Which was it? A bump on the head? A missed call? A botched play? A tornado warning?
Which one of these situations ultimately led to the 1976 Oak Park and River Forest boys basketball team finishing third in the state, instead of winning the championship?
It doesn’t matter, for it’s been 30 years and time heals all wounds, or missed calls, or … .
The truth is ’76 was a bittersweet year for the Huskies. The program itself had been close to obsolete. This squad was stocked with meaty 6-plus-footers, including Chuck Dahms (6’6″), Tom Norris (6’3″), Courtney James (6’4″), and John Hendricks (6’5″). They each weighed more than 200 pounds, prompting assistant coach Tom Graziano to peg them, “The Beef Trust.”
Well, this “Beef Trust” and its hamburger helpers, along with the ultimate brain trust in head coach Tom Meyer, son of the legendary DePaul University coach, Ray Meyer, won 28 games that year, the most in the school’s history. The Huskies finished third at the state tournament”also the school’s best finish ever. Along with the respectable third-place finish, the Huskies had some historical moments during the season. They won 15 of their first 18 games. They defeated powerhouse Proviso East for the first time in 22 years. They downed Fenwick on live television and with a fieldhouse practically overflowing with fans.
Every member of that ’76 team will probably tell you the same thing: From their freshman season on, these guys believed they would eventually win a state championship. Others believed as well. After all, and by all accounts, they were taller, stronger, and, although they weren’t the most talented team, they were certainly the most determined. So when eventual state champ Morgan Park edged OPRF 59-58 in the semifinals at the University of Illinois’ Assembly Hall on March 20, 1976, reality finally sunk in.
Or did it?
The details are a bit sketchy, and the perspectives vary. But one thing’s for sure, even after 30 years, these guys remember a season fraught with ups and downs.
Watch your head
Chuck Dahms was a monster, a towering yet thick center who wasn’t much of a basketball player when he came into OPRF as a freshman, according to long-time OPRF coach Rich Arcieri.
“If you saw Dahms as a freshman, you wouldn’t consider him much of an athlete,” says Arcieri. “Tom Meyer made him into a player. He was tall and lanky, but he was well-coached, and he blossomed into one of the state’s best.”
An All-State selection, Dahms was to play a vital role in OPRF’s game plan that year. But a freak accident early in the year knocked him out of most of the regular season.
Dahms suffered a concussion and a detached retina when his 6’6″ frame wasn’t exactly conducive with the low door jams leading into OPRF’s locker room. Dahms was celebrating after the Huskies downed Hinsdale Central in overtime, and his jubilation led to a bad headache, according to OPRF’s current head basketball coach Al Allen, who was an assistant coach at the time. Dahms banged his head on the door frame while jumping in the locker room.
“Dahms was an outstanding rebounder. He wasn’t able to come back until the state playoffs, and when he did he had to wear goggles,” remembers Allen, whose main duty besides keeping statistics was to make sure the center’s goggles stayed clean.
A couple of players remember Dahms being patched up and sent back out on the court, never sitting out a game. Others, including Allan, Meyer, and Norris, remember Dahms not returning for six weeks until the state playoffs. Dahms was unreachable before deadline.
“It was a tall order losing Dahms,” remembers Norris who played at Baylor University and then followed Meyer to UIC in ’77, “but we really came together. We became more of a scrappy team.”
One thing is for certain, Dahms, who went on to Oral Roberts University and then to Wake Forest University, scored 16 points in both the super-sectional victory over Elgin and the quarterfinal win over Loyola. He had 20 points and 11 rebounds in the win over Eisenhower in the third-place game. Dahms was held to 13 points in the loss to Morgan Park.
“His conditioning just wasn’t there in those playoff games,” says Meyer, now retired from coaching and living in Michigan. “He had been out for six weeks, and with him out for so long and Hendricks with back spasms, we weren’t exactly in top form.”
Out of bounds
Whether their center’s late-season return from an injury caused the Huskies a misstep in their quest for state glory isn’t really important. Not when something else may have led to the loss to Morgan Park.
“Cobb was his name I believe, and I saw him step out of bounds. I saw it plain as day, because it was right next to me,” says Randy Tanksley, who was on the bench for the Huskies during that defeat. “I still see it to this day. My opinion is that’s what did it, that’s what changed the course of the game for us.”
