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The West Aurora boys basketball program has been without peer in the area for the last three and half decades.
During the 1972-73 school year, as Watergate and the Vietnam War engulfed the nation, John Bryant and Mathew Hicks were the senior standouts for the Blackhawks under the direction of legendary coach John McDougal.
"The closest I'll ever come to meeting John Wooden," Batavia coach Jim Roberts replied when asked Tuesday if he ever met McDougal.
It was a halcyon period for basketball in the Upstate Eight Conference that season as West Aurora, East Aurora, Elgin and St. Charles were loaded with talent.
"Of those four teams, we were the only one that lost an out-of- conference game," said current West Aurora coach Gordie Kerkman, then an assistant.
"There was tremendous talent that year."
The league supremacy reached its apex when the Blackhawks and Elgin met for the ultimate rubber game in the Class AA state quarterfinals in Champaign.
"Elgin had a starting five bigger than the (New York) Knicks, and the Knicks won the NBA championship that year," said Bryant, who hit a 15-foot baseline jumper to send the game into a second overtime. "We gave them their only two losses that year."
West Aurora won the game in the second extra session, ultimately leaving Champaign with the third-place trophy.
The legacy that Bryant and Hicks began would have a lasting impact,...
