Rolinski's mark on Illinois basketball was truly iconic
Unless you're a basketball coach, an old-timer, or just a true friend of high school basketball in Illinois you probably don't know who Chuck Rolinski was.
He certainly wasn't a guy who puffed his chest out so you would know him.
But there may not be one person who had such a profound affect on the game of basketball in Illinois than Rolinski, who passed away Sept. 23 in Peoria at the age of 82.
Rolinski is widely recognized as the "Father Of Two-Class Basketball" in Illinois. It was in large part due to his efforts that the IHSA adopted a two-class state tournament in 1972, a system that in time filtered over to most other sports. He was, with former Quincy coach Sherril Hanks, also the co-founder of the Illinois Basketball Coaches Association and the originator of the IBCA all-star games that are played each summer.
That first Class A state tournament in 1972 was a special one in the Elgin area, as well as for me. St. Edward made that first Class A Elite Eight and even though the Green Wave, coached by Bob Fuller, lost to eventual runner-up Mounds Meridian 54-52 in the quarterfinals, it began my love affair with the state tournament. My dad and I made the trek to Champaign for that game courtesy of tickets in the next-to-last row of Section C in Assembly Hall from a cousin who went to St. Edward at the time, and for the next 30 years we rarely missed a trip to state, soaking in the great Lawrenceville teams, a Luther South champion coached by Cliff Doll, who would later become a coach at Jacobs, and the Lowell Hamilton and Walter Downing years at Providence St. Mel, among many others.
With all due respect to Peoria, nothing will ever compare to state tournaments in Champaign and those cherished memories with my dad of buying and trading tickets with scalpers in the Chancellor Hotel will live on forever.
None of that would have been possible without Chuck Rolinski.
Rolinski compiled a 649-262 record at Toluca, a town of 1,400 about 40 miles northeast of Peoria, before retiring in 1990. He won 14 regional titles, made three Sweet 16 trips and had three undefeated regular-season teams at a school that is now closed.
His 1966-67 team, with an enrollment of 125 students, lost 77-64 in the supersectional to Pekin, which had 3,000 students. Pekin rolled to the state championship by Elite Eight victory margins of 24, 16 and 16 points. His 1972-73 team lost in the supersectional to tiny St. Anne, which was led by future NBA star Jack Sikma.
Five years later came the controversial decision led by Rolinski to give the state two champions in boys basketball and open the door for multiple class champions in other sports. But it wasn't a door that was easily opened.
"(IHSA Executive Secretary Harry) Fitzhugh and a big one-class guy from DuQuoin took me out for a steak dinner to talk me out of it, and we wound up screaming at each other right there in the restaurant," Rolinski told retired Peoria Journal Star sports writer Bob Leavitt for the book "100 Years of Madness: The Illinois High School Association Boys Basketball Tournament," which was published in 2006. "I never feared I would become known as the guy who killed a great high school basketball tournament. But in my wildest dreams I never thought it would all work out so well."
In 2007, Rolinski was selected as one the "Top 100 Legends of Illinois Boys Basketball."
Accolades aside, what Rolinski also became was a mentor to young coaches.
"If I had a mentor, he was the guy I went to as a young coach," said former Elgin High coach Jim Harrington, a past president of the IBCA who spoke at Rolinski's funeral Monday. "And he's the one who got me so involved with the IBCA. He just did so much for the game of basketball in Illinois. And he knew every single person from the northern tip of the state to the southern tip. His recognition of names was unbelievable."
That I can attest to. When I was honored with induction to the media wing of the IBCA Hall of Fame in 2003, I had met Rolinski twice, both times just in passing. But when I arrived at the banquet to check in, he greeted me by name and it was like I had known him my whole life.
"He had great people skills," Harrington said. "The hours he put into the IBCA were incredible. And it was old-fashioned work done with paper and pencil and not a computer. That was his way. There's no ifs ands or buts about it, he was the rock and the reason I think we have the best coaches association in the state."
Harrington was able to see Rolinski in the hospital in Peoria before Rolinski, who never recovered from a fall on Labor Day weekend, passed away.
"He couldn't respond but he knew what was being said to him and I'm so glad I was able to see him," Harrington said. "I was able to tell him everything he had done for me over the more than 30 years I knew him. I'm so glad I went down there.
"High school basketball will miss Chuck on and off the court. He was a special person."
And he left a special mark on high school basketball in Illinois that will live on forever.
Marty Maciaszek contributed.