Late February and early March is always a special time for small towns in Southern Illinois. This was especially true in the seventies and eighties. High school basketball in Illinois, the Original March Madness, held a special place on the calendar if your school had a chance to make a deep run to Champaign.
Pinckneyville had the long-storied history. Lawrenceville had the names and the fiery
coach during a decade of dominance and all of them had their gyms. Gyms with a capacity often larger than the
town population, yet filled for each game.
Facilities built for basketball, not P.E. classes. Atmospheres that would rival even our
neighbors to the east in Indiana.
2023 brings the 50th anniversary of a team often
forgotten outside of the southern part of the state. It’s easy to over look a town of a thousand
residents that almost disappears when the corn is high. A town whose high school no longer exists and
who’s main employer, Blevins Popcorn, left several years ago. For many years it was called The Popcorn Capital
of the World. For one special year in
1973, it was the basketball capital of Illinois.
Ridgway, located in Southeastern Illinois, was your typical Midwest
small town in the early seventies. A
high school with two hundred students and a downtown with a local drug store, a
small movie theater, two grocery stores and three churches. It was, and still is
a successful farming community. A community
that loved its basketball and one that was very proud of its popcorn
heritage.
Ridgway’s high school gym was one of a dozen gyms in
Illinois designed by Ralph Legeman in the middle of the century. Most of the
gyms were in the southern part of the state and his design had three basic
traits. A seating bowl that was below
ground level. A design for spectators who arrived
late who could sit in the top rows without disturbing those sitting in the lower
rows and lastly each gym or fieldhouse had a slanted, tent
like roof. The gym in Ridgway had a
capacity of about 1,300 fans not including those that could stand on the
biggest nights. It wasn’t uncommon for
residents outside of the school district to go watch the better teams in the
area from year to year and gyms were almost at capacity each night.
Ridgway had some key returnees from the previous season and the ’73 team had a roster of players that grew up playing basketball and other sports together as kids. Coach Bob Dallas had been at Ridgway for a few years with some talented teams and players, but prior to 1972 Illinois only had one class for basketball, and it was dominated by the larger schools upstate. 1973 marked the second year of a two-class system. A change that had basketball crazy fans in the southern part of the state very excited.
Coach Dallas commanded respect and discipline on the court. His players had roles and if you couldn't fill that role, he would find a player that was willing to do so. He had coached one of the most prolific scorers in the state, Ron Stallings(2,643 points), a few years earlier, but never had multiple options to score like this team and they were all underclassmen on the 71-72 team.
The 1972-73 season started off against Enfield. A poor third quarter was a key factor that resulted in a loss for the more talented Eagles. A loss that left many fans, especially the
parents of the players, very concerned after a strong finish to the 1972 season.
A motivated group of players and hard-nosed coach served noticed to the other teams in the area that the opening loss was an awakening. The Eagles reeled off twenty-three wins in a row, including a title in the
highly competitive Eldorado Holiday Tourney, beating Eldorado 41-39.
Despite their 23-1 record in the regular season, Ridgway was never ranked in the Associated
Press’ Class A Top 16 poll, nor was any school in Southern Illinois except undefeated Vienna. It
appeared that the lack of respect for the schools in the south was vey real
heading into a much anticipated regional in Ridgway and another showdown with Eldorado.
The Eagles captured the regional championship at home with a
with a hard-fought 59-56 win over arch-rival Eldorado. Regional tournaments can often be the
stumbling block for the top teams in the state, but Ridgway moved on to the sectional
at Norris City.
Norris City felt like home as it was only fifteen miles away and a gym almost identical to Ridgway’s. The Eagles beat Carrier Mills 68-62 before facing Waltonville for the sectional championship. A balanced offensive attack with four starters in double-figures, Mike Dixon's nineteen points leading the way, helped Ridgway hold off a stubborn Waltonville squad to secure a sectional title and a date in the super-sectional.
On Tuesday, March 13 at a sold-out SIU Arena in Carbondale, Ridgway and Pinckneyville battled for the right to head north to Champaign for the IHSA state tournament. It was a tense, well-played game that matched two similar teams against each other. Danny Stevens’ clutch free throw with just seconds left in the game gave the Eagles a 57-56 win and their 29th consecutive victory. Mike Dixon lead the scoring with twenty-eight points with Brent Browning and Danny Stevens adding thirteen and eleven points. The Eagles would now represent all of southern Illinois against the rest of the state.
Many small towns in the Midwest have bandstands in the center of town. In Ridgway the bandstand was used for Popcorn Days every September and other events throughout the year. In 1973, the bandstand was the gathering place for fans to show their appreciation to the players and coaches before sending them north to Champaign.
The next few days saw a flurry of ticket requests coming
from all over the area and Ridgway was well represented as the final eight
teams in Class A took the court at Assembly Hall on the campus of University of
Illinois. Eagles fans dressed in blue
and gold, with most of them wearing their homemade popcorn themed corsages. The little school from the south was the talk
of the tournament all weekend.
Ridgway was the smallest school in Champaign that weekend competing
against schools that had three times more students in two of it’s three games,
yet the color scheme inside Assembly Hall greatly favored the Eagles.
Petersburg (PORTA), and their star forward Kevin Washington,
was the first test in Champaign.
Washington got his points along with twenty-seven rebounds, but the rest
of the state got a glimpse of what everyone in the southern part of the state
had watched for the last two years as Brent Browning torched the Blue Jays for forty-five
points. Dixon’s twelve points, Stevens eleven points
and Dennis Pearce’s eight points helped Ridgway win a high scoring affair 85-79. Washington’s twenty-seven rebounds is still
an IHSA tournament record for any class and at that time, Browning's 45 points was a tournament record as well.
