IBCA says Danville will house “official” hoops hall

There has never been a permanent location for an Illinois high school basketball hall of fame.

Soon there will be two, which is causing a bit of confusion.

Since its formation in 1971, the Illinois Basketball Coaches Association (IBCA) has always intended to secure a permanent venue to honor the players, coaches, referees, administrators, teams, friends of basketball, and media members it inducts annually to its hall of fame.

The organization’s plaques and memorabilia were temporarily housed in a modest display at the Bloomington Holiday Inn, but the facility closed a few years ago. That’s when the IBCA began looking for a permanent home.

Two locations expressed interest in becoming the permanent host: Danville and Pinckneyville.

Danville, a city of 33,000 people located 35 miles east of Champaign-Urbana along Interstate 74, was the first to approach the IBCA, according to Westminster Christian boys basketball coach Bruce Firchau, the IBCA’s Hall of Fame Museum Chairman.

But another movement gained traction in Pinckneyville, a town of 5,600 located roughly midway between Carbondale and St. Louis. That group is led by former IBCA President Dick Corn, who won over 700 games and two Class A state titles before retiring as Pinckneyville High School coach in 2007.

As one part of a nine-part initiative developed in 2006 to spur interest, tourism and economic development in Pinckneyville, the area approved two museums designed to celebrate the region’s history. They settled on the Illinois High School Basketball Hall of Fame and the Rural Heritage Museum, the latter of which will focus on the area’s farming and agricultural history.

In March of 2010, the movement to build the Pinckneyville museums got a shot in the arm in the form of a $750,000 grant from the Community Development Systems Program of the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity. The state grant is to be split equally between the Illinois High School Basketball Hall of Fame and the Rural Heritage Museum, though not a dime has yet been spent because plans have yet to be finalized.

Corn said the Pinckneyville project has also secured $350,000 in private donations despite the difficult economic climate.

However, the IBCA did not choose Pinckneyville to host its official hall of fame. It chose Danville.

“I just think there were too many board members who thought we weren’t centrally located,” said Corn, whose group plans to move forward regardless.

“I’m not at war with the IBCA,” he said. “There are lots of high school basketball stories out there to be told, so I’m sure there’s room for a couple of museums if that’s what happens.”

At a press conference in Danville on March 19, the IBCA unveiled its plans to build the Illinois Basketball Hall of Fame within the David S. Palmer Civic Center. The permanent exhibit will be paid for via two phases of private fundraising with a projected opening in 2013.

The exhibit itself will feature interactive video displays incorporating the latest technology alongside historic memorabilia, according to Firchau. That includes all the memorabilia collected by the IBCA through the years like 3,000 state tournament photos, team photos of past state champions, county and state tournament programs dating back to the 1920s, video displays of hall-of-fame plaques, team uniforms, signed basketballs, antique scoreboards, etc.

The interior will be constructed first and opened immediately upon completion. The exterior, which will feature a courtyard, improved landscaping and flagpoles topped by the flags of reigning state champions, will be renovated later as part of the second phase.

Unlike the museum in Pinckneyville, which will focus solely on high school basketball, the Illinois Basketball Hall of Fame in Danville will also include the histories of Illinois collegiate and professional basketball teams. However, the state’s rich high school hoops history, both boys and girls, will be the museum’s main focus.

“We want you smelling the popcorn and hearing the squeaks of the shoes when you walk in,” Firchau said of the Danville facility. “We want to make you feel like you are there watching, and I think we can do that with old films and interactive displays and things of that nature.”

Soon after the IBCA made its Danville announcement, Corn sent a survey to athletic directors and basketball coaches around the state in an attempt to gather information for the High School Basketball Hall of Fame Museum in Pinckneyville. Part of that survey asked whether schools would be willing to donate memorabilia.

In response, the IBCA last week sent a letter to high schools statewide, which it also released on its website. That letter stated: “At this time we want to clarify that an effort to start an Illinois High School Basketball Hall of Fame in Pinckneyville is not affiliated or endorsed by the Illinois Basketball Coaches Association.”

Firchau said the IBCA received multiple responses thanking the organization for the clarification. Others have expressed similar feelings.

“I was confused when I got Dick Corn’s letter,” said Jim Hinkle, boys basketball coach at Jacobs High School in Algonquin and a 2010 IBCA Hall of Fame inductee. “Then I got the letter from the IBCA and that cleared things up in my mind.”

Where would Hinkle donate items from the high school teams he has coached at Chester, Dundee, Irving Crown, Jacobs or at Elgin Community College?

“My allegiance would be to the IBCA,” Hinkle said. “It’s kind of a sticky wicket because I like the people in Pinckneyville, but we all belong to the IBCA. Heck, that association helped me get a job when I came here from Chester. I’ve supported them in everything they do strictly because that association gave me the opportunity to have the career I’ve had.”

Corn isn’t shocked by such a response.

“I expected some IBCA members to feel that way and I don’t have a problem with their allegiance whatsoever,” he said. “But I’ve visited the Indiana High School Hall of Fame on a couple of occasions. I asked a couple of people about the memorabilia and they just belly laughed at me and said ‘Let me take you to our storage room because that’s why we’re building an addition right now.’

“I don’t think memorabilia is going to be a problem.”

Ready or not, Illinois high school hoops fans, you’re about to go from zero halls of fame to two.