|
COPYRIGHT 2005 Chicago Tribune
Byline: David Haugh
CLINTON, Ill. _ One day during World War II while defending his country on European soil, infantryman Gene Vance encountered former Illinois basketball teammate Jack Smiley, an artillery corporal.
Their U.S. Army uniforms differed greatly from the white shorts and tank tops they wore for the Illini just months earlier, but their memories raced back to when the cause involved a national championship instead of national security.
As Vance and Smiley worried like many soldiers about what might become of their lives, they wondered what might have been if fate had not stopped the 1943 Illinois basketball team when it looked like nothing else could.
"When I ran into Jack, we talked about whether we would have won it all," recalled Vance, 82, a Clinton native who lives in Champaign. "And I think we would have."
Alas, Illinois basketball historians can only speculate.
The 2005 college basketball season indeed might go down as the most successful in Illinois history if the Illini win two more games at the NCAA Final Four. But no matter what transpires in St. Louis this weekend, suffice to say the 1942-43 season will remain the school's most storied.
Perhaps because the story never was allowed its proper ending.
Vance and Smiley belonged to the 1943...
Read the full article for free courtesy of your local library.
|
Bookmark this article
Print this article
Link to this article
Email this article
Digg It!
Add to del.icio.us
RSS
