I am at an age where I tend to do a lot of reflecting on the past, remembering “the good old days.” In the past month, two things happened to cause me to reflect on growing up in Savanna. The first was when I heard it was definite that Savanna HS was closing and that Massey Field would no longer be used.
Hearing that news made me sad. Both Savanna HS and Massey Field are filled with many, many great memories. It is really hard to wrap my head around the present situation. Obviously times change and I am an old man.
My best memories of Savanna were connected with HS sports. As a 7-8 year old, I had no concept of cities or states. I didn’t think of “Savanna” as a city. Savanna was the name of my favorite sports teams.
At Sunday school, we sang a song that had verses saying Jesus watched over the world. When we got to the verse that said Jesus watched over Savanna, I got chills. As 7-8 year old, I thought we were talking about Jesus being a fan of the Savanna Indians.
I didn’t know anything about mayors or governors, but I knew my dad was the Athletic Director at Savanna. As a 8 year old I figured Dad was the man in charge of the whole town. I was so proud to be his son.
If it had to do with sports, I got to see it. I was there when they put the first gym floor down. Before basketball games, my job was to dribble and shoot with the new game ball to rough it up a little. For my fifty years as a high school coach, every time I took out a new basketball, I remembered my first basketball job at Savanna.
One of my most exciting and inspirational times in Savanna was following the 1960 and 1961 basketball teams. They were not just good, they were great. For a 7-8 year old, they quickly became my heroes.
Throughout the 1950’s, nobody beat Fulton. Fulton had an unbelievable string of about ten years where a Woods brother was on their teams, and they were great. In a one-class system, Fulton advanced to the Super-Sectionals in 1958.
Jerry Gray was hired as basketball coach in Savanna for the 1957 season. In 1957, the Indians went 14-10 and then had a losing record in 1958 at 8-14. But the start of the basketball glory days began in the 1959 season when Savanna went 16-13.
Savanna had Harvey Lester (Sr) and Louis Ramirez (Jr) as there leading scorers. The other top players included Harlan Law (Sr), Paul Mills (Jr), Allen Cottral (Jr), Tony Rivera (So), Tom Robbe (Jr), Bruce Clay (Jr), and Darry Andrew (Jr). To show Fulton’s dominance, Savanna lost to Fulton four times during the season- twice in conference, once in the holiday tourney, and then in the Regional championship.
Savanna hosted the Regional, and beat Lanark and Shannon before losing to Fulton in the championship. In the championship game, the Streaks box score looked like this- Lester 18, Ramirez 17, Clay 7, Law 5, Cottral 3, Mills 4, Rivera 4, Radabaugh 4, and Andrew 2.
1960 may have been the most exciting year in Savanna basketball history. The crowds became big enough that bleachers were moved in from the football field and put up on the stage for some of the games. Jerry Gray had his son dressed in Indian gear dribble out to lead the team onto the floor. It was pretty impressive stuff for an 8 year old.
In 1960, Savanna was led by seniors Louie Rameriz and Allen Cottral. Cottral and Ramirez were two of the best athletes in Savanna history, as they were also the stars on the football team. They definitely were heroes of an 8 year old.
Savanna lost only four times in the regular season. Two of their losses were to conference foes Bettendorf and Fulton. For the first time in a decade, Savanna beat Fulton. They split on the season. The Regional was hosted by Milledgeville. Savanna raced by Milledgeville and Morrison in the first game, setting up the championship with Fulton.
Savanna won the championship 59-57 with Radabaugh 26, Andrew 11, Clay 8, Ramirez 7, Cottral 3, Rivera 2, and Robbe 2. This sent the Indians to Moline for the Sectional at Wharton FH. Erie who had upset both Rock Island and East Moline in the Regional was to be Savanna’s first opponent. Galesburg and Sherrard were to play the other Sectional game.
