1957- Boys-Elite 8 23-7 (State Rank-Unranked)
To understand the 1957 Silver Streaks, and more importantly to understand their significance, one needs to take a step back and look Illinois and Galesburg during this period of time. Galesburg was founded by George Washington Gale, a Presbyterian minister, who was a strong abolitionists. Galesburg has a rich and proud history connected with anti-slavery and the Underground Railroad. There is a huge difference between people being anti-slavery and people being for racial equality. By 1957 Galesburg was like many rural communities, still struggling with the concept of racial equality.
By the year 1950, only 2 African-Americans had ever been allowed to play for the Galesburg High School basketball team. The story is told by older African-Americans of the excitement of an all-black intramural team in the 1940’s beating the Silver Streak varsity team in an arranged game. Pete Thierry, a 1953 grad, became only the third African-American allowed to play for GHS.
In the late ‘40’s and early ‘50’s, there were still restaurants in Galesburg that would not serve Blacks. And some restaurants that would serve a Black, would serve them very slowly, hoping they would leave out of frustration. There was an “unwritten rule” growing up in Galesburg as a Black that you were not to go north of Losey St. At GHS, it is told that African-Americans were counseled away from college prep courses and steered to vocational classes.
This was not just Galesburg in the 1950’s, this was true of much of the Midwest. African-Americans who were planning to drive places always wanted to have the “Green Book” with them. The “Green Book” shared information about safe restaurants and gas stations to stop for service.
In basketball, the 1954 Chicago DuSable team was the first team to play in the Illinois State Championship game. DuSable was undefeated and lost to Mt. Vernon 76-70. It seems to be agreed that the game was officiated in a way that prevented DuSable from winning the game. In the book, The Real Hoosiers, it is claimed that an all-black team needed to always build up a big lead if they had white refs.
In 1957, Coach John Thiel decided to state four African-Americans. The story is told that before the first game in the locker room when Thiel told the players the starting lineup, he said, “Here’s the starting lineup, and I may get fired.” Thiel did not get fired for starting four African-Americans, but he did receive hate mail from the community.
GHS had just come off an undefeated football season in the Fall of 1956, led by twins, Albert and Elbert Kimbrough. They both went onto become stars at Northwestern University, and Elbert went onto a successful career in the NFL. They were men playing with boys. In basketball, Albert was the point guard, while Elbert banged it up under the boards. Their toughness became the foundation of the entire team in 1957.
Al “Nochie” Williams was the scoring and rebounding star of the 1957 team. At only 6’1”, he was able to consistently out jump and out score much taller opponents. Veterans say that Williams was probably had one of the biggest vertical jumps of any GHS athlete ever. Jimmy Range was one of the wing, and Bobby Hoffman was in effect the other point guard. At 6’1”, Williams was the tallest Streak in 1957.
Statistically, this how the 1957 Streaks measured up:
Albert Kimbrough- 8.9ppg, 3.3rpg, 3.2apg
Bobby Hoffman- 12.6ppg, 2.4rpg, 4.0apg
Jimmy Range- 8.4ppg, 7.5rpg
Elbert Kimbrough- 10.1ppg, 6.9rpg
Al Williams- 14.5ppg, 13.1rpg
Frank Youngquist- 3.8ppg, 3.0rpg
Doug Mills- 4.8ppg, 1.9rpg
During the regular season, the Streaks went 17-6. It is interesting that Coach Thiel started a tradition of scheduling some of the best teams in Illinois. Besides playing the always tough Quad City schools and downstate power, Pekin- in the 1957 Galesburg played state powers, Paris and Pickneyville. Galesburg’s 6 losses were to Pickneyville 49-52, Moline 55-56, Macomb 55-58, Pekin 60-77, and twice to Rock Island 51-54, 67-79. They avenged the losses to both Moline and Macomb.
The Streaks breezed thru the Galesburg Regional with big wins over Avon, ROVA, and Knoxville. Galesburg had been undersized the entire season, but in the Sectional and the State games, they were challenged at their utmost vs tall and talented opponents.
The first round opponent at the Moline Sectional was versus the Fulton Steamers. Fulton had a long history of successful basketball. My father, W.F.Massey, had taken them to the Elite 8 in 1936. Fulton was led by two young, talented and tall players. Larry Prins was a 6’7” sophomore, who grew into a 6’10” star at Drake University during the heyday of the Maury Johns era. Mike Woods was a 6’5” Junior, who initially attended the University of Illinois. The game vs Fulton started out close after one quarter, but eventually the relentless press of the Streaks wore the Steamers down. The Streaks were up 31-22 at half, and 50-28 by the end of three on their way to a 61-47 win. Hoffman 16, A.Kimbrough 15, and Range 15 gave the Streaks balanced scoring while Williams pulled down 15 rebounds.
The Sectional championship was “the game” vs Rock Island. Rocky was ranked #6 in the State with a very talented lineup that included Don Nelson as a junior. In an unusual format, the Fulton game was on Thursday with the Rocky game on Friday. So there was really no change to have a practice in prep for Rocky.
Coach Thiel later told Jimmie Carr that after the second loss to Rock Island, he began to think about the possibility of holding the ball if they played them again. During the two weeks leading up to the Rock Island rematch, they daily spent time on their open court delay. This was not unusual because they would use this if ahead in the fourth quarter so the players did not think anything of it. They had never used it for an entire game, just at the end of the game. Thiel did not know if he was willing to use it for the full game but wanted to be prepared to have it as an option. He never shared with anyone that he was even thinking about this as a strategy. Thiel was not sure even the day of the game that he was going to use that strategy. It was not until the ride to the game that he decided. The starters road in Thiel’s car, and on the way up he revealed the game strategy to the players.
