Friends of Basketball

Randall and Eloise Hamby

Year Inducted: 1993

Category: Friends of Basketball

Schools / Organizations:

Mattoon High School

Biography:

Randall Hamby’s interest in basketall started during the 1924-25 season when he was a sophomore at Mattoon High School.  He’d watch practices on Saturday mornings in the old red brick gymnasium.  The lower floor was the basketball court and the upper floor was the girls’ domestic science classroom.  Intramural games were held for both the boys and girls in the 1920’s and 1930″s, before the season began.  (Note:  the boys were not allowed to watch the girls’ games.)  There were no conferences at that time mostly due to absence of paved roads between towns.

Rule changes that they remember are the replacement of the square backboards with fan shaped ones before the 1939-40 season.  This eliminated many of the one handed bank shots  popular in that era.  The following season, 1940-41 saw the elimination of the center jump after each basket.  They remember that year because Mattoon won 15 games in a row and an IHSA regional title.  For the next 50 years the Hambys were fixtures at Mattoon games and even attended some practices.  They were excited to see Mattoon win the Charleston Tournament in 1990.  Randall and Eloise estimate that they attended over 1,000 games.  The Hambys were loyal fans who simply supported the teams and coaches but did not try to second guess any of the results.

Randall Hamby died during October, 2004.  Eloise died on November 25, 2006 at the age of 85.