Basketball All Time Illinois All State 1933-1980

[capecod]

http://basketballmuseumofillinois.co...ll-state-teams

Linked above is a list of each year's Illinois HS All State team(s)

Here are the Bradley Basketball players on the list....add any that I missed

*1938
Chris Hansen Dundee

*1943
Dave humerickhouse Paris

*1946
Bud Grover Dundee JR

*1947
Bud Grover Dundee SR

*1948
Fred Schlictman Centralia

*1949
Jack Crowe Riverside Brookfield
Leroy Ott Hillsboro
Zack Monroe Peoria Woodruff

*1950
John Riley Mt Vernon
Bob Carney Aurora West

*1951
Harvey Babetch Chicago Von Steuben
John Kent Marion

*1952
Jerry Hansen Rock Island
Eddie Goldman Chicago Marshall

*1954
Bobby Joe Mason Centralia JR

*1955
Bobby Joe Mason Centralia SR
Gene Morse Havana

*1956
Mike Owens Galesburg

*1959
James 'Tim' Robinson Chicago Crane

missed 'Tim' the first time through...always listed as James, but known as Tim(middle name)
I also for years missed Robinson on Parade HS AA team for the same reason.....Bradley first Parade AA....followed later by LC Bowen and Willie Betts(both from Michigan)...Bradley's 3 Parade Magazine AAs

Bobby West Peoria Central

West initially went to Dartmouth but transferred back home to Bradley to start on Braves NIT Championship team

*1960
Rich Williams Granite City

*1961
Ron Patterson Farmington
Dick Rapp Centralia

*1963
Joe Allen Chicago Carver
Ted Osman Marion

*1964
none,
BUT AS Ron Wendlin Limestone verbally committed to Bradley but got an offer from Duke the next day.

Dave Golden Pekin was also on this AS team as a JR and repeated AS as a SR in '65 and joined Wendlin at Duke

*1965
Steve Kuberski Moline -initially went to Illinois but transferred to Bradley

Al Smith Peoria Manual

*1966
Bill Rohlman Streator

*1967
Billy Gay Quincy-initally went to a Junior College & transferred to Bradley

*1968
Rich Schultz Springfield Lanphier

*1970
Seymour Reed Lincoln

*1971
Mark Dohner Table Grove

*1972
Greg Smith Aurora East

*1974
Bobby Humbles Peoria Manual

*1978
Mitchel Anderson Chicago Metro


IBCA Illinois HS All State 1974-1980

*1975-76
Harold McMath Springfield 2nd team

*1977-78
Mitchell Anderson Chicago Metro 3rd team
Eddie Mathews Brimfield 4th team JR

*1978-79
Eddie Mathews Brimfield 1st team SR

*1979-80
Pierre Cooper Chicago Luther South 4th team

and Special Mention
Anthony Webster Cairo
Mike Williams Chicago DeLaSalle

add any that I missed

[Da Coach]

Thanks. Always interesting historical stuff, capecod!

Since we are in a slow time for Bradley basketball, I will repost a post about another great past athlete and state champion at Bradley from a much earlier era, John Robert "Lynch" Conway.
I initially posted this back on Aug. 9, 2017. I have updated it with the information at the bottom about Jim Mattson's work-
https://www.bradleyfans.com/forum/sp...279#post451279

I have revived this thread where we discussed the first black player at Bradley because I have learned some new information that might be relevant.

As noted above, there was a black player named Tony Davis who appears in the team picture for the 1954-55 team, though he does not appear in the All Time Bradley Basketball Roster. Then on the 1955-56 team, there were 2 black players, Shellie McMillon and Curley Johnson.

The book, "Blacks at Bradley" by Arwin Smallwood (a former assistant professor of history at Bradley), suggests that Tony Davis was Bradley's first black varsity basketball player (pictured in game action on page 78 in the link below), and that a player named Leroy Jackson (pictured on page 73) was "the first African-American basketball player to appear on any Bradley team" when he played for the Bradley freshman team in 1954.-
https://books.google.com/books?id=Ps...vis%22&f=false

However, here is the Bradley All Time Roster-
https://s3.amazonaws.com/sidearm.sit...ll_Records.pdf

Neither Tony Davis nor Leroy Jackson are listed. Possibly they only played freshman or junior varsity basketball, and thus don't show on the all-time roster, which only includes varsity years and stats.
But notice on page 2, that a player named Lynch Conway is listed as having played basketball for Bradley in 1908-1909.
Lynch Conway (full name was John Robert "Lynch" Conway) was a star black athlete and basketball player at Peoria High School, where he is still a legend. And he was the team captain of the very first Illinois state champion basketball team, which Peoria High School won in 1908. He attended Bradley and played basketball at Bradley in 1908-1909.