According to the newspaper reports, when the strategy became apparent to the crowd, it was booed by fans. With in effect, two clever, ball handling guards in Albert Kimbrough and Bobby Hoffman- Galesburg did not turn the ball over and they kept the ball away from Rock Island. Galesburg led 2-0 after one quarter. At half, Galesburg trailed 8-10, after three quarters by 14-17.
Coach Thiel used three time outs in the fourth quarter to help keep the Streaks in the game. Bobby Hoffman twice tied the score on baskets in the last three minutes of the game. With 20 seconds left and the score tied at 21-21, Rock Island stepped to the FT line for a 1 and 1. Rocky’s Draper missed the first FT, and Galesburg rebounded the ball. With 4 seconds to go, Elbert Kimbrough scored to give the Streaks its famous 23-21 win.
Swick, the Register-Mail sports editor, described the game as “turning back the clock nearly 25 years.” It has been a common strategy to hold the ball in the 1930’s.
Galesburg out rebounded the taller Rocks in the game. Rocky had only 11 field goal attempts in the game and shot 73%, while GHS had 18 field goal attempts and made 8. Galesburg did not substitute once during the game.
This was a game that was replayed in PE classes for the next 25 years at both GHS and the junior highs.
In the Super-Sectional at Moline’s Wharton FH, Galesburg handled Freeport 60-47. The Streaks were up 37-24 at half and 46-38 after three. Bobby Hoffman had 20 points and Al Williams had 16. The win meant a trip to Champaign for the Elite 8.
Even when teams are very good, they don’t always get to play in “the game.” They don’t get to play a matchup vs a highly ranked team that people will talk about for decades to come. The 1957 Streaks got to play in two “the games.” In the Elite 8, they were matched up with Collinsville. The Kahoks were ranked #1 in the State, they entered the quarter-final game at 32-0. Galesburg faced a “tall” order, the Kahok lineup was 5’9”, 6’3”, 6’4”, 6’5”, and 6’7”. Terry Betchel, their 6’7” post averaged 30 points per game.
Collinsville was coached by Virgil Fletcher. Fletcher is one of the all-time coaching legends in Illinois. He was famous for his 1-2-2 ball press. The ball press gave the Streaks a lot of trouble early as they went down 9-0 in the first quarter, and trailed by 13 at half. Galesburg cut it to 35-40 after three quarters.
Collinsville made 11 free throws in the third quarter. Betchel finished with 36 points, going 18-19 from the foul line. Collinsville went 27-37 from the foul line. Galesburg went 9-12 from the foul line. Collinsville was whistled for 7 fouls in the game, while Galesburg was called for 23 fouls. Al Williams fouled out with 6:37 to play in the game.
Galesburg did not give up. Galesburg in the fourth pressed and went after the ball. One of the Kimbrough went hard for a loss ball and in the scramble, a Collinsville player ended up no match physically and ended up leaving the court. The excitement of the game had fans a fever pitch.
Bobby Hoffman with the game tied broke loose to the basket for an apparent layup. Accounts of two newspapers and of Galesburg fans, allege that the ball actually went into the basket but that a Collinsville play reached up through the net and pushed the tying basket out of the rim for an obvious goal tend that was not called.
Seconds later the final horn went off to seal a Collinsville 61-59 win. When the horn went off, fans and players from both teams rushed the floor as the refs escaped. According to newspapers reports, it was then labeled as a “near-riot.”
Jimmie Carr’s version is that he remembers seeing the entire floor covered with people throwing punches and shoving each other. He believes, “If it were today, it would have made the national TV news.”
Rodney Bunch tells of getting in trouble because his mother saw the picture in the paper of the fight and she identified him in the brawl.
Veteran Galesburg fans have always thought this was a game that was stolen from the Streaks. One has to wonder if the Galesburg vs Collinsville game had a similar result as the DuSable vs Mt. Vernon game because Galesburg was mainly an “all-black team” and Collinsville was an “all-white team.” Sadly the stats of the foul discrepancy and no goal tending call lead one to think that something was not right.
In conversations that Coach John Thiel had years later, he described the 1957 Streaks as one of his all-time favorites. He described them as “men playing boys.” Coach Thiel is described as being tough and highly competitive, it is easy to see why the 1957 team was a team he enjoyed coaching. The 1957 Streaks were tough and highly competitive just like their coach.
In 1956-7, four African-American teenagers were battling to win basketball games. Ten years earlier is unlikely they would have even been allowed to play basketball. They probably were not aware, but these four teenagers also were helping change the community of Galesburg. Basketball was a big deal to the Galesburg community. These four African-American teenagers were the stars of Galesburg!
Related Posts
Pete Thierry- I Doubted I'd Ever Be A Streak
Galesburg Regional
Galesburg 86- Avon 37
Galesburg 98- ROVA 61
Galesburg 63- Knoxville 38
Moline Sectional
Galesburg 61- Fulton 47
Galesburg 23- Rock Island 21
Moline Super-Sectional
Galesburg 60- Freeport 47
Champaign-Huff Gym- Elite 8
Collinsville 61- Galesburg 59
Galesburg Roster
Bob Hoffman, Albert Kimbrough, Elbert Kimbrough, Al Williams, Jim Range, Doug Mills, Frank Youngquist, Duane White, Dick Taylor, Jack Grady, Churck Davis, Phil Erickson, Ted Bruington, Bill Finley, Bill Toureene
Coach John Thiel
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Illini Newspaper Description of Collinsville game
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Another gem! Always guaranteed to learn something new from these historical look backs.
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