February, 2024 Newsletter
February reminds us that “March Madness” is around the corner. Do you know “March Madness” was an essay written in 1939 by IHSA administrator and former Athens High School basketball coach H.V. Porter? “To Porter ‘March Madness’ referred to the mania surrounding the annual high school basketball tournament.” (From Scott Johnson’s book, Association Work.) It’s also a reminder for us to give you museum updates.
Wintrust Sports Complex
Historical Exhibits
People entering the Wintrust Sports Complex in Bedford Park will notice on the left side a historical wall display about the 1952 Hebron State Championship Team and on the right side they will see a wall exhibit honoring the 1963 Loyola University NCAA National Championship Men’s Team. Presently we are working on a wall display honoring Gene Pingatore the winningest high school boys’ basketball coach in Illinois (Note that we already have a display honoring Dorothy Gaters, the winningest high school girl’s coach). You may be interested in knowing that 240,000 people entered through the Wintrust Sports Complex doors in its opening year. That’s a lot of foot traffic which is good for us.
Black Basketball History in Illinois
Sadly, black basketball history in Illinois mirrors the prejudices and discrimination that took place against the African American population in our nation’s history. The Basketball Museum of Illinois believes it’s important to tell the stories of black basketball history in Illinois because it parallels the same struggles of our civil rights history. Thus, we have created traveling historical exhibits and a chronological time line describing important historical moments connected to black basketball history in Illinois.
Museum Golf Events
This past summer, the Metro East Region (Granite City) and the Springfield Region (Auburn) hosted successful golf events for our museum. The committee work from both regions preparing for their golf events is exceptional. Our museum board is grateful for their terrific effort and support.
Mark on your calendar that the 2024 Granite City golf event will be on July 26 and the Springfield Region golf event will be on August 21.
2023 Summer and Fall Events
The summer and fall of 2023 were filled with numerous events. In October alone, we hosted events in Teutopolis, Springfield, and two events at the Wintrust Sports Complex in Bedford Park. We also held historical events in Mineral, Savanna, and in Cape Coral, Florida for our IBCA Hall of Famers who now reside in Florida. Each event featured speakers, and many had memorabilia. Our crowd sizes ranged from 25 to 200, and many stories were shared.
The Illinois High School Glory Days website team joined us for the events in Mineral and Savanna. We look forward to having them as teammates for future events in 2024.
Jay Shidler, Dennis Schickedanz, and Ron Felling at Teutopolis.
Rivalry Night
One of our more amazing events took place at the Wintrust Sports Complex in Bedford Park on October 25, when we hosted a “Rivalry Night”. Gordon Tech and Weber High Schools were long-time intense rivals and were the schools we invited to participate in this event. Since both schools are now closed, the Illinois High School Glory Days team helped us in making this a special evening.
Over 100 alumni from the two schools attended, and they brought a lot of memorabilia that went back decades. Former coaches from Gordon Tech and Weber shared stories from their rivalry. Making a special cameo video appearance was Coach K (Duke University) who played for Weber. He set the tone for the evening speaking on how special it was to play Gordon Tech.
2024 Unique Gyms of Illinois Calendar
There are a few Unique Gyms of Illinois Calendar left. With Eldorado, Collinsville and Pekin in the calendar, we traveled to their holiday tournaments. Needless to say, we met with some very passionate basketball fans. If you are interested in the calendar there are two methods you can use to secure a calendar: 1.) Go to our website, basketballmuseumofillinois.com and on our main page you will see donate, click on that and scroll down to the calendar; 2.) make a check payable to the Basketball Museum of Illinois for $25 and mail it P.O. Box 8004, Elburn, Illinois 60119. Every cent of your calendar donation goes to the museum. There are 1,500 Hall of Famer birthdates in it. If we don’t have your birth date, please email it to info@basketballmuseumofillinois.com.
One Story
Many of you know I can tell one basketball story after another. However, I will share just one story to keep this newsletter at a reasonable length. When we had our historical event at Mineral, Buda Western High School fans brought a shiny basketball with no pebbles left on it. The ball was dated 1975 and was autographed by Buda Western boys, who were fanatical in supporting their team. On the week of the regional, these boys dribbled this ball in relays (their pony express) from Buda Western High School to Spring Valley High School, their Class A regional site (33 miles). Since Buda Western won the regional title, the boys would now dribble the ball from Spring Valley to Wenona, their sectional site (20.5 miles). After winning the sectional, the next challenge would be to dribble their ball from Wenona to Streator, the super-sectional location (16 miles). Defeating Lemont 51-46 at Streator meant the “Western Dribblers” now had the ultimate test, a 113-mile trip to the Assembly Hall (now the State Farm Center) in Champaign. The “Western Dribblers” aced this test with flying colors. The mileage this ball was dribbled was close to 183 miles. No wonder there were no pebbles left on the ball.
Upcoming Events
- February 24 – We will be at the NOW Arena in Hoffman Estates, displaying our “Standing on the Shoulders of Giants: The History of African American Basketball in Illinois” exhibit at the Windy City Bulls game. This will be part of their Black History Night.
- March 1 – We will be back at the NOW Arena, displaying our Women’s
Basketball History exhibit. - March 23 & March 24 We are at the Wintrust Sports Complex in Bedford Park, displaying our “Standing on Shoulders of Giants” exhibit.
- May 4 – IBCA Coach of the Year Luncheon at CEFCU Arena (formerly RedbirdArena) on the campus of Illinois State University
- May 4 – IBCA 52 nd Hall of Fame Banquet at CEFCU Arena
September 27 – Deadline for 2025 IBCA Hall of Fame Nominations.
