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FRESHMAN SPORTS, 1952-1953

(As more issues of the Rich High News are produced online, you can go HERE to access other sports stories.)

1952
INTRAMURAL SPORTS - B0YS

The boys intramural sports contests took place during the two physical
education periods.  These classes took place during Fifth hour and Sixth hour
in the afternoon, and the boys were divided into two groups of about 30 boys
per class. Gym classes were held at the Dogwood school playground (take
Indianwood west to Western, then turn north and go past Cedar Street on the
right, and Victory Boulevard on the left, to Dogwood Street. Turn west and go
past two courts to Dogwood School.)

In the fall, four football teams were set up in each gym class and tournament
play was begun. After the tournament in each gym class, the best players in
fifth hour were to play the best players in sixth hour for a championship.

The  Fifth hour teams, with the team captain’s name, were:

Bruisers         Roger Kelly
Rich Township    Arnold DeLuca
Trouble Makers   Al Smith
Hot-shots        Bill Thode

By mid-October, the Bruisers and Hot-shots were tied for first place.

In Sixth hour, the teams were:

Steam Rollers     Bob Wainwright
Maulers                 ?
Mighty Midgets    Ralph Forlenza
Shrimps           Bill Hawkins

The Shrimps were in first place, and the Steamrollers in second place, in
mid-October.

Unfortunately, our sports reporters enjoyed sports more than reporting, and
there is no more news of intermural football until the end of October. We do
not know who won the gym class championships, but thanks to Bob McElroy's
fine reporting, we know that the team quarterbacked by Ron Tschudy won the
grand championship by a decisive 24 to 6, as winning touchdowns were scored
by Bob Lawrence, Tom Lockwood, and Bill Hawkins (two touchdowns). In his
excitement, Bob forgot to tell us if the winner was the fifth hour team, or
the sixth hour team. But it no longer mattered, for by the end of October,
football was past history and intramural basketball tryouts were in full
swing, for the first "practice" game was scheduled for mid-November with
Crete-Monee.

The boys all deserted the Dogwood School playground during the dark days of
late autumn and  winter, and only returned when Spring baseball season
arrived. After the excitement of the basketball season, the sports reporters
were no longer interested in celebrating the intermural games during gym
classes, and we are left to wonder what exploits went unrecorded.

FRESHMAN INTERMURAL SPORTS 1952-1953

Basketball

The major intermural sport freshman year was basketball. Mr. Carr announced
at the very beginning of the year that an 8 to 10 game schedule was planned
with area schools such as Bloom, Crete, Reavis, Glenwood, Blue Island and
Calumet City.

By mid-October, basketball practice had started at the Huth grade school gym
in Matteson. A new playing surface had been added to the outdoor basketball
courts in time for Rich's basketball practice.

Necessary preparations for fielding the first Rich High sports team included
choosing the school colors, picking a team name, and selecting a school
song. The entire school voted on these subjects, after endless committee meetings
and consultations and disagreements. The election of the cheerleaders was
much less complicated, since the tryout for all interested girls and boys was
held at a school assembly on Friday, 24th, October 1952, and the following five
girls were elected during that assembly: Rosalie Cottingham, Pat Goggin,
Roberta Jacobs, Liz Logrbrinck and Charlene McLoughlin.

Another major step in Rich's intramural sports history was taken in early
November, when five school Superintendents met to set up the Southwest
Suburban League. Schools represented were Rich, Oak Lawn, Palos-Orland,
Reavis, and Bremen. The League did not begin operations until sophomore year,
but had an  immedate impact on the impending basketball season as Oak Lawn
was added to the schedule.

As the season approached, Coach Carr succeeded in lining up games with more
schools, and the regular season schedule slowly grew to 15 games with eight
schools, including two practice games with Crete-Monee. Six of the games also
included a B-team game. The final game of the season took place at the
Kankakee invitational tournament. The Rich freshmen basketball team played in
a grand total of 22 contests.

