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Mention the name "Thornridge" and some pleasant memories immediately come to mind.
1972.
Thornridge's boys basketball team.
Coach Ron Ferguson.
Quinn Buckner, Boyd Batts, Mike Bonczyk, Greg Rose, Ernie Dunn.
The best team in the history of Illinois high school basketball.
Buckner was the National Player of the Year and Thornridge was ranked as the No. 1 team in the nation.
It doesn't get any better than that.
Thornridge, located in south suburban Dolton, may be closing. Beginning next year, it will be a freshmen-only academy. The upperclassmen will be dispersed to District 205's other two high shools, Thornton in Harvey or Thornwood in South Holland.
But the school will forever be linked to that basketball team, the best there ever was. In a 33-0 season, no opponent came within 14 points. The next best was La Grange's 1953 team, led by Ted Caiazza, which didn't allow an opponent to come within nine points in a 29-0 campaign. Thornridge's 104-69 victory over Quincy in the Class AA championship game remains the gold standard of state finals, like the Bears' 46-10 rout of the Patriots in the 1986 Super Bowl.
Thornridge will be added to a long and distinguished list of Illinois high schools that have closed, mostly for financial reasons or to consolidate with neighboring schools or to pave the way for a new school. Whatever the reason, it is difficult for people who spent time there--students, coaches, teachers, administrators--to accept the change.
Remember Arlington, a 62-year-old school that won 13 state championships before closing in 1984? Or Driscoll in Addison, a 43-year-old school that won 12 state titles, including eight in football, before closing in 2009?
How about New Trier West, Forest View, Maine North, Morton West, Irving Crown, Calumet, Englewood, St. Elizabeth, Mendel, Weber, Luther South, St. George, Niles East, Kankakee Westview, Kankakee Eastridge, Bloom Trail, Decatur, East St. Louis Lincoln, Ridgway, Peoria Spalding, Peoria Woodruff, Rockford West, Tamms and Toluca?
But I'll remember Thornridge most of all. I worked for the old Chicago Daily News at the time. It didn't publish a Sunday edition so I was free to attend every Saturday game that Thornridge played in 1971-72. Of the 33 games, I covered or attended about 20.
Outside of the dismantling of Quincy in the state championship game, the game I remember most was the closest one of all, a 74-60 victory over St. Patrick on a Saturday night in Dolton.
As I recall, UCLA coach John Wooden dispatched assistant Gary Cunningham to scout Buckner. Later, Cunningham told me that he didn't come to evalute Buckner's talent. "We already knew how good he was, that he could play for us," Cunningham said. "What I wanted to see was what he did during the timeouts, if he paid attention to thecoach or looked into the stands, if his mind was always on the game."
It was an interesting insight into Wooden's approach to the game.
And Cunningham saw what he came to see.
During a timeout, Buckner grabbed the happy-go-lucky Batts by his whiskers and shook him, telling him to get his head out of his behind and into the game.
Later, with only a couple of minutes to play and the victory assured, a St. Patrick player stole the ball from Buckner at mid-court. It figured that the player would dribble down the floor, convert a layup and Buckner would run out the clock. But Buckner ran down the player from behind and stole the ball out of his hand as he was about to step to the basket, leaving a "What happened?" expression on his face.
Afterward, St. Patrick coach Max Kurland reminded me of that single incident in his lockerrom. "That's why Buckner is the great player that he is. He never takes a play off. He never lets down," Kurland said.
Neither did Thornridge in 1972.
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Taylor
You are absolutely right about that Thornridge team. I was there that night as a St Patrick
Sophomore team basketball player and remember watching Quinn Buckner with awe. At the high school level he was a man amongst boys! After our sophomore game we had a good view of the senior game from courtside, we were proud that our senior team came the closest to Thornridge that year, a credit to the great Max Kurland.
i cant believe it is closing, how are going to save money doing that? sonow, kids will be freshmen twice at two different schools. what i remember most is how badly that team wanted to win. quinn was the leader, but they played as a team. they played the game as could and should be played. the best game to me was the bloom game in feb. 72, at the end of the first quarter it was tr 20 and bloom 2. wow to the giy tring to make that lazy cross court pass between the top of the key and half court, quinn was waiting on that like a shark in a minow tank. when you beat the no.2 team in the 5th largest state in the country by 35 points, there is no question who is the best. also greg rose and mike henry never got enough ink, for thier contrabution to the 71 72 teams
To: Mr. Bell and others...
