11/24/2022
BY JACK BULLOCK
CARBONDALE - Most of the people who will read this story weren't alive when high school basketball in the State of Illinois focused on just a single state tournament.

Just one event in which every school that had a boy's basketball team was invited to play.

For about a month and the end of the basketball season, this sport captivated small towns and large cities alike in the fever known as “March Madness.”

At a much higher scale than it does now.

John Schneiter, a state championship winning basketball coach at Decatur Stephen and later coach of both boys and girls New Trier East, summed it up the best.

“Everybody can relate to March Madness. It's one of those things that everyone gets fired up about,” said Coach Schneiter back in 1989 and who passed away in 2014. “It's like getting a new car. At the end of February and the first of March you get the fever. Everybody gets a chance. You can be 0-22 and still have a chance to win the state.”

Which actually meant very few had a chance.

Most of the small schools, from the tournament's beginnings until the state split into two-class basketball, played in a district tournament in which the winner of that tournament would advance into a regional where the larger schools were waiting for them.

More often than not the small schools were merely infinitesimal speed bumps for the elite teams in each area of the state to roll over while advancing in the tourney.

Of course there were the “Cinderella” teams of the state tournament in which some of them beat larger schools to claim regionals, sectionals, super-sectionals and made it to state.

However, as history shows us, there were very few.

Cobden was probably the most famous of the unexpected small schools who made it to the state finals.

The 1964 team got to the championship game before losing to Pekin, 50-45 in the 1964 season.

Before anyone starts thinking about Hebron winning in 1952 as a “Cinderella” team, don't.

The Green Giants were ranked number one all season long by both the Associated Press and United Press International in the state wide polls.

Although they were a small school that played in a district tournament so they could advance to a regional, they didn't fall into the “Cinderella” category.

Though few district level teams ever advanced far, it made for unique stories for folks to tell and reminisce about.

Many advanced in the tournaments over the years, winning games they probably shouldn't have as this tournament wrote it's own epic history.

A Need For A Change

Chuch Rolinski, the long time head coach at Toluca High School and Illinois Basketball Coaches Association Executive Director Emeritus, had a plan for the state to change to a two-class format.

Rolinski was one of the founding members of the IBCA and it was his brainchild to switch to a format in which the smaller schools could compete against other small schools to decide a title.

“You could see the shift into the industrial cities (in Illinois) and when the power shifted to the north and into the industrial cities there was no way small schools, 700 hundred and below, could ever win the state again,” said Coach Rolinski. “It would be one every 50 years or so and who wants that?”

Toluca had some great teams that couldn't get past larger schools to reach the state tournament.

His 1958-59 club went 30-1 and advanced to the sectional final before losing to Ottawa, 58-57, at Ottawa.

Toluca, during the one-class system under Coach Rollinski, won eight regional titles.

However each one of their defeats came to school much larger in the sectionals.

With the exception of one.

His 1966-67 team was just 17-10 but they made their way to the Peoria Super-Sectional.

There they lost to eventual state champion Pekin, 77-64.

The stories are many of the great small schools who couldn't quite get to the state finals over the years.

Coach Rolinski was correct in his premise when it came to the shift of the enrollments to the larger towns.

The Figures Don't Lie

In the 10 seasons (80-teams filling in the Elite Eight) prior to the two-class implementation there were 65 schools with enrollments of over 1,000 students.

When you look at the total enrollment of those 65, it averaged out to 2,226.5 students.

An even more glaring number is from the 10 schools who won those 10 titles.

The average enrollment of those winner's?

3,223.5 students.

The two largest won back-to-back titles to end the one-class era (1969-70 and 1970-71) with each of the schools just a bit over 5,000 students.

Of the 15 teams with less than 1K enrollment, only six brought home hardware.

Chicago Carver won it all in 1963 (801) after finishing second the year before (614).

Cobden finished second in 1964 (147) and McLeansboro finished fourth in 1962 (477) from southern Illinois.

Peoria Spalding, which became part of a consolidation known today as Peoria Notre Dame, finished second in 1969 and fourth in 1970 with enrollment of 575 each year.

The Two-Class System And The Close Vote

History also tells the story that the two-class basketball tournament, that began in 1971-72, was a overwhelming success.

Great teams emerged from both Class A and Class AA and the fan support in the two weekends of the two tournament's was outstanding.

However, the vote for two-class basketball wasn't an overwhelming “yes.”

The Illinois High School Association began exploring the possibility of changing the format of the state tournament in 1969.

