1949–50 Illinois Fighting Illini men's basketball team

The 1949–50 Illinois Fighting Illini men’s basketball team represented the University of Illinois.

1949–50 Illinois Fighting Illini men's basketball
ConferenceBig Ten Conference
Record14–8 (7-5 Big Ten)
Head coach
Assistant coachHowie Braun (13th season)
MVPWally Osterkorn
CaptainBill Erickson
Home arenaHuff Hall
Seasons
1949–50 Big Nine Conference men's basketball standings
Conf Overall
Team W   L   PCT W   L   PCT
No. 2 Ohio State 11 1   .917 22 4   .846
No. 16 Wisconsin 9 3   .750 17 5   .773
No. 20 Indiana 7 5   .583 17 5   .773
Illinois 7 5   .583 14 8   .636
Iowa 6 6   .500 15 7   .682
Minnesota 4 8   .333 13 9   .591
Michigan 4 8   .333 11 11   .500
Northwestern 3 9   .250 10 12   .455
Purdue 3 9   .250 9 13   .409
Rankings from AP Poll

Regular season

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The 1949-50 season looked to have solid promise based on the fact that the team had 3 returning starters from a "Final Four" team a year earlier. Unfortunately for the Fighting Illini men's basketball team, the conference season proved to be more difficult than expected. With 5 of the team's 8 losses coming at the hands of conference competition, the Illini, not only placed in a third place tie in the Big Ten, they also missed out on the opportunity to play in a post-season tournament. Head coach Harry Combes had guided the team a year earlier to a Big Ten championship, a third place finish in the 1949 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament and a final AP ranking of No. 4 in the nation. The 1949-50 team compiled an overall record of 14 wins and 8 losses with a conference record of 7 wins and 5 losses. The starting lineup included captain William Erickson, Roy Gatewood and Donald Sunderlage as forwards, Rodney Fletcher, and Burdette Thurlby at guard and Walter Osterkorn and Mack Follmer rotating at the center position.[1]

Roster

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1949–50 Illinois Fighting Illini men's basketball team
Players Coaches
Pos. # Name Height Weight Year Previous school Hometown
G 7 Jim Cottrell 5 ft 10 in (1.78 m) 167 lb (76 kg) Jr Champaign Central High School Champaign, Illinois
F 8 Roy Gatewood 6 ft 2 in (1.88 m) 174 lb (79 kg) Sr Salem High School Salem, Illinois
G 11 Don Sunderlage 6 ft 1 in (1.85 m) 180 lb (82 kg) Jr Elgin High School Elgin, Illinois
C 13 Walter Osterkorn 6 ft 4.5 in (1.94 m) 207 lb (94 kg) Sr Amundsen High School Chicago, Illinois
F 14 Burdette Thurlby 6 ft 2 in (1.88 m) 180 lb (82 kg) Sr Kirkland High School Kirkland, Illinois
C 21 Walt Kersulis 6 ft 4 in (1.93 m) 197 lb (89 kg) Sr East St. Louis Senior High School East St. Louis, Illinois
F 22 Van Anderson 6 ft 2 in (1.88 m) 185 lb (84 kg) Sr Sullivan Community High School Sullivan, Illinois
F 23 Ted Beach 6 ft 1 in (1.85 m) 165 lb (75 kg) Jr Champaign Central High School Champaign, Illinois
C 27 Mack Follmer 6 ft 4 in (1.93 m) 200 lb (91 kg) So Forrest High School Forrest, Illinois
F 30 Glen Trugillo 5 ft 11 in (1.8 m) 160 lb (73 kg) Jr East High School Rockford, Illinois
G 33 Bill Erickson (C) 6 ft 1 in (1.85 m) 184 lb (83 kg) Sr East High School Rockford, Illinois
G 34 Seymour Gantman 5 ft 7 in (1.7 m) 165 lb (75 kg) So Marshall High School Chicago, Illinois
G 35 Ren Alde 6 ft 2 in (1.88 m) 180 lb (82 kg) So Pana High School Pana, Illinois
G 37 Rod Fletcher 6 ft 4 in (1.93 m) 194 lb (88 kg) So Champaign Central High School Champaign, Illinois
G 38 Herb Gerecke 6 ft 1 in (1.85 m) 180 lb (82 kg) So Pekin High School Pekin, Illinois
John Marks
Jr Edwardsville High School Edwardsville, Illinois
Cliff Fulton
Sr Mooseheart High School Mooseheart, Illinois
Head coach
Assistant coach(es)

Legend
  • (C) Team captain
  • (S) Suspended
  • (I) Ineligible
  • (W) Walk-on

Roster

Schedule

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Source[2]

