Friends of Basketball

Sue Alley

Year Inducted: 2001

Category: Friends of Basketball

Schools / Organizations: Wheaton Academy High School

Biography: Every high school deserved a fan like Wheaton Academy’s Sue Alley. Not even a broken hip or the onset of diabetes that caused her right eye to swell up (coupled with an already damaged left eye) to leave her nearly blind would prevent her from watching the Warriors play Nazareth for first place in the Private School League in December 2000.  “I view her as a goldmine … She shows up to road games when no one else does. There’s no fan like her,” said Wheaton Academy athletic director Ed Willis.  Alley’s attachment to Wheaton Academy began in 1980 when her oldest daughter, Jenny, started at the grade school. Alley didn’t stop her loyalty to the school after her younger daughter, Carol, graduated in 1992. Alley kept statistics for Wheaton Academy boys and girls basketball and soccer for 20 years. She worked concessions, made posters and charts and covered sports for the newspaper for nearly 15 years.  There was a Christmas star on the front of Scott and Sue Alley’s house for several years that did not come down. Whenever a Warriors’ team won a game the light went on. Alley graduated from Elmhurst York and was active in the GAA (Girls Athletic Association). She played women’s basketball at Illinois State University in the 1950s and said she was motivated by “a loving concern for kids and a great love for basketball.” Sue Alley died on April 20, 2011 at age 71.