Miracle on Maroon Dr. revisited
Funny how things have changed in the Fox Valley the past 10 years.
In 1998, Marvin Edwards was superintendent of Elgin Area School District U-46, Ron O'Neal was principal at Elgin High and Tim Heinrich was athletic director.
And a group of Maroons athletes caught the fancy of the entire area with their talents on and off the basketball court.
Today we take a look back at that great 1997-98 Elgin High boys basketball team that created more attention than any single high school sports team in this area. Ever.
Sure, there had been past great teams in the area. While we celebrate the 10th anniversary of that great Elgin team's run to the Elite Eight, we can't forget this is also the 70th anniversary of Dundee's 1938 state championship team. And yes, previous Elgin boys teams had gone to state and come home with hardware, which the 1997-98 team did not. And yes, there were the great runs of the St. Edward girls team in the 1980s and the Elgin girls team that took second in the state in 1996.
But no other team in our area's history got as much hype as the 1997-98 Maroons. From local radio to CLTV, to fundraisers at Elio's, to the City-Suburban Shootout at DePaul, all the way to Carver Arena in Peoria, this team was in the spotlight like no other we've seen in these parts. Ever.
The Miracle on Maroon Drive we called it, and it truly was.
It was a team in every sense of the word. The scoring leader was the coach's son, one whose 2,119 career points still stand as the school record and probably always will. But it was a team that had two other future Division I players starting as well as a tough-nosed forward who went on to play Division III basketball, and another senior who was one of the smartest kids in his class. It had reserves who knew their roles and flourished in them, and it was a team of best friends that went on a magic carpet ride that didn't end until it ran into one of the truly great teams in IHSA history, Whitney Young.
It also had a coach who wore his heart on his sleeve with every tick of the clock, a man who could adjust to any game situation on a dime, and one who roamed the sidelines with a fervor and tenacity we don't see enough of anymore.
"That team had the best basketball IQ I've ever been around," said Jim Harrington, the mastermind of Elgin High basketball for 15 years. "I think every kid on that team had at least a 2.7 GPA and every one of them graduated from college. It was a super intelligent group of kids who truly understood basketball. They were a pleasure to be around."
Harrington has always said that Elgin team was probably not the most talented team he had ever coached.
"They let their actions do their talking," he said. "They battled from day one and never ever gave up. They slept and drank basketball and all they wanted to do was win. It was a dream season that reminded me of Hoosiers."
And win they did. They started the season 20-0, slipped against Waubonsie Valley and Harrington's former assistant Dave Saurbaugh, and then won 10 more on their way to the Elite Eight. The 30th win, over Naperville North in the NIU supersectional, set a school record for wins in a season.
"That was probably the most fun I've had playing basketball," said Marcus Smallwood, then a sophomore, of the supersectional win he starred in. "That situation was surreal with 3,000 people watching us."
Smallwood, who went on to play at NIU and in Europe, said the team concept of that season is what stands out the most to him.
"We had a big emphasis on team," said Smallwood, who now lives in Chicago and works as a trade broker for Echo Global Logistics. "We enjoyed playing with each other and we learned it didn't matter who had the best individual talent but who had the best team."
Marcus Howard, also a sophomore on that team, agreed with his former classmate.
"Besides all the success was the fact we were all real good friends," said Howard, who went on to play at Indiana State and is now married and working in sales in Lafayette, Ind. "The fact we were so close off the court was a big reason we played so well."
It was also a team that avoided injury and just meshed more and more every night, win after win.
"I just remember how much fun it was," said Sean Harrington, then a junior and the holder of that Elgin career scoring record who went on to a stellar career at the University of Illinois and is now the director of basketball operations for Rick Majerus at Saint Louis University.
"It was a special year. Things just fell right for us. We won some close games and no one had any major injuries all year. It was just a special year."
And a year that captivated not only the Elgin community, but Bartlett as well. Of the 15 players on the team, nine were from Bartlett, including three starters -- Harrington, Smallwood and Brent Gooden, who went on to play at Aurora University. Only senior Matt Ludemann, who went on to get his education at Northwestern, and Howard, were from Elgin.
Included in the six reserves who came from Bartlett was Rano Mariotti, who recently returned from military service in Iraq and who Jim Harrington called "the epitome of what this group was all about."
"The whole town picked it up, and not just Elgin but Bartlett too," said Jim Harrington, now a driver's education instructor at South Elgin High School. "The whole community got behind this group. When we were 20-0 we tried to switch practices around because there was someone there every day. There was no small game that year. The pressure built with every game."
But it wasn't pressure teenagers put as much stock in as adults.
"We really didn't think about winning 20 in a row or whatever," said Howard, who married his wife, Jacki, in the Bahamas in May. "We were just having fun, playing hard and staying focused."
One of the reasons that Elgin team, as well as most of Harrington's teams over the years, was able to stay focused was the coaching. Harrington always surrounded himself with the best coaches he could and that year was no different with Rob Brault, Jeff Smith, Kevin Gallery, Mike Termini, Bill Baldridge and Norm Garrett on staff.
