No Great Illinois High School Player Forgotten — Part II

This is the latest installment of Illinois high school basketball legends that fans have submitted to me. I have received about 50 players' names from all corners of the state. I appreciate you taking the time to bring these players to my attention. Obviously, in a format like this I can't write about all of them, but I'm trying to represent the outstanding basketball played over the decades.

1950s

Mannie Jackson — Edwardsville (1956)

All-State, HS All-American, runner-up in the state tournament in '56, 4th in state in '54, 79-19 overall record, played at Illinois for 3 years, All-Big Ten, played for the Harlem Globetrotters before he bought the team.

Govoner Vaughn — Edwardsville (1956)

All-State in '56, teammate of Jackson's on great Edwardsville teams and Illini teams, he and Jackson were first two African American basketball players to letter at Illinois, MVP on '59-'60 Illinois team.

Paul Judson — Hebron (1952)

All-State, led 1952 Hebron team, along with his brother Phil, to the Illinois State Championship (only District championship team to ever win the state tournament during the one-class system), 3-year starter at Illinois and 2x All-Big Ten, All-American for the Illini, played on the USA Olympic team in '56.

Harv Schmidt — Kankakee (1953)

2x All-State, had the highest scoring average in the state in '52 and '53, senior season his team was 25-1, 3-year starter at Illinois and MVP, later coached at Illinois.

Walt Moore — Mt. Vernon (1950)

All-State, along with Max Hooper he led the Rams to back-to-back state championships in '49 and '50, '50 team was rated best high school team in the nation, played on outstanding teams at Western Illinois.

1960s

Dan Davis — Chicago Crane Tech (1965)

All-State in '65, played at Northwestern for 3 years where he averaged over 10 points for his career, later returned to have a successful coaching career at Crane.

Joe Allen — Chicago Carver (1963)

2x All-State, 16.8 points and 10.5 rebounds his junior and senior seasons, Carver was 28-5 his junior and senior years, Illinois State Tournament Champions in '63 and runner-up in '62, 3x All-Missouri Valley at Bradley, 2nd team All-American, averaged 22 points and 11 rebounds as senior, a bad knee kept him from playing professional basketball.

LC Brasfield — Carbondale (1967)

All-State, runner-up in the state tournament to Pekin in '67, 50-11 record his junior and senior seasons, averaged over 15 points and 15 rebounds his senior year, averaged 19 points and 9 rebounds his junior and senior years at SIU.

Fred Miller — Pekin (1967)

2x All-State, 1,452 career points, Pekin teams were 115-11 including state championships in '64 and '67, in '67 state championship game Miller scored 36 points and set a record for the most field goals in a championship game with 16, played at Illinois and captained the '70-'71 team.

1970s

Otho Tucker — Paris (1971)

All-State, HS All-American, Paris teams were 78-9 (30-1 senior year), played at Illinois 3 years and scored 764 points, Scholastic All-Big Ten and All-American. NBA draft pick in '76.

Lloyd Walton — Chicago Mt. Carmel (1971)

All-State, Parade AA, scored 1,570 points his junior and senior seasons, juco All-American at Moberly, scored 1,006 points and had 480 assists at Marquette, 2nd team All-American, '73-'74 Marquette team was NCAA Tournament runner-up, drafted by the Bucks.

Ron Lester — Chicago Dunbar (1976)

All-State, averaged 27 points as senior, 2x All-Big Ten at Iowa, 2nd team AA, scored 1,675 points and had 480 assists for the Hawkeyes, 1st round draft pick of the Blazers.

Jeff Carpenter — Chicago Fenwick (1970)

All-State, HS All-American, 19-point average and 11 assists his senior season, played at Notre Dame.

Tracy Webster — Harvey Thornton (1989)

2x All-State, rated 6th best point guard in Chicago high school basketball history, teams were 64-19, led team in assists all 3 years, played at Wisconsin where he scored 1,247 points and set the career record for assists with 501, captain of the Badgers for 3 years and All-Big Ten in '94.

1990s

Shane Hawkins — Pinckneyville (1994)

2x All-State, scored 2,419 points in career, his teams were 104-20 including a state championship in '94, scored 1,384 points and had 435 assists at SIU.

Matt Moran — Pekin (1995)

All-State, 26.1 points and 11.5 rebounds his senior season, 1,946 career points, played at Bradley and Northwestern where he averaged 11.6 points a game.

2000s

Patrick Beverley — Chicago Marshall (2006)

All-State, Marshall was 60-5 his junior and senior years, 3rd place in state tournament in '06, known for tough defensive play Beverley was a top 100 recruit, played only 2 years at Arkansas where he was All-SEC and ROY in '06-'07, averaged 13.2 points, drafted by the Lakers.

Martell Bailey — Chicago Westinghouse (2000)

All-State, 2000 team was ranked 4th in the nation, finished the season 31-2 and 2nd in the state tournament, his high school career Westinghouse was 132-3, his brother Bailey was also an outstanding player, played 3 years at UIC where he scored 789 points and had 656 assists, led the league in assists all 3 years, 2x All-Horizon.

Coach's Corner

I have 4 coaches I want to highlight in this post, two from the same school. Max Kurland and Mike Bailey both coached at Chicago St. Patrick. Kurland coached there for 35 years and had a 658-275 record. Bailey spent 31 years at St. Patrick and was 583-293, that is a combined 1241-568 record over 66 years. Will Slager coached at Chicago Christian for 39 years and was 746-283 with a 3rd place finish at the state tournament in '74. Jim Maxedon coached Effingham for 24 years. His teams were 458-193 and finished 2nd in the state tournament in '80 and made it to the Elite 8 in '81.

Please continue to send me the names AND some information about any Illinois high school elite players that you think are worthy. (Check out all my All-Decade players on thebasketballgoat.com.) I apologize if you sent me a player who I didn't get in this article, it is hard to get more than a 15 or 16 into a format like this.