Galesburg had been ranked #1 in the State for most of the 1960 season. They had lost their star for the Sectional, Bumpy Nixon. Bumpy had to sit due to a controversial rule that would not allow 19 year old to play. Bumpy turned 19 the day after the Regional championship game. As a result, the media had picked Erie to win the Sectional based on their upsets of strong, larger schools in the Regionals.
Erie had beaten Fulton in two of three regular season meetings. And Erie had beaten Savanna at the Franklin Center Christmas Tourney 73-52.
Thru three quarters, Savanna and Erie were dead even. 15-15 after one, 31-31 after two, and 41-41 after three. The Galesburg Register-Mail described the game this way- “Erie made good use of the free throw line to oust the speedy Savanna quintet by dropping 21 charity tosses to a mere 6 for the Indians. The loss of 6-5 Denny Radabaugh early in the fourth quarter (with fouls) sealed the doom of the Indians.”
Indeed fouls became the major issue of this heartbreaking loss. The three biggest stars for Savanna were all saddled with foul trouble in the fourth quarter. Radabaugh with 5, Rameriz with 5, and Cottral with 4. In scoring- Rameriz 17, Radabaugh 16, Cottral 16, Clay 11, Robbe 4, and Rivera 2. It was a 75-66 loss.
Erie lost in the Sectional championship to the Bumpy-less Silver Streaks. The solution for Galesburg with the loss of Bumpy was to plug in his brother, Lincoln who hit for 23 points in a 77-58 win.
Savanna over the next four decades would only win one Regional title.
Losing seniors Rameriz, Clay, Cottral, and Robbe would lead you to believe 1961 was going to be a rebuilding year, but it turned out to be another great year.
A Savanna lineup of Dennis Radabaugh, Mike Cravatta, Jerry Geison, Jack Kroll, and Jack Mills led the Indians to a spectacular 24-3 season. They didn’t just win, they dominated. Early in the season, they defeated Mt. Carroll 100-40.
Savanna won the Illowa Conference title. On their way to the Illowa title, they beat Fulton twice and lost only to Amboy in the last game of the regular season. The Regional was at Lanark, where the Indians beat Lanark and Morrison. They were upset in the championship game by Fulton 69-52 with Radabaugh collecting 27, Kroll 9, Geison 7, Mills 7, and Cravatta 2.
Radabaugh finished the season scoring 872 points and averaging 32.3ppg. The 32.3ppg in a season remains today the 17th highest total in Illinois basketball history. Dennis went to Kentucky and then UW-Milwaukee.
Jerry Gray left Savanna after the 1961 season to coach on the college level. He coached in Florida and Oklahoma before returning to Illinois to be the head coach at Millikin University in Decatur.
My favorite cheer as a young kid watching these great Savanna teams was,”We’re from Savanna and couldn’t be any prouder!” And boy, there was a lot for a 9 year old in 1961 to be proud of watching the basketball team play. Mark, Pat Davis, and I went thru a lot of t-shirts using magic markers to put on Ramirez 32, Cottral 10, and Radabaugh 50.
Today if the cooking instructions say to put something in the microwave for 30 seconds or 60 seconds- I put it in for 32 or 50 as a salute to Rameriz and Radabaugh. There was no ESPN when I was growing up, but it didn’t matter. Louis Ramirez was my Michael Jordan, Radabaugh my Alcindor, and Cottral my John Stockton. They larger than life for a 8 year old.
Unfortunately the Savanna teams I played on in the late ‘60’s did not experience anything close to the success of these great teams. But the ‘60 and ‘61 teams are what got me out in the driveway, working and dreaming. They helped create my love of basketball, which has lasted a lifetime.
Even though they are taking away the “old Savanna HS,” the memory of the Savanna ‘60 and ‘61 teams will live on!
This is a post on Dennis Radabaugh
When Adolph Rupp Came To Savanna
From Savanna Yearbooks- courtesy of Mark Massey
(If any pictures are with the wrong year’s, sorry!!)
1961 Yearbook
 |
No comments:
Post a Comment