Our teachers wore many hats that year, so Mr. Morris Carr was the school's
Business Manager, the Athletic Director, a teacher of Business Math and boys'
physical education, and the Rich Rockets head basketball coach. None of his
players wore many hats, and there were many players on the roster. In fact,
one third of the freshman boys were on the basketball team. During the year,
every member of the team had an opportunity to play, if only briefly. The
following players were mentioned in the News:

Atkins, John          Hawkins, Bill      Sedlacek, Bill
Bernstein, Steve      Kaad, Bob          Staley, John
Berg, Pete            Lawrence, Bob      Tschudy, Ron
Eisner, Marc          Lockwood, Tom      Warren, Jim
Englebrink, Dick      McIntyre, Wayne    Wehling, Bob
Fitch, Bob            Mason, Dick        Werk, Ken
Fuller, Larry         Milligan, Don      White, John

Of course, every team needs a star, and the star of freshman basketball was
Bill Hawkins; Fritz, as he was known as school began, had learned to jump
from the kangaroos in Australia, where he was born. He had already earned a
letter at Washington school in eighth grade, and rapidly proved his worth to
his teammates. His jump-twist shot earned him the title of high-scorer, with
234 points during the season.

However, Jim Warren left Bill and the rest of the team in the dust when it
came to free throws, for Jim could be counted on to sink two out of three.

Sadly, neither the 21 man roster, nor the fine shooting of Hawkins and free
throws of Warren could make up for the long distance to the Matteson gym for
practice and for the lack of any sports tradition that year at Rich. Thus,
the team managed to collect just four wins in regular season play, plus two
victories over Crete-Monee in practice games. And when the squad had to be
split to field both A and B teams, the result was disasterous for the B team,
which failed to win in six games.

The first "official" victory for a Rich Rockets sport team came on a cold
Tuesday afternoon, the ninth of December, 1952, in the Huth School Gym at
Matteson. Oak Lawn bowed to an overwhelming onslaught of Rich offensive and
defensive talent, 61 to 28. Eleven players participated in that smashing
victory, with ten scoring points. Hawkins scored 21 points.

It was not until late in the season that the Rockets found the range again,
and defeated Reavis 68 to 37 in another Tuesday home game, on the tenth of
February, 1953. Sixteen players had dressed for the game, and the entire
bench got to play. Hawkins achieved his high point game of the season with 29
points. It was no doubt the high point of the season.

The post season games were not brilliant, as the team was defeated by Joliet
in the first round of the Kankakee Invitational Tournament on a dismal
Saturday afternoon, March 7th. There followed the most gentlemanly and
generous loss of the season, as the Faculty defeated the proud Rockets in a
game on Friday the Thirteenth, by 29 to 28. Hawkins, playing under the menace
of several failing grades, scored a season low of 5 points. Larry Fuller very
wisely scored no points at all. Needless to say, the "Black Friday" student -
faculty game did not become a tradition at Rich.

The season truly ended the following week when a Basketball Banquet in honor
of the team was held at Lakewood School on Tuesday evening, 24 March. In the
absence of Greg Sloan, who had just been announced Athletic Director for the
coming years, the coach of the Loyola University basketball team, George
Ireland, gave an after dinner talk. Coach Carr awarded twelve letters to
players, five to the cheerleaders, and a letter to team manager Dick
Whittington. The lettermen were:

      Berg, Pete           Milligan, Don
   Engelbrink, Dick     Sedlacek, Bill
   Fuller, Larry        Staley, John
   Hawkins, Bill        Warren, Jim
   Lockwood, Tom        Wehling, Bob
   Mason, Dick          Werk, Ken

The starting players varied as the season progressed, as did the positions
that some of the boys played. It would not be possible to name a first team,
although the high scorers for the season included Hawkins, Werk, Lockwood,
Warren, Fuller, Wehling and Mason.

