Combes brought Wright on in 1958 to become his second assistant coach. He served a total of 13 seasons for Combes, heading up Illinois’ scouting operation and coaching UI’s freshman team. Wright’s coaching highlight came in 1963 when the Illini won the Big Ten title.


When Harv Schmidt became Illinois’ coach in 1967, he retained Wright as his assistant until 1972.


Wright began his C-U based insurance company in 1954 and continued it for a total of 58 years, most recently on South State Street in Champaign. His wife, Barbara, operated Wright Real Estate for several years. They have two children, Jim, who resides in Gainesville, Fla., and Susan who lives in Jacksonville, Fla., plus five grandchildren. Jim and Barbara winter at Amelia Island in Florida.


Today, Jim celebrates his 91st birthday.



                                  Whitney Mercilus

Whitney Mercilus

July 21, 2023

Happy 33rd birthday to former Fighting Illini football star Whitney Mercilus.


Recruited to Illinois in 2008 by Coach Ron Zook, the Akron, Ohio high school star was redshirted as freshman. Following two seasons of steady but unspectacular play, Mercilus exploded onto the scene in 2011 as a junior defensive end. He led all collegiate players that season in quarterback sacks (16) and forced fumbles (9), and was a consensus All-American. Mercilus was the CFPA Defensive Performer of the Year and the winner of the Ted Hendricks Award as college football’s top defensive end. He also was the Illini’s Most Valuable Player and a team co-captain.


Mercilus was a first-round selection by the Houston Texans in the 2012 NFL Draft.  He played with the Texans for nine full seasons (2012-20) and part of a tenth. In that tenth campaign (2021), he was traded to the Green Bay Packers. However, a torn bicep in game 10 ended his year.


Career-wise, he started 102 of 138 NFL games and recorded 58 quarterback sacks.


Mercilus announced his retirement from the NFL on April 6, 2022.


He is the founder of the WithMerci Foundation, an organization that "advocates services and support for families of children with disabilities and special needs".


                                  Ralph Webster

Ralph Webster

July 19, 2023

Born on this date in 1906 was Fighting Illini wrestling’s first-ever All-American, heavyweight Ralph Webster.


A three-time letter winner from 1926-28 for Coach Paul Prehn, the Raccoon, Ind. native helped Illinois win three consecutive Big Ten championships. Webster’s Illini teams won 17 of its 19 dual meet matches during those seasons.


Though Webster never won an individual conference title, he accomplished his greatest singular fame at the first NCAA Championships in 1928, hosted in Ames, Iowa. After pinning Ralph Freese of Kansas in the semifinal match, he was pitted against Oklahoma State’s Earl McCready. Unfortunately for Webster, McCready won by fall in just 19 seconds.


Webster majored in Athletic Coaching at the University of Illinois, then became a lifetime employee of the Columbus (Ohio) Board of Education. Initially, he was a teacher and multi-sport coach at Columbus East High School. His greatest athlete at East High was Ohio State Buckeyes Hall of Famer Bill Willis, who Webster originally suggested to play for Coach Ray Eliot at Illinois. Unfortunately, OSU coach Paul Brown intervened and the rest, as they say, is Buckeye history.


Webster moved onto become the longtime athletics director of Columbus Walnut Ridge High School, retiring in 1974. He was inducted into the Ohio Coaches Hall of Fame in 1992.


Webster died on Feb. 28, 1976 in Bexley, Ohio.


                                  Johnny "Red" Kerr (#22)

Johnny "Red" Kerr

July 17, 2023

Today marks the 91st anniversary of the birth of University of Illinois basketball legend John Graham “Red” Kerr. He was a member of the second class inducted into the Illini Athletics Hall of Fame (2018).


A person living today would need to be in his mid-to-late 70s to be able to remember the incredible career Kerr enjoyed as an Illini player or to be in his 60s to be able to recall his amazing consistency as an NBA star.


Today’s Illini Legends, Lists & Lore will attempt to refresh the memory of those senior citizens and to enlighten folks younger than them as to just how outstanding a basketball career Johnny “Red” Kerr had.


Did you know ...


•An eight-inch growth spurt before and during Kerr’s senior year at Chicago’s Tilden Technical High School changed his focus from soccer to basketball. Kerr had initially intended to attend Bradley University but changed his mind to play for the Illini following a visit from Irv Bemoras. Kerr ultimately was inducted into the Illinois Basketball Coaches Association.


•Kerr’s senior season as an Illini player, he averaged a school-record 25.3 points per game, passing Bemoras as UI’s career scoring leaders. Kerr’s career total of 1,299 points would be eclipsed until nine years later (by Dave Downey). The Chicago Tribune selected him as the Big Ten’s Most Valuable Player.


•The Syracuse Nationals chose Kerr as the sixth pick in the 1954 NBA Draft. The first five players selected included top pick Frank Selvy of Furman, then Bob Pettit, Gene Shue, Dick Rosenthal and Togo Palazzi.


•Playing the same position as Bill Russell and Wilt Chamberlain, Kerr played in the NBA All-Star Games in 1956 (4 points/8 rebounds), 1959 (7/9) and 1963 (2/2).


•Kerr averaged 11.15 rebounds for his game, a number that ranks 27th on the current all-time list. Just ahead of him on the list in 26th place is Kareem Abdul-Jabbar with 11.18 per game. Immediately following Kerr on the list are Hakeem Olajuwon (11.11), Dave DeBusschere (10.99) and Shaquille O’Neal (10.85).


•His NBA career ended on Nov. 4, 1965. His final career totals as a professional player included 905 games, 12,480 points and 10,092 rebounds. Kerr currently ranks among the top 60 on the NBA’s all-time scoring list.


•Kerr was a true NBA iron man, playing in a record 844 consecutive games. He held the record for 17 years, finally handing over his honor to Randy Smith on Nov. 3, 1982.


•On May 3, 1966, Kerr was named head coach of the Chicago Bulls. Though his first Bulls team had a win-loss record of 33-48, Chicago became the first expansion team to make the NBA playoffs in its inaugural season. Kerr was named NBA coach of the Year and is the only coach to receive the award after his team finished with a losing record.


•Players that Kerr tutored during his two seasons as the head coach of the Chicago Bulls (1966-67 and ’67-68) and the Phoenix Suns (1968-69 and ’69-70) include Jerry Sloan, Bob Boozer, Gail Goodrich and Dick Van Arsdale.


•He became the Chicago Bulls’ color commentator in 1975, serving alongside play-by-play announcer Jim Durham. Kerr remained in that role through the 2007-08 season, calling all six of the Bulls’ six championship campaigns.


•Kerr passed on Feb. 26, 2009, only hours after the death of fellow Bulls legend Norm Van Lier.


                                  Ed Manley

Ed Manley

July 14, 2023

The man who coached longer at the University of Illinois than any other person died 61 years ago today at the age of 75. Ed Manley, a native St. Louisan, directed Fighting Illini men’s swimming and diving for 37 years after being hired by George Huff in 1912.


As a young man, Manley was an exceptional swimmer and water polo for the Missouri Athletic Club.


His Illini swimming teams captured Western Conference titles his first two years at Illinois and placed among the top five in the league twenty-four times. He also developed twenty conference champions in the sports of water polo, directing those teams to dual-meet victories nearly 75 percent of the time.


Manley called 1930s performer Chuck Flachmann his greatest single swimmer. Other outstanding Illini athletes he coached included Bill Vosburgh, a member of the 1912 Olympic team; John Lichter, John Griffin and Frank Taylor of the 1915-28 era; Bill O’Brien, who won a national diving championship in the 1920s; John Haulenbeeck, the 1947 Illini captain, and Bob Clemons, a 1950s star.


Manley also was the originator of the intramural sports system at the University of Illinois.


After he retired from Illinois in 1952, Manley and his wife, Cecelia, returned to St. Louis where he became the swimming pro at Westwood Country Club. He also coached at the Clayton and University City pools.


The veteran coach was honored posthumously in 1975 when the university named the historic Huff Gym natatorium the Edwin Manley Memorial Pool.


Illini coaches with longest terms of service:

37 years               Ed Manley, men’s swimming & diving (1912-17, 1920-52)

35 years               Gary Wieneke, cross country (1967-2002)

32 years               Yoshi Hayasaki, men’s gymnastics (1973-93, 1997-2009)

31 years               Maxwell Garret, fencing (1941-72)

29 years               Bob Zuppke, football (1913-41)

29 years               Gary Wieneke, men’s track & field (1974-2003)

28 years               Paula Smith, women’s golf (1978-2006)

27 years               Harry Gill, men’s track & field (1904-29, 1931-33)

27 years               Leo Johnson, men’s track & field (1938-65)

27 years               Lee Eilbracht, baseball (1952-78)

24 years               George Huff, baseball (1896-1919)

23 years               Gary Winckler, women’s track & field (1985-2008)

22 years               Leo Johnson, men’s cross country (1938-60)

22 years               Ralph Fletcher, men’s golf (1944-66)

22 years               Don Sammons, men’s swimming (1971-93)

22 years               Howard Braun, men’s tennis (1938-42, 1946-64)

21 years               Lou Henson, basketball (1975-96)

20 years               Harry Combes, basketball (1947-67)


                                  Jack Beynon

Jack Beynon

July 12, 2023

Over the years, Rockford has sent a legion of special athletes to the University of Illinois, though few measure up to the accomplishments of 1930s Fighting Illini star John “Jack” Beynon.


Beynon was a three-sport star for Rockford High School, but he was best known as the star quarterback for the Rabs’ powerhouse 1930 football team. Outscoring its opponents by a cumulative score of 279-18, the talented signal caller ran for 20 touchdowns and passed for four more, including three to Rockford captain and future Illini teammate Bart Cummings.


As a player for Coach Bob Zuppke, Beynon helped the Illini rebound from back-to-back losing seasons in 1930 and ‘31. Coordinating a flea flicker-type offense that was based on principals of laterals and reverses, Beynon’s senior squad in 1934 raced to victories in each of its first six games and ended with a 7-1 mark. The highlights included a 14-13 win at Memorial Stadium versus Ohio State.


The game-winning touchdown against the Buckeyes in ’34 was eventually dubbed by scribes as the Flying Trapeze play. Starting at OSU’s 36-yard line, Illini fullback John Theodore took the ball on a direct snap and faked a dive into the line. Just before reaching the line of scrimmage, Theodore tossed a lateral to guard Chuck Bennis. Bennis dropped back and fired another lateral to halfback Les Lindberg, who sprinted to the right, then spun and fired a 25-yard cross field lateral to Beynon. The Illini captain, who had gone into the OSU secondary as though he was a potential receiver, had backtracked behind UI’s line of scrimmage. Beynon then tossed a perfect arching pass into the hands of Gene Dykstra for the deciding 36-yard TD.


Also a two-time letter winner for Coach Craig Ruby’s Illini basketball squad, Beynon was an iron horse for Zuppke’s football team in 1934, playing an estimated 297 of the 300 minutes during Illinois’s five Big Ten Conference games. He was rewarded with first-team all-league honors and second-team All-America kudos. Beynon played in the College All-Star game on a team that included future United States President Gerald Ford from Michigan.


He rejected a $150 per game offer to play for George Halas’s Chicago Bears to instead attend law school. From 1943-46, Beynon’s legal career was interrupted by a three-year Army stint during World War II.


Beynon ultimately become Winnebago County’s very first public defender in 1966. Five years later, he was appointed as an associate judge. In 1981, he became a Circuit Court judge in Rockford’s 17th district.


Jack Beynon, who was born on July 12, 1913 in Chicago, died on Oct. 17, 1989 at the age of 76.


                                  Jack Watson

Jack Watson

July 10, 2023

John “Jack” Watson, born 130 years ago tomorrow, was the University of Illinois football team’s very first All-America center. Born and raised in DeKalb, he lettered for Coach Bob Zuppke’s first three varsity teams in 1913, ’14 and ’15.


During Watson’s junior season, the Illini compiled a perfect 7-0 record and earned Big Ten and mythical national championships.


As the center, he triggered an Illinois offense that included quarterback Potsy Clark, halfback Harold Pogue and end Perry Graves.


On defense, Watson sparkled as a tackler in the middle of the line. That 1914 Illini team outscored its opponents by 202 points (224-22).


Watson was elected UI’s captain in 1915 and Illinois repeated as conference champs, tying with Minnesota. His Illini didn’t experience a single loss in his final two seasons (12-0-2).


The 1916 graduate also was president of the UI’s YMCA. Watson’s brother, Chancey, lettered for the Illini in 1911 and ’12.


An agriculture major, Jack Watson became a farm advisory specialist. He died on Jan. 4, 1963 at the age of 69 in Santa Fe, N.M.


                                  Bob Blackman

Bob Blackman

July 7, 2023

Today marks the 105th anniversary of Bob Blackman’s birth. A member of the College Football Hall of Fame, Blackman served as head coach of the Fighting Illini football team for six seasons (1971-76). He died in 2000. Bob Blackman’s career, by the numbers:


6         Consecutive losses in first half dozen games at Illinois

12       Number of first-team All-Big Ten players Blackman coached at UI

29       Number of victories accumulated as Illini coach (against 36 losses and one tie)

104     Number of victories as head coach at Dartmouth (against 37 losses and three ties)

.510    His winning percentage in Big Ten Conference games (24-23-1)

.546    Blackman’s winning percentage at UI in games other than against Michigan and Ohio State (0-12 vs. those two teams)



                                   John "Rocky" Ryan

John "Rocky" Ryan

July 5, 2023

John “Rocky” Ryan, one of Fighting Illini football’s most colorful players on Coach Ray Eliot’s early 1950s teams, was born 91 years ago today.


A 1950 graduate of Tolono’s Unity High School, the Rocket football teams on which Ryan played never lost a game. He also lettered in basketball and won the state of Illinois’s pole vault championship his junior year.


At 6-2 and 190 pounds, Ryan became a record-setting receiver for the Illini. As a sophomore in 1951 for the Big Ten champs, one of his two receptions that season was a six-yard touchdown catch to close out UI’s 40-7 Rose Bowl victory over Stanford.


Statistically, Ryan’s best season at Illinois came in 1952. He caught a school-record 45 passes for 714 yards and five touchdowns, including a 78-yard TD against Washington on Oct. 11, 1952. The performance earned Ryan second-team All-Big Ten honors and honorable mention All-America laurels.


Ryan was involved in an incident following Illinois’s Nov. 8, 1952 game at Iowa. Immediately following the conclusion of the Illini’s 33-13 victory, Hawkeye fans began to throw apples at UI’s player as they were leaving the field. One unfortunate Iowa supporter’s jaw was broken by a powerful Ryan punch following the fan’s advancement on the Illini player. The episode played a role in the two schools not playing a football game against each other for 15 years.


As a senior in 1953, the big redhead helped lead Illinois to a share of the Big Ten title with 16 receptions for 308 yards and four TDs. Ryan ended his career as the Illini record holder for catches (63), receiving yards (1,041) and receiving touchdowns (9).


He was a second-round pick by the Philadelphia Eagles in the 1954 National Football League Draft (21st overall pick), but his professional career was delayed by service in the United States Army.


Ryan played three NFL seasons, primarily with the Eagles, starting nine of the 28 games in which he played. Ryan’s final four pro games were as a member of the Chicago Bears. Altogether, he caught six passes for 188 yards and had two interceptions for 55 yards.


Upon retirement from football, Ryan worked in Champaign-Urbana for Illinois Bell, Prudential Insurance and JM Jones/SuperValu. He and his wife, Lucille, had four children and 10 grandchildren. Many members of the family still reside in the Twin Cities.


Rocky Ryan died on Nov. 3, 2011, at the age of 79.


                                   Zuppke Field

Bob Zuppke's Life After Coaching

June 30, 2023

After 29 years of a primarily distinguished career as head coach of the Fighting Illini football program, Bob Zuppke retired under pressure from alumni in November of 1941. Zup was provided with an eight-month severance of $6,000 (equivalent to $92,000+ today), then received a $4,000 retirement ($61,000+ today) thereafter.


Shortly after his announcement, he declined job offers from Camp Grant and Grand Rapids University, and was also approached by Yale. He did, however, accept an offer from the Chicago Tribune’s Arch Ward to coach the College All-Stars against the Chicago Bears in August of 1942.


According to author Maynard Brichford’s 2008 book entitled Bob Zuppke: The Life and Football Legacy of the Illinois Coach, the former Illini mentor nearly every morning from 1943- writing to former UI players who were fighting in World War II. Later in 1945, he served as a volunteer coach at the University of Havana in Cuba and made pencil sketches that he later turned into work as an oil painter. Occasionally, Zup fished in the Atlantic and Caribbean Oceans from the yacht of one of his former players at Oak Park High School, famed author Ernest Hemingway.


An assortment of health issues, including prostate cancer, a coronary condition and high blood pressure, plagued Zuppke in his latter years and his appearances at honors ceremonies and player reunions became much less frequent. In 1949, Illinois honored the “Dutch Master” at a testimonial dinner to celebrate the twenty-fifth anniversary of Memorial Stadium. A group of 1924 of Illini stars—Red Grange, Earl Britton, Harry Hall and Wally McIlwain—reminisced about that famous game against Michigan a quarter of a century earlier.


Honors lauding his coaching achievement were bestowed upon Zuppke in 1950 (Helms College Football Hall of Fame), 1951 (National Football Foundation Hall of Fame) and 1955 (Amos Alonzo Stagg Award from the American Football Coaches Association).


In December of 1955, Zuppke suffered a major stroke, but married his longtime housekeeper, Leona Ray, nine months later. In December of 1957, he died at the age of 78. Come the spring of 1958, Zup’s ashes were buried at Champaign’s Roselawn Cemetery, adjacent to the grave of the man who originally hired him, George Huff. Zuppke’s fortune of more than $400,000 was left to his wife, nieces and nephews, various charities and the University of Illinois Foundation.


The playing field at Memorial Stadium was named Zuppke Field in 1966.


                                    Mike Durkin

Mike Durkin and the Olympics

June 28, 2023

Mike Durkin’s dream had been fulfilled when he became a member of the 1976 U.S. Olympic Track and Field Team on June 27, 1976. Now, it was time to actually wear the red, white and blue uniform at Olympic Stadium’s opening ceremonies in Montreal.


In today’s installment of Legends, Lists & Lore, the Fighting Illini icon recalls his 1976 Olympic experience, about earning a spot on America’s 1980 squad, and about his disappointment when America boycotted the Olympic Games in Moscow.


(July 29, 1976 – second of five preliminary heats of the Olympic 1500 meters) “The first heat went in 3:44 and they took the top three runners and the next three fastest non qualifiers. So, three guys went with a 3:44. I had some decent runners in my heat, including (Great Britain’s) Steve Ovett. With a lap to go, I was making my move coming up the homestretch and we get out to the turn. Instead of keeping my momentum going, I decided not to run wide on the turn. I shut down slightly to get closer to the rail. When we got to the backstretch, the guys up in front just took off before I got to that point. I was just chasing the last 300 meters. I finished fifth in my heat. I ran 3:38.7 (a 3:55 mile). After that first heat, I thought I was going to be one of those qualifiers. I had the second-fastest qualifying time. John Walker, the eventual Olympic champion, was in the fourth heat. He had run the 800 earlier in the Games and didn’t do well, so he wanted to show everybody that he was in monster shape and he was 3:36 something (3:36.87) in his heat. He dragged his guys to great times, including one that was a tenth of a second faster than me. I had the tenth-fastest time in the 1976 Games, including the finals, but I didn’t make it out of the first round. I did set an Olympic record for the fastest non-qualifier in history. That’s a helluva honor to have, isn’t it?’”

