Big events took place off the field

If anything, 1996 was the year of the press conference.

That’s where all big news broke, where all the excitement occured. In a suit and tie, behind a microphone and a podium.

Take a look at our top 10 stories, and you’ll have to wade all the way down to No. 7 to find an actual athletic event.

That’s LeRoy winning a state championship in football, a feat that rates considerably higher in normal years.

But 1996 was third-and-long from being normal.

How often does the University of Illinois make coaching changes in its two revenue-producing sports in a 10-month span?

How often does Illinois basketball bag two of the nation’s top recruits on the same day?

How often does Illinois produce two of the top three picks in the National Football League draft?

Rarely have so many head-turning events been bunched so close together on the calendar.

Plenty of leftovers

Consider the snubs we had to hand out because of a top-10 list as crowded as Kiel Center last Saturday.

– St. Joseph-Ogden’s Jennifer Brown pulled off a rare double-double at the Class A girls’ track and field state finals in May, winning the shot put and discus (state record).

– Danville’s Kapreia Kirk won a Class AA title in the 800 meters.

– Champaign Central’s Amanda Crews won a state title in diving in November.

– Illinois volleyball underwent a major makeover, Don Hardin replacing Mike Hebert in mid-January and star Erin Borske leaving school later in the month.

– Illinois baseball made the Big Ten title game, losing out on an NCAA bid when it lost to Indiana in May.

– High school coaches came and went, the most notable being Craig Bundy, who bolted Centennial for Bradley-Bourbonnais after a three-year resuscitation job.

– Theresa Grentz capped the UI’s most impressive women’s recruiting effort by adding Katie Coleman to the roster, the NCAA allowing the All-Stater out of her commitment to Purdue.

– Illinois wrestling finished 12th nationally, Ernest Benion and Lindsey Durlacher earning All-American honors.

– Marko Koers became the first man out of the University of Illinois to make an Olympic track and field final in 36 years, finishing seventh in the 1,500 in Atlanta. He was among a handful of athletes with Illini ties to compete in the Summer Games, including Champaign’s Scot Hollenbeck, who won a silver in the men’s 1,500-meter wheelchair race.

– Illinois’ women’s track and field team won its fourth Big Ten indoor title in five years – and the UI’s only conference title in 19 sports. Tonya Williams went on to win a second consecutive NCAA title in the 400-meter hurdles, helping the Illini to a fourth-place team finish.

– Koers won an NCAA title in the 1,500, the Illini competing without All-American pole vaulter Daren McDonough, who was suspensed after testing positive for marijuana at the NCAA Indoor meet in March.

– Centennial’s boys’ basketball team won its third consecutive Big 12 Conference title, then suffered its third consecutive playoff flop. Its star, Carvell Ammons, signed with Northwestern.

– Eric Jefferson, one of the nation’s top prep football players, signed with Illinois, but did not play a down his freshman year due to personal problems.

– High school football returned to Memorial Stadium in October, Central winning the “Battle of Champaign” after Unity beat Danville Schlarman.

– Gibson City-Melvin-Sibley’s Cord Schroeder won an individual wrestling title at February’s Class A tournament. Champaign-Urbana won in wrestling, too, the IHSA awarding the UI the team state tournament.

– Tragedy struck Centennial’s football team, David Lambert dying in a November traffic accident. Among the other sports figures to pass away: Danville softball coach Brad Reeley, former UI pole vaulter and Olympic silver medalist Don Laz, former UI track coach and athlete Bob Wright Sr., and former UI track star Lee Sentman Jr.

– Finally, Rossville-Alvin’s Daniel Huffman delivered the play of the year, donating a kidney to his grandmother, Shirlee Allison, which ended his football playing days. He was lauded for his gesture on a college football awards show broadcast live by ESPN. This from the show’s host during the telecast: “The word hero is often overused, but there, folks, is a hero.”

Jim Rossow is sports editor of The News-Gazette.

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