Here is a picture of him on the 1908 Peoria High School team-

https://i.ibb.co/N9WX49B/Lynch-Conway3.png

And a plaque at Peoria HS designating Conway as the captain of the state championship-winning team-

https://i.ibb.co/G9M7sXy/Lynch-Conway4.png

Here is a picture of him on the 1908-1909 Bradley team-

https://i.ibb.co/qYCT3y6/Lynch-Conway2.png

Lynch Conway is even enshrined in the Bradley Athletics Hall of Fame and was a standouts in 4 sports- baseball, basketball, football, and track at Bradley-
http://bradleybraves.com/sports/2016...-fame-c-d.aspx

Here is an obituary page that documents he was a star black athlete at Peoria High School, and that he attended Bradley. He died in 1939 and is buried in Springdale Cemetery in Peoria. The obituary cites that he was "the only African-American to play on a state title team until 1949"-
https://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/f...&GRid=90978661

And in 2006, the IHSA named him to their list of 100 Legends of the IHSA Boys Basketball Tournament-
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/100_Le...all_Tournament

In every reference I can find, the first reported black college basketball player is said to have occurred somewhere around 1914 or 1915 and only at all-black colleges. The first blacks to play on integrated teams are not reported to have occurred until much later, probably in the 1920's. So it's possible Bradley's Lynch Conway might have been the first black athlete to play college basketball anywhere in the US, though it would take a bit more research to confirm that. (* see addendum below)

If anyone knows more about Lynch Conway, or this topic of the first black college player, or the first black to play at Bradley, let us know.

For the record, I sent all the research and documentation I had about Lynch Conway and the first black players at Bradley to the sports info department at Bradley back in August, 2017, when I first posted this on Bradleyfans.
Jim Mattson, sports broadcaster for WEEK (channel 25) did a great story about Lynch Conway in February, 2019. Please check this out-

https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=394401531137822

* Edit- After more research, I have found one instance of a black college basketball player who played earlier than Lynch Conway did at Bradley in 1908-09.
Fenwick Henri Watkins played basketball, as well as baseball and football at the University of Vermont from 1906-1909.
There is little written about him, but he does have a Wikipedia page (which does not mention that he was black)-

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fenwick_Watkins

Obituary-
https://www.newspapers.com/clip/1932...on-free-press/

Brief article-

https://peoplepill.com/people/fenwick-henri-watkins/

His 1905-06 high school photo-

https://deadfred.com/photos/21595.jpg

[capecod]

one major addition (sorry, I would have just edited my original post, but apparently that isn't allowed after a few days):

I missed 1934 Illinois All State = Dar Hutchins Harvey Thornton.....an All American at Bradley & member of the 'Famous Five'(along with future BU coach Chuck Osborn)

Also on that '34 Illinois AS team was Hutchins' teammate Lou Boudreau(a 3 time Ill. BB All Stater)-later a famed MLB HOFer

Another teammate on those Harvey Thornton teams was Ed Beinor, who went on to be a first team All American football player at Notre Dame & finish 9th in the voting for the 1938 Heisman Trophy!

[capecod]

Remembering the 1964 Cobden Appleknockers.....runner up to Pekin for the Illinois State basketball title.

IF the Appleknockers had beaten the Chinks for the Championship, they may have made a movie about them...and there was enough real drama to not have to 'loosely' base the movie on the team(see below)...as the movie 'Hoosiers' did by 'loosely' basing the story on the Milan HS Indiana state champs of 1954.

Back in the days when there was only one State Basketball Tourney in Illinois-large or small, all schools were in the same Tourney.

Cobden only had 147 students-80 some of which were boys.

First off: The Bradley connection? (since this is a Bradley board)....2 of the starters for State Champ Pekin (who defeated Cobden by 5) went on to Bradley:

Ron Rhodes-starting guard(and only a jr)later played on the Bradley frosh team-averaging 8 pts...but left school
Amel Massa- graduated from Bradley with a degree in Engineering, but didn't go out for the BU BB team(later became a lawyer)

the rest of the Pekin starters:

Jim Sommers- All State(see initial post above listing AS players) IIRC 6'5, went to Bluffton College-where his parents had met.
Dave Golden-only a junior that yr but All State, also AS the next yr too. Parade AA. Went to Duke.
Jim Couch-6'3 went to Delaware

a top reserve was Rick Venturi (son of the new Pekin FB coach) who went on to Northwestern on a FB scholarship & later became Northwestern HC
--------------------------------

Now the Cobden story

Most important to note, was that although the school only had 80 some boys, 4 of Cobden's starters were 6'5 or over!!
They grew them big on the farm.

The drama

The year before, the team had finished 29-2.....despite the fact that their best player had to drop out of school during the BB season = 6'5 Ken Flick...he got his girlfriend pregnant.

Then in the summer, the second best player- 6'2 Tom Crowell drown in a local lake.