After two months of exploration by the IHSA's 17 member legislative commission and their recommendations to the six-man board of directors headed by Harry Fizhugh, the board turned down the proposal.

The commission and board also turned down a proposal to start a football playoff championship for three-classes.

Part of the reasoning behind sticking with one-class in basketball was the TV revenue that was coming into the IHSA.

Back in 1969, the contract with TV was worth $200,000. That would be the equivalent of $1.6 million in 2022.

The decision on both sports was announced on December 14, 1969. It's was a Saturday.

Let's fast forward to Wednesday, December 16, 1970.

Apparently after watching yet another large school winning the state tournament back in March of the same year, the IHSA put it to a vote for two-classes.

It became a bit more complicated with some controversy involved.

For those of you a bit younger, you might remember the dismay over the state voting to go to four-classes beginning in 2007-08.

It paled by comparison to the opposition that a switch to two-classes faced.

There were 791 schools in the IHSA in 1970 and all were encouraged to vote on the two-class proposal.

Of those members, only 605 cast a ballot.

There were 178 schools who didn't bother to vote at all and, according to the Associated Press, eight ballots were improperly filled out and therefore tossed.

The final tally was 312-293 in favor of the change.

The vote totals were announced on December 17, 1970, midway through what turned out to be the final one-class basketball season in Illinois.

Not everyone was happy about the shift.

Most sportswriters hated it.

The Chicago area AP bureau was completely against it.

Concerned about coverage of the overlapping tournaments with games being played on the same nights, they were upset by the vote.

Many coaches were perturbed about the change, even some of the coaches from small schools didn't like it.

The one main argument being that the tradition of the tournament would be damaged and there wouldn't be one, true state champion.

Two southern Illinois coaches back in 1970 had slightly different takes on the change when it was announced.

Dick Ruggles, who had led the 1964 Cobden team to the state title game, believed the change “will probably do more good than harm” and that his Cobden team would have wanted to play the best.

“I know at Cobden that year we would have wanted to play with the big ones,” said Coach Ruggles, who later coached at Nashville High School.

Benton head coach Rich Herrin was against it, saying he was “disappointed” with the classification vote as he warned about “tampering with” the Illinois basketball tournament.

“We like to think that we can play ball with any of them,” said Herrin about playing larger schools. “And we take pride in this.”

One very successful head coach from the Chicago area was quoted as saying.....

“Illinois has been robbed of its one true sports classic. We no longer will have a true state champion.”

It was Ron Nikcevich and he was the head coach at one of the final two state champions in the single-class tournament.

Coach Nikcevich played a role in sending the state to a split basketball tournament, although it is unlikely he and his undefeated team knew it at the time.

So the question at hand is “what if two-class basketball never came about?”

How would the vote had gone if, a few months before the ballots were cast, a small school had won the state championship?

What if an underdog “Cinderella” had won a state title against one of the “Goliath's” of the tournament before they made the switch?

This nearly happened in 1969-70.

Lyons Township High School (LaGrange) was an incredible basketball team in 1969-70.

They featured two all-state players; 6-foot-8 junior forward Owen Brown and 6-foot-2 senior guard Marcus Washington.

Brown ended up being a star forward for the University of Maryland, led by HOF coach Charles "Lefty" Driesell.

Washington went on and played for Marquette University and another HOF mentor; Al McGuire.

Brown was twice named first team all-state (1970 and 1971) and played on three nationally ranked Maryland teams in college.

Washington was a starting guard for Marquette in 1974 when the Warriors made it to the NCAA championship game, losing to David Thompson and North Carolina State.

Two other starters; 6-2 junior Dave Van Skike and 6-6 junior Steve Heinzelman, came up big in big games in the postseason as did senior point guard Scott Shaw.

By the way, in case you're wondering who was the Lions' head coach?

It was Ron Nikcevich.

Undefeated and hardly tested, the Lions cruised into Champaign ranked number one in the state, a spot they held for most of the second half of the season in the AP Polls.

They only played six games during the 22-game regular season schedule that ended up single-digit victories.

Lyons Township won the Proviso West Holiday Tournament, back when most teams just played in one tournament.

Eight of their nine postseason wins on the way to title were also double-digit triumphs, including an 11-point win (63-52) over Joliet Central in the semifinals and a 71-52 victory over East Moline to claim the championship.

But there was one game that nearly changed history.

Super at the super-sectional

The Bulldogs, still unheralded and given little chance, were 27-2 and heading for the Charleston Super-sectional and a date with Collinsville.