(On deciding whether to train for a berth on the 1980 team) “In the Fall of ’78, I started thinking about the (1980) Olympic Games. I wanted to prove that 1976 wasn’t a fluke. That was my motivation. The plan was that my wife and I would go to Moscow. I had missed two years, so I was really behind the eight ball, really playing catch-up. Nineteen-seventy-nine had been a struggle, but I was able to break four minutes again. I was never in as great of shape as I was in ’76, but I was very competitive and ran 3:39 to make the team. It was just the opposite of what had happened to me in ’76. With a lap to go (at the 1980 Trials), I was fourth and third place was probably 20 yards ahead of me. It’s not easy to make up that ground, but I never quit. I caught that fourth-place runner with 10 yards to go and slid into third. I have a photograph on my piano at home. There were three of us—Steve Scott, Steve Lacy and me--with probably only six inches between us. But I was third and I was on that team. The difference between making the team or being forever disappointed with a fourth place was a microsecond.”


(Learning about President Jimmy Carter’s decision for the U.S. to boycott the ’80 games) “It’s seared in my mind. It was the middle of February and about 9 o’clock at night. I had passed the bar in ’78, so I was a practicing attorney at that point. It would come home from putting in a full day of work and then go out and train. On this particular night it was really cold, a lot of snow, so I was sitting in the bathtub, trying to thaw out. My wife came in and said ‘Oh my God, I just heard on the news that President Carter said we’re going to boycott the Olympics.’ I was like ‘Oh, that’s just talk. He’s just trying to pressure the Soviets. They’re never going to boycott the Olympics.’ But, as the days went on, it started becoming a reality. It was a hard pill to swallow. I predicted that in 1980 the Soviet block would boycott the ’84 Games in L.A. There’s no way the Soviet Union is going to come to America if America boycotts the Moscow Games, and that became a reality. I thought it was a futile gesture. There were a helluva lot more things the U.S. could have done to economically boycott the Soviet Union—grain shipments, etc.—everything we had in our power. But to take innocent athletes that were competing in a spirit of friendship, then to put them on the front lines and make them the only people that would sacrifice in this effort I thought was a ridiculous gesture and meaningless. You knew that the Soviet propaganda machine was just going to spin that the Americans were just afraid to come and compete against the Soviet athletes on their home ground … the weak Americans, etcetera. The irony is that I went to Europe and, a week after the Games, I raced against Soviet athletes … the way it should be.”


A member of the Rosemont law firm of Storino, Ramello & Durkin, Mike Durkin has been married to his wife, Joannie, for 46 years. They have three grandsons.



                                    Matt Lackey

2002-03 Athletes of the Year

June 26, 2023

Twenty years ago today—June 26, 2003—a trio of Fighting Illini athletes—track and field’s Perdita Felicien, tennis’s Amer Delic and wrestling’s Matt Lackey—were named Big Ten Athletes of the Year.


It was the very first time in the then 20-year history of the awards that at least one Illinois athlete had been honored. 


It also marked the first and only time in the four-decades long, year-ending selection of the Jesse Owens Male Athlete of the Year Award that two male student-athletes from the same institution shared the prize in the same year.


Furthermore, it was only the second time that athletes from the same school swept both the male and female awards, joining the Michigan duo of football’s Charles Woodson and softball’s Sara Griffin of 1998.


Delic and Lackey’s primary competition from other Big Ten male athletes included Minnesota wrestler Jared Lawrence and Indiana basketball’s Kyle Hornsby.


Not quite as unprecedented but rare nonetheless was the selection of Felicien as the winner of the conference’s Female Athlete of the Year Award. She won the award over such other prominent women’s athletes as Iowa softball’s Kristin Johnson, Michigan gymnast Janessa Grieco, Minnesota track & field’s Shani Marks, Penn State soccer’s Emily Oleksiuk, and Wisconsin volleyball’s Erin Byrd.



Sketches of the Illini athletes were secured from a June 26 release issued by the Division of Intercollegiate Athletics.


AMER DELIC: Delic, the very first conference tennis player to win the award, helped lead the Illini to the school's first ever NCAA men's tennis team championship, while becoming the first Illinois player to ever win the singles title. Ranked No. 2 in the nation, the Jacksonville, Florida junior posted a singles record of 36-5 in 2003 and was undefeated (7-0) in Big Ten play. His record included 16 singles wins against Top 125 players. As a doubles team with partner Michael Calkins, Delic was ranked No. 11 nationally, claimed a 29-9 record and advanced to the Round of 16 in the 2003 NCAA Doubles Tournament. They won 11 doubles contests against Top 51 opponents this year and advanced to the championship match of the ITA All-American Tournament and the quarterfinals of the USTA Challenger professional event last fall. Delic and Calkins also won the consolation doubles title at the ITA National Intercollegiate Indoor Championship. Delic was selected as one of five men's collegiate tennis players from all levels to represent the United States and the Intercollegiate Tennis Association in Tokyo that summer.


MATT LACKEY: Lackey, a senior from Moline, Illinois, became the first Illini since 1998 to finish the season with a perfect record (38-0). He won the 2003 NCAA 165-pound title in addition to the 165-pound Big Ten title for the second straight year. He was Coach Mark Johnson’s first wrestler to win both NCAA and Conference titles in the same year. A three-time All-American, Lackey defeated 16 ranked opponents en route to his 2003 NCAA crown. He finished the 2002 season as an NCAA finalist and placed third in 2001. On his career, Lackey compiled a 14-2 NCAA tournament record and was 120-14 (.896) overall, ranking fifth on Illinois' all-time wins list.


PERDITA FELICIEN: Felicien was named the 2003 United States Track & Field Coaches Association Female Track Athlete of the Year after her championship performances in 2003. It was the second time in her career that she won that award after being selected in 2001. Along with winning the NCAA title in the 100-meter hurdles this spring, she set a meet record in the semifinals of that event with a time of 12.68, also tying the Big Ten record. The 2003 Big Ten 100-meter hurdle champion clocked the nation's then-fastest time of 12.88 seconds at the Conference championship, which ranked her as the No. 1 collegiate hurdler in the country and among the top 15 hurdlers in the world at that time. Felicien also won the Big Ten indoor title in the 60-meter hurdles and was an All-American in that event along with being named an All-American in the 4x100 outdoor relay. Named the Most Outstanding Athlete at the Drake Relays for a third consecutive year, she was also named the Midwest Female Track and Field Athlete of the Year and is a three-time winner of the University's Dike Eddleman Award for Female Athlete of the Year (2001, 2002, 2003). The native of Pickering, Ontario, Canada also was a First Team All-Big Ten honoree and an Academic All-Big Ten selection.


                                    Tom Haller

Tom Haller

June 23, 2023

Former Fighting Illini three-sport athlete and longtime major leaguer Tom Haller would have turned 86 today. He died in 2004.


Besides baseball, the former Lockport High School star lettered in football and basketball, earning four total varsity monograms. Haller’s career, by the numbers:


3         Haller’s statistical ranking among Big Ten quarterbacks in 1957


12       Number of seasons he played Major League Baseball (Giants, Dodgers, Tigers)


16       Number of Illini basketball game in which Haller played and number of points he scored in 1957


134     Total home runs he hit in majors with San Francisco, Los Angeles and Detroit


.214    Haller’s 1957 UI batting average in conference play


.257    His career batting average through 1,294 big league games


.286    Haller’s 1962 World Series batting average vs. Yankees


542     Yards he threw for in UI’s seven conference games in ’57 (3 TDs)


.991    His 1957 fielding percentage as the Illini first baseman (one error in 113 chances)


                                     Mike Durkin

Mike Durkin & the '76 Olympics

June 21, 2023

Over the 137-year history of organized track and field at the University of Illinois, Mike Durkin’s story about he became an Olympian is as remarkable as any as the 21 Fighting Illini men and women who’ve done so.


The 47th anniversary of Durkin’s magical tale at the University of Oregon’s Hayward Field will be marked this coming week—June 27, 1976.


Now an attorney in Rosemont with Storino, Ramello & Durkin, he recounted his experience after his graduation from Illinois in 1975:


“I had stopped running after the championship meets of 1975. I didn’t imagine that I would have a career running after that. I was done. Got into law school. I went to school in downtown Chicago and got a job at the Merchandise Mart after class. That scholarship didn’t carry into law school, so I had to pay the bills. I also worked two hours a night, Monday through Friday, signing up contracts for a wedding reception banquet hall. On the weekends, I worked the weddings. I had my afternoons open and started working out a little, with no intention of doing anything with it.


“In February (1976), I drove down to Champaign to watch an indoor meet at the Armory, and I caught the bug. I thought that if I could get a qualifying time for the Olympic Trials, the Olympic Committee will pay my way to Eugene. I could stay for a couple of weeks and watch the second-greatest track meet, the Olympic Trials. My goal was to get invited to the Trials. I only had 14 weeks or so, from February to June, to compress a lot of training into that time period.


“The first weekend in April, I ran a 4:10 mile in Champaign. I thought that if I could run a 4:10 mile after only a month or so of training, maybe I can get that standard. At that time, the qualifying standard (for 1500 meters) was 3:41.7, about a 3:58 mile. So I started training a little bit harder. I got down to about a second-and-a-half off the time. Suddenly, I hit a plateau during the month of May. I just wasn’t in good racing shape. I went to the Kansas Relays and the Drake Relays and I could see that my shape was coming around. I was improving, but my times just weren’t dropping.


“(Oregon distance star) Steve Prefontaine died in 1975, so they held the first Prefontaine Classic in ‘76. I borrowed $500 from my boss and flew out to Eugene. I thought I’d get the time there, but I didn’t. There was one more meet—the AAU Championships at UCLA—and I met up with Tom Bryant, a competitor from Ohio State. (His daughter, Aidy Bryant, is now on Saturday Night Live.) Tom lived in L.A. and he ran for the Santa Monica Track Club. He put me up at his place. On the Monday before the meet, I was jogging around the inside of the rail on the grass and stepped into a hole and twisted my ankle so damn bad I could barely walk on it. My dad was a podiatrist in Chicago. He gave me the name of a doctor in L.A. and he taped it up. I had to stay off it for a couple of days. By Thursday, I was able to jog, then I ran the prelims on Friday. I probably felt the best I had all year and jogged the last 50 years to qualify (for the finals). My time was a tenth of a second off the qualifying standard. I thought, that’s no problem, we’re going to kill that in the finals.

Invariably, as most championship races go, it was tactical. I finished third, about three inches behind the winner, (Villanova’s) Eamonn Coghlan and Mike Manke from Oklahoma State. I missed the qualifying standard by a tenth of a second. I was really disappointed, but I felt so good physically. All I needed was rest. The sprained ankle gave me an opportunity to rest and recover. I had compressed so much training into such a short window that I was always tired. Those few days rest had allowed me to peak.


“I was running around the infield at UCLA, pretty bummed out, and a man came up to me. It was the coach at the Santa Monica Track club, a man named Joe Douglas. (Years later, he was Carl Lewis’s agent.) Joe, in my opinion, was a coaching genius. He said, ‘Young man, you’re getting an invite to the Olympic Trials.’ I said, ‘What are you talking about?’ He said, ‘They need runners to fill out the heats and since you were the second American at national championships, we’re extending an invitation to you.’ Well, that just made my whole summer. I reached my goal. I was going to the trials!


“So I stayed out in L.A. and started training with the Santa Monica Track Club runners. Joe Douglas started giving me workouts. A couple weeks later, at the Trials, my times started dropping. I was in fantastic shape. I made it through the prelims. In the semis, I ran the Olympic qualifying standard. The night before the finals, I knew that if I could finish in the top three that I could be on the Olympic team. At that point, I really believed that I had a shot. I felt confident.


“Joe gave me the race strategy the next day. He wanted me to go out and get on the leader’s shoulder, hang there, then use my speed at the end of the race. It was a strategy I had used many times. The only problem was that 1,500 meters starts on the backstretch and the first portion of the race is on a straightaway. Who had the inside lane? Me. I’m thinking, ‘I don’t want to lead. I want to be second or third. So why don’t I just hesitate at the start and then I’ll move up on the outside.’ So that’s what I did.


“The gun went off, I waited a quarter second. We get down to the first turn and I’m in last place. I’m going around the turn, coming up the homestretch, and I try to move out and pass people, but I couldn’t pass anybody. I was going as hard as I can. I thought, if this is a 60-second first quarter, I’m just going to step off into the infield and admit that I don’t have it today. Sure enough, we come around to the first quarter and they’re yelling out ’51 … 52’. Well, immediately I’m thinking to myself, no wonder I’m feeling so bad. But if I’m feeling this bad, imagine how all of those guys in front of me are feeling. So, I immediately adjusted my thoughts of dropping out to just hang in there and see what happens.


“I stayed in last place for another lap, came through the half mile at about 1:54. It was a suicide pace, but I was the slowest guy at that point. So now we’re on the start of the backstretch and I started moving up through the field. I get to the turn, held my spot at about sixth or seventh place. Then on the homestretch and I set out and caught the leaders, Rick Wohlhuter and Matt Centrowitz with a lap to go. This is the honest to God’s truth. I looked over to those guys as I pulled up to them and thought ‘I don’t know how you guys feel, but I’m feeling so damn good. I knew that all I had to do was stay in third and I’d be on the Olympic team. So now we’re going down the backstretch. I didn’t want to lead, but I’m thinking, ‘C’mon guys … go faster, go faster. I don’t want to get caught.’ We get down into the homestretch and I ran that homestretch like it was a qualifying heat. I looked around and kept checking to make sure I was safe. I never went to my final gear. We all finished together. (Durkin ran the fastest 1500 of his life—3:36.72.)


“They gave me third, but I was on the Olympic team. It was the highlight of my life. It was a dream I never dreamed. Going from ‘Hey, I want to go to the Trials and see all of these great athletes to, suddenly, I was one of them on the team.’ It took a while to sink in, but I was ecstatic to say the least.”


                                     Jake Hansen

Jake Hansen

June 19, 2023

Had it not been for a torn ACL in game six of his senior season, former Fighting Illini linebacker Jake Hansen just might have concluded his collegiate career on top of Big Ten football’s list for forced fumbles.


The native of Tarpon Springs, Fla., who celebrates his 25th birthday today, was on a pace to not only leave Illinois as the school’s all-time leader in that category, but he also was just three away from tying the all-time Big Ten record. With 12 forced fumbles to his credit, Hansen needed to jar only one more ball loose from an opponent’s grasp to tie Hall of Famer Simeon Rice for the all-time Illini mark.


However, an unfortunate physical setback last year against Wisconsin wiped out all of those very realistic statistical objectives.


Among all-time Illini, Hansen was in celebrated defensive company, having notched one more forced takeaway than future NFL star Whitney Mercilus (11) and two more than former teammate Stanley Green (10).


Former Coach Bill Cubit’s staff first noticed Hansen’s potential at Florida’s East Lake High School, though Jake had already pledged his future to Iowa State. When a Cyclone coaching change took place and Lovie Smith assumed duties as the Illini head coach, the course began to shift for both Jake and his dad, former BYU star Shad Hansen.


“When you’re a defensive player—especially a linebacker—there’s no better person to play for than Lovie,” the elder Hansen remembered. “From Jake’s perspective, it was like hitting the lottery.”


Illinois’ No. 35 saw action in every game that freshman season (2016), but his spirit was deflated the following August when he suffered a season-ending knee injury in fall camp.


“I’m not a very patient person,” Hansen said, “so I had to wait for my time. It gave me a chance to see the game from a different perspective.”


Months and months of therapy got Hansen back on the field for the 2018 season opener against Kent State and he responded with an eye-popping effort, totaling a school-record-tying six tackles for loss among his 15 stops. At the season-ending banquet, Hansen was presented with the Bruce Capel Award for courage, dedication and accomplishment.


In 2019, Hansen earned All-Big Ten honorable mention from both the coaches and the media, despite missing the final four games with an injury. In the COVID season of 2020, he continued to elevate his play, leading the nation in forced fumbles (7) and graduating to second-team All-Big Ten. Figuring that his draft status was at its peak, Hansen announced plans to leave the college ranks and begin training for a spot in the NFL. A conversation with new Illini head coach Bret Bielema convinced to return to Illinois for a sixth season in 2022.


Unfortunately, in game six against Wisconsin, Hansen tore his ACL, prematurely ending his collegiate career. He continued his classwork and graduated last December with a Master’s degree in Recreation, Sport, and Tourism.

 

Hansen played last season with the NFL's Houston Texans.


Big Ten Career Leaders for Forced Fumbles


1. 15 - Chris Borland, WIS 2009-13 (40 games, .375 per game)

2. 14 - Ryan Kerrigan, PUR 2007-10 (44 games, .318 per game)

3T. 13 - Simeon Rice, ILL 1992-95 (46 games, .283 per game)

3T. 13 - Bob Sanders, IOWA 2000-03 (45 games, .289 per game)

3T. 13 - Marcus Oliver, IND 2013-16 (39 games, .333 per game)

6T. 12 - Jake Hansen, ILL 2016, 2018-21 (46 games, 0.261 per game)

6T. 12 - James Looney, PUR 1977-80 (statistical data not available)

7T. 11 - Whitney Mercilus, ILL 2009-11 (37 games, .297 per game)


                                     James "Scotty" Reston

James "Scotty" Reston

June 16, 2023

Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist James B. “Scotty” Reston is arguably one of the University of Illinois’s most influential alumni (1932), but it’s largely unknown that he was a two-sport letter winner for the Fighting Illini.


Born in Scotland, Reston’s family immigrated to the United States when he was 10 years old. The family soon settled in Dayton, Ohio, and Reston became a talented golfer, winning medalist honors at the Ohio state high school championship meet.


He played both varsity golf and soccer as a student-athlete at the University of Illinois, winning five total monograms, and served as a student assistant in UI’s sports information office and as a golf correspondent for the News-Gazette.


Following brief stints in public relations with Ohio State University and the Cincinnati Reds, Reston began his legendary career as a journalist.


A chronological history of Reston’s life:


• November 3, 1909: James Barrett Reston was born in Clydebank Scotland.


• September 28, 1920: On board the SS Mobile, he, his mother and his sister arrived at Ellis Island in New York City, eventually joining his father in Dayton.


• 1929: Reston earned his initial varsity letter in soccer for the Illini. He’d also letter in that sport in 1930 and ’31.


• 1932: He served as captain of UI’s golf team, also lettering in ’31. After graduating, Reston began his career as a reporter for the Springfield (Ohio) Daily News.


• 1933: He became sports publicity director at Ohio State University.


• 1934: Following a brief term as press agent for the Cincinnati Reds, Reston began a five-year stint as a reporter for the Associated Press.


• December 24, 1935: He married fellow UI alum Sally Fulton.


• 1939: Joined the staff of the New York Times, first as a sports reporter, then covered England’s war with Germany from the London bureau.


• 1942: Reston established the U.S. Office of War Information in London, rejoining the Times in 1945.


• 1945: He won his first of two Pulitzer Prizes for a series that detailed the establishment of the United Nations.


• 1953: He was assigned to Washington D.C. as the Times national correspondent.


• 1957: A second Pulitzer was awarded to Reston for his coverage of Dwight Eisenhower’s presidential campaign.


• 1968: He became executive editor of the New York Times and later served as a vice president.


• 1970: Reston helped create journalism’s first Op-Ed page.


• 1986: He won both the Medal of Liberty and the Presidential Medal of Freedom.


• August 2, 1987: He wrote his final column for the Times.


• 1991: Reston authored his fifth book, a memoir entitled “Deadline”.


• 1992: He was scheduled to give UI’s Commencement address, but later declined because of health issues.


• December 6, 1995: Reston died at the age of 86 following a long bout with cancer.


                                     Tony Klimek

Illini Flashback: 1950-51 Season

June 14, 2023

Today, we dial the Illini Time Machine back 70 years to a memorable 1950-51 sports campaign.


Just five years removed from the end of World War II, this was a period in American history when its troops were entrenched in the Korean conflict. In the world of pop culture, radio stars such as Steve Allen, George Burns and Frank Sinatra were all transitioning to television roles. Professional sports luminaries included New York Yankees shortstop Phil Rizzuto, running back Marion Motley of the Cleveland Browns, and Gordie Howe of hockey’s Detroit Red Wings.


On the University of Illinois campus that featured new Mechanical and Electrical Engineering buildings, George Stoddard presided over a student body that numbered approximately 19,000. Of those, about 250 were athletes on the school’s 11 varsity teams.


