Massey Basketball: The Amazing 1964 Cobden Appleknockers

I also had conversations with Galesburg players/fans, who played Cobden in 1964. I made a special visit to Cobden and attended a basketball game. And I delved into old newspaper articles.

Cobden, Illinois

In 1964, Cobden was the Cinderella story of the IHSA boys basketball state tourney. As small school, they made it all the way to the Illinois State Championship game.

Cobden had a population of about 900 people in 1964. One of Cobden’s claims to fame was that it had the widest Main Street in the world. This is because the railroad runs tracks and they have a small park between the two sides of the street.

Cobden High School had an enrollment of 147 students. Cobden HS got their nickname of the Appleknockers because of the large orchards surrounding Cobden. Part of the routine on the orchards was to “knock the apples” off the limbs if the weight of the fruit was too much.

Geographically, Cobden is 16 miles south of Carbondale and SIU. It is 30 miles from Cape Girardeau, Mo, 40 miles from Cairo, 58 miles from Paducah, and 213 miles from Champaign.

Hebron had been the only “district” team to win the Illinois State Championship. They won it in 1952. Hebron and Cobden are separated by 414 miles.

Coaching Change

Cobden had a tall and talented class that went 24-3 in 8th grade in 1959-60. The community was excited about the group. When they were in 9th grade, Cobden’s varsity won only 2 games while the freshman team went 13-2. The next year, as sophomores, the group helped the varsity go 12-12 and win the District Championship.

While the varsity coach was respected in the community, many felt he was a “baseball man,” and Cobden needed a basketball man to coach this great group of players. The school board voted 4-3 to fire the coach and hire a new coach.

Coaching Target

Dick Ruggles was from Quincy, Massachusetts but ended up at SIU in Carbondale. He went to SIU because of a contact his high school coach had with the SIU AD. Ruggles at 5’11” went from walk-on, to scholarship, to starter. His senior year, the Salukies went 20-9 and won the conference title with Ruggles as a starter.

Coach Ruggles was hired at Hurst-Bush, a school 35 miles north of Cobden. He coached the 1961 and 1962 seasons. A local dentist who was on the school board and had two sons, reached out to Ruggles and got him to take the Cobden basketball job.

When Ruggles took over Cobden for the 1962-3 season, Cobden had not won a Regional Championship since 1942.

Start of 1962-3 Season

The core players of the 1962-3 season were Kenny Flick (Jr. 6’5”), Chuck Neal (Jr, 6’6”), Kenny Smith (Soph, 6’4”), Jim Neal (Soph, 6’5”), and Tom Crowell (Soph, 6’0”).

Chuck and Jim Neal were brothers. My understanding was that Kenny Smith, Jim Smith, and Bob Smith were cousins.

The Appleknockers started the season 11-0 and were ranked #1 in the area by Cairo paper.

Losing Leading Scorer

Kenny Flick (Jr, 6’5”) was Cobden’s leading scorer. Kenny’s girl friend, Evalena Reynolds from Anna became pregnant. Despite their age, Kenny felt it was important to get married. Cobden’s school policy at the time was that married students could not participate in extracurricular activities. Flick chose to quit school and get a job.

Finish to 1962-3 Season

Shortly after Flick quit the team, the Appleknockers lost to the #2 rated team in the area, Metropolis by 70-61. That would be Cobden’s only loss of the regular season as they finished 22-1.

Cobden won the District Championship with wins over Mounds Douglas (75-31) and Goreville (91-52). They went onto win the Regional with wins over Cairo Sumner (69-51), Anna-Jonesboro (64-58), and Tamms (76-64). This was Cobden’s first Regional Championship since 1942.

The Appleknockers lost the first game of the Sectional at Harrisburg to McLeansboro (59-39). Cobden finished the season with an impressive 27-2 record.

Tragedy

In May, Chuck Neal, Kenny Smith, and Tom Crowell went swimming at local pond. Crowell tragically drowned. One can only imagine the horror for Neal and Smith to witness a close friend drowning, and the devastation for the family and the small tight community.

Change in School Board Policy

The Cobden school board changed the school policy of barring married students from participating in extracurricular activities. Kenny Flick re-enrolled as a student.

1963-4 Regular Season

Cobden returned four players who had started the previous year on the 27-2 team- Kenny Flick (Sr, 6’5”), Chuck Neal (Sr, 6’6”), Jim Neal (Jr, 6’5”), and Kenny Smith (6’5”).

Chuck Neal suffered a knee injury in the pre-season and had to sit out most of the schedule before Christmas. Darrell Crimmins, a key player, suffered a broken ankle and missed much of the season.

Being a small school, and a very good small school, it made it tough to find bigger schools willing to play Cobden. Coach Ruggles made every attempt to strengthen the schedule with an eye to improving their post-season performance.

