I wanted to start a new weekly blog featuring the past sports world’s good sports and bad sports. Asking around the Telegraph newsroom for suggestions, there were plenty of bad sports nominated, but fewer good sports. I guess that’s how most of us in the business are wired - negative pole gets lots of hits, not so much the positive. But I did come up with some good sports - some really good ones.

Here’s my top five in each…

This week’s bad sports:

1. Floyd Irons: This guy seemingly had his own take on cheating while becoming a coaching legend at Vashon. He’s not even apologetic. He admits it and says he’d do it again. His blatant recruiting of the Hill brothers from Alton may have cheated the Redbirds out of a state championship, but even worse, it sends a horrible message.

2. Johnny Hill Sr.: The father of Bobby and Johnny Hill, he got a job through Irons and a Cadillac to drive. He also told his sons it was all OK.

3. The Missouri State High School Activities Association: These folks evidently turned their heads, buried them in the sand and played see-no-evil, hear-no-evil and speak-no-evil. Not wanting to tarnish a coaching legend, they chose to do nothing. This outfit makes me appreciate the Illinois High School Association even more. The IHSA can be frustrating at times, but it’s leap years better than the MSHSAA.

4. Roger Clemens: Deny, deny, deny. Richard Nixon would be proud.

5. Bill Belichick: Cheaters never prosper. Well, maybe sometimes they prosper. What a spoiled brat.

(Honorable Mention: Kelvin Sampson, Indiana basketball coach. Bobby Knight may have ruffled lots of feathers, but he never cheated.)

We stay closer to home for this week’s good sports:

1. Larry Thatcher: The SIU Edwardsville hockey coach wears a lot of hats. He’s also the manager of the East Alton Ice Arena and a board member of the Mississippi Valley Club Hockey Association. This past weekend he was also tournament director for the Mid-American Collegiate Hockey Association tourney at the EAIA. His SIUE team bowed to Mizzou in the semifinals, but Thatcher was gracious in defeat, accomodating to the visiting teams and the tourney went off without a snag. Thatcher’s been through the wringer recently with so much on his plate, but he’s demonstrated plenty of class and showed what being a good sport is all about.

2. Uno: He’s the pooch from Belleville who won Best of Show last week at the Westminster Kennel dog show. He also did not cheat. Good boy.

3. Chris Williams: The first freshman wrestler from Civic Memorial to win a medal at the IHSA State Finals since Kip Kristoff, he showed hard work pays off.

4. Allen Johnson: The ‘72 Calhoun High grad is spearheading an effort to renovate the school’s gymnasium. There’s a long way to go, but his group’s doing it the right way - hard work and fund-raisers.

5. Tony La Russa: Hey, it’s Spring Training time!

That’s my list, how about yours? If you have some other ideas, let me know.

Lists, lists, lists. We’re obsessed with lists, whether it’s the Top 10, the Bottom 10, honey-do lists, shopping lists or a hit list.
There are few things people feel as passionately about as they do their sports teams. And while logic often gives way to nostalgia, there’s nothing like a debate comparing teams or athletes from different eras, not to mention cities.
That’s what The List is about – airing feelings about the best in area athletics through the years.
This time, The List takes on the subject of high school football – the best River Bend teams of all time.
We’ll want to come up with the Top 10 prep football teams of all time from our area. And by “our area,” I mean The Telegraph’s circulation area. If The Telegraph is delivered there, it’s in our area. If it’s not – it is not an area community (for these purposes, anyway).
With so many great teams through the decades, it was difficult to whittle the list down. If your favorite teams aren’t mentioned here, let us know. This is all opinion and just for fun. So, in no particular order (yet), here are the nominees …..

