• Welcome to BradleyFans.com! Visitors are welcome, but we encourage you to sign up and register as a member. It's free and takes only a few seconds. Just click on the link to Register at the top right of the page, and follow instructions. If you have any problems or questions, click on the link at the bottom right of the page to Contact Us.

How many recall the Cobden Appleknockers?

tornado

tornado

New member
Back in 1964, in the IHSA one-class system, the tiny Cobden Appleknockers (enrollment 147) - who had only 6 high school boys who regularly played for their varsity basketball team - advanced despite the odds, all the way to the IHSA Championship game against Pekin (enrollment 2,726) before losing and taking home the 2nd place trophy - it was quite a story...

50th Anniversary
http://thesouthern.com/news/local/c...cle_446ee2ed-5358-5515-a9ce-f10edf2bf4e4.html
 
Not that, but I remember Milan Indiana

Not that, but I remember Milan Indiana

In 1950 Milan Indiana actually won the one class Indiana state tournament. Milan had about 50 students and was the basis for the movie Hoosiers. A young man by the name of Bobby Plump was the star of that team.
 
tornado said:
Back in 1964, in the IHSA one-class system, the tiny Cobden Appleknockers (enrollment 147) - who had only 6 high school boys who regularly played for their varsity basketball team - advanced despite the odds, all the way to the IHSA Championship game against Pekin (enrollment 2,726) before losing and taking home the 2nd place trophy - it was quite a story...

50th Anniversary
http://thesouthern.com/news/local/c...cle_446ee2ed-5358-5515-a9ce-f10edf2bf4e4.html
Click to expand...



I remember the Cobden-Pekin game. I was pretty young, but the game was televised back then by a Chicago TV station (it seems it was a live broadcast I remember, but could have been film/video tape), and my family watched it. I didn't know much about either team, but I thought the Pekin's Chinks star player had a cool name- Davey Golden, and I thought the Cobden nickname was cool, too, The Appleknockers.

A couple years ago while driving down to Carbondale to see a BU-SIU game, we toured Cobden. It's about 15 miles straight south of Carbondale, and a bit off the main highway. Like most small rural towns all over the US, it does not look like it has fared well. The population is still listed around 1,000, but we barely saw anyone in their small downtown area, and many of the storefronts were boarded up. From the appearance of many homes, it appears there is a lot of poverty in the area.
There is a nice monument dedicated to the 1964 team near the high school.

Cobden+Sign.jpg


Here is a good page for information and pictures of the Cobden Appleknockers-
http://hiddengyms.blogspot.com/2012_08_01_archive.html

4dd48a119c82a_image.jpg



ghjj.jpg
 
Even the nickname "Appleknockers" originated as a durogatory name-

"This nickname originated when the high school first began to compete in athletics. It did not yet have a mascot, so other schools made up this derogatory term to insult the new school because of their large industry in peach and apple orchards."

See the 3rd paragraph here-
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cobden,_Illinois
 
bradleyfan124 said:
I rememeber them. Also that year Bradley won the NIT. They were calling the Peoria area the basketball capital of the world
Click to expand...

Might be wrong, but seem to remember our Salvation Army Biddy Ball team were National champs that year, or maybe another year around then. They had a kid named Black, I think, who was a heck of a young player.
 
Chico said:
Might be wrong, but seem to remember our Salvation Army Biddy Ball team were National champs that year, or maybe another year around then. They had a kid named Black, I think, who was a heck of a young player.
Click to expand...

This would have been before I ever set foot in Peoria, so I don't recall much about it, but I tried to look up more info about the Peoria Salvation Army Biddy Basketball program. It was started over 60 years ago, and ran until at least 1970.
I don't know if the Salvation Army Biddy Basketball program is still operating, but Paul Reatherford, the founder and director stepped down in 1970 and started his own youth basketball league, the Peoria Youth Basketball League (PYBBL).

Here is an article about Paul Reatherford being inducted into the Greater Peoria Sports Hall of Fame. In the bio, it does refer to him having a great deal of national success, including a national championship, but it doesn't give a year.-
http://www.gpshof.org/Inductees/reatherford.html

If anyone recalls more about this, let us know.

Paul Reatherford sounds like a dedicated coach and leader, but unfortunately, he passed away a little over a year ago. Here is his obituary-
http://obit.thewiltonmortuary.com/obit-1097402
 
I knew Paul. He was a great coach. He put the kids ahead of the parents. He would tell the parents before the season started the league was for the kids not the parents ego's basically. He told the parents at the beginning of the season to let the kids play and have fun. If they had a problem with that he would ask the parents to leave. The second league he formed was played at the First English Luthern Church. That is where I met Mark Scott.
 
I remember the team finishing 2nd in that year. If I remember correctly they had a bunch of kids that were tall for that day. I believe they had 4 kids that were in the 6'4" or 6'5" range.

I can't remember watching the game. However, that was a long time ago and I may have been on a date since it would have been on a Saturday. Ah, the good old days.:biggrin:
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top