All time list of Illinois HS All State football

[capecod]

found this old list of yearly All Time Illinois HS All State football teams beginning in 1936 from the Champaign News Gazettee

http://www.news-gazette.com/sports/illini-sports/football/2009-11-24/n-g-all-state-football-players.html

Posting here because I noticed a few old Bradley football AND a couple Bradley basketball players on the list

An aside, I also detect a 'quota' limit on Peoria HS football stars (limit 1 or 2) on these lists....surprised by a few that weren't on AS teams...maybe subject of later post in this thread.....


The Bradley's players:

1943
Billy Stone HB Springfield Lampier
Bradley, Chicago Bears, then long time Braves football coach

1945
Willard Densberger G Peoria Spalding
Bradley football, longtime coach around Peoria...

1946
Bob Flanagan HB Peoria Spalding
Bradley, trans to St Ambrose where he's in their HOF

1947
Jim Cinotto QB Spring Valley
one of only 3 QBs named, the other 2 went to Ill. & ND (O'Connell and trans. to Illinois...O"Connell's brother played BB for Bradley)

1948
Corky Robertson T Peoria Central
son of AJ & later very successful Central football coach

1954
Bobby Joe Mason QB Centralia
one of only 3 QBs named...Braves probably could have used him on the football team...

1964
Al Smith HB Peoria Manual
did Smith ever consider playing football at BU...great baseball player too.

[tornado]

Bobby Joe was an amazing athlete....he probably could have excelled at numerous sports...football, track, basketball, or whatever he chose....

He enjoyed a great career with the Globetrotters, but I sure would have loved to have seen how he might have done had he played in the NBA or NFL.

I have asked a couple of those greats form the 1950's (like Paul Unruh and a couple members of the Caterpillar team) and they said the choice was a tough one but the NBA was not an easy life - long travel, weeks away from home & family and salaries were actually better working at CAT...
I even had a relative who was offered a contract to play pro football in the late 1940's (NY Giants) but coming out of college he had a great degree in engineering and chose the career with Caterpillar instead...
(salaries in the NFL were only about $10-15,000 at the time after WWII)
Who knows what might have been, altho he was a 2-way lineman in college and probably wouldn't have lasted long in the NFL.

[capecod]

MS-9 players from the 1960s

the 'golden decade' of HS football in Peoria...at least for me

as a grade schooler, I used to walk to Peoria Stadium to see the HS games...then later as a HS student

Top Peoria HS players that I remember seeing (all didn't make the News Gazette AS team:

#1 Bob Jockisch FB/LB Peoria Cental
Star of 2 straight undefeated Central teams for Coach Corky Robertson ('63 & '64). Once intercepted a pass deep in the endzone & returned it 109 yds for a 'pick 6' td! Somehow not on the AS team...?

Jockisch disappeared after HS for a year (Prep School? Anyone know?) & then ended up at Notre Dame the following year...played DT for the Irish.

#2 Mike LaHood G Peoria Spalding
Also missing from AS team...played around same time as Jockisch...went to Wyoming, NFL draftee + at least 6 yrs in the NFL

#3 John Vorhees FB/LB Peoria Spalding
name badly misspelled on NG AS team(listed as 'Verbees' on '67 team...led Spalding to 10-0 record & then started at LB for Northwestern.

#4 Al Smith HB Peoria Manual
best 3 sport player in Peoria HS in that era (maybe ever?). I believe Bradley had to recruit against a number of Big Ten football teams to get Al to play Basketball with the Braves.

#5 Jim Bielenberg HB Peoria Central
1968 AS team....leading MS-9 rusher....Central beat Spalding 47-0, but somehow that was Spalding's only loss & the Irish won the conference championship....Bielenberg went to Illinois

#6 Bob Hoftiezer Fullback Peoria Richwoods
1969 AS-played on undefeated Richwoods team, then off to Purdue

#7 Al Shipman Fullback Peoria Spalding
played in same years as Jockisch...maybe I just like fullbacks
not AS...a surprise...starred at Memphis St.

#8 Ward Eastman End Peoria Richwoods
also on that great '69 Richwoods team...somehow not on AS team
forget where Ward went to college

#9 Scott Pickens Fullback/LB Peoria Central
1969 AS, then off to Missouri...saw him play MLB & beat Notre Dame in 1972

#10 Brad Monroe Center Peoria Spalding
1965...on SI team that played Pekin in front of over 10,000 at the Stadium (7-7 tie)...both teams finished undefeated with one tie....played for Wisconsin.

No Pekin kids listed, because I don't remember any(didn't play at Peoria Stadium all that often)

[capecod]

Al Smith's football scholarship offers

the 'golden decade' of HS football in Peoria...at least for me




#4 Al Smith HB Peoria Manual
best 3 sport player in Peoria HS in that era (maybe ever?). I believe Bradley had to recruit against a number of Big Ten football teams to get Al to play Basketball with the Braves.

