By Woodrow Carroll
Fans and sports writer like to proclaim an individual or team as the best. Clearly, best covers a myriad of teams and individuals and usually doesn’t come close to reaching universal agreement. What it does, however, is bring out the argumentative juices in a great many.
Our focus is high school basketball. Our assertion: We contend that the 1971-1972 Thornridge High School boys basketball team is Illinois’ best.
The Falcons were defending State champions in 1971, having defeated Oak Lawn, 52-50, in the championship game. Tack on that the Falcons had four returning starters for 1971-72: Quinn Buckner, Boyd Batts, Mike Bonczyk, and Greg Rose, to make it easy to see why those Falcons were held in high regard. The fifth man on the team was junior forward Ernie Dunn who did his part.
Thornridge’s 1971 State championship was the last year for a single-class champion in Illinois. In 1971-1972, Thornridge was a Class AA school.
Batavia was Thornridge’s first foe during the 1971-1972 season. Playing in the four-team Rockford Guilford thanksgiving Tournament, the Falcons dispatched the Batavia, 97-71. Tournament victories over Peoria Manual and host Guilford soon followed.
With a growing reputation, Thornridge went to Wisconsin late in the season to face Racine Washington Park, an established Wisconsin power.
In an astonishing display of both offense and defense, the Falcons were ahead, 45-9 at halftime on he way to an 83-39 victory.
It’s the State basketball tournament, however, that makes or breaks a team’s reputation. Thornridge was ready!
In super-sectional play, Thornridge rolled over Lockport, 74-46. Then in the quarterfinals, at the University of Illnois in Champaign, the Falcons had no trouble with Collinsville and won, 95-66.
Poor Peoria Manual. The Rams had lost twice earlier in the season to Thornridge before meeting the Falcons in a semifinal game. Lttle improved. Thornridge won, 71-52.
The game of the tournament may have been in the quarterfinals between East Aurora and Quincy, won by Quincy, 107-96. East Aurora oach Ernie Kvisto’s Tomcats set a record for most points in a loss at the State Tournament.
Not surprisingly, the Quincy Blue Devils reached a record in points scored.
Kvisto’s Tomcats did bounce back nicely in the third-place game by coming from 15 points behind in the third quarter to beat Peoria Manual, 74-66.The Eat Aurora victory closed out a 28-4 season.
The championship match between Thornridge and Quincy was no contest. The Falcons were ahead by 35 points at halftime and coasted home with a 104-69 victory. Oddest stat may have been Thornridge’s 17 assists to only three for Quincy.
The 1971-1972 Thornridge team finished with a 33-0 record and ran the school winning streak to 54. Every victory was by double figures.
As for Quinn Buckner, the Thornridge ace is the only Illinois high school basketball player to achieve the Grand Slam. Buckner started on two high school State championship teams. In 1976, he led Indiana University’s National championship undefeated team. That same year in the Montreal Olympics, Buckner was a member of the USA basketball team won a Gold Medal.
In professional pay, Buckner was on the Boston Celtics’ 1984 team that won the National Basketball Association (NBA) championship. Buckner won all four.
The closest any other Illinois high school basketball player came to match Buckner, might have been George Wilson who started for Chicago Marshall’s State championship teams in 1958 and 1960. Wilson was a starter for Cincinnati when the Bearcats beat Ohio State for the NCAA championship in 1962. In 1964, Wilson added Olympic Gold to the list. Yet, no NBA crown came Wilson’s way in his seven-year career that included the 1966-1967 season when Wilson helped the Chicago Bulls start.