In a season when its teams won five Big Ten team titles, these were some of Illinois’s most notable individual sports heroes of 1950-51:


TONY KLIMEK (pictured): The Most Valuable Player of Coach Ray Eliot’s 7-2 squad was a senior end from Chicago’s Schurz High School. Klimek was a consensus first-team All-Big Ten selection and was chosen to play in the Blue-Gray All-Star Game.


DICK “ROCKY” RAKLOVITZ: This football and baseball standout was one of the Illini’s most versatile athletes, pacing the Orange and Blue’s 1950 gridders in rushing (709 yards) and Illinois’s 1951 baseball nine with a .387 batting average.


DON SUNDERLAGE: He was not only Illini basketball’s Most Valuable Player, but also the top star among all conference players. Sunderlage wound up as the league’s leading scorer (17.4 points per game) and the school’s all-time points leader for the conference champs and Final Four participant.


ROD FLETCHER: Though Sunderlage was officially the MVP, the junior guard from Champaign was considered nearly as indispensable. A second-team All-Big Ten on the hardcourts, Fletcher also played golf for his dad’s Illini golf squad.


DON LAZ: As versatile as any Illini athlete in 1950-51, Laz was the football team’s top punter in the Fall, then the track and field squad’s record-setting pole vaulter in the Winter and Spring. On May 25, 1951, his unusual double victory in the pole vault and the broad jump led Illinois to repeat as Big Ten’s team champion. Laz also was named winner of the Conference Medal of Honor.


CIRILO McSWEEN: UI track’s top sprinter was unquestionably the sophomore from Panama. He was the conference’s record-setter at 440 yards, a member of the league champion mile relay squad, and the Big Ten runner-up at both 100 and 220 yards.


BOB SULLIVAN: Coach Charlie Pond’s Illini gymnasts repeated as Big Ten team titlists and fell just a few points shy of winning a second-straight NCAA crown thanks in great part to the talented Bob Sullivan. He earned All-America honors as a tumbler, on the long horse and flying rings, and as an all-around performer.


DICK PICARD: The senior not only captained the Illini wrestlers, but lost only one match all season and won the Big Ten’s 130-pound title.


LEN ATKIN: In his only letter-winning season, Atkin won the Big Ten epee championship and placed third in the NCAA fencing meet, leading Illinois to its second consecutive league team crown.



                                     Duke Preston

Duke Preston

June 12, 2023

Happy 41st Birthday to Raymond Newton “Duke” Preston III, a former three-time letter-winning offensive lineman for Fighting Illini coach Ron Turner.


The all-star center from San Diego’s Mt. Carmel High School was a member of Turner’s 2000 recruiting class. Preston eventually played alongside fellow linemen Dave Diehl, Tony Pashos, Bucky Babcock, Martin O’Donnell and Sean Bubin.


As a senior in 2004, Big Ten coaches selected Preston as honorable mention all-conference. His teammates not only picked him as a team co-captain but also voted him Illinois’ Offensive Player of the Year, ahead of running backs Pierre Thomas and E.B. Halsey and quarterback Jon Beutjer. Preston, wearing jersey No. 75, yielded only one sack in his final two seasons of play and incurred no penalties as a senior.


With the 122nd pick overall and the 21st choice in the fourth round of the 2005 National Football League Draft, the Buffalo Bills selected Preston. Preston’s father, Ray, a standout collegian at Syracuse, had a nine-year NFL career with the San Diego Chargers.


Duke played in all 16 of the Bills’ games as a rookie in 2005 and was named to The Sporting News All-Rookie Team. He was a starter in eight of the 16 games in which he appeared the following season, opening holes for running back Willis McGahee who compiled nearly a thousand yards rushing.


In his third and fourth seasons—2007 and 2008—Preston became a starter and helped Marshawn Lynch rush for more than 1,000 yards each year.


Preston played just one additional season in 2009 with the Dallas Cowboys.


After retiring as a player, Preston earned a master's degree in Christian education from the Dallas Theological Seminary. In 2013, the University of Notre Dame hired him to serve as its director of player development, then he was promoted to head up UND’s student welfare and development program.


Preston left South Bend just prior to the beginning of the 2015 season to become the Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ director of player engagement. In 2021, the Bucs promoted him to become the team’s vice president. His primary duties are aimed at character and leadership development, career development, financial education, continued education, and mental health and wellness.


Preston and his wife, Kavanagh, are the parents of four children.


                                     Al Brosky

Amazing Illini Records

June 9, 2023

Perhaps the most incredible record in Fighting Illini sports history belongs to a man that was born 95 years ago today. What Al Brosky achieved as a defensive back in the 1950s is one that has no comparison. His NCAA record of notching a pass interception in fifteen consecutive games is significantly more impressive in that opposing quarterbacks purposely threw their passes away from him. In twenty-eight collegiate games, Brosky picked off a national-record thirty interceptions, a mark that still stands 71 years later.


Other amazing Illini records, in chronological order:


• Coach Arthur Hall’s 1910 Illinois football team recorded a perfect 7-0 record. More amazingly, that squad outscored its seven opponents, 89-0. It’s a feat duplicated by only nineteen others teams in the history of college football.


• George Huff’s 1910 Illini baseball squad had a perfect 14-0 record. John Buzick, the team’s premier pitcher, completed all ten of the games he started.


• From February 21, 1914, through February 9, 1916, UI’s basketball team won twenty-five games in a row, including seventeen consecutive conference victories. The average score during this span of games was Illinois 27.5, opponents 13.8.


• On November 5, 1916, Illinois handed Minnesota’s so-called “perfect team” its only loss of the season, 14-9. In the Gophers’ other six games that year, UM outscored its foes, 339-14.


• In the dedication game of Illinois’s Memorial Stadium—October 18, 1924—Bob Zuppke’s Illini defeated mighty Michigan, 39-14. UI’s superstar running back, Red Grange, scored touchdowns the first four times he touched the ball, tallying on runs of ninety-five, sixty-seven, fifty-six and forty-four yards.


• Athletic Director Doug Mills’ teams dominated Big Ten championships from the 1950-51 season through the 1953-54 campaign, winning twenty-three of the conference’s forty-eight titles.


• On Nov. 8, 1980, Illini quarterback Dave Wilson carved up Ohio State’s vaunted pass defense, completing 43-of-69 passes, tossing for 621 yards, and completing six touchdown passes. Thirty-nine years later, Wilson’s 621-yard day remains as the Big Ten single-game record.


• As a junior in 1987, Illini baseball’s Darrin Fletcher batted a stunning .497. His slugging percentage that season was .913. Both are all-time Illinois records.


• On September 22, 1990, Illinois’s Howard Griffith became the first player in NCAA Division IA football to score eight touchdowns in a single game. Griffith scored three touchdowns [51, 7, 41] on consecutive carries and scored four touchdowns in the third quarter.


• Beginning with a season-opening win against Ball State on January 26, 2003, and continuing through an NCAA quarterfinal match versus Vanderbilt on March 25, 2004, Illinois tennis assembled sixty-four consecutive dual-meet victories.


• Illinois’ 2004-05 men’s basketball squad began the season with a perfect 29-0 record. Included among the highlights were victories over seven nationally ranked opponents, including No. 1 Wake Forest.


• Including Adrien Dumont De Chassart in 2019, Illinois men’s golfers won nine consecutive medalist awards at the Big Ten Championship from 2011 to '19.


                                     Mac Wenskunas

Mac Wenskunas

June 7, 2023

Nearly 66 years after his death in a tragic automobile accident, Georgetown, Illinois’ Michael “Mac” Wenskunas remains as his Vermilion County hometown’s most famous native son.


Born June 8, 1922, Wenskunas was a two-sport star at Georgetown High, winning all-state honors as a football halfback in his senior year (1939). He remained out of school until 1941 when he enrolled at the University of Illinois and joined Coach Bob Zuppke’s final Illini team.


Wenskunas played defensive center at just 181 pounds for rookie coach Ray Eliot’s 1942 squad, and was twice named “Big Ten Center of the Week.”  He enlisted in the Marines following that sophomore season and was sent to the University of Notre Dame for training. He eventually was commissioned as a second lieutenant at Quantico, Va.


“Old 23”, as his teammates called him, Wenskunas returned to the U of I in time for the Illini’s 1945 season. He played virtually all 60 minutes in every one of Illinois’ nine games and was named UI’s Most Valuable Player.


As UI’s senior captain in 1946, Wenskunas helped the Illini win six of their seven Big Ten games and capture the Big Ten crown. Illinois went on to defeat UCLA in the Rose Bowl, 45-14, finishing fifth in the Associated Press’s final ranking. So popular was Wenskunas that Illinois’ Oct. 5, 1946 game at Memorial Stadium was “Mac Wenskunas Day.”


A 25-year-old Wenskunas became head football coach at Quincy College in 1947. His three Quincy teams went 4-3 (1947), 7-2 (1948) and 8-1 (1949). Wenskunas was inducted into Quincy’s Hall of Fame in 1974.


In 1950, Wenskunas became head coach at North Dakota State. He was relieved of his duties after four seasons, going 11-21-1.


He then became a salesman for the Josten Jewelry Company and lived with his wife and four children in Decatur. On Aug. 3, 1957, Wenskunas, his wife, and three others were killed in a two-car collision near Boody, Ill. He’s buried at Calvary Catholic Cemetery in Decatur.


                                     Penn State's Nittany Lion Shrine

Big Ten Welcomes Penn State

June 5, 2023

On this date 33 years ago—June 5, 1990—it was announced that Pennsylvania State University had joined the Big Ten Conference.


Just four months into his first term of commissioner of the conference, Jim Delany first seriously entertained the suggestion brought to him by then University of Illinois President Stanley Ikenberry, a Penn State graduate. Delany’s sister had attended Penn State as a graduate student, so he knew of PSU’s reputation as a strong academic institution and its rich history in athletics.


“The Big Ten hadn’t changed since Michigan State became a member in 1949,” said Delany, “but I thought the opportunity to expand towards the east coast was a no brainer.”


Following months of study and discussion, the process climaxed with a vote at a meeting in Iowa City. It was unanimous: Penn State was in.


“History has since proven that it was a tremendous fit for both sides,” said Delany.


                                     The Kopinski twins

Melissa and Tim Kopinski

June 2, 2023

Happy 30th Birthday today to Fighting Illini tennis twins Melissa and Tim Kopinski. The siblings from Palos Heights and graduates of Chicago’s Amos Alonzo Stagg High School were the first twins to play concurrently for Illinois’s tennis program.


Melissa and Tim are the only two children of Polish immigrants Jan and Zofia Kopinski. They began playing tennis as toddlers and also played hockey together.


“They made us pick a sport we could both play with each other so we couldn’t get bored,” Melissa told the News-Gazette in a 2014 story.


Melissa, a minute older than her “younger” brother, had a distinguished career for the Orange and Blue. As a senior in 2014-15, she was her team’s Most Valuable Player and a two-time honoree as Big Ten Player of the Week. Her other senior-season awards included All-Big Ten and Academic All-Big Ten honors, UI’s Fighting Illini Spirit Award, and the Midwest Region ITA/Arthur Ashe Jr. Sportsmanship and Leadership Award. Kopinski compiled a 74-54 career singles record (26-15 in Big Ten matches) and an 88-42 doubles mark (24-14 Big Ten).


In 2013, she earned All-America doubles laurels with partner Rachael White, advancing to the NCAA Championship quarterfinals. They ended that season ranked 15th nationally and No. 2 in the Midwest Region.


Melissa graduated from Illinois with a Bachelor of Science degree in community health in 2015. Immediately afterwards, she became a volunteer coach at Texas Tech, helping the Red Raiders win the Big 12 championship in 2017. Kopinski returned to her alma mater the following season, but now is a fulltime assistant coach for the Red Raiders in Lubbock.


Tim had a similarly successful career at Illinois, winning All-Big Ten and All-America honors. Singles-wise, he was 108-56, including a fantastic 30-9 record in Big Ten matches. In doubles, he was 102-62 (27-11 Big Ten).


In his senior season, Kopinski was the Midwest ITA Senior Player of the Year and that organization’s Sportsmanship and Leadership Award winner. With partner Ross Guignon, they ranked as high as No. 2 nationally and were the 2015 National Indoor Championships runner-up. Individually as a senior, he compiled a perfect 8-0 record in Big Ten singles play. Kopinski defeated the No. 23, 34, 41 and 64 players in matches that season.


Like his twin sister, Tim also was an Academic All-Big Ten honoree, studying kinesiology. He’s in his fourth season on the professional tennis circuit and played the majority of this past season in Asia. In May of 2017, Kopinski and former Illini teammate Jared Hiltzik earned the doubles title at the Israel F6 Futures Tournament in Akko, Israel. For the past year, he's been Brad Dancer's assistant at the University of Illinois.


                                     Nancy Thies and Jhou Jiasheng

Nancy Thies (part two)

May 31, 2023

In part one of Monday's story about Urbana’s Nancy Thies Marshall and her participation in a nationally televised gymnastics exhibition between teams from the United States and the People’s Republic of China, Illini Legends, Lists & Lore recalled how a malfunctioning audio cassette tape nearly ruined her floor exercise performance. If not for a compassionate Chinese piano player (Zhou Jiasheng) who stepped in to improvise background music, Nancy’s routine would have been a disaster.


In part two, we follow up details about how that serendipitous moment blossomed into something much more and brought a family intimately closer to the people of a nation more than 7,000 miles away.


Doug Wilson, the veteran producer of ABC-TV’s Wide World of Sports, vividly recalled the scene inside Madison Square Garden some 49 years ago.


“We couldn’t believe what was actually happening in front of us,” Wilson said. “The result was extraordinary because it was as if Nancy and he had been rehearsing together for all of her life. It was a wonderful, wonderful moment where the main point was that it was not only a beautiful floor exercise to live music, but it showed how artistry and sports could override political differences.”


Marshall didn’t immediately realize how the implications of that simple act of kindness from a total stranger would eventually evolve for her and her family.


“At the time I thought, ‘Well, that was nice ... I met a new friend and we go on with life,’” she said. “And yet what happened after that is what’s so amazing, which is how it speaks to my faith and to God’s ability to transform death into life. When my music didn’t work, that was the ‘death’ of a dream and yet it was the birth of an amazing friendship with this piano player.


“When I started working for NBC Sports several years later, I went to China and we found Mr. Zhou. I asked ‘Do you know where he is? Here I am in Beijing and I would love to see him again.’  They said, ‘Of course, we know where he is.’ And someone there left and brought him back. When we saw each other, the whole room was filled with people who knew the story. It was quite a moment when we saw each other. We knew that everything that was happening in China, especially as it related to sport and gymnastics, was an out-growth of that first meeting of our two teams. We had dinner with him and his wife and his son. From then on, we had each other’s addresses and sent Christmas cards. They even sent a wedding present when Charlie and I were married in ’81. I went back two more times as a part of the NBC crew and saw him each time.


“Then we fast-forward from about 1983 to ‘89 when my sister Susie was teaching English in China,” Nancy continued. “When she went over to start that assignment, the first thing Susie did was to go to Beijing and find Mr. Zhou. His family hosted her and took her to the Great Wall. During that same year, my parents went over to see Susie and they did the same kinds of things. By this point in the cultural revolution, Mr. Zhou was teaching at a music conservatory. Now, during the revolution, anyone that was connected to culture and the bourgeoisie was sent to the countryside to farm. It was sort of this leveling of classes during the cultural revolution. Zhou’s family had been a part of that, so my parents really got to understand his story more.


“And at the end of that year (1989), as a result of the student-led demonstrations for democracy, came the Tiananmen Square incident. A huge crackdown resulted in, we think, hundreds of deaths. I received a message from Zhou, asking if there was anything we could do to help them come to the United States. We sent them a letter of invitation to our national gymnastics gathering and that letter allowed him to get a visa. For what normally takes seven years, he and his wife were able to get visas within a few months. That call to me happened in June and they were able to walk off the plane on Labor Day. Zhou had some distant family in San Diego, so they flew to California. Well, they decided to stay and he opened a piano studio there in San Diego, and they’ve been there ever since.”


The entire Thies family would soon come to understand that Nancy’s perchance friendship would eventually extend well beyond herself.


“When I was at Madison Square Garden for that (1973) meet, my parents took my siblings to New York to attend,” she said. “It was there that my family fell in love with China. It’s out of that love that my sister (Susie) was drawn to China to teach English there. Upon her arrival, Zhou’s family met her in Beijing and took her to the Great Wall. Then my parents (Dick and Marilyn Thies) traveled to China to see Susie and they met them, too. This became a family friendship.”


In 1993 the University of Illinois’ Center for East Asian and Pacific Studies established the Freeman Fellows Foundation, an entity whose mission is to facilitate the development of international understanding between the United States and countries in East Asia.


“My parents became sort of the surrogate parents for all of these people that were coming (to Champaign-Urbana),” Marshall said. “It is a wonderfully successful program. The students loved my parents and my parents loved the students.”


Additionally, Dick Thies, who was an attorney in Urbana, served as the liaison between the American Bar Association and the Chinese Law Society.


In time, Susie’s story developed a new tangent of the Thies family’s Chinese connection. Continuing to teach English, she moved to Hong Kong and met her (American) husband, Mike Harrison. They lived and taught English in the South China city for more than 30 years, but in March of 2021 relocated to Urbana. Their family includes three biological children and a fourth adopted Chinese child, Will.


“Will went to school at Asbury University (in Wilmore, Ky.) and he just graduated a year ago,” Marshall said. “He studied film production there and one of his final projects was putting this whole story together (in video form). It started out being a story about me and the event in New York in 1973, but it ends up talking about how Will’s life was changed. And it was out of that love for Chinese people that we got Will in our family. Since that meet at Madison Square Garden, our family has never been the same. It’s the most amazing new life that came out of a stupid, broken tape. But that’s the kind of God that we serve.”


                                     Nancy Thies and Jhou Jiasheng

Nancy Thies (part one)

May 29, 2023

Fifty years and eight days ago today—May 21, 1973—in one of the most impromptu scenes in sports history, 15-year-old Urbana gymnast Nancy Thies and 34-year-old Chinese pianist Zhou Jiasheng brought East and West a little closer together at New York’s Madison Square Garden.


In a ground-breaking gymnastics exhibition between teams from the People’s Republic of China and the United States, nearly 14,000 fans experienced an historic meeting between nations that hadn’t had a “friendly” competition since before World War II.


Thies, who’s been Nancy Marshall since 1981 when she married Charlie Marshall, tells the story in an interview that was conducted on April 8th:


“The meet was a direct result of the summit between Richard Nixon and Mao Tse-tung, trying to build a bridge of friendship with China, with whom we had not had formal diplomatic relations. China was premier in the world of table tennis and in gymnastics.

 

“Before the Chinese team came to New York, their first stop was Washington DC and the White House. When we met in New York, it was both a diplomatic and a security-wrapped event. We all had Secret Service pins that we had to wear. They were on one floor of the hotel and we were on another floor. We ate together in the hotel hallways because (officials) didn’t want to risk being in a restaurant. We had an event at the Chinese Embassy in New York that was attended by congressmen and senators and diplomats and ambassadors. It was pretty clear to me before I stepped on the competitive floor that this was something totally different than anything I had been a part of.

 

“At that time, gymnastics was only on TV during the Olympics, the World Championships, and maybe the National Championships. But this dual meet (between China and the United States) was televised by ABC’s Wide World of Sports. That added to the unique importance of this event. I knew this was unique. I was the highest-ranking American, but I still was only a 15-year-old at the time. I had high hopes of winning and winning on national television. Of course, those were the things that a 15-year-old gymnast thought about.

 

“The first event was vaulting. I did well and I was in the running for the all-around … and then I started to implode. I’d just won the national championships on the balance beam and I fell off on my signature stunt. And then I fell down on my dismount on bars. So then we got to the floor exercise. I was disappointed knowing that I wasn’t going to win the event, but floor ex was also my best event. I thought, ‘Well, at least I can redeem myself’.