This would mark the second trip to the “Sweet 16” for the St. Anthony basketball program.

The 1955-56 Bulldogs got to the super-sectional, losing to a talented Edwardsville team led by two all-state players and future Harlem Globetrotters' Governer Vaughn and Mannie Jackson.

Anyone who is a high school basketball fan/historian of sorts knows all about the success of head coach Virgil Fletcher and the Kahoks program.

Collinsville was ranked third in the state in the final AP poll in 1969-70 and overwhelming favorites to end the St. Anthony run to Champaign.

The Kahoks had an imposing front line of 6-9 senior Bob Shapiro, 6-4 senior Jerry Ahart along with scorer 6-4 Kevin Brennan.

This was supposed to be the end for Coach Keller's Bulldog club.

Few believed that St. Anthony could come up with yet another come-from-behind win.

However St. Anthony wasn't the team on this night that would succumb to the pressure.

“We felt like we could run if they missed their shots but in the first half they didn't miss many,” said Coach Keller. “We felt like if they didn't get away from us we would stay with them. We were down eight-points (41-33) at halftime but we felt like we were still in the game.”

The Kahoks were in command for most of the contest and led by eight at halftime, but their failure to convert at the foul line allowed the Bulldogs to rally.

Coach Fletcher's club shot just over 75 percent from the foul line during the regular season and up to the super-sectional.

But Collinsville missed three consecutive front ends of one-and-one opportunities in the fourth quarter.

St. Anthony trailed by nine early in the final frame and were down 71-65 with just 1:50 left.

Things fell apart in the hurry for Collinsville which allowed St. A to force overtime.

Stephens hit a pair of free throws and the Kahoks, trying to hold the ball in the final moments, committed a costly turnover which resulted in a Brumleve score to make it 71-69.

Forced to foul, St. Anthony sent Ahart to the foul line with :24 remaining.

The senior missed the free throw and Wente rebounded to set up the Bulldogs for a chance at a tie.

After a timeout, Kindleraar got open on a drive in the lane and his shot found the mark to even the game at 71-71.

The Kahoks got an off-balanced shot from Brennan at the horn but it misfired as the two teams headed into overtime.

Collinsville led 77-75 with just :24 left in the first overtime as they looked like they were finally going to escape the upset bid by St. Anthony.

Brumleve, however, came up with another crucial score.

Driving the right side of the lane, Brumleve scored with :03 left to send the game to a second overtime.

St. Anthony took advantage of the breaks it had gotten by the time the second overtime began.

The Bulldogs scored the first eight points with Wente and Kindleraar hitting two free throws each along with Miller and Brumleve each scoring on drives to the basket.

Ahart fouled out for Collinsville and Brennan scored with :18 left for the Kahoks only points of the second OT.

The Bulldogs advanced to the Elite Eight with an 85-79 2OT win.

Wente finished with a game-best 33-points to go with 11-rebounds.

He also nailed 9-of-9 free throws and his team connected on 21-of-29.

Brumleve added 19-points to the Bulldogs' totals while Dust added 11.

Kindleraar and Stephens tossed in eight-points each as the 29-2 Bulldogs headed to Champaign for the first time in program history.

Coach Fletcher's team ended its season at 28-3.

Collinsville put four players in double figures but they couldn't close the deal after leading for most of the contest.

Brennan ended up with 30-points and Ahart 24.

The Kahoks couldn't convert the free throw chances (11-of-23) when they needed them to fall.

“You can't miss 12 free throws and beat a team like St. Anthony,” said Coach Fletcher.

“I think we surprised them a bit,” said Coach Keller after the win. “Did I think we could catch them? The way we can score we've always got a chance. We were ready to play Collinsville.”

Another Cinderella Further South

It would be negligent to not mention the other small school who also made a state tournament run.

A small school set in the western part of Washington County defeated two well known larger school programs on the way to state in 1969-70.

While St. Anthony was making its journey to Champaign, the Okawville Rockets were another of the surprising teams that made a run.

Up until the 1969-70 season, the Rockets' program had never won a regional.

They had come close with four regional title game losses in the previous 12 years.

All four losses came to Centralia, a much larger powerhouse program.

The Orphans, like Collinsville, etched their mark in IHSA high school basketball having won more games than any other program in the nation (currently second).

They last won a state title in 1942 but they mounted a regional championship game winning streak that lasted 25 years.

From 1944-45 to 1968-69, Centralia won 75 consecutive regional games for the 25 regional crowns.