Date
time, TV
Rank# Opponent# Result Record Site (attendance)
city, state
Non-Conference regular season
12/3/1949*
no, no
at Butler W 60–56  1-0
Hinkle Fieldhouse (7,704)
Indianapolis, IN
12/8/1949*
no, no
Toledo W 67–51  2-0
Huff Hall (6,905)
Champaign, IL
12/10/1949*
no, no
at Oklahoma L 47–55  2-1
McCasland Field House (4,500)
Norman, OK
12/14/1949*
no, no
Arkansas W 65–53  3-1
Huff Hall (6,905)
Champaign, IL
12/17/1949*
no, no
Oklahoma W 57–47  4-1
Huff Hall (6,905)
Champaign, IL
12/22/1949*
no, no
St. Louis W 59–47  5-1
Huff Hall (5,333)
Champaign, IL
12/23/1949*
no, no
UCLA L 63–65  5-2
Huff Hall (6,905)
Champaign, IL
12/27/1949*
no, no
Columbia W 58–46  6-2
Huff Hall (4,760)
Champaign, IL
12/30/1949*
no, no
Princeton W 68–61  7-2
Huff Hall (4,593)
Champaign, IL
Big Ten regular season
1/2/1950
no, no
at Wisconsin L 50–59  7-3
(0-1)
Wisconsin Field House (13,000)
Madison, WI
1/7/1950
no, no
No. 16 at Ohio State L 62–83  7-4
(0-2)
Ohio Expo Center Coliseum (-)
Columbus, OH
1/9/1950
no, no
Purdue W 59–54  8-4
(1-2)
Huff Hall (6,905)
Champaign, IL
1/16/1950
no, no
Northwestern
Rivalry
W 76–50  9-4
(2-2)
Huff Hall (6,905)
Champaign, IL
1/21/1950
no, no
No. 11 Ohio State W 66–50  10-4
(3-2)
Huff Hall (6,905)
Champaign, IL
2/1/1950*
no, no
No. 20 at St. Louis L 42–62  10-5
Bauman–Eberhardt Center (-)
St. Louis, MO
2/4/1950
no, no
at Minnesota W 67–57  11-5
(4-2)
Williams Arena (13,527)
Minneapolis, MN
2/11/1950
no, no
at Iowa
Rivalry
L 65–70  11-6
(4-3)
Iowa Field House (13,394)
Iowa City, IA
2/13/1950
no, no
No. 16 Indiana
Rivalry
L 72–83  11-7
(4-4)
Huff Hall (6,905)
Champaign, IL
2/18/1950
no, no
Michigan W 70–60  12-7
(5-4)
Huff Hall (6,905)
Champaign, IL
2/25/1950
no, no
Wisconsin W 76–58  13-7
(6-4)
Huff Hall (6,905)
Champaign, IL
2/27/1950
no, no
at No. 17 Indiana
Rivalry
L 66–80  13-8
(6-5)
The Field House (10,036)
Bloomington, IN
3/4/1950
no, no
at Northwestern
Rivalry
W 69–52  14-8
(7-5)
Chicago Stadium (14,200)
Chicago, IL
*Non-conference game. #Rankings from AP Poll. (#) Tournament seedings in parentheses.
All times are in Central Time.

Rankings

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Player stats

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Player Games Played Field Goals Free Throws Points
Wally Osterkorn 22 125 83 333
Bill Erickson 22 78 73 229
Burdette Thurlby 21 57 52 166
Don Sunderlage 22 54 45 153
Rod Fletcher 19 39 24 102
Roy Gatewood 17 38 18 94
Mack Follmer 22 34 13 81
Van Anderson 19 25 14 64
Walt Kersulis 19 23 14 60
Ted Beach 19 20 13 53
Cliff Fulton 17 7 7 21
Herb Gerecke 6 3 5 11
Seymour Gantman 7 3 3 9
Jim Cottrell 4 1 2 4
John Marks 1 1 0 2
Glen Trugillo 2 1 0 2
Ron Alde 1 0 0 0

[3]

Awards and honors

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Team players drafted into the NBA

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Round Pick Player NBA Club
2 15 Wally Osterkorn Chicago Stags
7 83 Bill Erickson Tri-Cities Blackhawks

[5]

Rankings

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References

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  1. ^ Fighting Illini Basketball: A Hardwood History By News-Gazette, Sports Publishing LLC ISBN 1-58261-356-7
  2. ^ University of Illinois Fighting Illini Statistics Summary for 1949-50 Archived 2014-04-07 at the Wayback Machine, FightingIllini.com
  3. ^ "Season Stats". Archived from the original on April 7, 2014. Retrieved March 31, 2014.
  4. ^ "List of MVPs" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on October 30, 2014. Retrieved January 15, 2013.
  5. ^ 1950 NBA Draft Archived 2010-01-17 at the Wayback Machine