The season's schedule, and the final scores, are shown on the following table:

Date            Opponent                      Home (H) Away (A) Final Score  Rich Opponent
Tues. 18 Nov.   Crete-Monee "Practice game"   ?                 34 W          27
Tues. 25 Nov.   Glenwood School for Boys      H                 29            37
Wed.   3 Dec.   Reavis                        A                 39            40
Tues.  9 Dec.   Oaklawn                       H                 61 W          28
Tues. 16 Dec.   Blue Island                   H                 24            40
Thurs. 8 Jan.   Crete-Monee "Practice Game"   ?                 52 W          29
Tues. 13 Jan.   Kankakee East Junior High     A                 37            52
Fri.  16 Jan    Glenwood School for Boys      A                 25            33
Tues. 20 Jan.   Bloom                         H                 44            45
Tues. 27 Jan.   Oaklawn                       H                 34            37
Fri.  30 Jan.   Morgan Park                   A                 48 W          22
Fri.   6 Feb.   Bloom                         A                 44            50
Tues. 10 Feb.   Reavis                        H                 68 W          37
Tues. 17 Feb.   Kankakee East Junior High     H                 Must check papers
Thur. 26 Feb.   Blue Island                   A                 Must check papers
Sat.   7 Mar.   Joliet - Kankakee Tournament  A                 Must check papers

It is unfortunate that at this writing there are no photos from the very first year of sports at Rich High School.
We did not have a yearbook that first year. Perhaps someone can provide photos. It is also possible some photos
may exist from old regional newspapers, we'll keep searching and we invite you to do the same.

1953
(Obviously, Mr. Meyers overlooked the first year of existence in 1952, but we were very proud this 1953 basketball
season with our very own Bill Hawkins and John Reavley, sophomores, regularly playing varsity ball.)

The Hot Corner,
by John E. Meyers, from the Park Forest Star, November 9, 1969, used with permission.

   It took awhile before Rich East became a power in high school football; in basketball it was different --
the Rockets were an instant success.
   That was 1953, the 1953-54 basketball season, and it was just plain Rich; Rich East came later, after
Rich Central opened.
   Nobody really expected much of those first Rocket cagers, even though their coach was Greg Sloan,
who the season before piloted LaGrange to an undefeated season and the state high school championship.
   Those who did expect something changed their view after the first game. Rich stumbled to a 76 to 63 loss
to Wheaton. The Rockets really looked terrible.
   Well, why should they look any other way? The guys on the team hardly had time to become acquainted
with one another. This was late November and the school building had only opened 3 months earlier.
   The team? There was Roger Taylor, a junior who had played fresh-soph ball at Bloom; Don Minick,
a Bloom sub the year before; Bob Martin, playing high school ball for the first time, although he was a
senior; Bill Bachman, with experience in the Chicago Catholic league, lightweight division, and Chuck
Jonas, another Bloom sub.
   The first game was a disappointment, but Rich came back to wallop Dyer, 76-56. Reavis was conquered
70-36 and Lemont humbled 86-42.
   The Rockets kept right on winning and by astronomical scores, but hardly anyone was impressed. Look
who they were playing -- Morgan Park Military academy, Plainfield, Wilmington, Beecher, and in their
own Southwest Suburban conference, schools as new and as unheard of as Rich of Park Forest.
   But the Rockets didn't lose again; they had a winning streak of 19 games when the Illinois High School
association tournament series opened. Prestige was hard to come by; the Rockets were assigned to a
district tourney at Beecher, the phase whereby small schools attempted to qualify for a place with the
larger schools.
   The Rockets drubbed Crete-Monee, Beecher and Peotone, breezing to the district championship and
boosting their winning streak to 22.
   This put Rich in the Joliet regional and now, said the skeptics, the big schools will put these brash
upstarts from Park Forest in their place.
   For instance, Joliet Catholic will do it in the first round. Only Joliet Catholic didn't, not by 16 points.
The high-flying Rockets soared to an 88-72 victory.
   Now Sloan's team had earned the respect of all the fans. It was admitted, "They are that good,"
something their own fans had known all along.
   Thus it wasn't called an upset when the Rockets knocked out Bloom, 73-64, in the semi-final round.
A March snowstorm raged outside, but it was nothing compared to the storm of cheers deliriously joyful
Rich fans raised in Joliet's barn-like gymnnasium.
   All good things usually come to an end and that remarkable first season ended for the Rockets in the
regional championship contest. They gave mighty Thornton, which was to progress as far as the state
quarter-final round, a battle before bowing 85-79.
   It ended, also, a 24-game winning streak and closed out the season 24-2.
   Sloan guided the Rockets to Champaign the following year, but there isn't anything in Rich athletic
annals so exceptional as that first basketball season.
 

RANDOM PHOTOS FROM OTHER YEARS