Galesburg’s run to the State Title game was so exciting and such a great achievement. When Galesburg fans think about the ‘98 Silver Streaks, you have to immediately think about that tourney run.
With all the excitement of that ‘98 season, the three game series with Moline may be one of the most impressive stories in Streaks history. The year before Moline had made the Sweet 16, losing to Rockford Boylan by 2 points in the Super-Sectional. And Moline had beaten Galesburg three times in ‘97 by scores of 53-43, 74-71, and 67-53.
Moline returned most of their team for ‘98 and had high goals. Galesburg returned most of their lineup and Rod Thompson had transferred in. So both squads had very high hopes.
Mike Miller had been hired to coach the Streaks for the 1996-7 season. Mike as a 26 year old had taken Rockford Guilford to the 1993 State Championship game. So Coach Miller was considered one of the best young coaches in Illinois when hired by Galesburg.
Miller was attracted to Galesburg because of Galesburg’s reputation as being committed to boys basketball. He described the interview process as involving 3 trips to Galesburg for 3 separate interviews. The first interview was with about 20 parents, coaches, teachers, and community members. The second interview was with 6 administrators. And the final meetings were with Dr. O’Melia (HR) and Dr. Cope (Supt.). Miller told that Dr. Cope in the interview joked, “You need to promise that I can give one out of bounds play per year.”
When talking to Mike today, one of the first things he mentioned was the support of the District #205 Administration, “I was allowed to play the kind of schedule that we needed to play. We were all rowing the same direction. That is not always true, sometimes there are people who are capping your success. The administration at that time understood that athletics and basketball was the front porch of the schools.”
Miller went onto describe the tremendous support of the community for basketball, “It seemed like everyone was hungry for success. It was crazy how great the media attention was with two newspapers running several stories a week and two radio stations covering games. There are college that don’t get the kind of attention we got at Galesburg.”
Galesburg at Moline- Game 1
Miller described the excitement of fans for the Moline games. The first game was at Wharton Fieldhouse. Coach remembered, “We arrived at Wharton an hour before the FS game tip-off and there were 1,000 fans waiting outside to get into the game.”
Moline entered the first game undefeated, while Galesburg had lost in December at a shootout in St. Louis. Moline featured two D1 players- Traves Wilson 6’3” 20.3ppg, 9.8rpb (Arizona) and Ian Hanavan 6”6” 15.7ppg, 11.5rpg (Illinois Chicago). Galesburg’s two D1 players were Joey Range 6’4” 20.3ppg, 8.2repg (Iowa) and Rod Thompson 6’6” 13.6ppg, 8.1rpg (Iowa).
The score at the quarters was:
First- G-16, M-16
Second- G-31, M-25
Third- G-51, M-43
Final- G-75- M-59
Galesburg’s two stars outscored Moline’s two stars 45-34. The big boost came from Steve Glasgow who had 14 and Patrick Hanlon who came off the bench to score 8.
Moline at Galesburg- Game #2
This game was easy for me to find as I remember it was on February 20. My son had his first birthday on February 20. My wife took tickets, so she brought Allen over to be with me. I hate to brag but no kid in Galesburg has had a bigger First Birthday Party than my son had that night.
Since the last time they played, Galesburg had lost only once. The Streaks lost to Cory Maggette and Fenwick earlier in January. Moline had not lost since the last Galesburg game.
Game 2 was Galesburg first sell out since 1984. The huge, loud crowd was not to be disappointed with an exciting game, even if the Streaks fans didn’t experience great stress. Joey Range picked up two fouls in the first minute and a half. This helped Traves Wilson have an explosive first half where he scored 22 points.
 |
| Rod Thompson later playing for Iowa. |
Moline led by ten during the first half and led by 7 early in the fourth quarter. Galesburg still trailed 57-61 with 4:24 to go in the game. Galesburg field the game at 61 all, and it was Joey Range who scored the final four points in the last minute of the game.
Wilson (29) and Hanavan (13) combined for 42 points, while Range (25) and Thompson (12) hit 37 points. The difference maker in this game was Taylor Thiel who had 18 points on 5-6 from threes.
This game was Galesburg’s first outright WB6 title since the 1976 team of Campbell and Kelley. Galesburg was now 23-2, while Moline dropped to 21-2 with their only losses to Galesburg.
Galesburg vs Moline at UTHS Sectional- Game #3
If anyone thought by the third game things were getting “old hat,” they would be mistaken. Although the Panther Den was much bigger than Thiel Gym, tickets were hard to get.
Coach Miller described the build up for these games. The night before the game, he was in Athletic Director, Mike Robson’s office across from the gym. Mike was in there for 15 minutes but it was the time that opened the doors to let people without season tickets in to purchase tickets. Miller said, “ When I opened the door to leave the office, there were literally hundreds of people lined up in the hallway waiting to get tickets.”
While I could get a ticket for myself, I could not get a ticket for my brother. Mark was not to be denied. He arrived with clipboard in hand and went to pass gate. He announced he was a scout. My guess is that the poor person at the pass gate was frazzled by that time, and she gave him a ticket.
In Game 3, Galesburg jumped out to ten point lead, despite Joey Range collecting two fouls in the first 3 minutes of the game. Galesburg went up by as many as 13 points before Moline roared back to cut the lead to 49-48 with 5:33 to go.
Moline was not to score the rest of the game. The Register-Mail’s Jay Redfern wrote that in the three games, Galesburg had outscored Moline down the stretch of each game by an unbelievable 33-2 margin.
Game 1- 14-2
Game 2- 8-0
Game 3- 11-0
Range (26) and Thompson (18) outscored Wilson (17) and Hanavan (12) by 44 to 29. The extra spark in this game for the Streaks came from Mike Tapper, who went 2 of 2 from three.
Galesburg Three Game Sweep
It should be noted that in 1998, Moline finished 25-3 with their only losses to Galesburg. Rockford Boylan would finish 30-2 with their only two losses being to Galesburg.
When I reached to Mike Miller and told him that I wanted to talk to him about the three Moline games, he wasn’t sure how good his memory would be. He laughed and said, “That’s almost thirty years ago, I am not sure how much I can remember.”
I quickly realized that Mike remembered it like it was just last week. As we started talking, Mike could remember details of each of the games-
** Joey got in foul trouble and had to sit in game 2.
** Patrick came off the bench in game one and was big.
** Dexter’s son in game 3 almost shot them back into the game.
Where Mike got most excited was not talking about the games but talking about the players. His respect and admiration for the that team was very obvious. Coach Miller shared his thoughts about the team and the players.
The Team- “They played so well together. They all took good shots. They bought into the idea that if I have a good shot, and you have a great shot, the ball has to go to you.”
The Stars- “We had two D1 players in Joey and Rod. They were both quick, strong, could jump, and could shoot. In Joey, we had the best player. Like all of them, Joey was unbelievable as a coach to work with.”
Toughness- “Taylor, Steve, Patrick, and Beau all gave us an unbelievable toughness. They would not back down from anyone.”
Underrated- “Mike Tapper was so underrated, he was 6’4” but could run, could play outside, and could shoot.”
Big Games- “At different times throughout the year, Steve Glasgow and Taylor Thiel stepped up and had huge games and could carry us.”
Swiss Army Knife- “Patrick Hanlon was so valuable off the bench for us. He was tough, but he could do whatever we needed on a given night, play inside or outside, guard a guard or guard a post.”
Steady- “Beau had a tough role but when called on he was always there ready to go and get after someone with his defense.”
GAME #1
GAME #2
GAME #3
No comments:
Post a Comment