Arlington-Prospect 1982: First of Rare Rematches for MSL, Sectional Boys Basketball Titles
Rolling Meadows-Fremd This Year Only the Second Time It's Happened
It is no surprise Fremd and Rolling Meadows, the teams coaches seeded 1-2 in the Schaumburg Class 4A boys basketball sectional, are meeting for that championship tonight.
What might be surprising is this is only the second time the two teams that just played for the Mid-Suburban League boys basketball title - with Meadows beating Fremd 69-62 on February 19 - are squaring off again for a sectional championship.
The only other time it happened was 1982 when Arlington beat Prospect to claim MSL and sectional titles. The historic season for Arlington, and one of its last with the school closing in 1984, would result in the program’s only trip to the Class AA Elite Eight in Champaign.
The two schools were only three miles apart. But they had been separated from games of this magnitude since 1975 when Prospect beat Arlington in MSL championship and sectional semifinal matchups.
“It’s probably the biggest rivalry we have here at Arlington,” Arlington coach George Zigman told the Daily Herald’s Keith Reinhard for the 1982 MSL title preview. “Because of the proximity of the schools, there seems to be a lot of community interest whenever we get together. It’s a shame we play each other so seldom.”
There were intriguing side stories. Jim O’Donnell wrote about Hank Szymanski, in his second year as an assistant to Zigman after 17 as an assistant at Prospect. Szymanski pursued the Prospect head coaching job when it opened after the 1979-80 season, but instead it went to his good friend Ron Ashley, who happened to be a 1956 Arlington grad.
“It’s a natural rivalry,” Ashley said. “The two schools are the oldest ones in the district (214). Down through the years there have been some very emotional games between them. I hope this one measures up.”
It certainly looked that way with Prospect coming in at 20-2 and Arlington at 19-5. Both had balanced attacks with basically four players averaging double-figure scoring in MSL play.
Arlington had third-year senior guard Larry Tellschow (17 ppg), inside play with 6-8 Ted Wolfe (9.9) and 6-5 Don Frankel (11.0), outside shooting with Rick Elkins (7.7) and one of the country’s most exciting juniors in 6-6 Chris Berg (12.0). The balanced Knights were led by Dave Fuerst (13), Brett Muffie (12.9), Tim Philipp (12.5) and Gene Thiem (10.7).
More than 3,300 crammed into Arlington’s Grace Gym, the area’s big-game showplace, and early in the third quarter they weren’t disappointed with a tie game. They also saw why Berg seemed destined for stardom at Northwestern before he suffered a devastating knee injury his freshman year.
Legendary Daily Herald columnist Mike Imrem was part of the impressive three-man sports front page coverage in the Herald with Reinhard and O’Donnell. Imrem called Berg’s game-changing play a “cross-continental drive” for a layup to fuel a 14-2 tear that put Arlington up by 14 points after three.
And as time wound down on an impressive 71-48 victory, Szymanski turned and said, “When Berg plays like this we’re awesome.”
The Cardinals shot 66 percent from the field (29-for-44) behind Frankel (19 points, 8 rebounds), Berg (17 points, 4 rebounds, 4 assists), Wolfe (14 points) and Tellschow (13 points, 8 assists).
“I really never imagined we would beat them by 23 points,” Zigman told Reinhard. “If we played them 10 more times every game would probably be close.”
Prospect got 10 points apiece from Muffie and Thiem. Ashley lamented to O’Donnell that he didn’t come out of his man-to-man defense for a zone at halftime even though his team trailed by just 2 points.
O’Donnell also alluded to the fact there could be a rematch in the Forest View sectional final.
“We were trying way too hard to treat this game as just another game,” Fuerst said. “We realized too late that Arlington wasn’t looking at it the same way.”
Now area basketball fans had their eyes on a potential rematch.
The Road to the Rematch
The old two-class state tourney setup had predetermined, unseeded regionals with Prospect having the advantage of being at home while Arlington had to trek up Northwest Highway to Barrington. The regional champions advanced to the sectional at Forest View.
Teams looking to make a deep state tournament run rarely do so without some adversity. The Knights didn’t have much trouble winning their regional by beating Maine South 54-44 and a Central Suburban South champion Maine West team that won 21 games 70-55.
Arlington beat Buffalo Grove 58-42 without any issues in its regional opener. The title game against the host Broncos and Zigman’s old friend Tom Moony was a different story.
Zigman’s game-day hunch that Moony would slow the game down came to fruition and the Broncos led 26-19 with 3:14 left in the third quarter. Arlington would rally to take the lead, but it was tied in the final minute when Berg got a steal and then tipped in Elkins’ miss at the buzzer for a 39-37 escape.
Now Arlington had to face Forest View on its home floor and led by only 2 points early in the fourth quarter when Frankel went down with a sprained left ankle. The Cards responded with a 15-4 tear to win 64-51 as Tellschow scored 20 and Berg had 18 points and 10 assists.
Prospect looked as if it would cruise into the title game with a 45-31 lead with 5:32 to play on a Notre Dame team with a 10-17 record. But the Dons rallied to tie it at 49-49 and force overtime. They forced another overtime at 53-53 before Prospect escaped 55-53 on Erik Bulmahn’s tip in with about 30 seconds to play.
Reinhard set the stage in Friday’s Daily Herald for the rematch along with Palatine also trying to win a sectional for the second consecutive year.
