Ok.With Football season not too far off I thought I'd post something neat.Could be before the playoffs started or not.CPS schools included and I'm not saying the schools you mention could have won state,just schools in general that had a great year but due to not having a playoff system or pre 1985 expanded playoffs that didn't get in.Here are a few teams I liked.1997 Kelly,1967 & 1978 Joliet East,1977 Bloom Trail,1979 Kankakee Eastridge,1979 Oak Lawn,1981 Lincoln Way,1982 Eisenhower,1975 St.Francis De Sales,1968 Mendel,1980 Lockport.
Best Teams to not make the State Playoffs
- Thread starter superac777
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In 1978, Tinley Park and Rich Central square off in Week 9, both undefeated, for a conference finale in Olympia Fields. TP comes up short in OT and stays home for the playoffs.
The Sica & Illini 8.2 of my all time favorite conferences.Rich Central beat Kankakee Westview in round 1 in a shootout where the amazing Jimmy Smith was stopped just short of the goal line at the end.And how many Tinley Park teams got hosed because of school strikes? Richards had a team or 2 lose out because of strikes too
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I'm thinking Normal who lost 26 to 14 to Peoria Manual in Round 1.Decatur Lakeview had a great 7-2 team in it's last ever season.
All.... Normal Community, that sounds right. Also back then the Cyclones were addressed as Springfield Griffin. All boys until they joined up with the all girls school Sacred Heart a block down the street many years later. Ratsy
D228 (TP, BR, OF, HC) had strikes twice in a 3-year span in the early 80s. One went for 10 school days, causing 2 forfeits which put the 4 schools under the minimum games threshold. Another went "only" 5 days and a missed game was actually contested on a weekday between 2 of the striking schools. D218 and D205, also in the Southland, had their share of strike interruptions roughly around that time.
They have been down for so long so I'll give a shout out to the 89 Joliet Central team.I liked them.They were 5-4.Had some key injuries after a hot start.
What about that 2015 East Saint Louis team that had to forfeit 5/6 games due to a teachers strike? That was the season before they won the 7A title. I bet they were damn good and would have at least been in the mix in the semis or even the title game.
The 1996 Naperville North team finished 5-4 and missed the playoffs, they had 4 close loses one of which was a last second FG to teams that finished 9-0, 8-1, 8-1 and 7-2. They were probably better then half the teams in 6A that year but didn’t qualify.
This don't qualify but I help a guy research scores from IHSA Football.Anyway in doing so I recall and I can't think who(sorry) there was a bigger school(4 to 6a) who was in some crazy 3 way tie for conference.Well the one team they were tied with won on a Friday night.So then this team had played Saturday and were vs the other team they were tied with.They were tied and gave up a td and extra point in ot.Then only got to the 3 yard line on 4th down.One of the kids on the sidelines who helped the team was in honors math and crunched the numbers.He told the coach if they lost by 6 or more they were out.Less than 6 they were the conference champ.Coach called in the field goal team knowing they were going to lose.They made the kick and lost by 4 while the other team celebrated and laughed.Fans were saying what a idiot.Well as a result they got in as conference rep knocking out the team that beat them
Yes.I think for the CPS it was either a tie or stats broke the tie but they started OT later on.But even further back in Illini 8 and Sica and Catholic League I know there was OT.
Sir, the present same OT rules now in effect were in place in 1978, as I personally witnessed the game in question. Not sure, however, how many seasons earlier the extra sessions started in IL HS ball. But figuring the state playoffs began earlier in the 70s, OT must have had to start then.
Wilmington 1973, undefeated last year before playoffs.
Most painful team...2004 Manteno. Top of the I-8 was loaded, with Wilmington going semis (off the runner up in '03) and Coal City 4A runner-up. In the third year of Panther Football, they go into week 9 4-4 facing a battered 2-6 Reed-Custer (who started the year 2-0)...RC upsets the Panthers 24-23 on a last drive score in a driving rainstorm...Panthers don't have a winning season until 2010...My car overheated on the way home...
Oldies & I-8...