)

according to the book "Glory Days; Illinois Legends of High School Basketball by Taylor Bell

Al Smith had football scholarship offers from both Notre Dame and USC -but Bradley was always his first choice.

Hopefully the link below works

https://books.google.com/books?id=tC2tOKqd3bQC&pg=PA64&lpg=PA64&dq=al+smith+manual+high+school+Glory+days+Illinois+legends+of+high+school+basketball&source=bl&ots=Kfb3T41e5s&sig=mspN78PksxUcBUg-_wxKb8NcoT0&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwin4PeMhq_eAhWhmOAKHejgCuUQ6AEwAHoECAAQAQ#v=onepage&q=al%20smith%20manual%20high%20school%20Glory%20days%20Illinois%20legends%20of%20high%20school%20basketball&f=false

[capecod]

Top 10 MS-9 Basketball players of the 1960s

not ranked in any order

*Eddie Jackson 6'6 Manual (Bradley)
team finished 4th in State Tourney after Jackson was declared ineligible due to age(after scoring 27 in Super-sectional)

*Dave Golden 6'1 Pekin (Duke)
won State Championship in '64
Parade AA

*Fred Miller 6'4 Pekin (Illinois)
won State Championship in '67

*Craig Alexander 6'5 Central (Memphis St)
Leading scoring in State Tourney -62
Central finished 4th?

*Rhea Taylor 6'5 Central (Arizona St)
teamed with Scott Michel of late 60s tournament team
Parade AA in football

*Scott Michel 6'4 Central (Yale)

*Al Smith 6'1 Manual (Bradley)
Baseball may have been his best sport
Lead Manual to the Illinois State baseball championship

*Alvin O'Neal 6'5 Spalding (Illinois & Morgan St)
led Spalding to 2nd place in State
after transferring from Illini, Alvin & Marvin 'the Eraser' Webster won an NAIA National Championship

*Ron Wendelin 6'1 Limestone (Duke)
his mom worked down the street from Bradley at Tobin's Drugstore on Main.
Many (including my father) tried to get Mom to steer Ron to Bradley.
Wendelin actually committed verbally to Bradley-but the next day got an offer from Duke.

*tie
Jim Sommer 6'3 Pekin '64 State Champs
Barry Moran 6'5 Pekin '67 State Champs

others?

[tornado]

...
*Rhea Taylor 6'5 Central (Arizona St)
teamed with Scott Michel of late 60s tournament team
Parade AA in football
...

not to be confused with his son, also named Rhea Taylor, an outstanding basketball player at Central who had a nice career at Santa Clara

https://www.sports-reference.com/cbb/players/rhea-taylor-1.html

http://articles.latimes.com/1991-03-03/sports/sp-515_1_santa-clara

Rhea (Jr.) was the MVP of the Cable Car Classic in 1990.

http://graphics.fansonly.com/photos/schools/sacl/sports/m-baskbl/auto_pdf/cablecar-history-12300.pdf

[Da Coach]

An incredible finish in the Illinois Class 6A state football tournament game between washington HS and Springfield Sacred Heart Griffin. SHG lead most of the game, but then Washington scores on a TD pass as time runs out to win 23-21.
WMBD Sports guy Matt McClain with video

https://twitter.com/MattMcClain3/status/1058821142490812416

[bigjimmy]

Really nice job by the QB getting away from pressure, keeping his head up, finding a receiver and making a strong and accurate throw. Receiver also made a nice catch.

[capecod]

found this old list of yearly All Time Illinois HS All State football teams beginning in 1936 from the Champaign News Gazettee

http://www.news-gazette.com/sports/illini-sports/football/2009-11-24/n-g-all-state-football-players.html

Posting here because I noticed a few old Bradley football AND a couple Bradley basketball players on the list

An aside, I also detect a 'quota' limit on Peoria HS football stars (limit 1 or 2) on these lists....surprised by a few that weren't on AS teams...maybe subject of later post in this thread.....


The Bradley's players:

1943
Billy Stone HB Springfield Lampier
Bradley, Chicago Bears, then long time Braves football coach

1945
Willard Densberger G Peoria Spalding
Bradley football, longtime coach around Peoria...

1946
Bob Flanagan HB Peoria Spalding
Bradley, trans to St Ambrose where he's in their HOF

1947
Jim Cinotto QB Spring Valley
one of only 3 QBs named, the other 2 went to Ill. & ND (O'Connell and trans. to Illinois...O"Connell's brother played BB for Bradley)

1948
Corky Robertson T Peoria Central
son of AJ & later very successful Central football coach

1954
Bobby Joe Mason QB Centralia
one of only 3 QBs named...Braves probably could have used him on the football team...

1964
Al Smith HB Peoria Manual
did Smith ever consider playing football at BU...great baseball player too.

a very LATE addition to the list of Illinois All State football players that attended Bradley = Covance Cabell HB Waukegan (1958 All State)...a big deal when signed with the Braves..most of the Ill. All State players went to the likes of Michigan, Illinois, Missouri, Iowa, Notre Dame or even UCLA.....albeit I have no memory of how Cabell did at Bradley....anybody remember what happened to Covance Cabell?

