CHAMPAIGN — When asked my favorite sport, the response was always the same.
“Tell me what season it is, and that’s my favorite ... baseball in the spring, basketball in the winter and football in the fall ... with some golf, tennis and others thrown in along the way.”
Count me as an outlier. Today’s athletes are different. They’ve carried us deep into the one-sport era.
Yep, they don’t make ‘em like they used to.
Doug Mills, who died last week at age 84, was a man for all seasons. He was the Illini’s star pitcher, a reserve on basketball teams featuring Dave Downey, Bill Small and Jerry Colangelo, and served as Pete Elliott’s punter during the winless season of 1961.
Mills was the UI’s Athlete of the Year in 1962 by vote of the student body for the Daily Illini. He and Tom Fletcher won seven games apiece in the spring of 1962, spearheading the 13-2 Big Ten champions, Lee Eilbracht’s best in his 27 years as coach.
For more proof of Mills’ versatility, he edged Mike Thompson in a playoff for the Twin City golf championship in 1974 when he was also making a name for himself as a successful banker. He became one of the UI’s most valued alumni.
Those were the daysIt has become unusual for Division I athletes to compete in two sports, much less three. We’re seeing single emphasis, oftentimes from age 10 or younger. They don’t know what they’re missing.
Harking back, Centralia’s Dike Eddleman earned the Illini record of 11 varsity letters in football, basketball and track. His late 1940s accomplishments will never be matched.
He still holds the UI record for the longest punt (88 yards) and longest punt return (92 yards), won the NCAA high jump and had the second-highest leap in the 1948 Olympics (finishing fourth due to misses), and was Big Ten MVP on a Final Four basketball team in 1949.
While Claude Rothgeb won 10 letters in 1902-05, the most since Eddleman was nine by Champaign’s Rich Callaghan in football, baseball and wrestling through 1965. Also in 1965, sprinter-halfback Trenton Jackson won a baseball letter to give him six.
A rare featHoot Evers and Tom Haller, major league stars for a decade-plus, had shortened three-sport careers at Illinois (Haller was Ray Eliot’s pass leader in 1957). The most recent to play three sports for the Illini was Waukegan’s Jim Rucks, who won seven letters in football, basketball and baseball through 1973.
Ruck Steger (1946-50) earned eight letters as a first baseman-fullback, and speedy Scott Turner (1991-95) matched him in track and football.
If you look back far enough, you’ll see venerable Illini names that still ring today — George Halas, Burt Ingwersen and Bernie Shively — among a few others in the UI’s three-sport category. Mills was one of the last to display such versatility.
Back to baseballAh, Purdue ... so often a pain in the neck for the Illini. In head-to-head competition, the Boilermakers have won four straight football clashes, and 14 of the last 18. In men’s basketball, they’ve defeated Illinois five straight and 19 of the last 25.
But Dan Hartleb’s club extended the Illini baseball dominance against Purdue to nine with a three-game sweep that clinched the undisputed Big Ten title Saturday.
With a few more wins in the double-elimination Big Ten tournament beginning Tuesday at 6 p.m. against Penn State, the Illini could qualify for an NCAA tournament berth that seemed unreachable earlier.
This 2024 club will be known for its record-breaking slugging (home runs in 21 straight games, and now at 103 on the season) and its potent lineup from one through nine.
In a stunning, two-month turnaround, they’re averaged 10.3 runs in 32 games.
Overall, junior catcher Cam Janik reached base 46 percent of the time, and six teammates were at 42 percent or better. Outfielder Ryan Moerman was barely below at 38 percent, and he led the Big Ten with 18 home runs.
The key now: Jack Crowder and the Illini starters need to be stingy before turning over the ball to Ben Plumley and Joe Glassey, impressive leaders of the late-inning corps. The bullpen has been exceptional in recent close games.
Side note: All 10 UI starters Saturday prepped in the home state. You won’t see that in many sports these days.
Loren Tate writes for The News-Gazette. He can be reached at ltate@news-gazette.com
