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Massey Basketball: Streaks Scrapbook – 1954 Corpus Christi vs Galesburg HS

This January 1966 photo shows Corpus Christi High School, located north of Corpus Christi Catholic Church on South Prairie St. in Galesburg.

Former Galesburg High School girls basketball coach Evan Massey shares his insights on the game and other topics through his Massey Basketball blog, now featured here on WGIL.

Corpus Christi and St. Joseph Academy consolidated in 1945, with the high school becoming Corpus Christi. By 1957 there 326 students enrolled in Corpus Christi. The last school year at Corpus was 1963-4 school year. The high school was moved to the north side of Galesburg, and renamed Costa.

Up until 1941, private schools were not allowed to participate in the IHSA State Series. So Corpus Christi and Galesburg High School had a limited history on the basketball court.

Galesburg HS and Corpus Christi (and later Costa) did not schedule any regular season games. If they were to play, it would be in the Regional Tourney. In 1954, Galesburg HS and Corpus Christi met in the semi-finals of the Galesburg Regional held at Steele Gym. Going into this game, Corpus had lost 13 straight games to GHS and had never beaten the Streaks.

Galesburg HS entered the Regional with a 7-12 record under Coach Kent Menke. He was a former Illini Whiz Kid. He was in his fourth and last year at GHS. He had already announced it was his last year.

In the opening rounds GHS beat Knoxville 76-48. The Streaks jumped out to a 49-17 halftime lead.

The Friars played Cambridge in the opening round, and trailed by ten points entering the last quarter. Corpus went on a 29-13 run in the fourth quarter to beat Cambridge 71-65. This set up the intra-city matchup in the semi-finals.

Galesburg jumped out to 14-3 lead early in the matchup, and was up 27-18 late in the second quarter. Corpus went on a 8-0 run to make it a one point game at halftime. From that point on, the game was close the rest of the way.

The key players for GHS were Gary Harwood, Jack Sepich, Bill Graning, and Kay Steele. Coach Bob Drolek’s Friars were led by George Bednarcik, Tom Belezos, Joe Mills, Gene Mellican, Chuck McGeary, and Dan Foley.

Bednarcik hit two clutch free throws with 26 seconds to go that put the Friars up by 1 point. The Streaks would not score again, and Corpus put in a basket as the clock was running out to make the final score 51-48 with Corpus advancing to the championship game.

After Corpus Christi upset Galesburg 51-48, they went onto defeat ROVA 53-52 to win the Regional Championship. Corpus was coached by Bob Drolet, and key team members were George Bednarcik, Tom Belezos, Joe Mills, Gene Mellican, Chuck McGeary, and Dan Foley. They lost the first game of the Sectional to Monmouth 73-45.

Neither Corpus Christi or later Costa would ever win another Regional Championship in basketball. And this was Galesburg HS’s only loss to either school.

In quite a turn around, the following year behind Bill Graning, Mike Owens, Russ Lind, and Gene Youngquist, the Silver Streaks won the Regional, Sectional, and Super-Sectional. Under Coach Frank Adams, they advanced to the Elite 8 where they lost in OT to Elgin.