And Dr. Nick Bumbales. In addition to being Elgin's team doctor, which he still is, Bumbales donned many hats that season, including press agent. At every Elgin game reporters could expect an up-to-date stat report, a scouting report on the opponent and tidbits of information you usually only got at a Division I college game. Harrington appropriately labeled Dr. Nick as his "associate head coach".
"They were a fantastic group of kids on and off the court," said Bumbales, now a science teacher at Elgin High who can still be found in the gym every night. "They strongly influenced my belief that a group of kids who gets along well plays well. They understood their roles and they fulfilled them to their potential, whether they were a star or the 15th man. And they did that in games and practices.
"I also thought that was one of Jim's best coaching jobs. He took advantage of matchups he saw and put the kids in a good position to succeed. It was a lot of fun. It just built week on week and I thought the kids did a good job of handling it. It was an extremely competitive group that just wanted to win."
Bumbales may have been the first to really grasp what this team was capable of. Having lost to Fremd in the sectional semifinals the previous season, Bumbales said he noticed a difference during the summer of 1997.
"We were playing Hersey at the Crystal Lake South Shootout," he recalled. "We were down by 3 with a couple seconds left and we threw a baseball pass to Sean. He caught it, scored and got fouled. A Hersey kid stood there and stared him down at the free throw line and then Sean made the free throw to win the game. I thought then we had a chance to be pretty good."
Every time a team goes on a run there are specific memories. While Jim Harrington said he really couldn't pick out one game or moment (although he did coin the supersectional win as special), Sean Harrington, Smallwood and Howard have their favorites.
"The Brother Rice game at DePaul was a special game," said Sean Harrington. "That was a high profile game for our school. And the whole state tournament run stands out. We were expected to do big things and we made it downstate."
Harrington's entire high school career was special.
"Elgin was a very special place for me for 15 years before I even got to play there," said Harrington, who is also recently married. "I always had maroon and cream in my blood and with my dad coaching there it made it special for both of us. It's something I'll always have great memories of."
Howard, like Smallwood, remembers the supersectional win the best.
"We knew then we were going downstate and we got that 30th win. To set a record like that at Elgin, with all the storied history of the program, and to know we were in the final eight … that was pretty cool."
The legion of fans that followed the Maroons is something Smallwood will always remember.
"The pep rally before Peoria in front of the whole student body was something," he said. "And then being face-to-face down there with all those great players like Quentin Richardson and Corey Maggette and being one of the final eight teams. It was just a real special time."
That it was. And one that won't be forgotten anytime soon.
1997-98 Elgin roster
Name, Pos., Ht., Wt., Age, Yr.
Chamar Sallis, G, 5-11, 150, 16, Fr.
Kobe Chanthaboury, G, 5-10, 160, 17, Jr.
Mike Roth, G, 5-11, 155, 18, Sr.
Scott Henke, G, 6-1, 160, 18, Sr.
Rano Mariotti, G, 6-0, 150, 16, Jr.
Marcus Smallwood, F, 6-4, 175, 16, So.
Marcus Howard, G, 6-1, 150, 15, So.
Sean Harrington, G, 6-2, 165, 17, Jr.
Jim Ebert, F/C, 6-4, 190, 18, Sr.
Dustin Ackman, F, 6-3, 200, 17, Sr.
Brent Gooden, F, 6-5, 200, 18, Sr.
Matt Ludemann, G, 6-1, 170, 18, Sr.
Joe Heaton, C, 6-5, 175, 17, Sr.
Steve Williams, C, 6-5, 170, 16, Jr.
Mark Mallo, G, 6-2, 170, 16, Jr.
John Holden, F, 6-3, 175, 18, Sr.
Jack Belinski, F, 6-3, 180, 16, Jr.
Head coach: Jim Harrington
Assistant coaches: Rob Brault, Mike Termini, Jeff Smith, Kevin Gallery, Bill Baldridge, Norm Garrett
Team doctor, associate head coach: Dr. Nick Bumbales
Elgin Maroons 1997-98
30 wins, 2 losses
Elgin 65, Foreman 47
Elgin 75, Gulf (Fla.) 41
Elgin 77, Orr 52
Elgin 64, Guilford 53
Elgin 58, St. Charles 48
Elgin 61, West Aurora 51
Elgin 55, DeKalb 40
Elgin 81, Streamwood 46
Elgin 56, Waubonsie Valley 52
Elgin 69, Weber 48
Elgin 57, Batavia 42
Elgin 84, Addison Trail 60
Elgin 55, St. Patrick 34
Elgin 61, Larkin 46
Elgin 62, East Aurora 60
Elgin 58, Brother Rice 49
Elgin 61, St. Charles 57
Elgin 71, Schaumburg 46
Elgin 60, Streamwood 45
Elgin 55, Barrington 45
Waubonsie Valley 69, Elgin 56
Elgin 64, Larkin 52
Elgin 71, East Aurora 55
Elgin 75, Lake Park 63
Elgin 67, DeKalb 43
Elgin 76, Lake Park 64
Elgin 88, Lake Park 49
Elgin 58, Schaumburg 43
Elgin 68, Hoffman Estates 58
Elgin 80, Rolling Meadows 65
Elgin 69, Naperville North 58
Whitney Young 68, Elgin 50