Reddick 8-0 in 1947 & Reddick (RUCE) 8-0 1957
Herscher 8-0 '52 & '61
Peotone's first two teams: 6-1 '71, 7-1 '72; only other 1 loss 9-1 '81
Seneca 6-3 '95 after a 10-1 '94
Westmont 5-4 '79 & '89 (3rd & 4th best seasons on IHSA site)
Coal City 6-3 in '80
Plano 8-1 '79 6-0 '43 & '46
Streator 9-0 '58
Sandwich ... couple of 5-4 seasons missed playoffs...
Lisle has 5 5-4 misses; 7-2 in '73
Reed-Custer 4 5-4 misses...
Kankakee 8-1 in '53
McNamara 8-0 in '57, 7-0 '55
Clifton Central 8-0 '66, '61, '59; 7-0 '58, '55
Most painful team...2004 Manteno. Top of the I-8 was loaded, with Wilmington going semis (off the runner up in '03) and Coal City 4A runner-up. In the third year of Panther Football, they go into week 9 4-4 facing a battered 2-6 Reed-Custer (who started the year 2-0)...RC upsets the Panthers 24-23 on a last drive score in a driving rainstorm...Panthers don't have a winning season until 2010...My car overheated on the way home...
Oldies & I-8...
Reddick 8-0 in 1947 & Reddick (RUCE) 8-0 1957
Herscher 8-0 '52 & '61
Peotone's first two teams: 6-1 '71, 7-1 '72; only other 1 loss 9-1 '81
Seneca 6-3 '95 after a 10-1 '94
Westmont 5-4 '79 & '89 (3rd & 4th best seasons on IHSA site)
Coal City 6-3 in '80
Plano 8-1 '79 6-0 '43 & '46
Streator 9-0 '58
Sandwich ... couple of 5-4 seasons missed playoffs...
Lisle has 5 5-4 misses; 7-2 in '73
Reed-Custer 4 5-4 misses...
Kankakee 8-1 in '53
McNamara 8-0 in '57, 7-0 '55
Clifton Central 8-0 '66, '61, '59; 7-0 '58, '55
That time Midland High School missed the playoffs after a coin toss at a truck stop in Texas.
1970 The Navy Blue and White Lockport West Spartans were 6-3.I wish they had started the playoffs many years ago.Lots of great teams from schools both no longer open or horrible in football that did have some great teams or playoff worthy teams.A friend of mine who played at Richards said I better add some of the Bulldogs near misses on here which I will.Schools that went 4-5 that lost many close games can be added even 3-6 teams.In fact I recall Argo finishing 1-8 in 1987 and they had a very real chance to have been 8-1 with the Richards loss even a close one.
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Where was the original Kankakee High Located? Was the field at the school? The only loss in that 7-1 season in 53 was 6 to 0 to Danville.The 62 team was great at 8-1 only losing to Joliet
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The MC team that comes to mind is 1981. Went 7-2 losses to eventual 6A champ BR in OT 27-24 and 5A champ JC 18-15.
1981 Prep Bowl Champs!!! 10-2.Beat Gordon Tech then St.Rita again in the Catholic Playoffs then Robeson in the Prep Bowl in a tight game
Clown... a better example was in 1985, when Wheaton teachers went on strike at the beginning of the school year causing both WN and WC to forfeit their 2 non-conference games. NN went 6-3 but missed the playoffs because of the loss of playoff points. WN went 7-0 in the games they actually played so they still got in. Wheaton Central missed the playoffs too because of the forfeits. That was Jeff Thorne's sophomore year. A few years later... both NN and WWS / Wheaton Central became football powerhouses.
It’s funny I was going to post that team but was to lazy to type up the explaination. That team posted 4 or 5 shuts outs in 7 games played.
The original Kankakee High? I have no idea where it was, as all of the Kankakee School buildings prior to 1950 to my knowledge no longer exist. I remember reading not too long ago that there was a Kankakee High which burned down in the late 40's about a block or so south of the Courthouse, perhaps on the site of the 1970's county jail. I also know that the Kankakee Holiday Tournament started the year that the new high school opened (2017 was the 68th Holiday Tournament, which puts the building at 1950). The 1950 high school building, after Eastridge & Westview opened in the mid-60's, evolved into King Junior High - King fed into Eastridge, Kennedy Junior High fed into Westview. With the Eastridge building now Kankakee Junior High, King and Kennedy are "middle schools" - 3rd to 6th grades I believe. King is on the south side of Court Street less than a mile west of I-57...
