Former Illinois basketball star and athletic director
RESIDENCE: Champaign
GOOD SPORT BECAUSE: Member of "Whiz Kids," who went 35-6 and won consecutive Big Ten titles in 1942-43. ... One of two living starters from those teams along with Art Mathisen. ... Returned to school after World War II to compete in 1946-47 with former teammates. ... Played in NBA with Chicago, Tri-Cities and Milwaukee. ... After leaving pro basketball in 1952, became boys' basketball coach at LaSalle-Peru. ... Worked at Illinois from 1956 to 2000, serving different roles for alumni association and athletic department. ... Executive director of Alumni Association in 1967 when he became athletic director. ... Served as AD until '72 before going to the Illinois foundation. Spent rest of UI career raising funds.
WHAT THEY'RE SAYING: "He's a great guy. Art Mathisen, who was the center for the Whiz Kids, had graduated before leaving for the service. The other four were back for that one last year, and I played center for them. I'm sure I didn't help them very much. They were always very kind to me, and I admired all of them. He's an institution. Now, he's the connection with the scene of 50 years ago." - Fred Green, former Illinois teammate
Tribute to Gene Vance, L-P Basketball Coach of 1953, and Illini basket ball legend.Illinois' 1942-43 team, 17-1 and presumably the nation's No. 1 team, opted out of the NCAAs when the Army drafted three of its starters 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 Illini team dubbed the "Whiz Kids," a starting five composed of Vance, Smiley, Art Mathisen, Ken Menke and Andy Phillip. All five players stood around 6 feet 3 inches tall and could shoot, dribble, rebound and play defense. They picked up the nickname that stuck for six decades after WGN broadcaster Jack Brickhouse commented during one of their games, "Those kids really whiz by you." Nobody in the Big Ten argued. Illinois went 17-1, won its second straight conference title and looked poised to capture the school's first national championship in '43 before running into the one obstacle players never could overcome individually: World War II. Depleted by war These days, the NBA threatens college basketball dynasties, but back then it was military service. Before the NCAA tournament began, the Army drafted Mathisen, Menke and Smiley. That left only Vance and Phillip, both good enough to be selected to Illinois' All-Century team last January. But coach Doug Mills made a decision in February 1943 that all five always supported. "If all five guys could not get a chance to play in the tournament, then two of us shouldn't have either," Vance said. "So we didn't play. It was the right choice." That type of team unity defined the group that averaged 58 points a game and won 35 games by an average margin of 20.1 points in two years playing together. The unselfishness, versatility and teamwork reminds Vance of the Illinois team he watched maintain its No. 1 ranking for 15 weeks this season and pull out the most improbable of comebacks last Saturday night against Arizona. "We just had five guys who played off each other well, didn't have specific roles, and nobody cared who scored all the points as long as we were winning," Vance said. Illinois' last game that season came March 1 in a 92-25 victory over Northwestern, the final time all five Whiz Kids appeared on the court at the same time. In the next morning's paper, the Champaign News-Gazette listed each starter next to his respective branch of military: Smiley of the Army, Phillip of the Marines, etc. The tournament went on without the Illini, presumably the best team in the country, and Wyoming beat Georgetown in the 1943 NCAA championship game. In June, Vance and Phillip answered their call to duty for a tour that lasted 16 months. "I think not being able to go the NCAAs was the biggest disappointment I've ever had," Vance said. Four of the five, minus Mathisen, returned to Illinois and tried to recapture the glory for one more season in 1946-47 after the war ended, but the chemistry had changed as well as their talent. Illinois went 14-6. Vance, with a face for Hollywood and a body for the NBA, played professionally for the Chicago Stags, Tri-Cities and Milwaukee from 1948 to '52 before being called to Korea to serve in his second war. He is the only surviving member of the "Whiz Kids," having attended each of his former teammates' funerals. "When you look at the way Gene Vance served his country, his school, and his community here in Clinton, you have to say he was one of the most significant people in the history of Illinois athletics," said Clinton native Joe Alexander, a former Illini distance runner who now sells real estate in his hometown. "That's why he's my hero." Fitting tribute Alexander, 30, was competing for Illinois in a race inside Jesse Owens Memorial Stadium at Ohio State when he first thought of honoring Gene Vance. "I remember thinking, wow, what a great way to commemorate Jesse Owens' memory," Alexander said. He told that story to the Clinton School Board of Education last January as he attempted to have the high school gym named for Vance. Alexander, whose father worked with Vance's father on the Illinois Central Railroad, called Vance the most famous athlete ever produced in the small community 40 miles west of Champaign. Clinton takes pride in its quaintness and wholesome image, the kind of place comfortable