"I've never seen a player pass up more open shots then Brent, just to try and get shorter shot or a layup. And he is a really good at it!" said long-distance sharp shooter Mike Dixon about his high scoring teammate.
On Saturday morning, Ridgway faced another tall task as 6-8
senior Jack Sikma and St. Anne stood between the Eagles and a chance at a state
title later that evening. The game was
never in doubt from the beginning as Coach Dallas’ swarming defense never let
St. Anne’s offense get on track on the way to 73-51 blowout in the semifinals. Browning followed up his 45-point performance
on Friday with twenty nine points to lead the way. Dixon added twenty-two points as Ridgway
earned the right to play for the Class A championship later that evening.
Popcorn fever was in full swing at Assembly Hall and the Eagle bandwagon continued to grow. The small town team that was well coached and hustled from tip-off to the final horn had won the hearts of the other fans attending throughout the weekend and even the Chicago media covering the tournament.
Ridgway watched the Kaneland Knights take care of a very
talented Venice team, following their semi-final victory to set up a St.
Patrick’s Day matchup between the small school from the south against the big
school from the north.
Kaneland was a west-suburban Chicago high school of almost seven
hundred students that had its own story to tell. The Knights entered post-season
play with a 12-11 record before rattling off eight straight wins to reach the
final. The Knights featured a front line of 6-5 Kirk Pressey and 6-6 Bill Sambrookes along with a smothering press after scoring.
With almost 12,000 fans in Assembly Hall and a state-wide television audience ready to crown a champion, Ridgway jumped out to an early lead that they maintained throughout the game building up leads of six and eight points. Leads of that size were different in the seventies with no three-point arc to assist with comebacks and a different style of basketball overall. As Ridgway’s talented shooters went cold, Trailing 46-37 heading into the last eight minutes, Kaneland whittled away at the lead getting it all the way down to one point, 50-49 late in the fourth quarter. The key play of the game happened with just over one minute remaining. On a sideline inbounds play in front of Kaneland's bench, Browning picked up Stevens getting behind the defense and streaking towards the basket, gave him a perfect pass to allow Danny to convert a layup to increase the lead to 52-49. Missed free throws that could have iced the game, kept tensions high for both fan bases but Ridgway emerged with a 54-51 victory and the IHSA Class A Championship.
Ridgway’s “Big Two” again led the way with
Dixon’s twenty points and Browning with eighteen. Browning and Dixon combined to average forty-nine
points a game in Champaign. Browning led
the tournament with 105 points. Ridgway finished the season with thirty-two consecutive wins and a record of 32-1.
While Dixon and Browning got most of the headlines, the Eagles title run wouldn’t have happened without with out key moments and games from other players. Danny Stevens was the point guard every team wants to have. Stevens ran the offense and always seemed to hit clutch shots and key free throws in the biggest moments. Dennis Pearce, who often played against centers taller than him, was the steady center who made things happen down low on offense and defense. Mike Fromm, always being where he was supposed to be and locking down some of the best players on opposing teams and consistently in double figures for rebounds, played a huge role on this team. Fromm's roll was perfect for a team that had four players who could score on any given night. Jeff Drone, who earned the name “Super Sub Drone” was that stabilizing force coming off the bench. Drone’s eight points against Waltonville in the sectional final all seemed to come at critical moments of the game to help the Eagles advance. And no great team is complete without the hardnosed group that comes off the bench, who pushes the starters in practice every day. Jim Doyle, John Cross, Martin Duffy, Don Wathen, and Tony Cox set the tone in practice, with some of them playing key roles in the Eagles return to Champaign the following season.
The following day, the celebration continued at the hotel
and breakfast, but what was about to happen over the next few hours is what
made this title so special. Word got
back to the school administrators, long before cell phones, that towns located
on the route home wanted to show their appreciation to the Eagles players and
coaches, by being a part of the parade route.
A parade that started forty-five miles away in Benton, IL as the team
got off Interstate 57 to head home.
Residents of Benton, Thompsonville, Galatia, Raleigh and even arch rival Eldorado
waited in town squares and along main streets just for the chance to welcome
home the conquering heroes.
Eventually the convoy of cars and pep buses found its way back
to the high school gym for a final celebration with the hometown fans. What a celebration it was.
The winning streak would reach 36 to start the 1973-74 season and the Eagles made a return trip to Assembly Hall with a chance to defend their title. Ridgway lost to Ottawa-Marquette in the Elite Eight 50-47 to finish 29-3.
Fifty years later, this title still means a lot to the community of Ridgway and the players involved in this journey. While Coach Dallas (772 wins) has passed, along with Don Wathen, John Cross and Mike Fromm, this group left a lasting impact on a little town and the surrounding communities that is still felt today. The gym is falling in and popcorn production hasn’t happened in years and Dinger Bats resides in the old Jones Store building, but they will always be the 1973 Class A State Champion of Illinois.
"When we get together, it's like we never left and no time has passed." Brent Browning (2020)
My dad, Buddy Viniard, was the Superintendent at Ridgway at this time. He also coached many years prior before coming to Ridgway so my view point of this team was pretty unique. I was the 5 year boy allowed to retrieve balls along the baseline during warm ups. I was the kid, that was by my dad's side throughout this season and then next to him in the locker room and on the floor, before we moved in 1974. I was the one hanging my nerf hoop off the door in the Holiday Inn playing against Stevens and Drone (they never let me win by the way!). 50 years later, I'm the grown up kid that still feels like this is one of the greatest stories in IHSA basketball history. I hope you enjoyed just a small part of this historical run in March of 1973.
