Fifty years later, Prospect's magical season endures

The Pontiac Holiday Tournament list of champions is a who's who of some of the state's most prestigious boys basketball programs, coaches and players.

From Centralia with legendary coach Arthur Trout and multi-sport star Dike Eddleman to Simeon with Derrick Rose and Jabari Parker. Peoria Manual, Quincy, West Aurora, New Trier, Pekin and Waukegan are also among the winners of the state's best holiday tournament combination of talent and tradition.

But in the 1965 tournament, a still relatively new school making its inaugural appearance in Pontiac probably sparked this question from a lot of fans:

Who is Prospect?

The unknown Knights did not exactly storm into the tourney with a 4-3 record. But a stunning run to the 35th annual Pontiac title, which featured future big-league baseball players Tom Lundstedt and Dave Kingman, put them on a path to one of the most memorable seasons in school history with a 21-5 record and Mid-Suburban League and regional championships.

"It was a magical year for us and the school went bonkers over basketball," said 1966 Prospect grad Mike Korcek, who is retired after a long and successful tenure as Northern Illinois University's Sports Information Director. "It caught fire and the whole Prospect community was talking about that team."

The 1965-66 Knights will be front and center once again this weekend when they return for a 50th reunion celebration. That includes a reception in Prospect's Community Room before Friday night's game with Wheeling as well as pregame introductions in the Jean Walker Field House.

"To me it was a lot of life lessons and life highlights with that basketball team, and how we brought not only 12 guys together and the senior class, but the whole school," said Craig Wolf, a senior swingman who now lives in Ohio. "I've always used the word magical about how fun it was.

"Fortunately we all came together and learned what a team was all about. We really had something and that something was a will and desire to work together, be a team and play well together."

Coach K builds a winner

J.D. Thorne had seen the excitement before in the first two years of Prospect's varsity basketball program. His brother Mark played on teams that won 47 of 51 games in the 1959-60 and 1960-61 seasons.

"That's what set such a high bar and a refuse to lose mentality," said J.D. Thorne, a starting guard who now lives in Milwaukee. "It was exciting to go into a program where we had very exceptional leadership."

That leader was Dick Kinneman as he had guided the program through its highly successful formative years. Kinneman came back as head coach for the 1965-66 season after a year away from the sideline to focus on his duties as the Knights' athletic director.

A chance meeting at Wrigley Field in 1974 between Lundstedt, who was catching for the Cubs, and Kingman, who was in the early years of a big-league career where he hit 442 home runs, showed how much they revered Kinneman.

"The star of that team was Dick Kinneman," said Lundstedt, who is coming in for the reunion from his home in Wisconsin's scenic Door County. "He taught us how to play hard and play fair. We used to call it 'Kinneman style.'

"Several years after high school I was playing for the Cubs and Dave was playing for the Giants. Somehow I got into the game at Wrigley Field because I didn't get to play much. Kingman came around third base to score and the throw from the outfield came in.

"Kingman crashed into me, we fell to the ground and we both looked at each other and whispered, 'Kinneman style.' "

Wolf and Thorne recalled how Kinneman had the ability to make excellent in-game adjustments yet also give the players plenty of freedom in his 1-2-2 offense.

"Coach K didn't overcoach us," Thorne said. "He was terrific."

But the 1965-66 team was pretty unknown to outsiders. Lundstedt was going into his junior year but had the most varsity experience. There wasn't tremendous size with Kingman, also a junior at 6-feet-4, and Lundstedt and Tom Beard at 6-3.

They did have a lot of success at the lower levels and the senior class was 17-1 at the junior varsity level. Tony Kulasa had developed into a solid point guard and Dan Agard was a football standout who brought defensive toughness.

"Our team was just a bunch of really, really good guys who worked hard," Wolf said. "There were a lot of lessons with (assistant coach Don) Arsenau and Kinneman and the 12 other guys. We learned what it was like to be team players."

Even if it took awhile for what became a dream team to put it all together.