I admittedly have never seen Quinn Buckner play in high school. However, having 'only' seen him play at his best in college and the pros on television and on video, I find it hard to believe that his high school play would have been any better or more dominant than the high school play of a Isiah Thomas or Jamie Brandon for that matter.
I assume we are talking mostly of his cerebral play as a high school player?
Can someone direct me to accessible video tape where I can see his play for myself?
Curtis K. Jackson Sr.
AS APART OF THE THORNRIDGE 2010 VARSITY FOOTBALL TEAM I WILL PROMISE EVERYONE APART OF THORNRIDGE HISTORY THAT WE WILL GIVE YOU MORE THAN JUST THE HISTORIC 1972 Basketball SEASON TO REMEMBER
Without question, the greatest high school team of all time in Illinois....yes, there was Quincy, Marshall and the poorly coached King teams...but Thornridge was the best.
I played in the game for St. Pats and the final score doesn't indicate how close the game was. We were down by 6 points late in the game and had to foul hoping they would
miss but that didn't happen. Indeed Max Kurland prepared us well for that game. They were the quickest team I ever played against In High Scool and college!
The previous year they came to St. Pat's and beat a great Pat's team soundly. Buckner had 39 pts.!
let's not forget the closing of joliet east.very sad to see thornridge close.when the area which used to be so great basically became the new cabrini and robert taylor then that was it for thornridge.i recall reading a story about dolton-riverdale.it taked about how there were more kids than ever with single parent families though and how the youth sports programs had dropped despite the huge number of kids and how award winning schools had been failing and crime out of control.look at the racial makeup of the area and see why
i promised, and we delivered we beat our 50 year rivals thornton(7-1)25 to Thornridge(4-4)31 in triple overtime in front of 1500 people ,now its time to make a playoff run
I agree they were the best team IL history but I saw them lose the only time 71-72 years at the Carbondale holiday tournment, to a small school here in southern ILL
threw snowballs with mike bonzcak..he was the first truly ambidextrius athlete i ever got close to....quinn bucner played varsity football his sophomore season and returned a punt for a touchdown but as i remeber did not play much his last 2 sesons for he was much to valuable as a basketball player.. in adition, there was no need for the 1970 football team to have him as we were undefeated and finished the season ranked number 1 in the state.... i'm trying to access the baseball records for 1971 as i remeber losing only 2 games all year.. the baseball team was very underrated as we were stopped bi the sectional champoinship game by a hot pitcher from bremen named tom brennan....one last note, boyd batts was as good a dodgeball player as he was a hoopster...he loved it more than basketball if emotion was any indicator..
the john wooden anedote had even more revelance if one remebers that the falcons ran his famous 1-2-1-1 full court press..it was the fab 5 and nolan richardson's 40 minutes of hell all in one...the south holland tribune quoted a big ten scout who stated that 71-72 t'ridge crew could "finish in the first division of the big ten"..the true juggernauts of basketball stand out as versatile defensive teams..for example on the bulls teamm that set the nba record for least losses, pippen jordan, and rodman could ALL defend at least 4 of the 5 positions out on the floor...the falcons were similar on defense...and when they got the turnover they quickly got the ball in the basket without celebration and back to work..it was as if they were programmed.. i really credit coach ferguson for using that press...as usual, a team that is that talanted and undefeated is under the asumption that anybody could coach them..ron ferguson was a significant part of the monster..
am trying to find out the record of the 1971 thornridge baseball team....the ihsa does not have our stats for that year... scores of all the games would be greatly appreciated...i played on that team and could only remember 2 losses for the season and post season.... if thats the case it would mean that the football,basketball, and baseball teams combined only lost 3 games in 1970-71 with football and basketball claiming state titles, football ,of course, being mythical..
to address the question of isiah thomas vs quinn bucner i'd have to say that isiah was probably a little better if you break them down as individuals, which is not to say that isaih was not a team player..he ceratinly was as the championships will attest.. a better question might be whether thomas could have dealt with the t'ridge full court press as a highschooler withn the teams he played on at st. josephs..i don't think so.. or an even better thought might be what would depaul have been like if thomas decided to join mark acguirre and terry cummings..as i understood it for the thomas family it came down to indiana or depaul and his mom thought indiana would be better...it folowed the logic of his life as he left the west side public school system to play at a catholic high school in the suburbs..its fun to speculate and i really believe that depaul would not have lost a game if thomas enrolled there as cummings, aguirre, and him all went in the top 5 of the nba draft..
I also played on that 71 team. We were underated. A lot of talent on that team. I too am looking for not only the 1971 record but also the 1972 record. The 72 team also had a lot of talent.