 

“My music was 2001 Space Odyssey and the whole choreography was very dramatic to go with it. My Mom had taken a cassette tape of my music to a Radio Shack in Urbana to get a dub of it so that I could have a fresh tape.

 

“The day of the meet, I grabbed the new tape, but when they put it in (the player) it was just garbled sounds. Three times I got on the mat to start and three times it didn’t work. My coach, Muriel Grossfeld, finally told me that I wasn’t going to be able to do my routine to my music. So I could either do it to no music or have the Chinese piano player (Zhou Jiasheng) accompany me. Well, we had no idea what his capability was and I thought, ‘Oh, this is going to be terrible.’ But doing a routine without music is like eating dry toast, so I had no other choice. Of course, the crowd is watching all of this, so Muriel asked him to play.

 

“Well, I’m just being an Eeyore about the whole thing. I’m doing my routine and trying to dazzle the crowd, but in my myopic mind, I’m thinking, ‘Oh, this music is so boring and everyone is falling asleep’. Then, when I finished, everyone stands up and applauds and many people in the crowd are crying. It was just this moment of total serendipity. As (ABC commentator) Gordon Maddox said on TV that day, ‘A girl from Urbana and a man from Beijing have gotten together and are making this work.’ Really, it became the story of the event … a story about friendship. I ran over and gave him a hug and, now that I understand Chinese culture it was a terrible thing to do. But, for me, it was the only thing to do. I was just so grateful, and it was such an amazing moment. So I guess we can chalk the whole China experience up to some technician at a Radio Shack in Urbana.”


(In next Sunday’s Illini Legends, Lists & Lore, Nancy reveals how this moment forever changed the lives of her and the Thies family.)


                                     1998 Illini Baseball Team

1998 Illini Baseball Team

May 24, 2023

Twenty-five years ago today - May 24, 1998 - Coach Itch Jones’s Fighting Illini baseball team needed two victories to claim a berth in the 1998 College World Series.


Illinois won the first game on the final day of the NCAA South Regional Tournament, beating Wake Forest by a score of 13-4 as freshman Jason Anderson tossed a complete-game four-hitter.


In the championship nightcap, a bases-loaded single in the bottom of the 11th inning by Florida’s Derek Nicholson helped the Gators eliminate the Illini, 7-6.


Illinois ended its season with a record of 42-21. Though the 42 victories were not a single-season record, the ’98 Illini set eight different single-season records that year, including team marks for batting average, runs, hits, RBIs, doubles, home runs and total bases.


                                     Al Urbanckas

Al Urbanckas

May 26, 2023

Sixty-seven years ago today - May 26, 1956 - Fighting Illini high jumper Al Urbanckas was Illinois’s only individual title winner at the 56th Annual Big Ten Outdoor Track and Field Championship. His effort of 6-feet-5 5/8-inches tied the bests of Michigan’s Brendan O’Reilly and U-M’s Mark Booth.


Urbanckas swept the 1957 Big Ten high jump titles, winning indoors with a jump of 6-6 7/8” and outdoors at 6-8 3/4”. The Illini junior went on to share the NCAA high jump championship later that spring. Later that year, Coach and Athlete magazine named him Midwest Track Athlete of the Year.


A product of Springfield’s Cathedral High School, the only reason Urbanckas went out for track was to stay in condition for his favorite sport, basketball. He learned to high jump from what he read in a book, implementing a style that combined a straddle and a Western roll. The Fosbury Flop wasn’t popularized until a decade later.


“(Former UI track coach) Leo Johnson helped me tremendously in both high school and college,” Urbanckas told the News-Gazette’s Lou Engel in 1986. “Though I came to the University of Illinois on a track scholarship, I also played freshman basketball.”


Urbanckas attended dental school in Chicago for a portion of his senior season in 1958 and gave up high jumping following the indoor season. He graduated from UI’s medical school in 1961, served a two-year stint in the Air Force, then began his private practice in 1963 in Springfield.


Urbanckas is a member of the Springfield Sports Hall of Fame. His daughter, Debbie, was a four-year starter in volleyball at Missouri.


Illinois’ Big Ten High Jump Champs (since 1945):


Dike Eddleman 1946 6-2 (indoors)

Dike Eddleman 1947 6-3 (indoors)

Dike Eddleman 1947 6-6 1/8 (outdoors)

Louis Irons 1949 6-3 7/8 (indoors)

Ron Mitchell 1952 6-7 1/4 (indoors)

Ron Mitchell 1952 6-5 15/16 (outdoors)

Richard Wham 1953 6-4 3/4 (outdoors)

Ronald Mitchell 1954 6-7 1/2 (indoors)

Al Urbanckas 1957 6-6 7/8 (indoors)

Al Urbanckas 1957 6-5 5/8 (outdoors)

Ernie Haisley 1958 6-8 7/8 (indoors)

Ernie Haisley 1958 6-8 1/2 (outdoors)

Ernie Haisley & Ronald Mitchell 1959 6-6 3/4 (indoors)

Gail Olson 1981 7-0 1/4 (indoors)

Jonathan Wells 2017 7-1 ½ (indoors)

Jonathan Wells 2018 7-5 (outdoors)


                                     1998 Illini Baseball Team

1998 Illini Baseball Team

May 24, 2023

Twenty-five years ago today - May 24, 1998 - Coach Itch Jones’s Fighting Illini baseball team needed two victories to claim a berth in the 1998 College World Series.


Illinois won the first game on the final day of the NCAA South Regional Tournament, beating Wake Forest by a score of 13-4 as freshman Jason Anderson tossed a complete-game four-hitter.


In the championship nightcap, a bases-loaded single in the bottom of the 11th inning by Florida’s Derek Nicholson helped the Gators eliminate the Illini, 7-6.


Illinois ended its season with a record of 42-21. Though the 42 victories were not a single-season record, the ’98 Illini set eight different single-season records that year, including team marks for batting average, runs, hits, RBIs, doubles, home runs and total bases.


                                     George Walker

George Walker

May 22, 2023

On this date 75 years ago – May 22, 1948 – Fighting Illini speedster George Walker came within a whisker of a world record in one event and was victorious in two others as Illinois defeated Michigan State in a dual meet at Memorial Stadium.


The 5-foot-11, 165-pound senior from Chicago won the 100-yard dash (:09.7), the high hurdles (:14.3), and then the 220-yard low hurdles in an Illinois and Stadium record time of :22.6. Only the legendary Jesse Owens’ world record time of :22.5 was faster than Walker’s performance at that time.


Exactly one month later in Evanston, at a Big Ten-Pacific Coast Conference all-star track meet, Walker teamed with Indiana’s Tom Mitchell, Ohio State’s Dick Maxwell and Northwestern’s Bill Porter to set a new world mark in the 480-yard shuttle hurdle relay event (:56.8).


Walker, who competed for Coach Leo Johnson at Illinois from 1945-48, was an instant success for the Illini as a freshman. He won both the low and high hurdles at the 1945 Big Ten indoor meet, then the 100 dash and both hurdles events outdoors. At the NCAA meet that year, Walker captured individual titles in the 120 highs (:14.9) and the 220 lows (:24.0).


As a senior in 1948 at the NCAAs, he won the 400-meter intermediate hurdles event (:52.4) and placed sixth at 110 meters.


At the 1948 Olympic Trials at Northwestern’s Dyche Stadium, Walker barely missed qualifying for the Americans in the 400-meter hurdles.


He recorded a master’s degree from the UI in 1950, then was hired by St. Augustine’s College in Raleigh, N.C. At the historically black institution, Walker served as chairman of the department of health and education and as the head track coach and athletic director. During his 11 years at St. Augustine, Walker also coached boxing and wrestling and served as an assistant coach in football and basketball.


In 1966 when his father fell ill, Walker returned to his hometown of Robbins, Ill. to become assistant principal of the Posen-Robbins School District. He served in that capacity until the late 1980s.


Walker died in October of 2003 at the age of 77.

                                     Walter Moore

This Day in Illini History

May 19, 2023

Eight years ago today, the Fighting Illini swept Big Ten baseball’s top three individual awards as the Conference named its 2015 honors. Dan Hartleb, who led Illinois to its first Big Ten regular-season championship since 2011, was named Coach of the Year. Senior first baseman David Kerian and junior left-hander Tyler Jay were respective honorees as Player and Pitcher of the Year. Besides Kerian and Jay, catcher Jason Goldstein, shortstop Adam Walton and outfielder Casey Fletcher earned first-team All-Big Ten acclaim.


Other memorable moments on this date in Illinois athletics history:


May 19, 1923: Clifford “Stonewall” Jackson scattered three hits on the mound and slammed a home run in his final Illini appearance at home as Illinois topped Wisconsin, 7-1.


May 19, 1934: John Duffner clouted a home run over the left-field fence with two outs in the ninth inning, giving Illinois a 7-6 victory over Michigan in Urbana. Duffner also tripled and singled twice.


May 19, 1951: Mount Vernon all-stater Walter Moore (pictured) announced that he would attend Illinois, thus becoming the first African-American player in Illini basketball history.


May 19, 1962: Senior golfer Mike Toliuszis fired rounds of 75, 69, 71 and 73 and earned medalist honors at the 43rd annual Big Ten Championships in Champaign.


May 19, 1985: The 4x100-meter relay team of Darryl Usher, Steve Tyson, Tim Simon and Lester Washington established UI and Big Ten records with a :39.65 time at the Big Ten meet in Evanston.


May 19, 1990: Mark Dalesandro was named Big Ten baseball’s Player of the Year. He finished his Illini career that season with a .326 batting average.


May 19, 1991: Sophomore Tonja Buford successfully defended her Big Ten outdoor titles in the 100 hurdles and 4x100 and 4x400 relay events. She also added a first-place finish in the 400 hurdles and placed second in the 100 dash.


May 19, 1995: Illinois middle-distance star Marko Koers was named Athlete of the Championships at the Big Ten meet, winning at both 800 and 1,500 meters.


                                     John Bitzer, Chief Illiniwek XX

John Bitzer

May 17, 2023

Happy 74th birthday to John Bitzer, the 20th individual to portray Chief Illiniwek, the longtime symbol of the University of Illinois.


Son of Chief IX—Robert Bitzer—the Collinsville High School grad contacted Everett Kissinger, then director of the Marching Illini, early in the summer of 1967. Influenced by his father, Bitzer immersed himself in Native America lore and dance. He explained his exuberance about filling the role in a story written a few years ago for the UI’s Beta Theta Pi website.


“Graduates from Illinois were more special than those from other schools, so I always knew I wanted to attend (the University of Illinois)”, Bitzer said. “And because (portraying Chief Illiniwek) was such an immense tradition and meant so much to so many and that my dad had done it, I knew that when I got to Illinois I would try out to be Chief.”


Winning the competition against 30 other hopefuls, Bitzer ultimately held the role for four years (1970-73), a span matched only previously by William Newton (1931-34) and Edward Kalb (1935-38). So spectacular was Bitzer’s performance in the eyes of Kissinger that the Chief’s routine remained unchanged by the next six individuals who succeeded him.


For more than 30 years, Bitzer has operated the Bitzer Law Firm in Collinsville, specializing in personal injury law.


Men and women who portrayed Chief Illiniwek prior to John Bitzer:


1926-28               Lester Leutwiler

1929-30               Webber Borchers

1931-34               William Newton

1935-38               Edward Kalb

1939-40               John Grable

1941-42               Glenn Holthaus

1943                     Idelle Stith Brooks

1944                     Kenneth Hanks

1945-46               Robert Bitzer

1947                     Robert Bischoff

1948-50               James Down

1951-52               William Hug

1953-55               Dean Spotts

1956                     Ronald Kaiser

1957-59               John Forsyth

1960-63               Ben Forsyth

1964-65               Fred Cash

1966-67               Rick Legue

1968-69               Gary Simpson

1970-73               John Bitzer


                                       Illinois' Kamm Brothers

Illinois' Kamm Brothers

May 12, 2023

Born on this date in 1911 were twin brothers Albert “Chinn” and Alfred “Jake” Kamm.


The six-foot-one-inch farm boys attended Atwood High School and led the Rajahs to a pair of Okaw Valley Conferences in both basketball and track. Atwood also advanced to the quarterfinals of the 1930 Illinois High School Basketball Tournament, but lost by just two points to Peoria Manual High, the eventual champ that season. In that game, Chinn and Jake scored 12 of their team’s 16 points.


Chinn held the Atwood High record in the shot put for more than 70 years.


Though their parents—Adam and Jennie—didn’t attend college, Chinn and Jake followed their older brother and sister to the University of Illinois despite the Great Depression that enveloped America at that time. Both received a $400 scholarship to study agriculture. There they went out for Coach Craig Ruby’s Illini basketball team. Chin earned a spot in the starting lineup for the 1932-33 team and both he and his brother were starters in 1933-34. Their biggest victory in ’34 came when the Illini scored a 27-26 upset over Big Ten champion Purdue at Huff Gym in the season finale.


Chinn also lettered twice in track and field, first in 1933 for Coach Harry Gill, then again in 1934 as the team co-captain for Don Seaton. He won the Big Ten shot put competition outdoors in ’33 and finished second indoors in ‘34. Chinn also placed in the discus.


Chinn went on to a highly successful career in agriculture, serving as a high school teacher before joining the UI extension service at Saline and Piatt Counties. He was chairman of the Piatt County Zoning Board and served on the committee that formed Parkland College. Following his retirement in 1973, Chinn returned to his family homestead where he trained several field trial grand champion English pointers.  


After graduating from Illinois, Jake became a cattle farmer and was sales manager for the South Central Illinois Short Horn Breeder Association. He also worked for the U.S. Soil Conservation Service and once served as the president of the Atwood School Board. In 1993, Jake and Chinn were co-grand marshals at Atwood’s At-the-Woods Parade.  


Chinn died in 1994 at the age of 83, while Jake died ten years later at 93. They are buried at the Mackville Cemetery in Atwood.


                                       Rick Gross

Illini Track's Oldest Records

May 8, 2023

Fifty-two years ago today – May 8, 1971 – in a dual meet victory over Michigan, University of Illinois track and field junior Rick Gross set the Illini varsity record for the 3,000-meter steeplechase in a time of 8:52.3. He also triumphed that day in the three-mile run (14:22.6).


The steeplechase, which derived its name from horse racing, was first run at the University of Oxford in 1860. The 3,000-meter race is defined in the modern rule book as having 28 barriers and seven water jumps.


Gross, a native of Grosse Point Woods, Mich., a Detroit suburb, finished ninth in the 1971 NCAA cross country meet to earn All-America honors. His only Big Ten title came in the steeplechase at the 1972 conference championships that were competed in Champaign. Gross once ran the mile in a time of 4:00.4. He saw his record stand until 1983 when Tom Stevens ran the steeplechase in a time of 8:29.89. Nearly four decades later, Stevens’ performance still remains as the Illini mark.


Gross went on to have a long and very successful career at Lehman Brothers.


Illini men’s track & field’s oldest standing varsity records:


1974 … Triple Jump: Charlton Ehizuelen (55’-2 ¼”)

1975 … 5,000-meter run: Craig Virgin (13:35.02)

1975 … Long Jump: Charlton Ehizuelen (26’-11”)

1976 … 10,000-meter run: Craig Virgin (27:59.43)

1982 … Shot Put: Mike Lehmann (68’-4 ½”)

1983 … 3,000-meter steeplechase: Tom Stevens (8:29.89)

1984 … Discus: Jeff Lehmann (192’-6”)

1987 … 4x400-meter relay: Rod Tolbert, Lee Bridges, Kevin Brooks, Tim Simon (3:02.30)

1988 … 400-meter dash: Tim Simon (:44.88)

1989 … Pole vault: Dean Starkey (18’-8”)

1993 … Javelin: Brad Lawton (225’-2”)

1996 … 800-meter run: Marko Koers (3:33.05)


                                       Woodward "Red" Gunkel

This Day in Illini History

May 5, 2023

One-hundred-seven years ago today, Fighting Illini pitcher Woodward “Red” Gunkel threw a no-hitter against Ohio State, as Illinois shut out the Buckeyes, 4-0. Gunkel pitched to only 28 men in nine innings, striking out a dozen of them.


Other highlights on this date in Illini history:


·              May 5, 1923: Illinois scored three runs in the top of the ninth inning to beat host Wisconsin, 4-1. UI pitcher “Stonewall” Jackson yielded just four Badger hits.

·              May 5, 1937: Illinois’ Ray Poat allowed only three hits and struck out 10 as the Illini beat Purdue by a score of 7-3.

·              May 5, 1951: Don Laz set a Memorial Stadium record with a pole vault leap of 14’9” in a dual meet against Northwestern.

·              May 5, 1960: UI alumnus Lou Boudreau was named manager of the Chicago Cubs.

·              May 5, 1962: Junior gymnast Harold Holmes won his fourth consecutive national AAU tumbling title in Seattle.

·              May 5, 1985: Illinois’ baseball team clinched a Big Ten West Division title with a doubleheader sweep against Northwestern.

·              May 5, 1993: Track and field’s Brad Lawton and tennis star Lindsey Nimmo earned Big Ten Medals of Honor at the 1993 UI Scholar-Athlete All-Star Banquet.


                                       Lia Biehl Lukkarinen

Lia Biehl Lukkarinen

May 3, 2023

In her eighteenth season as head coach of the women’s golf team at Western Illinois University is former Fighting Illini standout Lia Biehl Lukkarinen. An All-Big Ten performer in both 1990 and ’91, the UI captain sometimes played in the shadow of younger teammate Renee Heiken Sloan her last two seasons at Illinois. Biehl Lukkarinen also was a star in the classroom, earning Academic All-Big Ten honors three times. She spent two years on the Future’s Tour where she won one tournament and placed among the top six in earnings. In 1994, she played as an exempt player on the LGPA Tour, including the ’94 U.S. Women’s Open.  Biehl Lukkarinen then began a career as an instructor, teaching at Eagle Ridge Resort in Galena, Ill. and at the Kansas City Country Club. In 2001, she returned to Illinois and served as Paula Smith’s assistant. Biehl Lukkarinen became head coach at WIU in 2005. Her Leatherneck golfers fill every spot on the top nine 18-hole rounds recorded in WIU history. She is married to Mike Lukkarinen, a professor in the RPTA department at WIU, and they have two children, a son, Connor, and a daughter, Kathryn.


                                       Baseball in the 1890s

Athletic Association History

May 1, 2023

The century-long history of the University of Illinois’ Athletic Association (AA), predecessor to the Division of Intercollegiate Athletics, brimmed with highlights, but ended in tumultuous fashion in the late 1980s.


America’s interest in athletics initially formed around the end of the Civil War in 1865, concurrent to the U of I’s founding two years later in 1867. The student body’s attentiveness to physical well-being evolved from boating, racing and cycling to a new team sport called baseball which history shows originated a couple of decades earlier. It soon became the king of American sports, including Champaign-Urbana. The first record of an athletic contest at the University occurred on May 8, 1872 when a group of UI students defeated the Eagle Baseball Club of Champaign by a score of 2-1. The game eventually progressed into intercollegiate competition seven years later.


By the 1880s, athletics had eclipsed oratorical competitions as the students’ favorite non-academic diversion. On Apr. 20, 1883, UI students combined their original baseball and football organizations to form the Athletic Association, a group that was responsible for caring for the campus’s gymnasium and for organizing the annual Field Day activities. All male students were eligible for membership.


In 1891, the AA obtained land on the north end of campus, and on May 15, 1892, Athletic Park was inaugurated. Its name was changed to Illinois Field in 1896. That same year, UI trustees directed by-laws of the Association to be subject to the approval of the faculty. At the turn of the century, an Athletic Advisory Council assisted in the management of the AA and, shortly thereafter, faculty, alumni and student managers comprised an Athletic Board of Control and Athletic Council to form policy. In 1965, the AA’s by-laws were amended to transfer oversight of the intramural and recreation programs to UI’s College of Physical Education.