Centralia has 60 regional championships overall, counting 2021-22, and they're just one behind Quincy (61) for the all-time state record.

The 1968-69 postseason resulted in an 87-57 drubbing by the Orphans over Okawville in the regional championship contest held at Breese.

Like St. A, Coach Dave Luechtefeld's Rockets had a lofty record (25-1) heading into the regional title tilt against the Orphans at Centralia's Trout Gym.

The only regular season loss was to East St. Louis Assumption (58-48) in the title game of the Breese Mater Dei Holiday Tournament.

Okawville defeated Carlyle and Odin to get to the finale against the host Orphans.

Gail Wolf was the Rockets' top player.

The 6-11 senior center led the team in scoring and rebounding.

The Centralia win, 67-46, snapped the unbeaten streak for the Orphans in regionals as the Rockets pounded the hosts at their own storied Trout Gymnasium.

The Rockets had avenged a lopsided loss to Centralia in the regional title game the season before and headed on to the Carbondale Sectional.

Wolf scored 26-points and teammate Bill Winkelman added 22 in the regional title game win.

Okawville then beat Washington County rival Nashville (55-51) and Mounds Meridian (81-59) to win the Carbondale Sectional.

Awaiting the Rockets at the SIU Arena Carbondale Super-sectional was Mt. Vernon.

Coming off of an Elite Eight appearance the year before, the Rams came into the game at 22-5 having won the Carmi Regional, 72-67 over the hosts.

Then the Rams handled both Carrier Mills (83-63) and Benton (70-63) at the Harrisburg Sectional to advance to the “Sweet 16.”

One might ask “how big of a deal was the Okawville/Mt. Vernon match up back in March of 1970?”

It was so important that the local PBS station, WSIU Channel 8, broadcast the game live on March 17, 1970.

Wolf and Company rallied for a 66-64 win when the senior center grabbed a rebound off of a missed free throw from teammate Jim Schrader and scored with :05 left.

Wolf finished with 32-points, including the teams' final 11.

Winkelman added 16 as the Rockets improved to 29-1 on the season.

The Rockets had big dreams of winning a state championship when they reached Champaign and stepped onto the Assembly Hall floor on March 19, 1970.

The dream had a 'nightmarish' ending.

The Rockets performance was their worst of the season as they fell to Joliet Central, 56-43 in the second quarterfinal.

Okawville began the game just 9-of-27 from the floor and trailed 32-20 at halftime.

Joliet Central led 50-43 with 3:16 remaining.

Unfortunately the Rockets wouldn't score again, ending their day only 16-of-57 overall (28 percent) and their season at 30-2.

Wolf had a season low 10-points, hitting just 4-of-10 shots with just five rebounds.

"I was disappointed that we lost our poise and did not play as well as we did during the season," said Coach Luechtefeld. "We had been behind but never by so much as 12-points this year. We played well enough on defense but our offense just did not get the points."

The 43-points they scored during the loss was their lowest point total of the season.

The first semifinal game of the Elite Eight wasn't supposed to happen.

Sportswriters around the state had penciled in Collinsville as the team coming out of the Charleston Super-sectional long before that game had taken place but now Champaign and the rest of the state got to see the Bulldogs take the floor against the top-ranked and unbeaten Lyons Township.

And for a half, it looked like St. A was "in over its head."

LaGrange led 24-16 at the end of one quarter and 50-35 at the half.

They had muscled St. Anthony on the glass, holding a 32-10 rebounding advantage.

The shots weren't falling for the Bulldogs and they weren't getting second chances.

It appeared that the experts were correct as the teams headed to the break.

However, as Coach Keller had said all season long about how his team could score, he knew they had a comeback in them.

One of the good things about Coach Nikcevich's team was they seldom turned the ball over leading up to the state finals.

According to him, his Lions were averaging about eight turnovers per game.

Uncharacteristically the top-ranked club succumbed to the Bulldogs pressure in the second half and St. Anthony battled back.

At one point in the third quarter LaGrange led by 17.

But the Lions turned the ball over 29-times in the game as Coach Keller's 'come-back' kids rallied.

Brumleve started hitting shots from the outside while Wente and Stephens were getting to the basket.

The Lions got into foul trouble with both point guard Scott Shaw and Owen Brown fouling out, Effingham St. Anthony completed their come-back by taking an 85-84 with under two minutes to go.

That lead, however, didn't last as reserve forward Dave Wehrmeister put in a rebound basket to give the lead back to LaGrange.

After getting fouled with just :33 left, St. Anthony's Miller missed the first of a two-shot foul.