Kankakee's outdoor athletic facilities would be quite impressive if they bothered to maintain them. Immediately south of King is the Lincoln Cultural Center, which hosts Kankakee's Montessori school and a beautiful auditorium. East of the LCC you can see the remains of what was likely a cinder track in the days of King being the high school, and presumably the football field. It appears that the west side of the track was sacrificed for parking at some point & paved over, and the south curve has playground equipment placed on top of it.
Eastridge and Westview were built from the same set of plans, and have the same gym/auditorium/cafeteria as a result...although Westview now KHS has had some significant money spent on additions and updates since the merger. The track remains at Eastridge/KJHS, but is in poor condition, and the scoreboard is the only remains of a stadium. KHS put in turf last year, making Spurs Stadium a very functional facility. Spurs Stadium? Westview originally had no bleachers in the gym or stadium, and the booster club was known as the Spurs and raised the money for most of the original facilities...
KHS spends a good chunk of its summer training program at Kennedy, several blocks north of KHS. Kennedy shares a huge block with Taft Elementary, a church and the Kankakee Park District's Civic Auditorium and Historical Society. There is a full sized track in the field between Kennedy and Taft, which presumably was Kennedy's track when it was a junior high...Kennedy's track is actually in better shape than Eastridge/KJHS's track, and far fewer dandelions...lol...and they probably could fit more than 10 full sized football fields between the schools...which is why the summer program is based there.
As a Wilmington fan, I have a major beef with 2004 Manteno. By virtue of them losing to a dismal R-C squad, they not only prolonged their streak of not making the post season, they also allowed something much more significant.
Manteno's week 9 loss knocked them out of the playoffs and also allowed Driscoll to "drop" down to 3A that season. While the '04 quarterfinal game at Wilmington was an all time classic, Driscoll prevailed, and Wilmington had to wait another decade before finally getting that first title.
Marist in 1982 was a real good team. Finished 8-1. Only loss was to JC in a thriller late in the year. JC finished 9-0 and went on to the playoffs, where they were beat by MC in the quarterfinals. Marist was led by stud QB Russ Rein, who went on to play at Michigan. JC's QB was Pat Pesavento, who went on to play QB and shortstop at Notre Dame
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LA went 7-2 in '77 ... not invited. 7-2 in '81 ... not invited. It was a cold, hard world back then.
Glenbrook South in 1977. Went 8-1, only loss was to 9-0 Maine East team. They lost 6-0 in a driving rainstorm where the only score was a fumble by GBS recovered in the endzone by ME with 2 minutes left in the game. Back when only the conference champs went to the playoffs, one play in an entire season was the difference sometimes.
That’s was JC’s first year back in the ESCC. The Marist/JC game was a classic.
Reavis won 6A (the largest class) that year after 2 consecutive runner ups. They beat New Trier and having seen all 3 teams play more than once I think Marist could have beaten both Reavis and New Trier.
Marist ran their mouth in the newspapers back then and they would not have beat the Rams.Sandburg shouldn't have beat Reavis.The extra point in OT was good but kicked high and refs couldn't see.Marist wouldn't have beat East St Louis even
Loyola had a great team in 1981.Lost 6-3 to Rita in a tough Prep Bowl playoff to finish 7-3.The 77 team finished 8-3.They beat up Brother Rice 24 to 0 in the Prep Bowl playoffs before losing in the Catholic Championship to St Rita by a score of 14 to 0
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Prep Bowl Champs!!! They lost 14 to 6 I believe to St.Rita who won State.Oh and they were on the Ray Rayner Show!!!
So sad that the school is closing!!! I'm trying to make it, may be on the later side! Should be a fun night!mmca:
ICYMI
Are you a Holy Cross Alum? If so, what class? I'd love to see Bill Aiston.
