Looking back with Joe Laughary
Comments (...)On March 5, 1951, the Morris Redskins won the Seneca Regional championship, beating the Streator Bulldogs 66-55, to advance into the IHSA Ottawa Sectional basketball tournament. The victory was even better as the late Joe Laughary, then the Redskins head coach, was celebrating his birthday with the win.
Laughary had just taken over the head coach job of basketball at Morris High School. I interviewed coach Laughary in 1978, and we reflected back on the up-and-down season, with a squad consisting of four seniors, one junior and five sophomores.
The team was made up of the four seniors, Wilbur “Spunky” Perry, Jim Bergstrom, Don Walker and Phil Wieck. The long junior was Jerry Enger. The five sophomores were Phil Bromberg, Frank Cheshareck, Elton Monson, Leon Gant and Eddie Best. The starting five for the ‘51 Skins was Perry, Bromberg, Cheshareck, Gant and Best.
However, when Best fractured his ankle late in the season, Walker took over the guard spot. Best did recover in time for the tournament action, but only as a reserve.
“Donnie was a senior and had two of years experience playing on the squad, so he filled in real well. In fact, if I had to pick any one thing that worked in our favor, as far as winning the regional, Donnie was a real sparkplug,” Laughary said of Walker. “Donnie was a real aggressive player, both on offense and defense.”
The regional in 1951 was played at Seneca High School in a brand-new gymnasium. Morris defeated Ottawa Marquette (55-43) and Minooka (64-56) before advancing to the finals against Streator. The semifinal victory over Minooka was sweet for Morris, since the Indians had defeated Morris quite handily during a regular-season game.
Morris was then defeated by St. Paul of Odell 71-53 in the opening round of the Ottawa Sectional tourney.
Laughary talked about the St. Paul Saints team, saying, “The team was little in enrollment but big on the basketball court. They had Bill Noonan at center at 6-4 and Jim Wolf at 6-4 along with Dick Ralph, Jim Gordon and Jack Gassensmith.”
St.Paul had only 26 boys in the Catholic school at the time. The Saints, after losing to Peoria Woodruff, 76-62, at state, ended the season at 31-3 and were coached by Rev. Francis J. Casey, a real disciplinarian. St. Paul closed the school in 1966.
St. Paul participated in the Morris holiday cage tournament and was defeated by St. Anne 50-46 for its only game of the affair. The other loss on the season (besides the state tourney) was to Trinity 52-36.
Laughary added, “They won the Ottawa Township High School sectional tournament, beating DePue 57-53.”
Jim Wolf scored 32 points for the Saints.
“DePue had some really fine teams in those days. They were consistently rated in the state in those years. The coach at that time was Gaston Freeman who a fraternity brother of mine at Western Illinois, when we were in school together,” Laughary said. “DePue had won the regionals around four straight years, but were beaten out in the sectional finals each time.”
The 1950-51 Morris squad finished the year at 15 wins and 13 losses.
When reminiscing about his basketball coaching career, Laughary talked of the 1953 team that was ranked from sixth to 12th in the state polls. The longtime rival Ottawa Pirates, who defeated Morris during the ‘53 regional championship, were ranked as high as fourth. Ottawa, coached by Gil Love, advanced to state and the Sweet Sixteen, winning one game and then being eleminated from further tourney action.
DePue was rated in the top 15 in the state during the year. Many fans in this area who followed high school basketball in those days remember the names of DePue’s standouts, consisting of Don and Gene Talbot, Chuck Abbott and Lupe Rios.
When I asked coach Laughary, what he thought were the big changes in the game from when he coached, he said, “As far as fundamentals, the basics, I don’t think it has changed too much. Your offenses and defenses are more complex now than they used to be. But, overall, I think you probably find that shooting is better now, perhaps because of better floors and better equipment. As I said, because of the shooting styles and so on, I would say that it is probably superior today than it was back in that era.”
Laughary continued on, “I hate to say that, because some old-timers talk about ball clubs today are not as good as they used to be. I have my reservations about that.”
When Joe and I talked about the most prized boys basketball trophies at Morris, one had to be the 1953 Pontiac Holiday Championship trophy. Morris won the tourney championship, beating DePue in the big game. The Redskins had downed Peoria Central in the semi-final round.
Peoria went on to finish in second place in the state, losing to La Grange High School for the IHSA state title.
The 1953 Pontiac Holiday tourney championship was played on New Year’s Day.
Another of the most prized awards in the Morris trophy case, however, has to be the 1919 state appearance by Morris. That should be highlighted in the front of the trophy case.
Laughary said that big win at Pontiac and the 1951 regional title team were his big coaching thrills at Morris High School. Joe’s son, Keith Laughary was also the head coach at Morris for several years.
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