Streaks Scrapbook- 1964 Boys Basketball- Elite 8

In the 1962-3 basketball season, Frank Dexter (Junior) and Rick Callahan (Junior) had been starters on a pretty good team. That team was led in scoring by Roger Johnson (Senior), who went onto play at Purdue. Halfway thru the ‘63 season, Coach John Thiel began to phase three sophomores into the lineup- Marv Harris, Mike Davis, Dave Lundstrom. By the end of the season, both Harris and Davis had become starters. This group finished the season at 20-7 and advanced to the Sweet Sixteen before losing to Springfield Lanphier in the Super-Sectional. 

Headed into the 1964 season, Coach Thiel could rely on 7 returnees from the ‘63 tourney team. At this time only 10 players could dress for the State series, so to have 7 of the 10 back, it was a big deal. 

Returnees were- Rick Callahan (Sr, 6’2”), Frank Dexter (Sr, 6’2”), Mike Davis (Jr, 6’2”), Marv Harris (Jr, 6’2”), Dave Lundstrom (Jr, 5’11”), Bernie Cowans (Jr, 5’7”), and Larry Doyle (Jr, 6’4”).  Among the other regulars were- Mike McCreight (Sr, 6’5”), Roger Bates (Sr, 6’0”), and John Prat (5’11”). These ten players dressed for the tourney at the end of the 1964 season.

During the regular season, sophomores- Barry Swanson, Dale Kelley, and Bob Jasperson also dressed and practiced with the varsity. 

The Streaks roared out to a great start to the season, going 7-0. It included wins over Peoria Manual, East Peoria, Monmouth, Thornton, Richwoods, Quincy and Kewanee. At this point Galesburg was ranked #3 in AP and #2 in UPI, with Collinsville ranked #1. 

After having beaten Manual by an impressive 82-54 score to open the season, Galesburg went to Manual for a rematch. The Streaks were without Frank Dexter, who missed 6 games with an injury. Manual had Al Smith back for this game after missing the first meeting. Smith went onto be All-MVC at Bradley and play five years in the ABA. Galesburg led by four with 4 minutes to go and went into their open court but turned the ball over. In addition, Rick Callahan fouled out. So the Streaks were minus Callahan and Dexter on the floor at the end. Manual pulled out a 55-53 win, despite the Streaks having two shots in the last five seconds to tie the game.

Galesburg bounced back to beat State ranked Sterling, then Canton, and also State power Chicago Marshall. In the Marshall game, the Streaks opened up a tight game by pouring in a 27-4 third quarter. 

Galesburg went to Pekin with both teams ranked in the top ten. During the 1940’s and 1950’s, Galesburg’s biggest rival was Canton. By the 1960’s, Pekin had become Galesburg’s biggest rival. As the IHSA paired Galesburg and Quincy more and more, they too became a rival. 

The Pekin matchup involved a huge crowd, and a highly competitive game. It went back and forth. Galesburg was whistled for 27 fouls to Pekin’s 17. As a result, Galesburg outscored Pekin from the field 54-48, but Pekin outscored Galesburg 24-11 from the free throw line. The newspaper report claimed that Pekin had drawn and incredible 11 charges during the game. Looking back, Frank Dexter recalled that the entire game Pekin kept jumping in front of Galesburg players as they ran down the floor to try to draw fouls. 

Both Rick Callahan and Marv Harris fouled out early in the fourth quarter. Foul trouble by Callahan and Harris would become a recurring theme throughout the season. 

Pekin won the contest 72-67. The combination of two highly ranked teams in a highly competitive contest, the foul disparity, and a sprinkling in of race issues- resulted in an ugly situation after the game. 

Fans spilled onto the floor, players chased refs, players confronted each other, and coaches confronted each other. In one of the all-time ironies, Duncan Reid as a young assistant for Pekin acted as one of the peace makers in the conflict. 

Later Pekin reported damage that was done in the Galesburg locker room, and Galesburg was upset with Pekin fans yelling and throwing things at the Galesburg buses. For more details on this game, at the end of this blog there is the address for a separate post just on the 1964 and 1965 Pekin games. 

The Streaks only other loss during the ‘64 season was to Rock Island 64-52 at Galesburg. During the Thiel era, losing in the gym that was to be named later for John Thiel was extremely rare. The loss to Rocky ended a 15 game home winning streak. 

Galesburg finished a dominant regular season, going 17-3. The Streaks were ranked #9 in AP and #10 in UPI. The Streaks had been tested in the regular season by ranked teams- #5 Pekin, #6 Rock Island, #7 East Moline, #15 Sterling. In addition, these teams received votes in the State poll- Chicago Marshall, Thornton. As a sidebar, Cobden finished ranked #16 in the last poll. 

The Regional was held at Galesburg HS. The Streaks were seeded #1 and the #2 seed was Corpus Christi with a 17-4 record. Corpus had received votes off and on in the state poll. 

Galesburg cruised to wins over Macomb and Macomb Western, while Corpus Christi defeated Knoxville and Monmouth. This set up an intra-city championship. Corpus Christi’s only win vs. GHS was in the 1954 Regional. Corpus had a young coach in his second year, Rex Davis. Davis was to have good success. The was Corpus last season as the following year, they moved to the north and became Costa. 

As seems to have been common place in high school basketball in the 1950’s and 1960’s, the Regional Championship game was a foul fest. Corpus was whistled for 27 fouls and GHS for 21 fouls, which produced 73 total free throw attempts. GHS won that battle 31-23. 

Galesburg had both Callahan and Harris sit with foul trouble and both foul out. Corpus Christi had star post, John Noonan have to sit much of the first half with fouls and foul out in the first possession of the second half. Wilke also fouled out. The problem for Corpus was that they did not have near the depth that GHS had, so for them to lose two players with fouls was not something they could absorb. Galesburg won the Regional Championship by 63-43. 

