The 2024 Class of the Shaw Media Illinois Valley Sports Hall of Fame connected two eras of Mendota basketball with the induction of coaches Bob Beals and Mike Kilmartin.

It also brought together the greatest players to play for the Ottawa High School boys and girls basketball teams, Craig McCormick (Class of 1978) and Amy (Johnson) DeVerteuil (1983).

In all, there were eight individuals, including two former Major League Baseball pitchers in Peru native Russ “Monk” Meyer and Guy Hoffman of Marquette, a longtime NBA radio announcer, five coaches and three championship teams honored Thursday night at the Auditorium Ballroom in downtown La Salle.

It was a special honor for Kilmartin to be inducted along with Beals, who Kilmartin highly regards “as the favorite coach I ever had” because he made it fun.

“Studies show the No. 1 reason people go out for sports is to have fun. He made it fun,” Kilmartin said. “A lot of things we did I learned all from him. There were a lot of people who played for him that became successful coaches.”

Kilmartin, a 1968 Mendota graduate, is one of only a handful of Illinois basketball coaches to take both boys and girls teams to state.

He led the Trojans boys teams to state appearances in 1988-89, 1992-93 and 1995-96, winning seven regionals and three sectionals along the way. He switched over to the MHS girls program, leading the Trojans to a fourth-place finish at state in 1998-99.

Although there were plusses and minuses to coaching in his hometown, Kilmartin said the best part was he got to coach his three children – until he got home, that is, and their mother wanted to know why her son wasn’t playing much.

Beals was the Mendota coach from 1960-75, leading the Trojans to a 233-140 record with four regional championships, including his 27-win 1970-71 team. He also was the first baseball coach at Mendota, coaching that sport for 14 years.

He left MHS in 1975 to become head basketball coach at Illinois Valley Community College, where he coached until his death in 1979 at age 49.

Pat Beals, who had a short stint as the Mendota coach, accepted the honor on his dad’s behalf.

Although moving to Ottawa from Oakland, California, for his sophomore year was a bit of a culture shock, McCormick said he quickly was embraced by his new teammates at Ottawa. The Pirates’ all-time leading scorer with 1,681 points, the 6-foot-10 McCormick played a key role in the Pirates winning two NCIC titles, two regionals and two sectionals and making an appearance in the 1978 state tournament.

It was a special time in the Illinois Valley, McCormick noted, with two teams from the same town, Marquette (Class A) and Ottawa (AA), playing in the state tournament in 1978.

He said there was no finer place to play than Ottawa’s Kingman Gymnasium.

McCormick went on to play at Western Kentucky, where he was a three-time All-Ohio Valley Conference selection and Associated Press All-America selection in 1982. Drafted by the LA Lakers in the 1982 NBA Draft, McCormick played professionally in Israel and Spain.

He is a member of the Ottawa High School and WKU Halls of Fame.

The former Amy Johnson is the all-time leading scorer at Ottawa, girls or boys, with 1,781 points, and is the girls all-time leading rebounder.

The decision she made, along with three best friends and classmates, to forego their senior year of volleyball to concentrate on basketball – which was not a popular one by the rest of her volleyball teammates and coach – paid dividends come winter.

The Pirates went 23-4 with a regional championship, cementing DeVerteuil’s legacy as the greatest player for the Ottawa girls.

“It was magical,” she said.

She went on to play collegiate basketball for the University of Michigan and also competed on the track and field team there.

The theme of basketball greats shifted from Ottawa to La Salle-Peru with the induction of Hollis Vickery, who Slevin called “one of the best players to come from the Illinois Valley.” Nicknamed the “Helicopter,” Vickery was a standout on three L-P regional championships, including the 27-2 Cavs team in 1971-72.

Vickery moved on to Lincoln Junior College but returned home to IVCC after a semester. He joined the Apaches the next season and became the top scorer among Illinois junior colleges, averaging 28.4 points.

He later played two seasons at the University of Hawaii.

Vickery’s love for the game brought him back to his alma mater to coach the L-P girls team for 12 seasons.

Rhonda Morel was a four-sport athlete at L-P, graduating in 1978, and went on to compete in four sports at IVCC. She was a two-sports scholarship athlete (volleyball, basketball) at Eastern Illinois University and later got into body building and played AAU beach volleyball, indoor volleyball and professional women’s football from 2000-03.

Morel was a staunch advocate of Title IX, forcing IVCC’s hand to start up a volleyball team her sophomore year after she ran cross country as a freshman.

“We had to fight for it. I have a lot to say about women’s sports, and I’m so proud to say how it’s grown and continued to grow,” Morel said. “I didn’t look at it as struggles. I just wanted to play. I didn’t want to play on the boys teams. I wanted to play.”

Ted Schmitz, a 1962 Streator graduate, played college football and baseball at Eastern Illinois. He was a legendary football coach, spanning more than four decades across college, the CFL and Indoor Football League.

Schmitz served as assistant football coach at EIU, Augustana, Illinois State and Illinois Wesleyan before becoming radio color commentator for ISU football. He spent eight seasons as a defensive assistant for CFL’s Hamilton Tiger-Cats and served as the interim head coach for six games during the 1987 season.