ALTON 1970 - As long as I can remember, the Alton High School team from 1970 has been mentioned as one of the very best to ever take the field. The Redbirds were 10-0 under head coach Ed Yonkus. They outscored the opposition 286-68. They were led by offensive weapons Bobby Everidge, Frank Holmes and Gale Murphy. But Alton didn’t have to play East St. Louis that season, since East Side teachers were on strike and the Redbirds received a 2-0 forfeit win. And in the final game of the season, Alton edged Belleville West 22-20. That was three years before the beginning of the IHSA football playoff system, so we’ll never know how that team would have fared in the postseason.
CALHOUN 1992 & 1993 - Two of the best teams from our area were at the opposite end of the enrollment scale from Alton High. In back-to-back-seasons of 1992 and 1993, the Calhoun Warriors of coach Ric Johns won the Class 1A state championship. Calhoun went 14-0 in 1992 and was 13-1 in ’93. Those two teams remain the only two from The Telegraph area to capture state titles.
EDWARDSVILLE 2001 and 2001 – The Tigers finished second in the state both seasons in Class 7A and each season, they finished with 12-2 records under coach Tim Dougherty, who was 132-40 in 16 years at EHS.
MARQUETTE 1982 – These Explorers finished second in Class 3A under John Rogers and finished 12-1. They lost to Bishop Kankakee McNamara in the title game and were led by the likes of quarterback Tim Mathews and running back Jack Wickenhauser.
ROXANA 1987 – Under venerable coach Charlie Raich, the Shells came up inches short in the state championship game in Normal, losing to New Lenox Providence. They finished 12-1.
CIVIC MEMORIAL 1984 – The Eagles, under the guidance of head coach Leroy Beck, finished 12-2. They advanced to the Class 4A state semifinals, where they lost to Morris 27-7. Ironically, one of their top players was running back Dewayne Morris.
EA-WR 2004 – The Oilers went 9-1 under head coach Gary Carter, and finished the regular season unbeaten. They were eliminated from the Class 3A playoffs by Breese Mater Dei in the first round.
ALTON 1935 – The Redbirds, with players such as future Michigan All-American Archie Kodros leading the way, went undefeated under the guidance of head coach Ray “Pop” Jackson.
WOOD RIVER 1953 – The Oilers, under longtime mentor Orv Yocum, went undefeated and finished with a record of 8-0-2.
CIVIC MEMORIAL 1967 – This group of Eagles, coached by Ed Hartweger, is often mentioned as one of the top teams. They finished 7-1 and featured players the likes of QB Ricci Stotler and running back Kenny Hammon. Stotler went on to play at Mizzou. They won the old Midwestern Conference championship, the included such teams as Madison, Cahokia, Roxana, Triad, Highland and Dupo.
MOUNT OLIVE 2005, 2006, 2007 – Under longtime coach Don Dobrino, the Wildcats have gone 33-5 the last three seasons.
JERSEY 1991 – Under Bill Breden, Jersey went 11-1 and were led by quarterback Rob Schroeder. The Panthers were 11-0 until Harrisburg ousted them in the third round of the playoffs.
ROXANA 1981, 1982 & 1983 – The Shells went 31-5 these three seasons under Raich.
MARQUETTE 2002 – This team will be always remembered for what might have been. The Explorers were 10-0 and ranked No. 1 in the state. But after winning the first round of the playoffs, many of the starters were arrested at an under-age drinking party and were subsequently suspended from playing. With a makeshift team made up mostly of reserves, Marquette was eliminated the next week. Head coach Mike Slaughter and the Marquette administration did the right thing in the long run.

Well, these are just a few of the teams that come to mind. How would you rank them? Do you have some others you think should be included? Send us your thoughts! I’ll include your comments – and the final Top 10 in an upcoming blog.

Secretary, take a memo, please.
“Dear IHSA; Please read the following closely.”
—
Remember when sports trophies actually meant something? Most folks of my generation can probably count on one hand the number of trophies they own. Maybe there’s one for winning the Little League championship when they were 11 years old, or maybe there’s one for winning the Pop Warner Football playoffs. Perhaps a shiny plaque for winning the 100-yard freestyle in the summer swim league championship meet.
The key word here is winning. You had to actually perform to get an award.
Then came the feel-good generation.
Kids who tried hard started getting trophies too. Youngsters who had trouble chewing gum and walking at the same time got shiny trophies just like the ones the best players received.
Participation replaced winning as the keyword. Put in a pair of shin guards and, voila – a soccer trophy appears! Doff a football helmet and the next thing you know, there’s a shiny football trophy sitting on Junior’s shelf next to his toys.
Slowly, the shine has worn off the trophies until they mean next to nothing to the kids who receive them.
The Illinois High School Association has come up with its own version of [participation trophies, you know. It’s called the new classification system. Many IHSA-sponsored sports – including basketball – have more classes beginning this season.
For basketball, it’s four classes now instead of two. There are so many classes and regional tournaments and sectionals and state finals now that you need a scorecard – and a calculator – to keep everybody straight.
At the risk of sounding like someone of the door of geezerhood, I must say that in the olden days, the basketball playoffs in Illinois meant more.
I go back to the days of the one-class system, when winning a state basketball championship really meant something. The matchups between the Davids like Cobden and the Goliaths like Pekin in the one-class 1964 title game can’t happen anymore. Even the two-class Cinderella story of Staunton’s improbably run to the 1993 state title with its victory over Chicago Hales Franciscan in Class A will never happen again.
Parity has reared its ugly head.
Oh, there will be more teams playing for more state championships. More kids will walk away with smiles on their faces and shiny medals hanging around their necks. Self esteem will be at an all-time high.
The mid-level enrollment schools such as Civic Memorial, East Alton-Wood River and Jersey will have a better shot at advancing in the playoffs in this new system, of course. Those schools of around 800 to 1,000 students have recently been too big to be small and too small to win in Class AA. But when a school of that size has put together a special season, the memories and satisfaction have been immeasurable.
Wining a trophy might boost self esteem for a moment, but lessons can be learned from losing, too. The chance at this generation learning those lessons is taking a hit.
Why don’t we just have all the athletes line up for their participation trophies at the beginning of the season and get it over with?

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