Evan Massey is a regular contributor to WGIL. He is a retired Galesburg High School girls basketball coach and one of the most successful coaches in Illinois history.
Most have heard of Carl Sandburg, the famous poet and biographer. The community has honored Sandburg with a statue on the town square, named the community college in his honor, and named one of the major streets after him. In 1900, Carl was famous at Lombard College for another skill. He was one of the stars of the Olives basketball team.
In 1900 the people of the east side of Galesburg were huge fans of Carl Sandburg. Carl attended Lombard College on the east side of Galesburg, and he was a starting guard and captain of the Lombard Olives basketball team. They played their home games in what was the old gym at Lombard Junior High.
It is interesting and at the same time sad that it is easier to go back into a 1900 local newspaper and get scores and write ups of high school and college games than it is to get scores and write ups of games today.
In its infancy, basketball seems to have had somewhat rigid roles for players. Guards were focused on “guarding” and defending, so they were less apt to score and go to the basket. They got steals and scored, but versus a set defense, they hung back. The forward was the offensive player. They played in a “forward” position, closer to the basket. Centers were the ones who jumped center after every made basket.
For the 1900 Lombard team, Carl Sandburg was a guard. He seems to have averaged about 4 or 5 points per game.
The Lombard team was very successful, beating both Monmouth and Knox in a limited schedule. This was the infancy of basketball so the level of organization of teams from school to school varied widely.
According to the write up of the Lombard vs. Monmouth game, the first half was 20 minutes and the second half only 15 minutes. Lombard’s speed and hustle simply wore out the Monmouth players who couldn’t make it an entire game.
In his book “Remembering Galesburg,” Tom Wilson describes the first ever game between Lombard College and Knox College:
“Later in the season, Carl Sandburg scored three goals in leading Lombard to a hard-fought 14-11 victory over neighbor Knox College. It appeared to be the first ever game between the crosstown schools and was played in the Knox College Library Hall. An interesting aspect of the well-attended game was that play was delayed several times when the ball struck the glass chandelier above the center circle. Players of both teams were forced to sweep up broken glass in order to resume play.”
As captain of the Lombard team, Sandburg obviously must have been respected and a leader. During this era, all coaches were restricted from coaching during the game — the coach could not coach. It is presumed, then, that Carl Sandburg was in effect the coach on the floor.
Sandburg’s wit and humor could not be completely hidden even during games. The local newspaper reported that during the Monmouth game, Sandburg and a teammate entertained fans with an “impromptu acrobatic turn.”
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