The Streator High School Hall of Famer still is broadcasting today, which he said “beats coaching because you can’t get in trouble.”

Dale Pienta was a three-sport standout at Hall, graduating in 1953, named as all-conference and honorable mention all-state as a senior in football and basketball. He went on to be a three-year letterman in both football and baseball at Northwestern, a member of the Wildcats’ Big Ten champions in baseball.

He coached one year at Tiskilwa, spent 31 years at Hall involved in coaching three sports, and served as athletic director for three years.

Pienta, 88, praised his older brother, Joe, for making him the athlete he became.

“He beat the heck out of me and helped me to get to what I became,” he said.

Ken Jenkins had a legendary career as the Putnam County baseball coach from 1979 to 2008, leading the Panthers to state in 1982, 1998 (fourth) and 2008 (third). He posted 517 wins with seven regional titles and three sectionals.

“PC was a baseball community. Joe Massino put PC on the map for baseball, and I just tried to keep us there,” said Jenkins, who was accompanied by players from each of his three state teams.

Guy Hoffman was a standout football and baseball player for Marquette. He had a 0.55 ERA his senior year in 1974 with two no-hitters and was the team MVP and leading hitter.

Although he had an opportunity to play Big Ten football, he opted to pitch for Bradley University by virtue of a coin flip. He was signed as an amateur free agent July 17, 1978, by the White Sox and, less than a year later, he was called up to the big leagues, which he called “mind-boggling.”

The southpaw spent part of six seasons playing for four MLB teams, including the Cubs, mostly as a reliever. He finished his MLB career with a 17-17 record and a 4.25 ERA before playing three seasons in Japan.

He is a member of the Marquette and Greater Peoria Area Sports Halls of Fame, and his baseball jersey was retired by Marquette in 1987.

The 2005 Bureau Valley football team was truly the Perfect Storm, defeating Tolono Unity 34-7 in the 3A title game to finish 14-0 and remain the only undefeated football state champion in Illinois Valley history.

It was a remarkable run to the 3A state championship, with the Storm making a near complete turnover after graduating most of the starting lineup from its 2004 state runner-up team.

Storm coach Dave Moore said it was all about “heart and grit.”

He joked that they needed a lot of that, in his very first game, overcoming a 21-0 second-half deficit to defeat Amboy 22-21.

Reid Nodine, a senior running back/defensive back, said the Storm exceeded their expectations.

“It was remarkable. I don’t think any of us had those expectations. I think every day we went in trying to be the best version of ourselves and worked hard to get better,” he said. “We had our shoes to fill, not wanting to take anything away from that ‘04 team. We had a great run that year. A lot of great athletes. New season, new team.”

Dean Riley, a 2020-21 IV Sports Hall of Famer, produced talented basketball teams during his run as IVCC men’s basketball coach. The finest of them all was the 1987-88 edition.

The Apaches (27-9), as the IVCC teams were known then, placed third in the Division 2 NJCAA Tournament, the best finish in school history.

It was a diversified team with a mixture of local talent with players from Peoria and the Quad Cities.

“We didn’t see color on the team. It was a brotherhood,” said Corey Akers, a player from Rock Island Alleman.

Team member Mark Cooper of Mendota, now the boys coach at Ottawa, said, “Coach Riley taught us to care and sacrifice” for the good of the team.

Tony Causa, 88, who dedicated his life to the sport of tumbling and gymnastics, received the Lanny Slevin Lifetime Achievement Award from the award’s namesake. He bought a tumbling and gymnastics center in Peru, later moving to La Salle in the very building where the Hall of Fame event was being held, where he coached until 2002.

“This is where it all started, and I couldn’t be prouder,” Causa said.

St. Bede alumnus Tom McGinnis, who has been the radio broadcaster for the NBA’s Philadelphia 76ers for 30 years, received the Distinguished Media Award. He was unable to attend Thursday’s ceremonies because of family responsibilities, but he made a video presentation expressing his best wishes to everyone back home.

The Spring Valley native said he wouldn’t trade growing up in the Illinois Valley for anything.

Legacy awards

The 1954-55 Princeton boys basketball state team and the late Meyer received the Legacy Awards.

Don Sheffer’s Tigers went 32-3, finishing fourth in the state in a one-class system. No Tiger team has made it back to state in the 69 years since. They were the talk of the town, forever known as the “Famous Five” – Joe Ruklick, Lew Flynn, Dick Hult, Gary Mulally and Forrie Finn.

John Smith of Princeton, who was a member of the PHS sophomore team in 1955, and athletic director Jeff Ohlson accepted the team’s award.

The Tigers were charter members of the Bureau County Sports Hall of Fame in 1995.

Meyer was born in Peru on Oct. 25, 1923, and rose to major league fame. He pitched for six different teams over the span of 13 big league seasons, posting a 94-73 record. He broke in with the Cubs in 1946 and last pitched in the big leagues on June 8, 1959, for the old Kansas City Athletics.

He pitched in three World Series, a member of the Brooklyn Dodgers’ first World Series champions in 1955.

Meyer, who was head baseball coach at IVCC from 1980-82, died Nov. 16, 1998, in Oglesby at the age of 74.