On the heels of Title IX legislation, the Athletic Administration assumed responsibility for administering the new women’s intercollegiate athletic program in 1974. Two years later, UI’s Board of Trustees approved plans to change the organization’s name to the Athletic Association of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. By 1982, a total of 19 board members oversaw the group.


During the decade of the 1980s, the AA experienced both triumph and tragedy. The football and basketball programs enjoyed monumental success, but overall administration of the AA began to unravel. When word leaked out to the media that embarrassing scandals and improprieties were taking place inside Director of Athletics Neale Stoner’s administrative staff, a thorough investigation by the University resulted in dissolving the Association. Stoner and two aides resigned in July of 1988 amid allegations of mismanagement and a plan to reorganize the AA was approved six months later. Chancellor Morton Weir brought the athletic department’s business within the jurisdiction of the university administration, an action with which both the state’s legislature and the Auditor General strongly concurred. By July of 1989, new athletic director John Mackovic reported directly to the chancellor, being treated similarly to deans of the engineering and business colleges.


                                       Ron Zook

Ron Zook

Apr. 28, 2023

Happy 69th birthday to former Fighting Illini head coach Ron Zook.


A product of Miami University’s famed “Cradle of Coaches”, he played for Coach Bill Mallory’s Redskins from 1973-75. During Zooks’ collegiate playing days, his teams compiled a 32-1-1 record, winning three straight Mid-American Conference championships.


Zook began his coaching career the following year as a high school coach, then started a lengthy college stint in 1978 at Murray State. He then made stops as an assistant coach at Cincinnati, Kansas, Tennessee, Virginia Tech, Ohio State and Florida. Zook secured NFL jobs with the Steelers, Chiefs and Saints before being named Florida’s head coach in 2002.


Ron Guenther hired Zook as Illinois’s head coach in 2005. Following wins in his first two games, the Illini then lost 20 of its next 22 games. The gold star on Zook’s UI career was the 2007 season that saw the Illini go 9-4, finish second in the Big Ten, and play in the 2008 Rose Bowl Game. Results, however, were largely mediocre during his last four seasons at Illinois (22 wins and 28 losses) and he was fired following the 2011 season.


From 2014-18, Zook worked as a special teams coordinator for the Green Bay Packers, then very briefly with the Salt Lake Stallions of Alliance of American Football before it folded earlier this month.


In Ron Zook’s seven seasons as head coach, eleven different Illini players earned first-team All-Big Ten honors. Here is Illini Legends, Lists & Lore’s suggestion for Zook’s all-star offensive, defensive and specialist units:


OFFENSE

OL Martin O’Donnell

OL Xavier Fulton

OL Ryan McDonald

OL Jon Asamoah

OL Jeff Allen

TE Michael Hoomanawanui

WR Arrelious Benn

WR A.J. Jenkins

QB Juice Williams

RB Rashard Mendenhall

RB Mikel Leshoure


DEFENSE

DL Will Davis

DL Corey Liuget

DL Whitney Mercilus

DL Michael Buchanan

LB J Leman

LB Brit Miller

LB Martez Wilson

DB Vontae Davis

DB Alan Ball

DB Kevin Mitchell

DB Tavon Wilson


SPECIALISTS

P Steve Weatherford

PK Derek Dimke


                                       Jimmy Collins and Dick Nagy

Jimmy Collins & Dick Nagy

Apr. 26, 2023

On the same month and day, but four years apart, two of Illinois basketball’s greatest assistant coaches were hired by Lou Henson.


On April 26, 1979, Dick Nagy joined Tony Yates as a Henson assistant, replacing Les Wothke who had left Illinois to become head coach Western Michigan. Nagy needed no introduction to Henson or his basketball philosophies. He had played for Henson at Hardin-Simmons and was the captain of Henson’s final squad in Abilene in 1996. At the time, Nagy was just three years out of high school ball in Syracuse, N.Y. From the 1979-80 season through the ’95-96 season, he helped Henson’s Illini post winning Big Ten records in 14 of those 17 campaigns. During that span, Illinois won one Big Ten title, placed second three times, and finish third four times. Nagy went on to serve as Jimmy Collins’ assistant at UI-Chicago for five additional seasons and helped the Flames achieve their first-ever NCAA Tournament appearance.


It was on April 26, 1983 that Collins was named to the Illini staff. Like Nagy, Collins also was a native of Syracuse and a former Henson pupil. Collins was a senior All-America guard at New Mexico State in 1970, the year NMSU made its only NCAA Final Four appearance. He then was drafted 11th overall in the 1970 NBA Draft and played two seasons. Collins joined Henson’s Aggie staff as a graduate assistant coach in ‘72, then moved to Chicago four years later. He was a probation officer in Chicago when Henson hired him to replace Tony Yates. In Collins’ very first season at Illinois—1983-84—Illinois tied for the Big Ten title. Though the Illini wouldn’t again reach that championship level over the next dozen seasons, UI placed second twice, third three times, and fourth four times. Collins became UIC’s head coach in 1996-97 and continued in that role for 13 more years. The Flames made three NCAA Tournament appearances and qualified for the NIT one other time.



Jimmy Collins and Dick Nagy’s Top Ten Memories of the 1988-89 Season


1.    Mar. 26 vs. Syracuse: The Illini earned a spot in the Final Four.

2.    Dec. 19 vs. Missouri: Kenny Battle scored 28 points as UI improved its record to 18-0. Illini overcame an 18-point deficit.

3.    Mar. 4 at Indiana: Nick Anderson hit a miracle three-pointer at IU’s Assembly Hall.

4.    Mar. 24 vs. Louisville: Illinois won its 30th game behind Anderson’s 24 points.

5.    Jan. 22 vs. Georgia Tech: Illini earned No. 1 ranking with a two-overtime victory.

6.    Dec. 22 at LSU: Illini crushed the Tigers by 27 points in Baton Rouge, scoring a school-record 127 points.

7.    Mar. 11 at Michigan: UI won a school-record 27th game at Ann Arbor.

8.    Feb. 9 vs. Ohio State: Stephen Bardo held Buckeye star Jay Burson to nine points.

9.    Jan. 25 vs. Indiana: Illini snapped league-leading Indiana’s 13-game victory streak.

10. Mar. 8 vs. Iowa: Lowell Hamilton, Battle and Anderson played their final home game. Kendall Gill returned to the Illini line-up.



                                       Ray Poat

Ray Poat

Apr. 24, 2023

Eighty-six years ago today—Apr. 18, 1937—Illini right-hander Ray Poat, a sophomore from Chicago’s Lindblom High School permitted only 28 Ohio State Buckeyes to bat in a nine-inning, 10-strikeout, 3-1 Illinois victory. Three days later, he turned in another spectacular performance against the University of Chicago, striking out a dozen Maroon batters and allowing just two hits in a 7-0 Illini win.


In his only full season with Coach Wally Roettger’s Illini varsity squad, Poat posted a perfect 9-0 record, racking up 69 strikeouts against only 12 walks in nearly 76 innings on the mound. Though he may have taken a back seat to teammate and future Hall of Famer Lou Boudreau in the newspaper clippings, it was the six-foot-two-inch Poat who earned Big Ten Most Valuable Player honors for the conference champs.


Poat’s father—Joseph Vander Poaten—had emigrated from the The Netherlands shortly before Ray’s birth on Dec. 19, 1917. Upon his arrival at New York City’s Ellis Island, United States officials shortened the family name to Poat. The family eventually settled in Chicago’s Hyde Park neighborhood where Ray became an acclaimed hurler for the Lindblom Eagles. Once he got to the University of Illinois, he pledged to the Phi Kappa Psi fraternity and majored in chemical engineering.


In the early portion of his junior year (1939), Poat had season-ending surgery for a chipped bone in his right elbow, ultimately marking the end of his collegiate career. Shortly after the end of the season, he got married, hastening his urgency to sign a contract with the Cleveland Indians organization.


After posting a 15-4 record with Leaksville-Draper-Spray of the Class D Bi-State League, Poat was promoted to the Cedar Rapids Raiders. There he went 29-14 over the next two seasons, prompting his call up to the Indians in 1942, where former Illini teammate Boudreau would be his manager.


Poat made his Major League debut on Apr. 15, 1942 against the Detroit Tigers, but allowed four runs on eight hits in three innings. A week later, the Indians optioned him to Indianapolis of the American Association. At Indy, he compiled a 15-8 record and was recalled to the big club in September. Facing the White Sox on September 8 at Comiskey Park—a stadium located just a few blocks away from his childhood home—Poat got his first win, tossing a 10-0 shutout in front of friends and family.


He stayed with the Indians in 1943 and ’44 but went just 6-13. Poat took a leave of absence from baseball in 1945 to help support the World War II effort, working as a chemist in a Chicago-based government facility. He returned to pitch after the war, though at the minor league level. Two fairly successful seasons got Poat an invitation to join Manager Mel Ott’s New York Giants in August of ’47. He finished the year with a 4-3 record and a 2.86 ERA and the Giants doubled his salary to $12,000. Poat pitched another season and a half for New York before being traded to the Pittsburgh Pirates in June of 1949. Another trip to the minors prompted Poat to end his baseball career at the age of 32 and he moved his family back to the Chicago area where he began a chemistry career with the Corn Products Refinery in Argo, Ill.


In portions of six big league seasons from 1942-49, Poat had a record of 22 wins and 30 losses in 116 appearances, striking out 178 batters in 400 innings.


He passed away in April of 1990 at the age of 72 and is buried in Oak Lawn.


                                       John DiFeliciantonio

John DiFeliciantonio

Apr. 21, 2023

Before Corey Liuget, Whitney Mercilus and Dawuane Smoot in recent years—even before Don Thorp, Moe Gardner and Simeon Rice in the 1980s and ‘90s—Big Ten quarterbacks feared a 6-3, 240-pound Illini tackling machine with a nearly unpronounceable name.


John DiFeliciantonio, a product of Bishop Neumann High School in South Philadelphia and who turns 68 today, was the man Coach Bob Blackman depended upon to pressure the opponents’ signal callers. From 1974 through ‘76, despite incurring a wide assortment of injuries, “Johnny D” made headlines for Illinois from his defensive tackle position. In each of those three seasons, No. 96 recorded double-figure tackles for loss, totaling 32 TFLs for 147 yards in losses for his career.


Teaming with Dean March, Walter Graham and others, DiFeliciantonio racked up nearly 200 tackles during his Illini career, winning second-team All-Big Ten honors after his junior year. As a senior in 1976, he was named Sports Illustrated Defensive Player of the Week for his role in Illinois’s 31-6 upset victory over sixth-rated Missouri. He eventually played in the Blue-Gray All-Star Game, but never played professional football.


As an undergrad, DiFeliciantonio drove a beer truck in Champaign-Urbana during the summer of ’76. However, it was his unusual hobby that grabbed him headlines in newspaper features: potting plants.


“My girl friend went back to Chicago for the summer and she let me take care of her flowers while she was gone,” said the amiable Italian. “She couldn’t take care of ‘em nearly as well as I do.”


Forty-seven years later, DiFeliciantonio is back in the City of Brotherly Love and his one-time hobby is now his livelihood. After getting his start on the tomato line at Procacci Brothers, he worked himself up to president of the company, building it into one of the nation’s largest wholesalers. Today, he and his wife, Michelle, and three of their four daughters operate the North American Produce Company in southwest Philadelphia. They handle hundreds of varieties of fruits, vegetables and herbs.


                                       Lee Sentman

Lee Sentman

Apr. 19, 2023

Ninety-three years ago today—April 19, 1930—Lee Sentman set one world record and a quartet of other Fighting Illini athletes matched another at the Kansas Relays in Lawrence, Kan.


With a crowd of 20,000 fans looking on and with University of Illinois legend Avery Brundage serving as the meet’s referee, Decatur junior Lee Sentman led off the record-setting day with an all-time mark of :14.6 in the 120-yard high hurdles. He glided flawlessly over the ten 42-inch high barriers, finishing well ahead of Iowa’s George Saling.


Later in the day, Illinois’s 440-yard sprint relay unit—made up of senior Ernest Useman, junior James Cave, junior Charles Dickinson and senior James Paterson—ran the 440 yards in an all-time college record time of 41 seconds flat. Their clocking tied the world mark.


Sentman is one of the University’s most unheralded athletes ever. In addition to his sterling performance in Kansas nearly a century ago, he also tied the collegiate record in the 220 low hurdles at the 1930 NCAA championship meet and tied the world mark at 120 yards at the 1931 Big Ten meet. When he died in 1996 at the age of 86, Sentman’s time of 7.4 seconds in the 60-yard high hurdles, set in 1931, remained as the sixth-fastest time ever recorded at an Illini athlete in that event.


Exceptional in the classroom as a civil engineering major, Sentman was awarded the Big Ten Conference Medal of Honor in 1930. During World War II, he served as an executive officer to the chief of construction at General Dwight Eisenhower’s headquarters.


Sentman and his wife, Esther, eventually settled in Champaign where he became a renowned construction executive. Their son, Lee Sentman III, was an Illini fencer and in 1958 also was accorded the Conference Medal of Honor award.


                                       Larry Sutton

Itch Jones' Best Hitters

Apr. 17, 2023

Head coach Itch Jones mentored some of Illinois’ greatest hitters during his stint in Champaign-Urbana from 1991 through 2005. Larry Sutton batted .434 for the Illini in Itch’s first season, while Brian McClure and Tom Sinak both hit .418 for the 1996 Illini.


A list of Jones’ top 12 single-season hitters:


1.        .434    Larry Sutton, 1991

2.        .418    Brian McClure, 1996

           .418    Tom Sinak, 1996

4.        .400    Josh Klimek, 1996

5.        .394    Chad Frk, 2003

6.        .393    Chris Basak, 1999

           .393    Dan O’Neill, 1998

8.        .392    Andy Schutzenhofer, 2001

9.        .385    Forry Wells, 1993

10.      .375    Andy Schutzenhofer, 2000 

11.      .374    Ryan Rogowski, 2005

12.      .359    Chris Robinson, 2004


                                       Gordie Gillespie

Gordie Gillespie

Apr. 14, 2023

It’s a little known fact that of the three men who top college baseball’s current all-time list of coaching victories, two have ties to the University of Illinois.


One of them is Augie Garrido who coached Illini baseball for three seasons, racking up 1,975 wins in 48 collegiate seasons.


The second is a 1944 Illini baseball and basketball letterman named Gordie Gillespie. He ranks third on the NCAA’s list behind longtime Florida State coach Mike Martin and Garrido. In 1993, he passed Southern California’s Rod Dedeaux, to rank No. 1 on that ledger. Garrido passed Gillespie in 2014.


Born 97 years ago today—April 14, 1926—Gillespie graduated from northwest Chicago’s Kelvyn Park High School and was recruited to the University of Illinois by basketball coach Doug Mills and baseball coach Wally Roettger. Gillespie earned varsity letters as a center on the basketball court and as a first baseman on the diamond.


Following service in World War II, Gillespie transferred to DePaul to play basketball for Coach Ray Meyer. He won Blue Demon varsity letters in 1947, ’48 and ’49.


Gillespie’s first coaching job was at Lewis University in 1953. In 24 years, his Flyers compiled a record of 634-244, capped by three straight NAIA World Series titles from 1974-76. Gillespie also coached the Flyers basketball team for 15 years.


He moved on to take the job at St. Francis College, where eight of his Fighting Saints teams earned World Series bids. The highlight of his 19-year coaching stint in Joliet came in 1993 when that squad won 38 of its final 39 games to capture the school’s first-ever national championship in any sport.


Gillespie then moved on to Ripon College in Wisconsin where he worked with his son, Bob, the school’s athletics director. In 10 seasons, his Red Hawks put together a record of 239-130, including five league titles and six NCAA Division II playoff appearances in seven years.


In 2006, at the age of 80, Gillespie returned to St. Francis to coach the baseball team for six final seasons.


Amazingly, Gillespie also had a successful coaching career in football, serving as the head coach at Joliet Catholic High School for 27 years and compiling a mark of 222-54-6. Five of his teams won Class 5A state championships (1975, ’76, ’77, ’78 and ’81).


In 1991, the Chicago Tribune honored Gillespie by selecting him as the head coach of the newspaper’s All-Time Illinois High School Football Team. Collegiate Baseball Magazine named him the NAIA Coach of the Century in 1998.


In nearly 110 seasons of coaching sports teams, Gillespie’s squads had 2,402 wins, winning nearly 70 percent of the time. His teams failed to record at least a .500 mark only eleven times.


The father of seven, grandfather of 37, great grandfather of 12 and member of 16 halls of fame died in 2015 at the age of 88.



Top Ten College Baseball Coaches (through Feb. 8, 2023):

1. 2,029 wins             Mike Martin

2. 1,975 wins             Augie Garrido

3. 1,893 wins             Gordie Gillespie



                                       Itch Jones

Illini Baseball's April 12 Highlights

Apr. 12, 2023

Since 1970, Illinois has posted a 17-6 record in games played on April 12. Here are several of UI baseball’s highlights on this date in history:


Apr. 12, 1924 – Despite 11 walks by pitcher Wally Roettger, the Illini topped Mississippi, 7-3, in Oxford.


Apr. 12, 1933 – Illinois collected eight doubles among its 12 hits in beating Illinois Wesleyan, 13-1.


Apr. 12, 1941 – Paul Milosevich’s three singles drove in four runs as the Illini beat host Indiana, 10-7.


Apr. 12, 1947 – In only its second and third games of the season, Illinois swept a doubleheader at Indiana, 4-0 and 10-3, then went on win the Big Ten title.


Apr. 12, 1990 – The Illini hit an Illinois Field-record 10 doubles in a 22-9 victory over Eastern Illinois.


Apr. 12, 1995 – Coach Itch Jones (pictured left) collected his 900th career victory as UI topped Indiana State, 9-3.


Apr. 12, 2000 – In his career’s first complete game performances, sophomore Andy Dickinson struck out eight in an 8-2 win vs. Indiana State.


Apr. 12, 2003 – Drew Davidson scored all the way from first base on Chad Frk’s game-winning seventh-inning single, propelling Illinois past host Michigan, 8-7.


Apr. 12, 2013 – Illinois scored eight runs in the first inning and had a season-best 20 hits on its way to a 17-12 victory over Purdue.


Apr. 12, 2015 – Pitcher Drason Johnson retired the last 12 Boilermaker hitters he faced to lead No. 12 Illinois past Purdue, 5-1.


                                       Illinois' Judson Twins

Phil & Paul Judson

Apr. 10, 2023

Born 70 miles away from the old Chicago Stadium and on the exact day that the Chicago Blackhawks won their very first Stanley Cup—April 10, 1934—the identical twins of Clarence and Jessie Judson made their world debut. Twins Phil and Paul Judson, key members of Hebron High School’s legendary 1952 Illinois state championship team, celebrate their 89th birthday today.


The future Illini basketball players were preceded in life by older brother Howie, a sibling who would pitch seven seasons in the Major Leagues for the Chicago White Sox and the Cincinnati Reds.


The Judson home on Maple Street, adjacent to the intersection of Highway 173 and Route 47 in Hebron, featured a cement driveway where the twins played hoops from dawn to dusk. When the sun disappeared, the young teenage boys all went to the lighted court of childhood friend and future high school teammate Don Wilbrandt.


Explained Phil, metaphorically, “Our drive was the district … then we’d play in Kenley Spooner’s driveway like it was the regional … Don’s drive was like the sectional … then we’d play up in the hayloft of the barn across the street like it was the state tournament at Huff Gym.”


Of course, that dream to achieve a championship would eventually play out in real time at Hebron High. Phil and Paul are probably most recognizable for their prep careers in McHenry County. During their senior year at Hebron in 1952, the duo had only 16 other classmates—nine girls and seven boys—among the total student enrollment of 60.


The starting lineup for coach Russ Ahearn’s Green Giants consisted of 6-foot-2-inch Phil at forward, 6-2 Paul at guard, Spooner at the other guard, Wilbrandt at the other forward, and big 6-10 junior Bill Schulz at center.


The quintet sailed through their junior campaign, accumulating 26 victories in 28 games, setting the stage for their storybook senior season.