Also, noted that my later post in this thread on the 'top Peoria HS football players of the 1960s' neglected the early 1960s players(it was before my time)... Manual had some great teams in the early 60s.....even Woodruff was pretty good....Spalding had a few early '60s players who went on to play for Ara Parseghian at Northwestern-the Tuerk brothers(Fred and Ed) and Fullback Steve Murphy.....

[capecod]

as I continue to talk to myself on the back page...a story about a Illinois AS football player..with a Bradley basketball tie in at the end.....


the list posted in initial post of every Illinois HS All State football team includes 1950 Ill. AS QB Sammy Esposito from Fenger.

Esposito was a heralded 3 sport star...All State Football Qb, record setting basketball player-scoring 81 pts in a single game(long before the 3 pt goal was introduced) AND being a major league prospect in baseball.....

Sammy turned down MLB initially out of Fenger HS and went to Indiana...where he played all 3 sports briefly before finally giving in and signing a MLB contract with the Chicago White Sox....remaining a South Sider(Fenger being a South Side school)

A utility infielder, Sammy spent a decade on the South Side with the Sox....mostly playing behind future MLB HOFers Nellie Fox 2B and Louie Aparicio SS..albeit Esposito did start the first game of the 1959 World Series vs the Dodgers at 3B in place of Billy Goodman....

The Bradley tie in?

Simply that Esposito's Illinois HS single game BB scoring record of 81 pts didn't last long...it was broken by Harvey Babetch of Chicago Von Steuben - 87 pts (see link below)

Harvey Babetch went to Bradley after leading the State in scoring (38 pts per game)-recruited by Braves coach Fordy Anderson.

Freshmen were declared eligible by the NCAA during the 1951-52 season due to manpower issues created by the Korean War-Babech went straight to the Braves varsity.

Babetch scored 116pts on the varsity as a Frosh- including a game winning FG over highly ranked arch rival St Louis in St Louis.

As a soph at Bradley, Harvey was hurt & only played in 12 games.

As a junior, Babetch averaged 6.1 pts on the team that went all the way to the NCAA championship game-losing to AA Tom Gola & LaSalle.

As a Bradley senior, Babetch led the Braves in scoring (16.9 pts) for new Braves coach Vanatta.

Selected in the NBA draft after his senior season at Bradley, Harvey made a surprising choice:

Babetch turned down the NBA. Abe Saperstein, the owner of the Harlem Globetrotters offered Babetch a chance to continue his BB career AND travel the world-as a member of the Washington Generals team that traveled and played against the Globetrotters......

http://washingtongeneralsfan.blogspot.com/2011/09/washington-generals-top-players-harvey.html

[Da Coach]

Thanks for posting that. He played for the White Sox from 1952-1963 (minus a 2-year military stint 1953-54). I have been a White Sox fan since 1956, so I remember Sammy Esposito well.
Here are Sammy Esposito's stats.
https://www.baseball-reference.com/p...spossa01.shtml

He was one of the first prototypical "utility players" of the modern era. He was an excellent fielder, but could never become a regular starter because he was such a light hitter. He played in 560 games in his 10 seasons, but only had 970 plate appearances and 792 at-bats(1.7 PA and 1.4 AB per game) because he was primarily used as a late-inning defensive replacement throughout his career. His career batting average was .207, but his career On Base Percentage was .330, which is very good because he walked frequently.
After his playing career, he went into coaching and spent most of his coaching career at North Carolina State where he is a legend. He coached mainly baseball, where his cumulative record is 512-253-4.. But he also spent 12 seasons as an assistant basketball coach and was an assistant on their 1974 National Champion basketball team. After coaching, he spent another 20 years working in athletic administration at NC State.

He is a member of the North Carolina Sports Hall of Fame and the N.C. State Athletic Hall of Fame, and his uniform number is the only one ever retired by the NC State baseball program. Here are a couple great articles about Sammy-
https://www.newsobserver.com/sports/...214634235.html

https://sabr.org/bioproj/person/1672f8f5

He passed away July 9, 2018 at the age of 86.

Sammy's son, Sammy Esposito, Jr. played baseball at North Carolina State, and has also been a college baseball coach who is currently an assistant baseball coach at University of Houston. Previously, he coached at Wichita State, South Carolina, and Georgia Southern.

https://uhcougars.com/sports/baseball/roster/coaches/sammy-esposito/587