He made the second toss as the two teams were now deadlocked at 86-all.

Two key plays, one by Heinzelman who nailed a 15-foot shot, and a turnover by Miller, spelled doom for the Bulldogs.

Washington was fouled and sent to the free throw line with just :02 remaining.

Washington hit his free throw to give the Lions an 89-86 lead.

A Wente basket at the horn was little consolation as LaGrange escaped with the one-point win.

The final totals from the high-scoring game were examples of the type basketball that was played around the state at that time.

Washington led all scorers with 28-points with Van Skike adding 20 for LaGrange. Heinzelman finished with 17 and Brown ended up with 15.

Wente closed out his fine career with 26, including 8-of-8 from the foul line.

Stephens ended up with 19, Brumleve 18 and Kinkelaar with 17.

The Bulldogs made believers out of the fans at the finals and around the state.

When talking about St. Anthony after the game Coach Nikcevich expressed his praise for St. Anthony.

"That's one fine basketball team. The best team we played this year. St. Anthony brings the ball down the court so quickly, it turned into an NBA game. Our lead just melted away," said Nikcevich. "What happened to our defense in the second half? It was St. Anthony's shooting that wrecked us. They were able to penetrate inside."

After two nondescript wins over Joliet Central (63-52) in the semifinals and East Moline (71-52) in the championship game, Coach Nikcevich continued to praise the small private school from Effingham.

"I think that St. Anthony team is partially responsible. We faced a lot of adversity in that game, yet we still won," said Coach Nikcevich. "It was by far our toughest game and it gave us that needed confidence."

The Aftermath

The winners of the 1970 and 1971 state tournaments (LaGrange and Thornridge) had enrollments of 5,031 and 5,200 respectively.

As mentioned earlier the vote to change to two-classes wasn't a popular decision that barely passed.

It's worth speculating how the vote would've went if St. Anthony (or even Okawville) had been the team celebrating on Saturday night.

Mike Wente went on to play basketball at the University of Illinois and later owned operated Wente Plumbling in Effingham before retiring.

One of his sons (Kyle) was an all-stater for St. Anthony and later played D-I basketball at Princeton University.

"What I have always found amazing is when the final single class state rankings came out prior to regionals St. Anthony, with an enrollment of 240, ended up playing five of these final 16 during the season. Granted going deep into the state tournament helped. With the four-class system of today, small schools will never see such an opportunity again," said Wente, who is now retired and living in Colorado. "While we started all seniors, three juniors saw a lot of time resting starters because of the very fast pace of play. Since we averaged 89 + points a game, many commentators equated playing St A to taking a basketball team to a track meet. The juniors did have a very good team and successful season as seniors in 1970-71."

One of the starters on that Bulldogs' team, Phil Kinkelaar, passed away from a automobile accident in 1973.

His brother Dale Kinkleraar, a junior on the team, ended up playing basketball at Centenary College.

One of his teammates was Robert Parish, who would go on to be a four-time NBA champion and a member of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall Of Fame.

Owen Brown played on one of the best, if not THE best, college basketball teams that didn't make it to the NCAA tournament.

His 1973-74 Maryland team, that featured future NBA players John Lucas, Tom McMillan, Len Elmore and Maurice "Mo" Howard, ended up not qualifying for the limited 25-team NCAA tournament.

They lost the ACC tournament championship game to eventual national champs North Carolina State, 103-100 in overtime.

The Wolfpack got the league's automatic bid to the NCAA tournament.

This was the final year that only conference champions and independents could participate in the tournament

The next season, the NCAA tournament expanded to include "at-large" teams from conference squads that didn't win their league tournament or regular season title.

Brown tragically died from a heart attack on February 4, 1976 while playing a pick-up basketball game.

The future Illinois state senator Luechtefeld retired from coaching with a 738-348 record.

Gail Wolf, who went on to play at the University of Missouri for coach Norm Stewart, owned Okawville Equipment in his hometown for many years.

Wolf passed away in 2005 at age 53 from cancer.

Two of his sons, Jon and Cole, played basketball for Coach Luechtefeld in the coaches' final season on the bench (1999-00) as the Rockets made it to the Sweet 16 in Class A before losing to Teutopolis.

Although both Okawville and St. Anthony made trips to the state finals in the two-class system, it took a change to the four-class tournament for those respective schools to finally earn their championships.

Ironically St. Anthony edged Okawville in the title game of the 1A tournament in 2017.

The following March the Rockets took home their first place hardware in 1A.