A crushing blow to the town.

The town-fathers got together and voted to change a rule and allow a married student to play BB....Ken Flick had married his girlfriend and had now had a son. Flick re enrolled in school for his senior yr

I remember as a grade school kid watching the Championship game.....vividly remember the team intros before the game...4 Cobden starters were introduced 6'5 or over.....apparently 9 of the players were over 6'0

Cobden starters

Chuck Neal 6'6
Ken Smith 6'5
Jim Neal 6'5
Ken Flick 6'5
Jim Smith over 6'0

The 2 Neal's were brothers; the Smith's were cousins

The Appleknockers had achieved some major upsets over higher ranked teams to get to the Championship game-including a 3 Overtime thriller.

Pekin would hit 16 of 19 FTs
Cobden only 3 of 10 FTs

Pekin, always a great defensive team, held Cobden star Flick to only 6 shots & 4 pts

Pekin won by 5

Cobden finished 32-3 for the season(losing twice by just 2 points and the Pekin championship game by 5)

Flick would be named All State along with Pekin's Golden & Sommers.

[Tommy]

That was a great re-telling capecod.

[Da Coach]

Thanks capecod!

I drove down to Cobden a few years ago when I was in Carbondale for a Bradley game against SIU. It is a small village, about 1100 population located 15 miles south of Carbondale. It's a cute little town in southern Illinois. Because it is farther south than the glaciers extended during the last ice age 11,000 years ago, it is very scenic with many hills and valleys. It is in the middle between Giant City State Park, Shawnee National Forest, and the Mississippi River Valley. For anyone who thinks Illinois if flat, boring farmland, you need to take a trip down there. IMO, it is the most beautiful part of the state of Illinois.

There is a sign out in front of the high school memorializing the 1964 Cobden Appleknockers team-


And if anyone is interested in reading more, there was a great book written a few years ago about the 1964 team and the village of Cobden.

https://www.amazon.com/Amazing-Appleknockers-Illinois-Cinderella-Basketball-ebook/dp/B00BB3AUCS

[capecod]

One added detail (and a video of the Cobden Appleknockers journey)

The Cobden team took an Illinois Central passenger train from Cobden to Champaign for the tourney...they also returned after the tourney to Cobden on an IC passenger train-to a wild celebration!

Supposedly, those 2 trips on the Illinois Central were the only 2 times an IC passenger train EVER stopped in Cobden

I left this bit of trivia off the original post because I had read about how the Cobden player had seen the crowd waiting for them as their 'bus' turned a corner....therefore was thinking that maybe the train aspect was simply a made up story......BUT as the video below shows (7:00 minute mark) the players DID return via train.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t0Nhj2G7l30

[capecod]

3 more additions (that I failed to list above) to the Illinois All State HS BB squads that later attended Bradley:

**1946 William Dobler Dundee

made All State along with his junior teammate Bud Grover...Grover repeated as All State in '47

Both Dobler and Grover came to BU.

Dobler died tragically during his BU days & a trophy was named in his honor -awarded to the best Braves FT shooter each year...the award was given out for many years afterwards...perhaps it still is..

and

2 more from the 1961 Illinois All State team....

** John Moore 6'7 Sterling

Moore was one of the leading scorers on the Bradley Papooses Frosh team, but transferred to Northern Illinois


**Eddie Jackson 6'6 Peoria Manual

I have no excuse for missing one of my favorite BU players from my youth....starter on the BU NIT champs of '64


Perhaps I passed over Jackson because

my eyes fixated on a fellow '61 Illinois All State player headed to Bradley- later my Spalding Institute English teacher-Ron Patterson...who coached Spalding to a 2nd and 4th place finish in consecutive years of the Illinois State Tourney ('69 & '70)

Patterson's assistant coach on those teams- Ed Bradle (my biology teacher at Spalding) was member of the Bradley Papooses Frosh team= 1963-64.

And my Algebra teacher at Spalding- Barry Shave (Spalding HC before Patterson) was a member of the 1958-59 Bradley Papooses that featured his classmate Chet Walker.

[Tommy]

capecod - I really like your style. I think I'd like to sit down and talk to you about the history of BU (which is quickly becoming an interest of mine), as you definitely seem to have a passion for it and the stuff you post on it is really interesting. You must have some memory, btw!

[Da Coach]

capecod - I really like your style. I think I'd like to sit down and talk to you about the history of BU (which is quickly becoming an interest of mine), as you definitely seem to have a passion for it and the stuff you post on it is really interesting. You must have some memory, btw!

Tommy, check your Private Messages (scroll up to the top of page and click on "Messages"). If you are interested in Bradley basketball history, I have something that you'd like.

[Tommy]

I love ya, Coach! Sent you a reply and we’ll see you tomorrow!