“The coach put together a very good schedule for us,” Phil Judson said. “The UP (United Press) had us rated fourth in the state and the AP (Associated Press) had us rated eighth at the start of the season. We went to the Kankakee Christmas Tournament and beat (No. 4) Danville by 13 points and the very next week we were rated No. 1, going past West Rockford, Centralia and Danville. We were the first team in our district to ever be rated No. 1.”


Hebron lost to Crystal Lake midway through the year, prompting a slight fall in the polls to No. 2. However, following a 20-game winning streak, Hebron regained its No. 1 ranking.


“I remember Coach Ahearn saying to us at one point, ‘Okay, win the next 11 games and you’ll be champions,’” Judson said. “Well, that didn’t mean much to us at the time. When he said champions, he meant that we’d be champions of the state tournament.”


In the district and regional tournament games, opponents used slow-down tactics to try to throw off the high-scoring Giants, but Hebron’s talent ultimately prevailed. A game against Elgin High determined which team would advance on to Champaign. The Maroons had beaten Hebron the year before in the Woodstock Regional but Judson and his teammates successfully achieved revenge and a trip to Champaign-Urbana for the state championships took place the following week.


“I remember us driving down to Champaign on a Thursday morning in four cars; Coach drove one and parents drove the others,” Judson said. “Really, it still hadn’t sunk in that we were going to the state tournament. We played Champaign that afternoon, winning by nine points, even though they outscored us in three of the four quarters.”


Hebron then got past Lawrenceville, then Rock Island (which had upset Thornton in the first game).


“Rock Island was very tall (6-6 and 6-7),” Judson said. “I remember the papers saying that the Hebron players would be bouncing off of the Rock Island players for the rebounds.”


A victory against Rock Island set up a March 22, 1952 title game against a more athletic Quincy team …the first IHSA championship broadcast on television. The contest was nip-and-tuck  throughout, finally leading to an overtime stanza. Over the final three minutes, the Judson boys out-scored Quincy, 5-1, and victory belonged to Hebron.


It wasn’t until about 11:30 that night that the victors climbed into their automobiles for the 200-mile ride home.


“When we got to Morton, they wanted us to get on the fire truck and ride around town,” Judson recalled. “We had to go around the Woodstock Square twice and, finally, we got to Hebron. It was a lot of fun.”


Every one of Hebron’s five starters got the opportunity to play Division I college basketball. Phil and Paul Judson, of course, wound up playing for the University of Illinois, rejecting offers from Wisconsin, Bradley and St. Louis. The Illini had successful seasons during their three varsity years from 1954 through ‘56, winning 52 of their 66 games overall. In Big Ten play, Illinois had a highly respectable 31-11 cumulative record, but never was able to claim a conference title.


“Sure, it was disappointing that we didn’t win a title, but the Big Ten had some really good teams,” Judson said. “The first year Indiana beat us and they went on to win the national championship that year. Our junior year, we lost a tough game in overtime game at Minnesota. And then Iowa beat us our senior year, and they went on to the national championship game.”


After two years in the Army, Phil got his first coaching job at age 25 at North Chicago High School. He coached there for 10 years (freshman team for four, sophomore team for six), but the head coach wasn’t planning to leave so Phil took a high school coaching job at Adrian, Mich. Following a very short stint as the freshman coach at Adrian College, Zion-Benton High called. Judson stayed for 20 years, coaching his son, Rob, in his final prep season.


A lengthy career as a basketball referee capped off his working days.


“Lots and lot of great memories,” Judson said. “I’ve had a very blessed life.”


So, nowadays, how often is Judson reminded about the ’52 Green Giants?


“Every week … almost every day,” he said with a laugh.


                                       Bob Richmond

Illini Basketball MVPs

Apr. 7, 2023

Forty-three years ago today, at the 58th Annual Men’s Basketball Banquet, junior forward Eddie Johnson was named Most Valuable Player of the Fighting Illini. Of the 39 players who preceded him as MVPs, he was only the 15th underclassman to be honored. Johnson’s 610 points during the 1979-80 campaign were the second highest ever by an Illinois player and his 310 rebounds were third highest. He was a repeat MVP the following season (1980-81) as a senior.


Other trivia about Illini men’s basketball MVPs:


• UI’s first official basketball MVP was senior Bob Richmond (pictured) in 1941.


• Seniors James Griffin and Perry Range were the first to share the award (1982). The prize has been shared just six other times.


• The only time the MVP was given to three different players was in 2005 when juniors Dee Brown and Deron Williams, and senior Luther Head won the honor for UI's 37-2 national runner-up.


• Cory Bradford (1999) and Tracy Abrams (2012) are the only two freshmen to have won MVP awards. Bradford was also the Big Ten Freshman of the Year. Abrams is the last UI MVP who didn’t also lead the team in scoring.


• Neither Andy Kpedi nor Larry Smith, co-MVPs in 1991, won Illinois’s scoring title that season. Andy Kaufmann was UI’s top scorer.


• Andy Phillip was Illini MVP in 1942 and ’43, but did not earn that honor as a senior in 1947 when he returned from service in World War II.


• The first three-time Illini MVP was Dave Downey. He captured the prize 1961, ’62 and ’63. Deon Thomas (1992-93-94) and Kiwane Garris (1995-96-97) are Illinois’s only other players to be honored three years in a row.


• 1984 co-MVP Quinn Richardson (with Bruce Douglas) finished as Illinois’s fifth-leading scorer that season (7.7 ppg).


• Current NBA pro, Meyers Leonard of the Portland Trail Blazers, did not win Illini MVP laurels.


• UI’s 1967 MVP, Jim Dawson, also was the Big Ten MVP. As a team, the Illini tied for seventh in the Big Ten standings.


• Only one Illini MVP—Rod Fletcher in 1952—is a native of Champaign-Urbana. He attended Champaign Central High School.


• Only one former Illini Most Valuable Player—Harv Schmidt in 1957—eventually returned to become Illinois’s head coach. (Note: Doug Mills and Harry Combes likely would have also joined Schmidt in this category, but the award wasn’t officially in place when they competed.)


• No MVP award was given to either 2008 or 2018.


                                       1918 Pandemic Scene at the U of I

1918 & The University of Illinois

Apr. 5, 2023

Both world war and a health crisis enveloped the University of Illinois during the turbulent calendar year of 1918. With Edmund Janes James presiding over a student body of about 3,000, a great many of whom were men in military uniform.


By May of 1917, a thousand men had withdrawn from the University to fight in World War I. They joined nearly 2,000 other UI alumni who were already engaged in battle.


Director of Athletics George Huff oversaw the Athletic Association’s four active sports—football, basketball, baseball, track & field. Five other sports—swimming, gymnastics, wrestling, fencing and tennis—were on hiatus due to the war.


While 1918’s headlines were dominated by the war against Germany, millions of other non-combatants back home were being assaulted by a deadly virus that became known as the Spanish flu.


Here are some of the highlights and lowlights of University of Illinois campus life and American events in 1918:


Jan., 1918 – Against his mother’s wishes, twenty-two-year-old former Illini sports star George Halas enlisted in the U.S. Navy.


Mar. 4, 1918 – First recorded case of Spanish flu at Funston Army Camp in Kansas.


July, 1918 – First lieutenant Ralph “Slouie” Chapman, a former Illini All-America football player, was erroneously reported to have been killed in battle in France. He ultimately survived his machine-gun wounds and years later served as vice president of the UI Foundation.


August, 1918 – The University announced that the campus would host a large battalion of men from the War Department’s Student Army Training Corps (SATC).


Sept. 27, 1918 –The first reported case of influenza was diagnosed by University of Illinois Health Services officials.


Oct. 1, 1918 – More than 3,400 men were inducted into the War Department’s SATC. Fifteen hundred of them were housed on the second floor of UI’s Armory.


Oct. 3, 1918 – The day UI classes began, thirty-seven campus students, faculty and staff cases of influenza had already been diagnosed.


Oct. 6, 1918 – Eighty-one campus individuals were diagnosed with the flu. Statistically, it would prove to be the single-highest day of cases cited at the University.­­


Oct. 13, 1918 – One week after UI flu cases spiked, an additional 352 cases were diagnosed. Only two men had died thus far.


Oct. 22, 1918 – Nine campus deaths were among the more than 1,000 cases.


Oct. 26, 1918 – In a spectator-less game at Illinois Field, Illinois hosted the U.S. Naval Reserve School at Municipal Pier (Chicago). Only George Huff, UI Dean Thomas Arkle Clark and a handful of military officers were allowed inside the gates to watch.  At this point, a total of 758 campus cases had been diagnosed.


Oct. 31, 1918 – The Spanish flu killed 21,000 Americans in a single week.


Nov. 11 – The armistice was announced and World War I officially ended. Many celebrators went out into the street without their masks, leading to a small resurgence of campus influenza cases from Nov. 20-Dec. 11.


Nov. 16, 1918 – Coach Bob Zuppke’s Illini football team defeated Ohio State, 13-0, before a crowd of 2,786 at Illinois Field.


Dec. 21, 1918 – SATC students at U of I were decommissioned.


Jan 1., 1919 – Statistics in the City of Champaign Township revealed more deaths (310) than births (301) in 1918. All told, 19 UI students died among the 2,500 who had been infected.


                                       Jim Spreitzer

Jim Spreitzer

Mar. 31, 2023

Sixty-one years ago today—March 31, 1962—Fighting Illini swimmer Jim Spreitzer won the NCAA men’s 220-yard freestyle championship, the last of seven NCAA titles captured by University of Illinois swimmers.


Swimming from lane three, the St. George, Illinois native and Evanston High School grad covered the distance in a time of 2:00.9, just three-tenths of a second slower than the NCAA mark set by Murray Rose of the University of Southern California a year earlier. Spreitzer edged out Dennis Ronsavelle of USC and Mike Wood of Michigan State for the championship.


Spreitzer, who placed sixth in that same race a year ago and also no better than sixth in the Big Ten meet a month earlier, broke his personal record by eight-tenths of a second.


A day later, the Illini junior placed third in the 100-yard sprint with a time of :49.5.


The NCAA meet, held at Ohio State University’s Natatorium in Columbus, saw the Illini finish in tenth place as a team and fifth among Big Ten schools.


As a senior in 1963, Spreitzer missed his third and final season at Illinois due to a rib fracture he suffered in a tobogganing accident. He ended his Illini career as the school record holder in the 100 and 200 freestyle, and in the 440-yard medley relay. He was selected as UI’s most valuable swimmer in 1962.


Spreitzer, now 81 years old, lives in Lebanon, Missouri with his wife, Mary.


Illinois’ men’s swimming NCAA champions:

1926 – William O’Brien, 1-meter diving

1934 – Charles Flachmann, 50 freestyle

1935 – Charles Flachmann, 50 freestyle

1935 – Charles Flachmann, 100 freestyle

1953 – Robert Clemons, 100 butterfly

1958 – Joe Hunsaker, 200 individual medley

1962 – Jim Spreitzer, 220 freestyle


                                       Robert Archibald

Robert Archibald

Mar. 29, 2023

Today would have been former Fighting Illini basketball star Robert Archibald’s 43rd birthday. He died suddenly on January 23, 2020.


Born in Paisley, Scotland, he was the son of Scottish legend Bobby Archibald. Robert began his basketball career with Queen Anne High School, but concluded his prep years at Wildwood, Missouri’s Lafayette High School when his father relocated the family to the United States.


Coach Lon Kruger recruited the 6-foot-11-inch Archibald to Illinois, but success came slowly. In his first two seasons—1998-99 and 1999-2000—Archibald scored in double figures only three times in 62 games. As a junior, his skills sharpened significantly and he became Illinois’s leading scorer (7.2 points per game) and rebounder (4.5 rebounds per game) off the bench. He also averaged 1.13 blocked shots in Big Ten games, ninth best among conference players. By far, Archibald’s greatest highlight that third season came in the team’s final game of the year. He scored 25 points and grabbed seven rebounds against Arizona in the NCAA Midwest Regional Finals and was named to that region’s all-star team.


Archibald’s senior campaign was clearly the best of his career, averaging 10.6 ppg , 5.5 rpg, 1.3 assists and 1.1 blocks for the 2002 Big Ten co-champs. League coaches named him to their third-team all-conference unit and the media gave him honorable mention.


The Memphis Grizzlies selected Archibald in the second round of the 2002 NBA Draft, becoming the first Scot ever to be chosen. After appearing in only 12 games as a rookie, he was traded to the Phoenix Suns. In December of 2003, within the course of a week, Archibald was dealt to the Orlando Magic and then to the Toronto Raptors.


In 2004, he transferred his professional game to Europe, performing over eight seasons in Spain and Ukraine. Perhaps Archibald’s premier basketball moment came in 2012 where he played for Great Britain at the London Olympics. The Brits lost consecutive games against Spain (79-78), Brazil (67-62), the Russian Federation (95-75) and Australia (106-75).


He returned to the state of Illinois and, benefitting from the economics degree he earned from the University of Illinois, became an agent for State Farm Insurance in Elmhurst.


Following his death, his family created the Robert Archibald Student-Athlete Health and Wellness Fund.



Archibald’s Basketball Milestones

First Illini game: Nov. 10, 1998 vs. Wake Forest (two points)

First starting assignment: Nov. 20, 1998 vs. St. Louis (four points)

Final Illini game: Mar. 22, 2002 vs. Kansas (15 points & 10 rebounds)

First NBA game: Nov. 9, 2002 vs. Denver Nuggets (one point)

Career-high points: 25 vs. Arizona (3/25/01) and 25 vs. Penn State (2/20/02)

Career-high rebounds: 13 vs. Northwestern (2/23/02)



                                       Kenneth "Tug" Wilson, Big Ten Commissioner

Tug Wilson's Years as Commissioner

Mar. 27, 2023

Kenneth “Tug” Wilson was an outstanding Illini athlete who went on to compete in the Olympics, a successful coach and a renowned scholastic administrator, but his highest profile in nearly 83 years of life was as the second Commissioner of the Big Ten Conference.


Born in Atwood, Ill., on this date in 1896, it was in March of 1945, following the death of Major John Griffith, when Wilson was elevated from his role as Northwestern University’s Director of Athletics to one of college athletics’ most prominent positions.


Wilson was attending a meeting of the ten athletic directors at Chicago’s Sherman Hotel where the conference’s office was located. In the 1967 book entitled The Big Ten that he authored with Jerry Brondfield, Wilson described the scene he encountered.


“The scheduled December meet in 1944 was a dramatically sad one,” Wilson wrote. “Major Griffith had not been in the best of health, but insisted on conducting the meeting, and at the end of the day the directors were going to join the faculty representatives at the University Club for dinner. L.W. St. John (Ohio State’s athletic director) and I were waiting in the (hotel) lobby for the Major to come downstairs. After a long wait, Saint asked me to go up and see what was keeping him. The Major’s door was open. I walked in and found him dead on the floor. It was a terrific shock, for he had been my best friend through many years. The meetings were cancelled and the following Monday the ten directors carried Major Griffith to his grave.”


Shortly after Griffith’s funeral, athletic directors St. John, Guy Mackey of Purdue and Doug Mills of Illinois proposed that Wilson be promoted to replace Griffith as head of the conference. League faculty representatives approved the directors’ recommendation the following March and Wilson assumed the role two months later.


Under Wilson’s direction of the Big Ten from 1945 to 1961, he guided the league out of World War II and into the modern era. These were some of the moments the conference experienced during Wilson’s commissionership:


1945-1961: Big Ten teams dominated the NCAA swimming and diving championships, winning 14 of the 17 team titles during Wilson’s period as commissioner.


1946: The University of Chicago formerly withdrew from the Conference.


1946: Big Ten officials voted to enter an agreement with the Pacific Coast Conference to establish an annual match-up in the Rose Bowl football game. Illinois defeated UCLA in the first meeting (Jan. 1, 1947).


1946 and 1947: Illinois won NCAA titles in track and field (followed by Minnesota in 1948).


1947 and 1948: Michigan football was the national champion.


1948: It was voted that Michigan State College be admitted to conference membership.


1952: Michigan State football was the national champion.


1953: Michigan won the Big Ten’s first NCAA title in baseball. (followed by Minnesota in 1956 and 1960).


1954: Ohio State football was the national champion.


1957: Michigan won the conference’s first NCAA title in tennis.


1959: A new recruiting regulation is enacted to allow member schools to pay travel expenses for a prospect’s campus visit.


1960: Led by Jerry Lucas, Ohio State won the NCAA basketball title.


                                       1990 Illini Women's Gymanstics Team

1990 Women's Gymnastics

Mar. 22, 2023

Thirty-three years ago this weekend—March 23-24, 1990—the Fighting Illini women’s gymnastics team won the Big Ten team championship, something it had never achieved before nor has accomplished since.


Entering the season, Coach Bev Mackes said that her squad, comprised solely of freshmen, sophomores and juniors, would need to work together, show gradual progress and peak at the right time. She also faced the question of whether or not two of her best athletes would rebound from injuries. Two weeks before the 1989 Big Ten meet, reigning conference all-around champ and co-Gymnast of the Year Heather Singalewitch had blown out her knee, while classmate Denise Lamborn spent the entire ’88-89 season in a back brace.


As the ‘89-90 campaign progressed, both athletes recuperated successfully and so Mackes’s Illini entered the Big Ten meet at Ann Arbor as the favorite to win it all.


On opening night, Illinois responded perfectly in the team competition, posting a UI and Big Ten record score of 188.750 to edge runner-up Michigan State by one and a quarter points. Only four points separated the first- and last-place teams.


The following evening, the Illini continued their individual mastery. Lamborn won the vault with a 9.8 score, Peggy Pullman and Laura Knutson tied for the balance beam title at 9.65, and Singalewitch tied with two other floor exercise competitors to share that championship. All four ladies won All-Big Ten honors while Mackes was singled out as the Big Ten Coach of the Year.


Said Illini co-captain Susan Adams afterwards, “We worked so hard all year and we finally got what we wanted. We couldn’t have done it if we weren’t together as a team.”


Dr. Beverly Mackes Stevens is now retired from Illinois State University. Her husband, Michael, directed the master’s program in counseling psychology at ISU.



                                        Bob Norman

Bob Norman

Mar. 22, 2023

Sixty-five years ago today—March 22, 1958—heavyweight Bob Norman became only the second Fighting Illini wrestler to win back-to-back NCAA individual championships. What’s even more amazing is that he achieved his accomplishments in his only two varsity letter-winning seasons at Illinois.


As a scrawny 125-pound freshman in 1946 at Cicero’s Morton High School, Robert James Norman originally planned to be a swimmer, but his times weren’t good enough to make the team. A friend suggested that he go out for wrestling. A significant growth spurt between his freshman and sophomore years—12 inches and 50 pounds— and the expert tutelage of Morton coach Bill Vohaska, a former Illini two-sport star, transformed Norman into the school’s first-string heavyweight and a starting lineman with the football team.

 

Upon his graduation from high school, Norman enlisted with the Marine Corps, training in Quantico, Va.

When his service ended, the 22-year-old enrolled at the U of I to study agriculture. Norman played briefly for Coach Ray Eliot’s Illini football team, but a serious knee injury abruptly ended his gridiron career.

 

Norman recuperated for the next several months and eventually knocked on the door of Illini wrestling coach Buell “Pat” Patterson to offer his services. Fortunately, this meeting precipitated Norman’s pathway into three different Halls of Fame.


He sparkled early and often for the 1957 Illini, capturing his first Big Ten title in the conference meet in Evanston. At the NCAA Championships in Pittsburgh, Norman rumbled to the heavyweight finals with convincing victories against opponents from Kent, Oklahoma A&M and Maryland. He faced future Green Bay Packers Hall of Famer Henry Jordan of Virginia in the title match and triumphed again, this time by a 6-1 score.

 

Norman’s 1958 performance was equally brilliant. Shortly after winning his second consecutive conference crown in Champaign, he took an unblemished 17-0 record to the NCAA Championships in Laramie, Wyo. Consecutive wins over foes from Utah State, Oklahoma State and BYU placed Norman against Oklahoma’s Gordon Roesler, the 1956 national champ. In that match Norman won by a score of 7-4.


