Content area
Full Text
DEKALB - The people coming into Chick Evans Field House Tuesday night with a sense of history knew what they were getting ready to see.
Or at least they thought so.
"The last one," chirped longtime Larkin boosters Dick Engel and Ed Fitchie.
Tom Leith remembered when Larkin came here in 1971. The Stan Martin-coached Royals lost to Rockford Boylan and legendary coach Dolph Stanley in that supersectional.
Yes, the memories of high school supersectionals in "The Old Barn" are many.
That made it only fitting that on Tuesday night, the final high school memory of Evans turned out to be one of the biggest upsets in Sweet Sixteen history when Glenbard North stunned West Aurora 68-65 in the last high school game to be played at Evans Field House. The building isn't being torn down but it is being replaced by NIU's new 9,100-seat Convocation Center, which will open this summer.
In his farewell piece on Evans, NIU Sports Information Director Mike Korcek writes, "If only Evans Field House could talk, the stories it would tell."
Korcek, who has seen every super at Evans, recalled a few of those great games before Tuesday's contest.
Like the one on March 13, 1984 when Hinckley-Big Rock's Jim Edmondson scored 55 points - still an Evans record for preps or colleges - in an 80-65 Class A win over Winnebago.
Of course, in 1972, St. Edward won the first Class A supersectional in Evans, beating Shabbona 56-54 in overtime.
How about 1973 when the great Matt Hicks outdueled Rockford West's Ernie Kent in leading West Aurora downstate, where it then beat Elgin in a memorable double-overtime quarterfinal.
There was also 1969, when Tom Kivisto poured in 37 points to lead East Aurora past Dixon.