This was Galesburg’s 10th straight Regional Championship, and Coach Thiel’s 9 straight title.

Galesburg advanced to the Quincy Sectional, where they faced Warsaw in the first game. The Streaks jumped out to a 40-21 half-time lead on their way to a 74-51 win. Galesburg had balanced scoring with Harris 18, Dexter 16, Cowan 12, and McCreight 10. Harris pulled down 23 rebounds and Callahan had 17 rebounds despite fouling out of the game. 

Galesburg faced Quincy in the championship game at Quincy. Galesburg had beaten Quincy earlier in the year fairly easily. The Streaks jumped on Quincy early, scoring 12 points in the first 90 seconds. Galesburg led most of the game, with Quincy not giving up and trying to battle back. Harris led the Streaks with 23 points and 15 rebounds, despite fouling out. The other leading scorers were- Davis 19, Dexter 13, and Callahan 12. Dexter dished 10 assists. Both Harris and Callahan fouled out. 

The Super-Sectional matchup at Springfield Armory with Springfield Lanphier. The year before Lanphier had dismantled Galesburg 91-67 but they lost four of their starters from that team. 

This game again involved a lot of fouls and a lot of free throws. A total of 68 free throws were shot with each team shooting 34. Galesburg made 27- to 20 for Quincy. On route to a 79-66 win, Galesburg was led by Davis 25, Callahan 19 (14 Reb), Dexter 10 (10 Reb), Harris 10, and Cowan 10. Callahan was 13-13 from the line. 

The win over Lanphier was Coach Thiel’s 200th win at Galesburg in his 9 years. He was 200-50 for an 80% winning record. The Streaks had made it to the Sweet 16 in 6 of his 9 seasons to date, and to 4 Elite 8’s. In addition, this marked his 6th 20 win season. 

Up thru much of the 1930’s, the IHSA tourney configuration was District tourney, then Sectional tourney, then Super-Sectional, and State tourney. As the number of schools playing basketball increased, District tourneys were having more than 8 schools. The IHSA decided to in effect create a “play in tourney” for the smallest schools. They created the District level for the small school play in. 

Depending on the area of the State, the District might have anywhere from 2-6 teams. The winner of the District then advanced to the Regional. Each Regional had 7 schools assigned and then the District winner became the 8th team. So the “District winner” in the 20’s and 30’s was a much different thing than it was in the ‘50’s and ‘60’s. 

With the new configuration, only Hebron in 1952 had advanced from a District and won the State title. In 1964, tiny Cobden attempted to become the second “District school” to win State. The town of Cobden had 918 people, and Cobden High School had only 144 students. 

While Cobden was a little town, there was nothing little about their team. The starting Appleknockers lineup included- brothers Jim Neal (6’6”) and Chuck Neal (6’5”), cousins Ken Smith (6’5”) and Jim Smith (6’0”), and Ken Flick (6’6”). 

To take advantage of the height, Cobden played a 1-2-2 zone. Their length made it tough to shoot over and it allowed them to keep rebounders near the basket. When it was needed, they would just move the 1-2-2 to different distances to press. 

Cobden had beaten perennial southern power, Pinckneyville in 3 OT’s in the Super-Sectional to stretch the Cobden record to 30-2. 

In the Elite 8 game Galesburg and Cobden were knotted at 26-26 at half-time. Galesburg went out to a 44-40 lead after three quarters. While Galesburg had struggled to shoot well in the first half, some shots dropped and it allowed the Streaks to be up 49-44 with 5:37 to go in the game. Cobden stepped up their pressure and went on a run. The game became tied at 51-51 with 3:31 to go. 

The game’s attendance at the University of Illinois’ Assembly Hall was 16,000 for this game. Most observers say by the time it became 51-51, that at least 14,000 of the fans had become rabid Cobden Appleknocker’s fans. As Cobden got back into the game, the crowd got louder and louder. After the game, Coach Thiel said,”Every time they scored it sounded like the Yankees had won the 7th game of the World Series. I wish my boys could have forgotten about the crowd.” 

Cobden scored 5 straight to go up 56-51 on their way to a 60-57 win. Cobden had outscored Galesburg 27-20 in the fourth quarter. 

Galesburg had outscored Cobden 44-34 from the field. But Cobden won the ft line going 26 for 31, while GHS went 13 for 17. Galesburg had committed 20 fouls with Callahan fouling out. Cobden had committed 13 fouls with Jim Neal fouling out. 

Related Blog Posts

Classic- 1964 Galesburg vs Corpus

Legend- Cobden- 60 Years Later

Classic- 1965 Galesburg vs Pekin

Whether it was the Cobden zone, Cobden height, or the spacious Assembly Hall- Galesburg was 22-58 from the field for 38%. The Streaks top scorers- Harris, Davis, Callahan, and Dexter were a combined 14 for 44 from the field for 32%. 

Making it even tougher to handle the loss was that Cobden would go onto lose to Galesburg’s rival, Pekin in the State Championship game. To this day, players and fans believe that if Galesburg had won, that the ‘64 Streaks were headed for a State Championship. 

As Streaks fans debate all-time best Galesburg teams, they often center the debate on the 1959, 1966, 1968, and the 1998 teams. The ‘64 team may have been one of the most balanced lineups that Galesburg ever put on the floor. Dexter (12.6ppg), Callahan (13.2ppg), Davis (15.9ppg), and Harris (13.6ppg) gave Galesburg an offense that from game to game produced different “go to players.” The ‘64 team was certainly one of GHS’s great teams, wherever they fit in the debate. Their Elite 8 and 24-4 season sure were special.

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