Tanksley, who lives in Aurora with his wife, Maria, also an OPRF graduate, says he’s certain he saw Morgan Park’s top player Levi Cobb, who finished with a game-high 24 points, step out of bounds during a pivotal moment in the final period.
“It was the last few plays of the game, and I personally believe it was a dagger for us,” says Tanksley. “He stepped out of bounds, but they didn’t call it.”
Meyer concurs. He saw Cobb step out of bounds as well.
“Cobb was out of bounds, and threw the ball at Hedger in the gut. I took a timeout so Hedger could catch his breath, but the officials said he could not come back in due to the injury. That changed things for us.”
Twisted up
Even inclement weather can’t be counted out as to why the Huskies lost in the semifinals.
“There was about a minute and 25 seconds left on the clock and we had gone up by three points,” recalls Arcieri, who spent 30 years coaching in several capacities at OPRF before retiring in 1998. “We had the momentum. Then suddenly someone came over the PA system and stopped the game because of a tornado warning. The game was held up for nearly 15 minutes. Finally, we got the clear to resume the game. Our momentum was shot by then. We had been trailing up until that point.”
Arcieri says he’s certain had the game not been held up, the Huskies would have defeated Morgan Park and went on to win a state championship.
“We were up three points with two great free-throw shooters in the game, ready to walk away with the victory,” remembers Meyer. “They stopped the game. Things weren’t the same from then on. James had to shoot two big free-throws worrying about whether his sister was safe in the building or outside where someone thought they had spotted a tornado. He missed them both. Till this day I don’t know why they stopped play.”
Buzzer beater not to be
Regardless of the phantom twister, the Huskies still had a chance to win the ballgame, and with it of course, the opportunity to advance to the championship.
Everyone agrees Meyer drew up a play for Norris, a first-team All-Stater that year. Norris was to come off a double pick at the baseline. Brian Coughlin, who they called Cogs, was in for the injured Joe Hedger. Cogs was to pass the ball to Norris for the shot, if he was open.
“I came off the pick and was coming around the wing, I set and I was open,” remembers Norris, “but Cogs was open, too. He took the shot.”
When asked what he remembers most from that game, Coughlin, who now lives in Kentucky, belts out, “The fact I missed the final shot!”
Coughlin remembers seeing Norris covered, and himself having a perfect look at the basket. “It was a shot from the top of the key and it looked like it had great eyes,” he says. “But it didn’t drop.”
Norris has joked about the play since that fateful spring day. “I kidded Cogs that if Hedger had been in he would have passed it to me. It was an arrow through the heart at the time, but there’s certainly no hard feelings. It was a great run we had.”
Meyer has the same sentiments regarding the shot that didn’t go. “It had nothing to do with why we lost the game. But I do hear to this day Cogs can’t get a beer in Forest Park.”
A rivalry begins
OK, the rivalry between OPRF basketball and Fenwick began in ’73, but it had climbed to a popular crescendo in ’76 with Fenwick star Neil Bresnahan”who went on to play at the University of Illinois and was drafted into the NBA”and the Beef Trust of OPRF.
“The entire length of the upper bleachers in the fieldhouse was packed full of fans,” remembers Arcieri. “I don’t think the place has ever been that full ever since.”
The rivalry was especially fierce for Norris, whose four brothers went to Fenwick, and whose father was a well-respected coach at the school for years.
In the televised win over Fenwick during the regular season, Norris led the Huskies with 21 points, while dishing out 12 assists. The Huskies went on to defeat the Friars in the regional as well.
“It was like Duke-North Carolina back then,” remembers Fenwick’s current head basketball coach John Quinn, who in ’76 was the sports editor for Fenwick’s school newspaper. “They had to turn people away at the door.”
Winners through and through
Despite the loss in the semifinals, the Huskies arrived home to a community brimming with pride.
“When we got back the Village of Oak Park through us a huge parade,” says Coughlin. “It was really nice. We were dejected from losing, but then to have the community come together and do something like that for us was infinitely special.”
Meyer says he’ll never forget the support he and the program received from the community.
“It was a unique experience being on the ground floor of that program. So many people stepped up and gave us a hand,” he says. “It was definitely a community effort.”
Contact: bspencer@wjinc.com