Isadore "Spin" Salario, a Jewish man with an Italian name, has fond memories of 1958, of George Wilson and M.C. Thompson and Bobby Jones and Steve Thomas and Anthony Johnson, of Bosco Levine and the American Boys Commonwealth.

He corresponds via e-mail these days because he wears two hearing aids and has a difficult time picking up on conversations on the telephone.

"But I remember every minute of that 1958 state championship game," he wrote.

"We were in quite a bind midway in the third quarter when Tyrone Johnson slipped, lost the ball, which was retrieved by a Rock Falls player who dribbled in for a basket. This put us behind by seven points. I called for a timeout. In addition, George Wilson had four fouls.

"I always try to maneuver my players so that I have the first team intact going into the last three minutes of a game. It is my contention that games are won or lost many times over in the final minutes. However, when my starting player picks up a fourth foul, I will not replace him.

"During that timeout, Bobby Jones asked me to sit George so that he could have him for the final minutes of the game. It is a good thing that I accepted his advice. I then moved M.C. Thompson from his forward position to center, moved Tyrone Johnson from guard to forward and brought in Jimmy Jones (Bobby's brother) to play guard.

"A good coach will try to prepare for every contingency during his practices. I never believed to try something in a game for which I never prepared. In practice, we had worked with George out. M.C. did not have a natural hook shot but he had a great turnaround, fall-away jump shot. From that point on, Steve Thomas and Bobby Jones scored a number of key baskets while M.C. hit two critical fall-away jump shots that put us in the lead going into the last quarter.

"We continued to dominate play in the last quarter, especially with George back in the game, and went on to win the championship. We had a great unselfish team where everyone was supportive of whomever was on the floor."