Jimmy Collins who coached Illinois-Chicago men’s basketball to the NCAA tournament three times in 14 seasons, died Sunday morning. He was 74. 2020 has been such a heart wrenching year.
We would like to acknowledge the loss of Olympic hero, Rafer Johnson a pure stud in his day/time. A three-sport standout, played basketball at UCLA for legendary coach John Wooden on the 58-59 team, played football and baseball and ran track at Kingsburg Joint Union High. In 1958 while at UCLA he was elected student body president, a heck of an achievement for an athlete. He also began acting career in the late 60s early 70s. He was also on the Robert Kennedy’s presidential campaign in June of 1968 when the democratic candidate was shot and killed in the kitchen of the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles. He was a part of 3 men who apprehended the gunman. Rafer won the decathlon at the 1960 Olympics in Rome. Johnson passed away a week ago in Southern Cal.
Hmm, we were recently reminded that there were not any players taken in the recent NBA draft from Illinois. Reportedly that only happened just once in the last 20 years. Those findings are not difficult to sum up for us long time observers.
Reportedly more than 40 high school basketball players have left the state once the word was delivered that it likely wouldn’t be a regular scheduled winter season.
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