Making a statement at Pontiac

A trip to Pontiac did not figure to be the cure to a slow 4-3 start. The tournament had a prestige similar to what it carries today.

"We knew it was a pretty big-time tournament," Wolf said. "It was kind of neat we were going down there with Centralia and Carbondale and some of the great teams from down south."

That included Prospect's opening-round opponent in Granite City. Lundstedt showed why he would earn all-state honors by scoring 39 points in an 82-61 victory.

"To have a player of that caliber come to our club, which was already pretty good - Tom fit like a hand in a glove," Thorne said of Lundstedt, who also played basketball at Michigan with future NBA all-star and title-winning coach Rudy Tomjanovich.

The Knights took care of LaSalle-Peru in the second round to set up a semifinal with Waukegan. Thorne recalled how Kingman was playing well in a game that was close the whole way.

Then Kinneman showed his coaching mettle with the Knights clinging to a 1-point lead and four minutes to play.

"Kinneman calls timeout and said we're going to do a four-corner stall with Lundstedt at the top of the free-throw line," Thorne said. "I remember looking at coach Kinneman and looking at the scoreboard with four minutes to play and thinking, 'You want us to do what, not shoot and stall?' Of course that's what we did and it worked like a charm."

Prospect pulled away to a 51-43 win to set up a championship game meeting that evening with big man Dave Robisch of Springfield. The 6-10 Robisch, who was selected as one of the 100 Legends of the IHSA Boys Basketball Tournament, went on to become an All-American at Kansas and had a productive 13-year career in the ABA and NBA.

But Kingman was on top of his game again and Lundstedt outscored Robisch 31-19 in a 61-58 victory that made the Knights the surprise champs of the Pontiac tourney.

"Every time I see scores go across my TV and I see 61-58, I say to (my wife) Barb, that's what we won the Pontiac tournament with," Wolf said.

The title vaulted the Knights to 10th in The Associated Press state rankings. For some odd reason they dropped out of the poll after three weeks even though they were in the midst of a 13-game winning streak.

But Kinneman wasn't afraid to mess with success. Wolf moved from a key reserve into the starting lineup in the final month. At one point Kinneman noticed his team seemed to be getting a little stale so he barred them from practicing for three days.

"We all had different roles and it was a credit to the coaches to allow the individuality of the players to meld together," Thorne said. "It was a maximization of our potential and our potential was high."

Believing in succeeding

A late-season 3-point loss to Forest View was just a small stumble as the two teams shared the MSL title. Prospect got the No. 1 seed as it hosted a regional and knocked off Wheeling, Barrington and rival Arlington.

Now the Knights faced a big challenge in the Arlington sectional semifinals against New Trier and 6-11 Larry Rosenzweig, who would go on to play at Stanford. The 6-foot Wolf had the best game of his high school career with 15 points and 7 rebounds and Lundstedt scored 28.

But Kulasa fouled out late in the third quarter and Prospect's dream season came to a 79-63 end as legendary coach John Schneiter's New Trier team went on to the Elite Eight in Champaign.

"It was a very sad defeat," Wolf said. "If it hadn't been for some foul trouble it could have been a game down to the wire."

That exemplified the attitude the Knights had no matter who they were facing.

"We were winners," Thorne said. "I went into every game thinking we could win. I think we could have beaten Marshall (which lost in the supersectional to New Trier), too.

"I think we could have given Thornton (eventual state champs who beat New Trier in the quarterfinals) a better battle. Where does that come from? It comes from the program."

One that produced athletes who made it to the highest level such as Kingman and Lundstedt. Junior reserve Mike Mueller won more than 500 games as a high school basketball coach with a state title in Ohio and a second-place Class A finish in Illinois in 1983 at downstate Monmouth.

And it was a season and program that helped shape numerous successes outside of athletics.

"The friendships and great fun we had at Pontiac, things like that you'll never forget," Wolf said. "There were some wonderful stories the 12 of us shared. We had a very special team."

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