The 27-year-old Illini senior finished with a career collegiate record of 36-0-1, including a phenomenal 22 pins.


Norman was voted into the Illinois Wrestling Coaches Association Hall of Fame in 1977 and the Amateur Wrestling Hall of Fame in 1978. He was inducted into the University of Illinois Athletics Hall of Fame last year.


Norman went on to work as a state highway engineer and as the owner of a carpentry business. His son, Tim, lettered three times with the Illini football team (1977, ’78 & ’80) and his grandson, Jake, lettered for UI’s wrestling team from 2007-10. Now 88 years old, Bob Norman resides in Delavan, Wis.


                                        Dean Brownell

Illini Defeat Unbeaten Columbia

Mar. 20, 2023

It was a winning streak that stretched 32 games and 398 days, but it all ended in the first round of the NCAA Tournament at the world’s most famous arena, and at the hands of the Fighting Illini basketball team, 72 years ago today—Mar. 20, 1951.


The Columbia Lions, playing under 29-year-old acting head coach Lou Rossini, were one of the hottest of the 16 teams selected for the national collegiate playoff. Not only did the Lions stand at No. 3 in the Associated Press rankings, they entered the tournament as the school’s only undefeated team (23-0) and the first Ivy League team to finish its regular season unbeaten (12-0). Their average margin of victory was slightly more than 20 points per game.


Coach Harry Combes’ Illini club was ranked fifth by AP and 14 of its last 15 regular season games but had lost at Kansas State six days earlier in what Illinois’ record book refers to as an NCAA “warmup” game.


Predictably, the crowd of 17,107 at Madison Square Garden—located just four miles from Columbia’s campus—was overwhelmingly pro Lions. The majority of the fans cheered wildly as the first half ended in a 45 to 38 Columbia lead. The Lions maintained their lead until less than 10 minutes remaining when Illinois finally slipped ahead, 59-57. A final Lions’ scoring drive pulled them within two points at 73-71, but UI guard Rod Fletcher’s drive to the basket gave Illinois a bit of breathing room en route to a 79-71 final score.


Don Sunderlage’s brilliant ball handling helped him score a game-high 25 points for the Illini and Ted Beach added 22 more on 10-of-17 long-range shooting.


Two nights later, the Illini defeated North Carolina State, 84-70, setting up a match against top-rated Kentucky on Mar. 24. In that one, UI fell to the Wildcats in the final 12 seconds, 76-74, ending the Illini’s dream for a national title.


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                                        Dean Brownell

Dean Brownell

Mar. 15, 2023

Ninety-eight years ago today—March 15, 1924—University of Illinois pole vaulter Dean Brownell had a world record-setting performance at the Fourteenth Annual Big Ten Indoor Track and Field Championships in Evanston.


With the bar set at 3.98 meters, a crowd of more than 6,000 at Patten Gymnasium watched Coach Harry Gill’s junior become the first athlete in the world to clear the then magic 13-foot height, exceeding it by five-eighths of an inch.


Brownell’s record performance broke the previous mark of 12-feet-10 ¾-inches, set a year earlier by Chicago’s Laddie Myers and the Illinois A.C.’s Eddie Knourek.


Born and raised in Champaign, Brownell remained the world record holder for nearly two more years. That mark was reset by Charles Hoff on Feb. 4, 1926 when the Norwegian cleared 3.985 meters.


Brownell became a plumbing and heating salesman in Champaign after he graduated from the University of Illinois, but died about a month after his fortieth birthday on Sept. 6, 1940. He is buried at Champaign’s Mt. Hope Cemetery.


Men’s Pole Vault Indoor World Record Progression

Mark, Athlete, Date

First to top 13 feet

3.98m (13 ft-.0577 in), Dean Brownell, 3/15/24

First to top 14 feet

4.195m to 4.29m, Sabin Carr, 2/14/27 to 2/25/28 (broke record twice)

First to top 15 feet

4.42m to 4.79m, Cornelius Warmerdam, 2/11/39 to 3/20/43 (broke record six times)

First to top 16 feet

4.83m to 4.89m, John Uelses, 1/27/62 to 2/3/62 (broke record three times)

First to top 17 feet

5.19m to 5.33m, Bob Seagren, 3/5/66 to 2/8/69 (broke record eight times)

First to top 18 feet

5.46m to 5.49m, Steve Smith, 1/20/73 to 1/26/73 (broke record twice)

First to top 19 feet

5.71m to 5.80m, Billy Olson, 1/29/82 to 2/4/84 (broke record seven times)

First to top 20 feet

5.81m to 6.15m, Sergey Bubka, 1/15/84 to 2/21/93 (broke record 18 times)

Current world record holder

6.17m to 6.18m (20 ft-.2756 in), Armand Duplantis, 2/8/20 to 2/15/20 (broke record twice)




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                                        Mike Lehmann

Mike Lehmann

Mar. 13, 2023

Forty years ago today—Mar. 13, 1982—at the Silverdome in Pontiac, Mich., Fighting Illini athlete Mike Lehmann captured the NCAA Indoor Track and Field Championships title in the shot put, tossing the 16-pound spherical ball 67-feet-7 ¾-inches. At that time, he joined long jumper Charlton Ehizuelen (1976 and ’77) as the only University of Illinois athletes to accomplish an NCAA indoor individual championship.


The 6-1, 265-pound Lehmann’s primary competition that day was Ohio State superstar Kevin Akins, who stood 6-5 and tipped the scale at 350 pounds. Still, Lehmann was convinced that he could win, primarily because of how he’d been performing in his preparation.


“In practice that week or two before, I was throwing ridiculous distances,” he said, “so my confidence was high.”


At the Silverdome, he added psychological warfare to his repertoire to try to gain an advantage.


“I was prancing around, hooting and hollering, and getting myself psychologically prepared for the upcoming throws,” Lehmann said. “Kevin may have been intimidated a bit by what I was doing. In the heat of the moment, you’re trying to do anything and everything just to get ahead. Basically, it really all came down to technique.”


As a youngster, Lehmann was an aspiring football player at Oak Lawn Community High School, despite the fact that as a freshman he was only 5-7 and 135 pounds.


“After football season was over, my buddies and I wanted to get ourselves bigger, so we got involved with track and field and coach George Dunn’s weight-lifting program,” Lehmann said.


A broken wrist in the first game of his sophomore season ended his football career, so he decided to turn his full attention to becoming a shot putter.


“I remember I threw the shot 33 feet as a freshman,” he said. “Then I gained another 30 pounds as a sophomore and my throw distances kept increasing. By my junior year, things finally started happening. I was determined to work hard and keep getting stronger every year.”


Lehmann placed fourth in the state as a junior but was just an inch and a quarter short of the title winner. By his senior year, he had grown to 6-1 and 200 pounds.


“I was working like a psychopath, but I never thought much about it because that’s just how my parents brought us up,” Lehmann said. “There are always going to be people out there who are more talented, but if they don’t want to work as hard, they may not achieve the goals that they want. I used that work ethic to my advantage.”


West Point recruited him initially, then Kentucky. Shortly after he returned from his recruiting visit to Lexington, Lehmann got a call from Illini coach Gary Wieneke.


“My father absolutely loved Gary Wieneke, so we went down to Champaign for a visit,” he said. “Kentucky was offering a full ride and Illinois not so much, but my father finally convinced me about the advantages that Illinois offered.”


Lehmann excelled at Illinois in track and field, even though he didn’t have a mentor who specialized in throwing weights. He credits his former high school coach, now 91, for his success.


“Thankfully, Coach Dunn had given me the knowledge to put my own pre-season training program together,” Lehmann said.


Four decades after his last collegiate competition, Lehmann continues to be on top of Illinois’ shot put records list, both indoors (69-2 3/4) and outdoors (68-4 ½). Number two on both Illini ledgers is his younger brother, Jeff. Post collegiately, Mike eventually eclipsed the magic 70-foot mark.


Lehmann earned his degree in engineering at Illinois but discovered that “it wasn’t my cup of tea.” He eventually took a job at Chicago’s Mercantile Exchange.


“I discovered that I like the financial side of things because I’ve always been a person who’s enjoyed numbers,” he said.


Lehmann returned to Champaign-Urbana about 35 years ago and established his own investment and insurance company, LaSalle St. Securities, LLC, in the late 1990s.


His family includes his wife of 36 years, Cheryl, three sons and a daughter. All of Lehmann’s children—Christopher, Courtney, Blake and Clayton—attended Champaign Central High School and several of them competed in collegiate athletics. Courtney now is head coach for girls and boys swimming at Centennial High and her father serves as her assistant in charge of weightlifting.


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                                        Bo Batchelder

Robert "Bo" Batchelder

Mar. 10, 2023

Celebrating his 78th birthday today is Robert “Bo” Batchelder, a member of the fraternity of former Fighting Illini football captains.


The Peoria Richwoods standout, singled out by his coach Bob Baietto as “one of the greatest Knights athletes ever”, wasn’t eligible to play as an Illini freshman for Coach Pete Elliott in 1963. Batchelder saw his first varsity action a sophomore end in 1964, a year after the school’s Rose Bowl season, playing both offensively and defensively.


His finest individual game came during the 1965 season when the Illini shut out Purdue. Against Boilermaker quarterback Bob Griese, Batchelder intercepted two passes and recovered two fumbles, including one that he returned 63 yards to set up Illinois’s final touchdown. That effort earned him National Lineman of the Week honors from AP, UPI and Sports Illustrated. At the end of the season, Batchelder was second-team All-Big Ten and honorable mention All-America.


As a senior in 1966, he and Kai Anderson were named Illini co-captains.


“For me, and I believe for Kai also, being co-captains of the Fighting Illini was the highest and greatest honor I received at the University of Illinois,” Batchelder said. “I won some other awards and he did, too, but I believe we both felt the same way. We were humbled and we were honored to be co-captains.”


Batchelder was president of UI’s Alpha Tau Omega fraternity. He used his bachelor’s degree in marketing to become a highly successful businessman. Batchelder operated his own food service company in Peoria throughout much of the 1970s, then became executive vice president of marketing for the Hardees restaurant chain. From 1988 through 2015, he owned and operated several Hardees and Taco Bell franchises.


Today, Batchelder & Associates is an authorized distributor of the Tersano Lotus Cleaning System, a company that produces ozone water machines that sanitize and deodorize entire facilities, including the Activities and Recreation Center (ARC) on the University of Illinois campus.


Batchelder resides in in Raleigh, N.C. with his wife Judy, three children and seven grandchildren.


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                                        1952 Big Ten Wrestling Champs

Big Day for Big Ten Titles

Mar. 8, 2023


Seventy-one years ago today—March 8, 1952—four University of Illinois teams

ended their seasons winning Big Ten championships.

 

In Champaign, Coach Leon Johnson’s Illini track and field team stormed from

behind to win the last four individual events and retain its second consecutive

Big Ten indoor title. A sellout crowd of nearly 5,000 at the Armory watched

freshman Ron Mitchell high jump 6-7 ¼ to break Dike Eddleman’s 1947 record.

Sophomore Henry Cryer won the half-mile race in a conference record time of

1:52.9. Other Illini titlists included Joe McNulty in the high hurdles, Dick

Coleman in the pole vault and Willie Williams in the low hurdles. Illinois

scored 59.6 points, edging Michigan with 52.

 

In Ann Arbor, the Illinois wrestling team (pictured left) topped host Michigan, 28-21. Coach B.R. Patterson’s Illini won their first title since 1947. Illinois wouldn’t win

another wrestling team championship until 2005. The only Illini titleist was

137-pounder Norton “Pete” Compton.

 

At Bloomington, Ind., Coach Charlie Pond’s Illini men’s gymnastics team topped

Michigan State, 94 ½ to 85 ½, to claim their third straight conference title.

Illinois individual champions included tumbling and all-around winner Bob

Sullivan, and side-horseman Frank Bare.

 

And, on the basketball court, Illinois lost at Wisconsin, 58-48, but still

captured the Big Ten championship. Led by Johnny “Red” Kerr, the Illini finished

with a 12-2 record.


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                                        Matt Sylvester

This Date in Illini History

Mar. 6, 2023


Eighteen years ago today, with just a flick of a wrist, Fighting Illini basketball’s 29-game winning streak came to and end.


Illinois led 64-58 after James Augustine’s layup with 3:23 remaining, but host Ohio State was not intimidated. The Buckeyes tallied the next four points on two-point buckets by Terence Dials and Matt Sylvester. Illinois had good looks on its next two possessions, but OSU recovered the ball and called timeout with 12 seconds left.


Coach Bruce Weber and his staff pondered what Buckeye mentor Thad Matt’s strategy might be. With the clock winding towards zeroes and the Illini leading by two, Je’Kel Foster inbounded to Brandon Fuss-Cheatham who then passed the ball to Sylvester who was open at the right wing. The Buckeye senior never hesitated, lofting a long three-pointer with five seconds left. It hit the target and the Illini were no longer perfect, losing 65-64.


Other memorable moments in history on March 6th:

 

•               Mar. 6, 1937: Illinois earned a Big Ten co-championship with Minnesota by defeating Northwestern at Evanston, 32-26.

 

•               Mar. 6, 1954: Individual titles by Willie Williams, Ralph Fessenden, Gene Maynard, Will Thomson, Abe Woodson and Ron Mitchell led Coach Leo Johnson’s track and field team to the Big Ten indoor title at the Armory.

 

•               Mar. 6, 1983: Illinois knocked Indiana out of first place with a 73-61 victory, led by Kendra Gantt’s 28 points.

 

•               Mar. 6, 1986: Host Iowa beat Illinois, 57-53, but senior Efrem Winters breaks Eddie Johnson’s career rebounding record.


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                                        "Illinois Loyalty"

Debut of Illinois Loyalty Song

Mar. 3, 2023


One-hundred-seventeen years ago today, a song that fans and alumni have heard hundreds of times debuted before the University of Illinois student body.


“Illinois Loyalty” was a work that composer/lyricist Thatcher Howland Guild began when he was a student at Brown University. Hired by the U of I as a 27-year-old English instructor, Guild perfected the melody of the tune with fellow cornet player and future band director Albert Austin Harding. It was at Harding’s very first concert program on March 3, 1906 that “Loyalty” was debuted. 


The Illini, UI’s student-published newspaper, described the event that night at what is now recognized as Kenney Gym:


The large and formal audience that filled the Armory last night was many times stirred to great enthusiasm by the numbers rendered at the annual band concert. It was a gala night. Society turned out in full force to hear the program given by the large band of fifty pieces. It was a program that contained not only old and worn pieces, but numbers which made their first public appearance. There were several times when the audience gave vent to their enthusiasm most freely. Works by two local composers, Mr. T.H. Guild and Mr. B.E. McCoy, were among the principal selections that received a large share of applause. Mr. Guild’s song, “We’re loyal to thee, Illinois”, was a work which deservedly demanded a good reception. The main theme is indeed pleasing, and the spirit of the music and words is the spirit of Illinois. It is a song that could well be included among the few songs that Illinois can call her own. It should undoubtedly be included on the repertoires of future bands and glee clubs just as Illinois now is. Mr. Guild has produced a work which ”takes”, and it will certainly find a place in our college music.


Guild would enjoy his personal fame as the composer of “Illinois Loyalty” for only eight more years, dying from a heart attack during a summer tennis match at the age of 35 in 1914. The song wouldn’t actually be recorded until November 1, 1925 when, the day after Illinois’s football game at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, Harding took his band to a studio at the Victor Talking Machine Company in Camden, New Jersey.


At last count, thirty-six high schools around the nation use the melody of “Illinois Loyalty” as their school song.


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                                        The 1987 game program for Illinois and Indiana

1987 Illini Upset Indiana

Mar. 1, 2023


Thirty-six years ago today—March 1, 1987—a record 16,793 fans, all waving orange pom-pons, said goodbye to three Fighting Illini seniors and helped repel the nation’s third-ranked team.


ABC-TV, with Keith Jackson and Dick Vitale at the microphones, was in town for the Sunday afternoon clash between Coach Bob Knight’s league-leading and third-ranked Indiana Hoosiers and Lou Henson’s No. 14 Illini.


The Hoosier lineup was centered around eventual Big Ten Player of the Year Steve Alford. His supporting class included senior classmate Daryl Thomas, juniors Dean Garrett and Keith Smart, and sophomore Ricky Calloway.


Henson countered Alford with a star of his own in senior all-conference first-teamer Ken Norman. Seven-foot sophomore Jens Kujawa, seniors Tony Wysinger and Doug Altenberger, and freshman Stephen Bardo rounded out Illinois’s starting five.


The Illini had begun the Big Ten portion of their 1986-87 campaign with four consecutive wins, but it was five especially demoralizing losses in recent weeks that had placed extraordinary stress on Henson and his coaching staff. Particularly painful were a pair of massive come-from-behind overtime defeats at the hands of Gene Keady’s fifth-ranked Purdue Boilermakers and a third OT loss to Tom Davis’s No. 2 Iowa Hawkeyes. Those three losses came by a total of five points.


“Are you a bad coach when you lose to basketball teams ranked in the top six?” Henson asked the media at his weekly press conference.


Now came the visiting Hoosiers into Champaign-Urbana. Many Illini fans expected the worse, but their hometown favorites gave them plenty to holler about during the game’s first twenty-three minutes. Norman was Illinois’s hero in the early portion of the contest, scoring nineteen points during a 31-14 streak that turned a 26-19 deficit into a 50-40 advantage.


Predictably, Indiana rallied, leveling the score at 57-all with just seven-and-a-half minutes remaining. A “here we go again” air of despair set in with the Assembly Hall attendees, but those fears would soon turn into cheers.


As the game came down the stretch, Norman successfully stroked a 15-footer. Altenberger followed by hitting the target with a pair of three-point missiles and Kujawa converted a hook shot and two free throws to put the Illini on top, 69-65 with 1:47 remaining. IU’s Smart then slammed home an alley-oop pass from Alford to cut the lead in half.


When the Hoosiers rebounded Tony Wysinger’s off-target 16-footer, Knight called time out with :39 left to set up their final play. However, instead of going inside to the 6-foot-10-inch Garrett to tie the score, Knight daringly strategized a winning three-point shot for Alford. IU’s star successfully dribbled by Altenberger, but the 6-8 Norman alertly switched to guard Alford on his desperate heave beyond the arc. When the shot caromed off the rim, Bardo grabbed the rebound with :04 seconds left to ultimately secure the Illini’s 69-67 victory.


Said Henson afterwards, “Our seniors deserve most of the credit, but let’s not forget Kujawa’s four big points and the all-around play of Bardo.”


Illinois would go on to win in regular-season finales at Michigan and at Michigan State, but lost a one-point decision in its opening -round NCAA Tournament game against Austin Peay.


Indiana, on the other hand, wouldn’t lose again. Following its home-court victory six days later over Ohio State to clinch a share of the Big Ten title, Knight’s Hoosiers rattled off six consecutive wins in the Big Dance, including a 74-73 victory over Syracuse in the championship game in New Orleans.


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                                        Artist depicts the construction of Huff Gym

Gymnasium Named for George Huff

Feb. 27, 2023


On this date in 1937 at the Blackstone Hotel in Chicago, the University of Illinois Board of Trustees unanimously recommended that the Men’s Gymnasium be named in honor of former director of athletics George Huff. He had passed away on Oct. 1, 1936, from uremic poisoning at the age of 64.


Charles Adam Platt, a distinguished architect during the American Renaissance movement, and University of Illinois architect James McLauren White are credited with designing the Georgian-Revival style structure. Ground was broken on June 7, 1924, and it was built over a span of 18 months at a construction cost of $772,000 by Champaign’s English Brothers. The building is located at 1206 South Fourth Street on the UI campus.


Featuring red brick that was manufactured at Danville’s Western Brick Company, the original structure was 211 feet long, 189 feet wide, and 66 feet high. The original concrete balconies featured 4,000 opera chairs.


