Reflecting on the history of Villa Grove High School’s hoops success

By Tony Hooker
In the absence of a high school basketball season in Illinois due to the Governor’s pandemic response, I will be writing a series of articles covering teams from the past four VGHS teams to win a regional tournament,  the teams from 1959, 1965, 1975 and 1984.  All info contained herein has been culled from editions of the Villa Grove News that are housed at the Camargo Township Library.

1959
The Blue Devils lost Bob Bender for the season to a broken collarbone, and then lost the game to Oakland 52-48.  Leading scorer Dan Corbin tallied 10 points before fouling out, and Joe Eversole had 8 points before joining his teammate on the sidelines after picking up his 5th foul.  

1965
It was a tough week for the Blue Devils, as they picked up a pair of losses.

Pecked by Cardinals
Chrisman outscored the Blue Devils 19-8 in the fourth quarter to claim a 65-61 win, despite VGHS having four players reach double figures.  John McGrath led the way with 12 points, Bob Ghere netted 11, while Larry Sigler and Al Montgomery netted 10 each.  

Overrun by Redskins
After trailing 34-24 at the Break, the Blue Devils got to within one point of Newman, but were unable to get over the hump in a 62-56 loss.  Larry Sigler tallied 14 points, Gary Brown added 11, and Don Burgett chipped in 10 in the loss.

1975
Uncrown Rajahs
Stan Prosser poured in 35 points and snared 18 rebounds as VGHS Atwood-Hammond 74-63.  Tim Keith added 15 points, Steve McQueen dished out 9 assists and Brian Carr handed out 7 of his own to lead the Devil offense as the Devils moved to 7-0 in the conference, 9-3 overall.

(1984 coverage will resume next week)