Legends kick off new exhibit on Geneva High

Basically, it was bar talk - without the bar setting.

But at its core, the Geneva High School sports roundtable discussion held Thursday night at the Geneva History Center was about how young athletes, committed coaches and a supporting community can churn out decades of memories ranging from euphoric to heartbreaking.

The roundtable, which featured three legendary Geneva High School coaches, current athletic director Jim Kafer and longtime public address announcer Kurt Wehrmeister, kicked off the history center's impressive "Beyond the Score - Moments in Geneva Sports History" exhibit.

The exhibit features more than 50 items, showcasing memorabilia and information about several standout teams and athletes in Geneva sports history. Visitors will see everything from the story of the 1868 Geneva Rovers baseball team to a 1939 Little Seven champions basketball patch, to a 1968 football team jersey, to photos and a story about Arch Richards' track feats in 1905.

But the 60 people who showed up Thursday wanted to hear stories from the panelists, which included football coach Jerry Auchstetter, basketball coach Bob Schick and girls' volleyball and softball coach Bonnie Gardiner.

Schick came to Geneva in 1953 and reflected on how the small school of Geneva was able to compete against schools three to four times bigger in an era in which all basketball teams played in only one classification.

It didn't stop the 1963 basketball team coached by Mel Johnson from thrilling Genevans like no other squad before or since, Schick said.

Schick coached the sophomores in those years, and his 1961 sophomore team won a prestigious tournament in Belvidere, setting the stage for the same players to reach legendary status two years later by making it to the first-ever state finals staged in Champaign before finally falling to Carver and finishing with a 30-3 record.

"That was the golden age of basketball in my opinion," Schick said. "Those years from 1958 to 1963, we had all of the biggest kids and best athletes it seemed."

Wehrmeister cited the Vikings stunning state tournament victory over heavily-favored East Aurora in 1981 on the Tomcats' home floor as one of his fondest basketball memories.

Auchstetter compiled 142 wins in 21 seasons as the head football coach at Geneva from 1967 to 1985 and 1992 to 1993.

Auchstetter and Wehrmeister both reflected on the teams of the late 1960s that dominated their seasons, but did it in an era with no state tournament. They also spoke fondly of the old Burgess Field, which sat just south of the high school and north of the Coultrap school building.

"That was like our Fenway Park of football," said Wehrmeister, a 1975 graduate of Geneva who called games from 1974 to this past season. "That field was the site of tremendous emotion and growth."

Auchstetter joked with former players in the audience that he wasn't going to end any arguments about which was the best team he ever had, saying instead that his clubs from 1967 to 1974 were all dominant.

"We lost only one home game in those seven years, and those teams should be remembered for that," Auchstetter said.

Audience members cheered at any mention or recollection of a Geneva team topping the Morris Redskins and their boisterous coach Dan Darlington, who has earned the title of Public Enemy No. 1 in the hearts and minds of Geneva fans.

Gardiner, who came to Geneva in 1973 and retired two years ago, talked about the struggles of girls' athletics in the late 1970s when Title IX created more opportunities.

"We had one set of uniforms for all three sports," Gardiner said. "It's just unbelievable to look at where the girls' sports are at today.

"I remember that we could have had a score of 12-10 in a girls' basketball game - and that was after four overtimes," Gardiner said.

Audience members heaped praise on the panel members for all they have meant to the community and how they had touched the lives of so many young people.

In an emotional moment, one man thanked coaches Auchstetter and Schick for their roles as gym teachers, saying he was suffering from depression and other mental disabilities as a young boy and the coaches "helped me more than any physician or psychiatrist ever did - and I thank you for that."