with having a church storefront in the heart of its downtown nestled between a bank and an electronics store that advertises, "We're No Dairy Queen, But We Have Great Sundays." The only notable Illinoisan commemorated in Clinton is Abraham Lincoln, and a statue of the 16th president in the town park indicates how often this territory served as a 19th Century political stumping ground. But beyond Honest Abe, local history includes few headliners. So with the blessing of the school's athletic director, Alexander argued, "we may not have [had] Jesse Owens here in Clinton, but let's be proud that we had Gene Vance." The board did not budge, defeating the measure 4-3. Opponents questioned the logic in naming a building for a man who has spent the bulk of his professional life in Champaign, where Vance worked in the Illinois athletic department--including a stint as athletic director--from 1959 until he retired five years ago. "I didn't get the board's decision," athletic director Karl Parrish said. "There's a Webster Grade School in town, but I don't think Daniel Webster has been through here lately either." Clinton School superintendent Jeff Holmes, who did not vote, acknowledged how emotional the debate became but stayed neutral. "I felt strongly we needed to honor him in some way, but some members of the board just felt we should not be in the business of naming facilities," Holmes said. "I thought what we did was appropriate." One Friday night last January, Vance attended a night in his honor during which the school presented him an American flag and a replica of the No. 25 jersey he wore as a Clinton Maroon in 1940. A banner also was unveiled under the scoreboard in the gym that reads, "Home of Clinton's Whiz Kid." Overwhelmed, Vance wept. The next edition of the Clinton Daily Journal quoted Vance calling it "one of the greatest days I have ever had." "Looking back, it was such an honor," Vance said. "I didn't need the gym to be named for me, I don't need all that. What they did was enough." But they might not be finished. Alexander pointed out that two of the four board members who voted against naming the gym for Vance are not running for re-election Tuesday. A new board might mean new life for the movement. If Illini Drive can run outside the school grounds, he figures, Gene Vance deserves something carrying his name too. "Sometimes I think if the board's decision was good enough for Gene, then it should be good enough for me," said Alexander, the father of three young boys. "But then I think how important it is for future generations to realize the legacy Gene Vance has left behind here in Clinton." |
Many people from L-P don't realize who Gene Vance is. The two-generation gap between him and the students who attend L-P High School now is the reason for this. Many people, however, remember the once dominant player from his days at Clinton High School. Gene Vance was the only Clinton High School basketball player toplay in the National Basketball Association (NBA). After winning an all-state selection in 1940, Vance decided to attend the University of Illinois to play basketball. His days at the University of Illinois are what he is most famous for. He was a member of the famed "Whiz Kids" of the Fighting Illini. Andy Phillip, Jack Smiley, Ken Menke, Art Mathisen, and Vance formed one of the nation's best teams in the early 1940s. Their fast-breaking style helped the Fighting Illini to win 25 of 27 Big Ten games from 1941 to 1943, earning two Big Ten titles. After the 1943 season, Vance and the rest of the Whiz Kids were called to military duty for World War II. Illinois was ranked number one in the nation at that time. Following the final regular-season game, the entire "Whiz Kid" group entered the war effort. After the war, Gene, Smiley, Phillip, and Menke returned for the 1947 season led the Illini to a second-place finish that season. After his tenure at Illinois, Gene was drafted by the Chicago Stags of the Basketball Association of America, or the BAA. After playing with the BAA for two years, the BAA turned into the National Basketball Association, or the NBA. Vance then played two years for the Tri-Cities Blackhawks before ending his playing career with the Milwaukee Hawks for a year. Gene Vance's stats were very proficient for that era ... there was no shot clock so there weren't many points scored per game.
After his playing days were over, Vance turned to coaching. He went back to his home state of Illinois to coach the
LaSalle-Peru Cavaliers. He began a very successful tenure at L-P by going 15-5 and winning a Regional Championship. The next season wasn't as successful, but this team still manage to get a school record. This team holds the record for best defensive average for the season with 50.9. After an uneventful year in 1955, Vance's 1956 team exploded. The finished the year with a 20-7 record, becoming only the second team in history to record 20 victories in a season. They ended up winning the Regional and Sectional Championship before losing to Peoria Central in the Super Sectional. Vance was also an assistant football coach at LaSalle-Peru from 1952-1954. His teams had a combined record of 15 wins, 9 losses, and 4 ties, with his best season coming in 1953 when his team had a 6-2-2 record.
Read the March 17th News Tribune Article interviewing Gene: http://www.newstrib.com/main.asp?SectionID=90&ArticleID=12644&SubSectionID=330