Has it really been 50 years since Chips Giovanine’s Western Rams placed fourth in the IHSA Class A State Tournament?

It was March of 1976 when the Rams marched back to state with an undefeated record at 29-0 for the second season in a row behind senior all-stater Ron “Stick” Happach and other senior stalwarts like Kevin Anglin, Jeff Calvert, Dave Hartz, Ron Nielsen, Rob Horton, Calvin Eigsti, Bruce Gingrich and Terry Hasbrook.

The famed “Western Dribblers,” as they had to each postseason site, dribbled their way back to Champaign.

The Rams beat Palos Heights Chicago Christian 48-46 in the supersectional on a last-second shot by Calvert, and this time won their state quarterfinal at the Assembly Hall, defeating Havana 64-54.

In the semifinals, the Rams lost to Mt. Pulaski 74-56, which went on to top ROVA 59-58 for the state title.

That left the Rams with perhaps the most memorable third-place matchup in state tournament history against Lawrenceville and the legendary Jay Shidler, aka the “Blonde Bomber,” in front of a packed crowd of 16,000.

Shidler had scored 48 points in the Indians’ 77-70 loss to ROVA in the semifinals and was chasing the Class A State Tournament record and the all-time state tournament record.

It also matched two of the most successful and flamboyant coaches in the state, Giovanine with his trademark plaid sport coat and Lawrenceville’s Ron Felling, dressed in denim. Giovanine’s sport coat typically didn’t stay on long, Hartz remembering it routinely being flung two or three rows behind the bench.

“The Assembly Hall was essentially sold out. I remember looking up and they were full to the top row. You got the sense that everybody was there to see this matchup of Jay Shidler against this team that was now 31-1 and he was going for the state tournament scoring record,” said Grey Giovanine, who was a sophomore reserve for his dad’s Rams.

“As the game unfolded, the crowd was so engaged with his performance, and it was a performance.”

Shidler, who said in his 2024 book, the “Blonde Bomber, A Ride with Shide,” that he didn’t know anything about the records until he heard the public address announcer say that he broke it, gave the sell-out crowd what they came to see.

The Rams jumped out to early leads of 8-2 and 12-8, playing to an 18-all tie at the end of the first quarter.

But Shidler, with his long, platinum blonde hair, got hot, pumping in 31 points with his trademark long range bombs, matching Western’s team total as Lawrenceville took a 41-31 halftime lead. Shidler finished with 45 points, hitting 18 of 28 shots from the field and going 9 for 9 on free throws, leading Lawrenceville to a 65-57 victory.

Chips Giovanine, who passed away in 2014, was determined to play man to man come hell or high water, but found out he had to come up with a Plan B and Plan C to try to stop Shidler.

“He was such a die-hard, committed man to man guy and ‘By golly, that’s how we’re going to play him,’” Grey Giovanine said of his dad’s philosophy. “It became pretty evident, pretty quick, that’s not going to work. He stuck with it. The poor guys who had that assignment, Jeff Calvert, Dave Hartz, who were tremendous defenders and really good athletes, but man he could elevate.

“That was the game plan. We’re going to play him like everybody. The problem was, he wasn’t like everybody.”

Hartz has joked over the years that they “held” Shidler to 45 points.

“Jeff (Calvert) started on him and I tried to help. Then we tried to double team and nothing worked,” Hartz said. “We played man all year, but we never faced anybody like him of course. We did try a box and 1 on him. Tried about everything. He was just a heckuva player. No way around it.

“We’ve talked a few times (over the years) if they had 3-point shots back then how many points he would have. He was shooting NBA 3s and making them. He actually shot jump shots out there.”

Grey Giovanine said Shidler certainly lived up to his legend.

“There wasn’t a lot of video. You just heard about this guy all the time. And he was in another part of the state,” Giovanine said. “The first time you saw him, it was like, ‘holy smokes.” He had a tremendous swagger. Which great players have. And it served him well.

“He had that long white hair, long socks and he was huge. He was thick and strong and confident. He had 45 and there was no 3-point line. He was shooting bombs. He would have had 60 (with the 3-point line). I don’t remember him missing.”

The Rams found the crowd wanted Shidler to get the record and didn’t want either team getting in his way.

“They were jeering them for holding the ball and booing us any time we made more than one pass. Of course there’s no shot clock. We were trying not to get blown out,” Giovanine said of the Rams’ patient offense.

“Seemed like everybody in the arena wanted him to score and break the record. Had everybody cheering against us,” Hartz said.

Shidler’s 45 points gave him 157 at state, including supersectionals, breaking the all-time tournament record of 152 by Springfield’s Dave Robisch.

“Every basket that he made the place just went crazy. The roof was shaking,” Grey Giovanine said. “They were all pulling for him to get the scoring record because they were announcing it ... ‘He’s 15 points away. He’s 12 points away.’ We were fighting that. It was an experience none of us that were there will ever forget. It certainly didn’t feel like a consolation game.”

For the Rams, Happach had a team-high 18 points while Hartz netted 13 and Nielsen 12.