Right out from the start, they realized that other teams might try to hold the ball on them. So a strategy was needed to be able to pressure teams who did this.

Although they jumped out to an 8-0 start, Coach Ruggles decided they needed to switch up their defense. He went to a 1-2-2 zone putting the 6’5” Jim Neal at the point to pressure the guards. This not only made it hard for other teams to delay vs Cobden, it made it hard for them to run an offense and try to shoot over the taller defender at the point. They also had the ability to take this defense and stretch it out to make it a pressing defense.

They lost their first game of the season to McLeansboro 58-57 in OT at the McLeansboro Tourney. While that was disappointing, after losing to them by 20 in the Sectional the year before, it was a positive sign.

On February 11, Cobden finally cracked the AP Poll at #16 with a 20-1 record.

The Appleknockers lost their season final to Albion 52-48, despite having beaten them badly early in the year.

What’s a District?

In Illinois in the 1920’s and much of the 1930’s, every team started out in a District Tourney. If you look through the IHSA webpage, teams in that era will be listed as being District Champs. You will notice that there were no Regional Champs.

As the popularity of basketball grew, the number of teams being put into the District Tourney swelled up. The solution was that the IHSA created a District then Regional, then Sectional, and then State series.

Regional Tourneys were capped to have only 8 participants in each tourney. Seven teams were assigned, and one spot was left for a District Champion team.

In an area if there was an excess of 8 teams, the smallest schools were put in a District. It was in effect a “play-in” tourney. In some areas, there might be only 2-3 schools in a District, and in other areas there might be 5-6 teams in a District.

To make things tough, during different eras, the District team might enter the Regional as the #8 seed and be assigned to play the #1 seed in the first game. And at other times, they might be assigned a higher seed and get a more favorable draw. The seed was pre-determined by the IHSA before the District was played.

Since developing this system, only Hebron in 1952 had won the State Championship coming out of a District tourney.

Cobden District Tourney

Cobden hosted the District and won the District with ease. They beat Alto Pass (202-34) and Mounds Douglas (85-44).

 

Anna-Jonesboro Regional Tourney

As the District winner, Cobden was assigned to play the #1 seed, Mound City who was 21-3. Cobden won 67-35. In the semi-final, Egyptian missed a shot at the buzzer that would have upset Cobden. Cobden won 47-46. In the championship game, Cobden beat Cairo Sumner 69-54.

 

Eldorado Sectional Tourney

Cobden defeated Carmi 71-53 for the schools first win in a Sectional. They played Harrisburg in the championship game. Cobden had a 10 point lead but had 3 players foul out of the game. It should be noted, this was an era where this was not unusual- high number of fouls were called in all games. It was probably more unusual to have a game where a player did not foul out than a game where three player did foul out. The combination of lost players and Harrisburg pressure resulted in only a two point win, 64-62. This was Cobden’s first Sectional Championship.

The Sectional marked the first appearance of “The Appleknocker.” This was a student dressed in bib overalls and a straw hat.

West Frankfort Super-Sectional

Cobden was matched vs. Pinckneyville in the Super. Pinckneyville as a small school had a rich tradition of basketball and going to State was not unusual for them.

The AP ranked the teams in the Sweet 16- #1 Collinsville, #2 Crane Tech, #3 Centralia, #4 Decatur, #5 Pekin, #6 Galesburg, #7 Pinckneyville #13 Cobden. These rankings assure that the last four games of the tourney series that Cobden would be the underdog in each game.

Pinckneyville’s tallest player was 6’3”, which was shorter than Cobden’s point guard, Kenny Smith 6’5”. They were an uptempo pressing team- Cobden’s next three opponents would all fit this bill.

Pinckneyville led 26-20 at half, it was tied 38-38 after three, and then tied 54-54 after regulation. Overtime periods at this time were only 3 minutes, which may not seem like a big deal but each overtime quickly got to a point where teams held for a last shot. And if they didn’t convert, they went to another OT. It was tied at 58 after the first OT, then 62 after the second OT, and finally Cobden prevailed 68-66 in the third OT.

Celebration and Preparation

There was a celebration into the late hours at a local tavern by the adults. The players were allowed to arrive an hour late for school and were greeted to an assembly to honor them.

Coach Ruggles relied on former SIU teammates to help with scouting during the State series, and phone calls to other coaches. For Galesburg, he also got help from Pinckneyville who shared their scouting reports.

The passenger train no longer stopped in Cobden. The school reached out and got it approved to stop in Cobden and have a car for the Cobden team to go to Champaign. They had school officials drive their cars to Champaign to then drive them around town.