Then UI sports information director L.M. “Mike” Tobin’s historical notes of May 7, 1924, said: “New offices for the athletic department will be located on the first floor, together will supply rooms, training quarters and locker rooms. Additional offices and classrooms will be located on the second floor. A wing to be built at a later time will provide for a swimming pool and additional locker space. The basketball floor will be lighted by three large skylights and ventilation will be supplied by a system of fans.


“When the new building in completed,” Tobin continued, “Illinois will have an athletic (plant) probably second to none in the country, excepting possibly Michigan.”


An eight-foot-deep, 25-yard swimming pool was added in 1927.


Illinois’ new gymnasium was dedicated on Dec. 12, 1925, with a basketball game that saw the Illini top visiting Butler, 23-22. Some 6,100 fans were in attendance.


During its 38 years as the home of Illinois men’s hoops, Illini teams compiled a record of 339 victories against only 77 losses, a winning percentage of .815. More than 2.2 million fans attended Illini games and hundreds of thousands more watched Illinois High School Association boys basketball tournament games every March from 1926 to 1962. From the 1970s through the mid ‘90s, hundreds of Illini women’s basketball games were played there as well.


The facility was rechristened as George Huff Hall in 1990 and it became the home to Illini volleyball. It also has hosted Illinois’ wrestling and men’s and women’s gymnastics teams.



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                                        Feb. 24, 1998 - Illini vs. Hoosiers

This Date in Illini History

Feb. 24, 2023


Twenty-five years ago today - Feb. 24, 1998 - Illini seniors Jerry Gee, Matt Heldman and Kevin Turner each scored 16 points and Jerry Hester tallied 15 as No. 22 Illinois defeated host Indiana, 82-72, at Bloomington’s Assembly Hall.


Building upon a 33-28 lead at the intermission, Coach Lon Kruger’s squad scored the first nine points of the second half to mount a 14-point margin. With 9:37 remaining, Illinois’ Sergio McClain was called for a technical foul after he hung on to the rim while trying to block a Luke Recker layup. As an injured Recker laid on the floor, Hoosier coach Bob Knight argued a little too vociferously with referee Ted Valentine and was tossed out of the game. Three resulting free throws by Heldman and nine-of-twelve charity stripe shooting in the final two minutes gave Illinois its tenth victory in the last 11 games, catapulting the Orange and Blue to a Big Ten title.


Other memorable Illini events on this date in history:


Feb. 24, 1917: In his last game on Illinois’s home court, Ray Woods’ long basket gave UI a 20-17 win over Wisconsin.


Feb. 24, 1951: Don Sunderlage scored an Ohio Field House record 34 points as Illinois defeated host Ohio State, 89-69.


Feb. 24, 1968: Dave Scholz scored 42 of UI’s 62 points in a one-point victory over Northwestern at Champaign.


Feb. 24, 1973: Thirty-two points and 15 rebounds from Nick Weatherspoon led the host Illini past Michigan State, 81-71.


Feb. 24, 1979: Illinois’s women’s gymnastics team won its first-ever IAIAW state title.


Feb. 24, 1996: Following a victory over Iowa, Lou Henson announced his retirement in a postgame press conference.


Feb. 24, 2000: On Senior Night, UI’s Susan Blauser capped her Illini career with a season-high 30-point effort against Wisconsin.



Feb. 24, 2007: Shaun Pruitt and Warren Carter combined for 47 points on 20-of-29 shooting as the Illini bested Penn State, 68-50.


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                                        Taylor Mason

Taylor Mason

Feb. 22, 2023


Taylor Mason, a 1978 Fighting Illini football letter winner, capitalized on an unfortunate knee injury his junior season to launch his now 40-plus-year career as a comedian, musician and entertainer.


A walk-on middle guard from Ottawa High School, he played alongside such Illinois defensive stalwarts as John Sullivan, Jerry Ramshaw and Dennis Flynn.


Mason majored in agriculture and communications, following in the footsteps of his father, Bill, who broadcast farm news at WGN Radio.


Taylor began performing around campus as a disc jockey and ventriloquist. In 1980, he worked at Morton’s in Chicago as a pianist. Mason joined the Second City Touring Company as a musical director and in improvisation.


While continuing to work, he earned a Master’s Degree in advertising from Northwestern’s Medill School of Journalism. By the end of 1983, Mason was working fulltime at Zanies Comedy Club and Second City. From 1986-89, he emceed at New York City’s Catch a Rising Star.


By 1990, Mason was appearing on a wide variety of television comedy shows. He also was the grand-prize winner on Ed McMahon’s Star Search that year. In 1995, Mason and his family moved from southern California to New Jersey, picking up steady work in Atlantic City, Las Vegas and various other locations. Christian songwriter-singer-performer Bill Gaither invited Mason to play at his Praise Gatherings and with his Homecoming Concert Tour. He’s worked extensively for the Disney Cruise Line.


Today, Taylor Mason celebrates his 67th birthday.


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                                        Craig Tucker

This Date in Illini History

Feb. 20, 2023


Forty-six years ago today, first-time starter Dennis Pace tallied a career-high 17 points as the Fighting Illini basketball team won at Michigan, 72-64. Defensively, Randy Crews came up with a huge effort and held Wolverine All-American Rudy Tomjanovich to only eight points.


Elsewhere on this date in Illinois athletics history:

 

*1922: Chuck Carney outscored Ohio State’s entire team in a 41-22 victory. The Illini All-American scored a season-high 23 points as Illinois improved its record to 13-2.

 

*1943: UI’s Jack Smiley hand-cuffed Wisconsin All-American and Big Ten MVP John Kotz to four points in the Illini’s 50-26 win at Huff Gym.

 

*1954: Johnny “Red” Kerr’s game-high 26 points led Illinois to a stunning 74-51 win at Iowa.

 

*1965: Illinois beat host Michigan State, 113-94, to set numerous scoring records, including the most ever at Jenison Field House. Skip Thoren (26 points), Tal Brody (26) and Bogie Redmon (23) led the Illini.

 

*1974: Harv Schmidt was fired as head coach of the Illini basketball team.

 

*1982: Thirty-two points by Craig Tucker (pictured left), the most by an Illini player in four years, helped Illinois beat Minnesota, 77-65.

 

*1988: The Illini fencing team finished the dual meet season with a perfect 25-0 record.

 

*1993: Deon Thomas and Rennie Clemens combined for 48 points in Illinois 74-66 triumph at Penn State.

 

*1999: UI’s men’s tennis team upset top-ranked Stanford


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                                        Ira Carrithers

Ira Carrithers

Feb. 17, 2023


On this date sixty-four years ago, Ira Carrithers, one of the University of Illinois’s most prominent athletes of the George Huff coaching era, died in Cedar Rapids, Iowa at the age of 70.


The stocky and powerfully built athlete of the early 1900s was a native of Pontiac, Illinois. Carrithers played halfback for the football team, threw the shot put for Harry Gill’s exceptional track and field squad, and patrolled the outfield for Huff’s baseball team. He served as captain in each sport and three of the five Illini units on which he lettered won Big Ten championships.


Carrithers also was very active on campus, serving as vice president of the YMCA and carrying memberships in both the Phoenix Senior Society and the Philomathean Literary Society.


He would have signed a contract with the Chicago White Sox when he graduated from Illinois, but his devoutly Presbyterian parents discouraged him from doing so when they learned that Major League teams played on Sundays.


Carrithers’ first job was at Alma College in mid-Michigan as coach and athletic director, then he returned to the state of Illinois to coach football and basketball at Knox College for two seasons and for another year in the same roles at Lake Forest.


He made his biggest impact at Coe College, directing the basketball and baseball squads, and assisting with the football team. His term as Coe’s athletic director from 1915-24 covered an era when many of the Kohawk teams made national headlines.


Carrithers left athletics to build an extremely successful career in life insurance, remaining in Cedar Rapids for the balance of his life. When he wasn’t selling insurance, he officiated sports in the Big Ten, Big Six and Missouri Valley conferences.


Carrithers was a posthumous member of the Coe College Athletics Hall of Fame’s charter class in 1973. He and his wife, Winifred had three children.



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                                        Dan Hartleb

Dan Hartleb

Feb. 15, 2023


University of Illinois baseball coach Dan Hartleb celebrates his 57th birthday today. He soon will begin his 17th season as head coach and his 32nd year on the Fighting Illini coaching staff.


Hartleb ranks among the winningest coaches in school history, as he enters 2023 with a career record of 507-371-1 (.576). The D1Baseball.com Big Ten Coach of the Decade for the 2010s has won a pair of Big Ten titles (2011, 2015) and owns a conference record of 241-182 (.569).


The complete list of Illini head baseball coaches:


1892-94             E.K. Hall

1896-1919         George Huff

1920                   George “Potsy” Clark

1920-34             Carl Lundgren

1935-51             Wally Roettger

1952-78             Lee Eilbracht

1979-87             Tom Dedin

1988-90             Augie Garrido

1991-2005        Richard “Itch” Jones

2006-present   Dan Hartleb




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                                        John Blair

John Blair

Feb. 13, 2023


John Blair, who on this date in 1980 was named as the University of Illinois volleyball program’s head coach, had a distinguished career in that sport as a player.


A native of Tennessee and an outstanding athlete at Bearden High School in Knoxville, Blair became an all-star performer for the University of Tennessee’s club sport. He played in the World University Games in 1973 and was a member of the U.S. national training team the following two years.


Blair was Chris Accornero’s chief assistant at Illinois in 1979, then took over directorship of the Illini the following season. His 1980 team was an AIAW nationals qualifier. Though Blair’s teams were competitive, they had consecutive losing records of 22-32, 17-27 and 17-20 from 1980-82. When he was replaced by Mike Hebert prior to the ’83 season, Blair returned to UT and served as an assistant with the Lady Vols’ women’s program. UT captured the ’83 and ’84 Southeastern Conference championships.


The University of Mississippi hired Blair as its head coach in 1985 and he remained in that role for 16 years, compiling a 210-284 overall record. During that span, he coached six All-SEC players while 70 others made the SEC Academic Honor Roll.


Blair then became the head coach at Tennessee Tech in 2003 and guided the Eagles to a share of the Ohio Valley Conference championship in 2008. He was named OVC Coach of the Year that season. Blair retired from coaching following the 2012 campaign.


He now resides in Hermitage, Tenn. and is a mentor for the Alliance Volleyball Club in Nashville.


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                                        Michelle Bartsch-Hackley

Michelle Bartsch-Hackley

Feb. 10, 2023


Michelle Bartsch-Hackley, a 2020 inductee into the Illinois Athletics Hall of Fame, celebrates her birthday on Sunday (Feb. 12).


Bartsch-Hackley earned AVCA Third-Team All-America honors in 2010 and 2011 and Honorable Mention recognition in 2009. She also was selected to the Volleyball Magazine All-America First-Team in 2011.


Bartsch-Hackley was named First-Team All-Region and All-Big Ten in 2010 and 2011, was named the AVCA Mideast Region Freshman of the Year and Big Ten Freshman of the Year and placed on the Big Ten All-Freshman team in 2008, and was honorable-mention all-conference in 2009.


She helped lead Illinois to the NCAA Tournament Sweet Sixteen from 2008-10 and to the national championship match in 2011


Bartsch-Hackley has been a U.S. National Team member since 2016 and is currently playing professionally in Istanbul.


She started every match on the Gold Medal-winning U.S. Women's Volleyball team at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and was named Co-Best Outside Hitter of the Olympics.


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                                        Brian Randle

Brian Randle

Feb. 8, 2023


Celebrating his 38th birthday today is University of Illinois basketball alumnus Brian Randle.


A product of Notre Dame High School in Peoria, he finished fourth in 2003 Illinois Mr. Basketball balloting behind Proviso East’s Shannon Brown.


After seeing action in 32 games as a true freshman, Randle took a medical redshirt during Illinois’ historical 2004-05 season after breaking his hand just before the campaign began. He bounced back in 2005-06, becoming a member of the Big Ten All-Defensive team and ranking ninth among conference players with a field goal percentage of .519.


Groin surgery and plantar fasciitis limited his participation in 2006-07 to just 23 games, but Randle surged as a senior co-captain, averaging 9.4 points, 5.5 rebounds and nearly two assists per contest.


He wrapped up his Illini career with 844 points, 547 rebounds, 135 assists, 85 steals and 55 blocked shots.


Leaving Illinois with a bachelor’s degree in agri-finance and a master's in sports management, Randle began his professional basketball career in Israel. He played several seasons overseas.


Randle now serves as an assistant coach for the Phoenix Suns.



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                                        Stu Levenick

Stu Levenick

Feb. 6, 2023


A walk-on who became one of the most unheralded offensive linemen of the 1970s celebrates his 70th birthday today.


Stu Levenick, who measured 6-feet-3, 247 pounds as a senior guard for Coach Bob Blackman in 1975, came to the University of Illinois from Washington, Ill. as a non-scholarship 180-pound quarterback. It’s a bit surprising that Levenick didn’t instead head north to Madison, Wis. to play for the University of Wisconsin. That’s where his grandfather played baseball and an uncle and cousin played for the Badgers. His younger brother, Tom, eventually became an Ohio State Buckeye.


"I wanted to play football, and I thought I'd go to Wisconsin, but my Dad worked for Caterpillar in Peoria and so I grew up in Illinois and naturally that's the direction I went when it was time to go to school," Levenick told an interviewer in 2018.


Blackman foresaw Levenick’s potential and offered him a scholarship. That’s when Stu jumped into UI’s starting line alongside Revie Sorie and Joe Hatfield, blocking for a bevy of running backs that included Lonnie Perrin, Steve Greene and Chubby Phillips. Levenick was so respected by his teammates that they elected him to serve as Illinois’ offensive co-captain with defensive lineman Dean March.


Though the Illini weren’t particularly impressive during Levenick’s two letter-winning years in 1974 (6-4-1) and 1975 (5-6), they did post a cumulative record of 8-7-1 in Big Ten play. Four of UI’s seven losses those two seasons came at the hands of the conference’s “Big Two”, highly ranked Ohio State and Michigan.


Levenick was considered as a decent NFL prospect and was chosen in ninth round of the league’s 1976 draft by the Baltimore Colts. Instead, he chose to take advantage of his education. Levenick originally studied engineering, but when he suffered a knee injury at the beginning of the 1973 season, he chose to discover business-type electives, taking classes in investment banking and insurance. Upon graduation, he joined his father at Caterpillar. Levenick steadily rose through the ranks to a position of Group President. He retired from Caterpillar in 2015 after 37 years.


In 2017, UI’s College of Agriculture, Consumer and Environmental Sciences presented him with its Career Achievement Award. He presented a $5 million gift towards the construction of the Henry Dale and Betty Smith Football Performance Center in 2018.


"I was a product of a great institution, a great program and a lot of people helped me along the way and maybe in some small way I'm returning the favor here,” he said. 


Levenick and his wife, Nancy, are now part-time residents of Naples, Fla., where he continues to serve as an advisor for various corporate boards.


Illinois’ most decorated offensive linemen of the 1970s:


Larry McCarren, center (1st team All-Big Ten, 1972)

Revie Sorey, guard (1st team All-Big Ten, 1973)

Stu Levenick, tackle (2nd team All-Big Ten, 1975)

Jerry Finis, tackle (2nd team All-Big Ten, 1976)

Kevin Pancratz, guard (2nd team All-Big Ten, 1976 & 1977)

Gary Jurczyk, guard (2nd team All-Big Ten, 1977)


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                                        Derek Holcomb

Derek Holcomb

Feb. 3, 2023


The 1975-76 Illinois Coach Basketball Association All-State Team was an amazing collection of future collegiate stars. Lawrenceville’s Jay Shidler (who would sign with Kentucky) and East Leydan’s Glen Grunwald (Indiana) were two of the crown jewels of the class, but Eldorado’s Mike Duff (Evansville) and St. Laurence’s Steve Krafcisin (Iowa) also received ample acclaim.


Four all-staters—Morgan Park’s Levi Cobb, Mascoutah’s Steve Lanter, Oak Park Fenwick’s Neil Bresnahan and Zion-Benton’s Rob Judson—would eventually sign with Coach Lou Henson’s Fighting Illini. Illinois, however, initially missed out on a fifth prospect, Derek Holcomb. The 6-11 center from Peoria’s Richwoods High School envisioned himself as Kent Benson’s heir apparent, and signed with Coach Bob Knight’s reigning national champion Indiana Hoosiers.


“Indiana was coming off its undefeated season but had lost most of its players to graduation,” Holcomb said. “I saw a great school, a great record and playing time. It was a high bar that had high expectations.”


Holcomb would play in 22 of IU’s 27 games as a freshman, but underwent surgery during the summer of 1977 as doctors removed the sesamoid bones from both of his feet.


“The prognosis from the doctors wasn’t necessarily sunny because they never done that kind of surgery on an athlete before,” he said. “There was even some talk that I might not ever play again. I wanted to transfer and I was definitely sentimental over Illinois. And with (former Richwoods teammates) Mark Smith and Kevin Westervelt joining Illinois, there was a real gathering of the Knights.”


NCAA regulations forced Holcomb to set out the 1977-78 season, but he retained three years of eligibility. As a redshirt sophomore, he averaged 7.4 points, 6.6 rebounds and nearly three blocked shots per game, the latter an Illini record. His high-water mark for blocks came on December 8, 1978 when he swatted away 11 South Carolina shots, a mark that still stands today. As a team, Illinois won its first 15 games in 1978-79, but struggled through the second half of the season due to some crucial injuries.


Holcomb’s junior team (1979-80) made it to the National Invitational Tournament semifinals in New York, then his senior-year Illini (1980-81) earned a spot in the NCAA Tournament. Holcomb wound up his UI career with a school-record 174 blocks.


After graduating in 1981 from Illinois, “Dr.” Holcomb went on to earn Master’s and PhD degrees from Southern Illinois. He began his career at South Florida as a visiting professor, worked at Purdue for five years, and has been at Eastern Kentucky since 2000 where he teaches health classes.”


“Human behavior and health have always been interests of mine,” Holcomb said. “EKU has been a really good fit for me. While many universities have been shrinking in terms of a health program, we’ve added a master’s program and several pre-med classes. Our students will eventually work at public health departments, in health promotion at businesses and, with a Master’s of Public Health degree, they can become hospital administrators.”


Holcomb and his wife live near Richmond, Kentucky. He celebrates his 65th birthday today.


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                                        Joseph Sternaman

Joseph Sternaman

Feb. 1, 2023


Born 123 years ago today was Joseph Theodore Sternaman , a 1920s Fighting Illini football letter winner who eventually became the first-ever quarterback of the Chicago Bears.


He and his older brother, Edward—better known as “Dutch”—both played for Bob Zuppke at Illinois, then for George Halas with the Bears. Dutch Sternaman and Halas were hired to run the Decatur Staleys in 1920 and the franchise was moved to Chicago the following year. The Chicago Staleys finished first in the league and captured their first league championship. “Joey” Sternaman and his brother accumulated 73 of the 123 points the team scored.


In 1922, the team’s name was changed to the Bears to reflect baseball's Chicago Cubs, the team's host at Wrigley Field.


Extremely strong and powerful for a man who weighed just 135 pounds, Joey also was a runner and drop-kicker. In a story written about Sternaman in 1980 by Jeff Lyon of the Chicago Tribune, it is said he originated the bootleg play.


“The man he faked to the most was Red Grange, whose reputation as a broken-field runner at Illinois so preceded him that the other teams keyed on (Grange) like a swarm of bees. That left Sternaman with an open field.”


Joey played for and coached the Duluth (Minn.) Kelleys in 1923, then came back to the Bears the following season. In 1924, he led the NFL in scoring with 75 points. In 1926 he played for and was a part owner of a new team, the Chicago Bulls, in a new league, the American Football League. The league folded after one season and Joe again returned to the Bears.


After an eight-year career in professional football, he owned and operated the Sternaman Cast Iron Smoke Pipe Company, which made and installed pipe for incinerators and furnaces.


Sternaman died on March 10, 1988.


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