Illinois High School Basketball

This is the cover of my book Welcome to My World. I spent a lot of hours honing my skills on this dirt court in my backyard.

Galatia is a little farming/coal mining town located in Saline County in Southern Illinois. The “village” with a population of 1,000 has a rich tradition in basketball. Galatia is a charter member of the Greater Egyptian Conference (GEC), which I believe is one of the oldest conferences in the state. In the 1950s thru the 1970’s Galatia High School with an enrollment of less than 140 students played the other Saline County schools; Harrisburg, Eldorado, and Carrier Mills in one of the first mid-winter basketball tournaments in the state. The tournament was played in January over a Friday and Saturday night in Harrisburg and later Eldorado because they had a large enough gym to handle the 2,000 or more fans that showed up each night. The tournament was played from 1954-1973. Harrisburg, the largest school, and Carrier Mills, rich in basketball tradition, won the tournament the most. There were a lot of players that played in the tournament that were recognized as All-State, All Sothern Ill., and went on to play basketball in college. Players like Oliver Rollins, Vern Rollins, Joe Rollins, Marshall Stewart, Mike Sumner, Bob Absher, Ellis Bryant, and Gary Taborn from CM. Guy Lee Turner, Bob Pavelonis, Ron Maynard, Kurt Feazell, Ed Cannon, John Stone, Ben Cartwright, Carl Shelton, and Dale Roberson from HB. Outstanding Eldorado players like Lin Lovelette, Thornton Davis, Jack Fowler, John McGill, Terry Kaid, Wardie White, and Bob Tierney. Galatia’s outstanding players were Sam Duane, Bob Orto, Joe Upchurch, Glen Clarida, Peck Boyett, Bill Patterson, Billy Smith, Gary Hill, Richard Guye, Gene McFarland, and Jack Sutter. I have a more complete list of players and outstanding coaches in my book, “Welcome To My World”. Also in my book, I make the statement that it would be hard to find a school in the state as small as Galatia that produced four college coaches. George Iubelt coached at Galatia and went on to SIU. Sam Mirandi, who coached at Kansas, also coached at Galatia. Sam Duane, a HOF high school coach in Arizona, coached at Northern Arizona, and I coached at Oral Roberts, Iowa State, and Butler County CC. * This post and picture appeared on the Illinois High School Basketball History website.

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