Although there were 16,000 seats in the Assembly Hall, the IHSA only pulled back 4,500 tickets for the participating teams. The number of tickets allotted to school was based on enrollment. Cobden’s session would include tickets for Cobden 147, Galesburg 1750, Evanston 4,100, and Decatur 1,600. As a result, Cobden was given only 370 of the 4,500 participant tickets. After players families and students got tickets, there were very few left over.When the players departed on the train, there was a community send off. The high school and grade school students were dismissed for the send off, and then hundreds of fans.

Along the trip, on the country side and in small towns where they heard Cobden players were coming through, there were signs to show support for the Appleknockers.

Elite 8 vs Galesburg

One thing became apparent early in the contest, although Cobden had only 370 tickets, 14,000 of the 16,000 in attendance were Appleknocker fans.

Jim Neal picked up three fouls in the first four minutes of the game, sat out the rest of the first quarter, then picked up his fourth foul early in the second quarter. Bob Smith picked up his third foul in the second quarter and had to sit. Chuck Neal picked up his third foul in the second quarter and had to sit.

Despite the huge foul trouble, Galesburg had trouble shooting over the Cobden 1-2-2- zone. It was 26-26 at half-time.

Galesburg went on a 9-0 run in the third quarter and led 44-40 after three quarters with both Neal brothers sitting on the bench. Jim Neal fouled out with 6 minutes to go in the game. Galesburg led 49-44 with 5:30 to go in the game.

Cobden tied it up 51-51 with 3:30 to go. Galesburg struggled vs Cobden pressure. Cobden went up 53-51.

Ken Smith went to the line and made one free throw. He missed the second free throw but Kenny Flick tipped it in to give Cobden a 56-51 lead. The Appleknockers had gone on a 12-1 run.As Cobden went on their run, the crowd got louder and louder.

With under a minute to go, Galesburg was left to foul. Bob Smith and Jim Smith made their free throws to seal the win.

After the game, Coach John Thiel of Galesburg said,”Every time they scored it sounded like the Yankees had won the 7th game of the World Series. I wish my boys had forgotten about the crowd.”

Chuck Neal reflected,”We’ve been playing ball for Tom all year. We don’t say,”Win this one for Tom,” just to build up our morale. It’s just the way we feel.

Reporter- “How did your players get so tall?”

Coach Ruggles- “They drink apple cider between halves.”

Semifinals Stephen Decatur

Cobden jumped to a 9-5 lead after one quarter. Then right before half, the Appleknockers had a 6 point play to go up 23-14 at half-time. It involved making a free throw then missing a free throw, rebounding and scoring. And each time being fouled.

Cobden hung on for a 44-38 lead.

The more they won, the more fans were drawn to them. By this game, ushers and concession workers were openly cheering for Cobden.

When the players went to a restaurant, when they got up to leave, all of the other customers game them an ovation.

State Championship Game vs Pekin

Pekin had a great shooting team and was able to score over the Cobden 1-2-2 zone. Pekin led by as many at 11 in the first half and was up 7 at half-time. Pekin made 13-19 shots in the first half.

A trademark of Pekin teams under Dawdie Hawkins was to jump in front of offensive players to draw fouls. They were successful with this tactic and got Cobden into foul trouble.

Cobden was able to get within 40-39 with under three minutes to go. Pekin went into a stall and made their free throws to finish with a 50-45 win.

Welcome Home

When the train with the players, coaches, and cheerleaders got within miles of Cobden, they saw hundreds and hundreds of cars lined along the roads leading into Cobden with welcome signs.

When they arrived at the Cobden stop, there were thousands of people. Bands from three high schools were there to greet them. And at the ceremony in the high school gym, fans packed the bleachers, the lobby and covered the floor. Estimates were that there were 4,000 to 5,000 fans there to greet them. Not bad for a town of 900!!

The Future

This would be Coach Ruggles last year at Cobden. He accepted a job to teach and coach basketball at Nashville. He coached boys basketball at Nashville for five years. His teams did not win a Regional. All of his teams finished above .500 with an overall record of 69-55.

On 1978, Coach Ruggles was on the staff of Bob Bogel when Nashville won the boys basketball Class A State Championship. He later coached volleyball in the 1990’s and one of his teams won a Regional Championship.

Dick Ruggles went into officiating. He was inducted into the IBCA Hall of Fame as an official.

Cobden would not win another basketball Regional Championship until 2020, fifty-six years later.

The Appleknockers have won four State Championships- baseball in 2015, volleyball in 2007, 2008, and 2009.

Kenny Flick, Kenny Smith, and Bob Smith all lived in Cobden as adults. Bob Smith died in 2008. Chuck Neal lives five miles away in Anna. Jim Smith lives just up the road in Cartersville.

Kenny Flick remains married and raising a family with his high school sweetheart that he married his junior year in high school.