How many recall the Cobden Appleknockers?

[tornado]

Back in 1964, in the IHSA one-class system, the tiny Cobden Appleknockers (enrollment 147) - who had only 6 high school boys who regularly played for their varsity basketball team - advanced despite the odds, all the way to the IHSA Championship game against Pekin (enrollment 2,726) before losing and taking home the 2nd place trophy - it was quite a story...

50th Anniversary

http://thesouthern.com/news/local/cobden-hall-of-fame-to-induct-amazing-appleknockers/article_446ee2ed-5358-5515-a9ce-f10edf2bf4e4.html

[TheRookie]

Not that, but I remember Milan Indiana

In 1950 Milan Indiana actually won the one class Indiana state tournament. Milan had about 50 students and was the basis for the movie Hoosiers. A young man by the name of Bobby Plump was the star of that team.

[tornado]

There are still some other examples --

Tiny Hebron - enrollment 98 - won the IHSA single class State Championship back about 60 years ago - one of their players was Rob Judson's dad - another was his uncle

http://www.mchenrycountysports.com/articles/2012/03/13/r_qasvdw1lrkojgutwr9ah4a/index.xml

in 1998 Nauvoo went all the way and won the Class A title with 138 enrollment

[Chico]

There are still some other examples --

Tiny Hebron - enrollment 98 - won the IHSA single class State Championship back about 60 years ago - one of their players was Rob Judson's dad - another was his uncle

http://www.mchenrycountysports.com/articles/2012/03/13/r_qasvdw1lrkojgutwr9ah4a/index.xml

in 1998 Nauvoo went all the way and won the Class A title with 138 enrollment

Think Hebron won in 1952. Remember the Judson's and a guy named Schultz.

[Da Coach]

Back in 1964, in the IHSA one-class system, the tiny Cobden Appleknockers (enrollment 147) - who had only 6 high school boys who regularly played for their varsity basketball team - advanced despite the odds, all the way to the IHSA Championship game against Pekin (enrollment 2,726) before losing and taking home the 2nd place trophy - it was quite a story...

50th Anniversary
http://thesouthern.com/news/local/co...edf2bf4e4.html

I remember the Cobden-Pekin game. I was pretty young, but the game was televised back then by a Chicago TV station (it seems it was a live broadcast I remember, but could have been film/video tape), and my family watched it. I didn't know much about either team, but I thought the Pekin's Chinks star player had a cool name- Davey Golden, and I thought the Cobden nickname was cool, too, The Appleknockers.

A couple years ago while driving down to Carbondale to see a BU-SIU game, we toured Cobden. It's about 15 miles straight south of Carbondale, and a bit off the main highway. Like most small rural towns all over the US, it does not look like it has fared well. The population is still listed around 1,000, but we barely saw anyone in their small downtown area, and many of the storefronts were boarded up. From the appearance of many homes, it appears there is a lot of poverty in the area.
There is a nice monument dedicated to the 1964 team near the high school.



Here is a good page for information and pictures of the Cobden Appleknockers-

http://hiddengyms.blogspot.com/2012_08_01_archive.html

[tornado]

I, too, recall seeing the game televised on black & white TV - and remember thinking that the Pekin kids looked like basketball players but the Cobden boys looked like country farmhands...

Pekin, of course, were the Chinks - a name they have now retired - here's a story about offensive names..

http://johnbiggsoklahomawriter.com/offensive-nobody-noticed-at-the-time/

[Da Coach]

Even the nickname "Appleknockers" originated as a durogatory name-

"This nickname originated when the high school first began to compete in athletics. It did not yet have a mascot, so other schools made up this derogatory term to insult the new school because of their large industry in peach and apple orchards."

See the 3rd paragraph here-

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cobden,_Illinois

[bradleyfan124]

I rememeber them. Also that year Bradley won the NIT. They were calling the Peoria area the basketball capital of the world

[Da Coach]

Does anyone know whatever happened to David Golden after his Duke career? Did he return to the central Illinois area after his career at Duke?

Here is a brief blurb about his Duke career-

http://books.google.com/books?id=WW7EgBfQn_MC&lpg=PA191&ots=nYJJAQmQu2&dq=%22david%20golden%22%20duke&pg=PA191#v=onepage&q=%22david%20golden%22%20duke&f=false

[Chico]

I rememeber them. Also that year Bradley won the NIT. They were calling the Peoria area the basketball capital of the world

Might be wrong, but seem to remember our Salvation Army Biddy Ball team were National champs that year, or maybe another year around then. They had a kid named Black, I think, who was a heck of a young player.

[Da Coach]

Might be wrong, but seem to remember our Salvation Army Biddy Ball team were National champs that year, or maybe another year around then. They had a kid named Black, I think, who was a heck of a young player.

This would have been before I ever set foot in Peoria, so I don't recall much about it, but I tried to look up more info about the Peoria Salvation Army Biddy Basketball program. It was started over 60 years ago, and ran until at least 1970.
I don't know if the Salvation Army Biddy Basketball program is still operating, but Paul Reatherford, the founder and director stepped down in 1970 and started his own youth basketball league, the Peoria Youth Basketball League (PYBBL).

Here is an article about Paul Reatherford being inducted into the Greater Peoria Sports Hall of Fame. In the bio, it does refer to him having a great deal of national success, including a national championship, but it doesn't give a year.-

http://www.gpshof.org/Inductees/reatherford.html

If anyone recalls more about this, let us know.

Paul Reatherford sounds like a dedicated coach and leader, but unfortunately, he passed away a little over a year ago. Here is his obituary-

http://obit.thewiltonmortuary.com/obit-1097402

[bradleyfan124]

I knew Paul. He was a great coach. He put the kids ahead of the parents. He would tell the parents before the season started the league was for the kids not the parents ego's basically. He told the parents at the beginning of the season to let the kids play and have fun. If they had a problem with that he would ask the parents to leave. The second league he formed was played at the First English Luthern Church. That is where I met Mark Scott.

[tornado]

-- Dave Foster ran the Salvation Army biddy basketball program well into the 2000's - my son's 3rd grade travel team played them a couple times at their facility over off West Nebraska Ave. in 2003 & 2004.

[LongTimeFan]

I remember the team finishing 2nd in that year. If I remember correctly they had a bunch of kids that were tall for that day. I believe they had 4 kids that were in the 6'4" or 6'5" range.

I can't remember watching the game. However, that was a long time ago and I may have been on a date since it would have been on a Saturday. Ah, the good old days.