“We just seemed to lose all our intensity,” Ashley said of the Notre Dame win. “We can’t do that and expect to give Arlington any kind of game at all.”
Reinhard wrote that rumors of Frankel’s ankle injury “have run the gamut from ailing to outright amputation.” The latter’s obvious hyperbole fit with the hype of the first sectional title game between two MSL teams who were also trying to make the Sweet 16 for the first time.
“I really don’t think that first game (MSL championship) means much right now,” Zigman said. “These kids from Arlington and Prospect have all grown up together and know each other pretty well.”
With one more shot at major bragging rights.
Redemption Not in the Cards
All the attention Berg drew from the opponents and college coaches was understandable.
But the sectional championship game showed Arlington was hardly a one-man show as Tellschow scored 22 points. In the first 10 minutes. He would finish with 33 on 13-for-24 shooting with 5 rebounds and Arlington (24-5) was on its way to the supersectional at Northwestern with a convincing 74-60 victory.
“You can talk all night about which are the best guards around,” Zigman told Reinhard. “Certain kids do certain things exceptionally well. But Larry does it all. We certainly wouldn’t be 24-5 and going to the supersectional without him.”
“The shots were just going down,” Tellschow said. “I wasn’t keeping track but I could tell I was having a pretty good game. The main thing is it gave us momentum.”
Especially at a critical juncture after Prospet rallied from a 24-16 deficit into a 32-32 tie early in the second half. John Bostrom hit a go-ahead 18-footer and Arlington was clinging to a 39-37 lead when Tellschow stole a rebound underneath the Prospect basket and drove to the other baseline for a jumper. Elkins (12 points) followed with a pair of inside baskets as the Cardinals took control.
“We were confident coming into this game because we knew that someone would pick us up,” Wolfe told O’Donnell. “Tonight it was Larry. If he hadn’t done it someone else would have. We’ve simply learned how to win.”
Wolfe added 11 points, Berg scored 8 and Bostrom chipped in 6. Phillip (17), Fuerst (12) and Muffie (10) led Prospect, which finished 23-4 with two losses to its nearby rival. The others were to perennial power St. Joseph and defending AA champion Quincy, which had its 64-game winning streak come to a stunning end in the semifinals and would finish in third place.
“After the last game, we tried to concentrate on Berg’s penetration in this one,” Ashley said. “I thought we were more effective at that but Tellschow more than picked up the slack. He went wild.
“Arlington is simply an outstanding team.”
Tellschow stayed hot as he scored 24 on 10-for-13 shooting to lead four Cards in double figures in a 68-59 win over Highland Park at Northwestern. But in Friday’s first quarterfinal they lost 60-46 to East St. Louis Lincoln, which won its first title and would get three more in succession from 1987-89.
Arlington would beat Prospect twice again in the 1983 MSL and regional championship games. The Knights would finally get a measure of revenge in 1984 in their final shot at Arlington, which was closing in a few months, with a 62-51 MSL title-game win.
The next year some of those rivals were teammates at Prospect. Ironically they would fall to a Hersey team now coached by Zigman 52-50 in only the second all-MSL sectional title game.
Other MSL-Postseason Boys Rematches
1975 - Knights Don’t Fade with Black
Sectional semifinal - Prospect 54, Arlington 50
MSL - Prospect 78, Arlington 73
Rematch recap: Points were much tougher to come by in the rematch at Arlington’s Grace Gym. Al Black had the 4 biggest of his game-high 22 and the last in the final :40, with a tie-breaking 20-footer and 2 free throws sandwiched around a key blocked shot by 6-8 Doug Bonthron (17 points). Future Cubs manager Mike Quade ran the show. Arlington was led by Denny Gaare (14), Mike Fogel (12) and Terry Donahoe (10). Prospect lost 70-56 to Maine South in the sectional final.
1981 - Bison Ground Falcons
Sectional semifinal - Buffalo Grove 65, Forest View 57
MSL - Buffalo Grove 48, Forest View 46 (OT)
Rematch recap: Injury concerns for BG and junior point guard Tim Monson (pulled groin in regional final) flipped as one of Forest View’s starting guards turned an ankle in a church pickup game the night before the rematch. That hurt against BG’s pressure as it completed the sweep behind Paul Heesch (22 points), Bob Berg (16), Jeff Pease (10) and Monson (9, 5 assists). Forest View ended its most successful season at 22-5 behind Mike Matella (25), Jeff Schmidt (18) and Kevin Murray (13). BG lost 72-61 to Evanston in the sectional final.
1983 - Sweep in the Cards Again
Regional final - Arlington 73, Prospect 62
MSL - Arlington 67, Prospect 62
Rematch recap: Northwestern-bound Chris Berg was at his best as Arlington repeated its 1982 sweep in a Forest View regional final before 3,600. The 6-6 Berg had a career-high 37 points on 17-for-23 shooting, 15 rebounds and 6 assists. Todd Wolfe and Rick Elkins added 11 apiece but it was Greg McCollum (8 points) who sparked a 6-point run at the end of the first half for a 43-37 lead. Jeff Fuerst (19), Erik Bulmahn (15), Scott Moehling (15) led Prospect. Arlington advanced to the supersectional where it lost 49-39 to St. Joseph.
1996 - Powerful Hawks Soar Inside
Sectional semifinal - Hoffman Estates 65, Palatine 40
MSL - Hoffman Estates 53, Palatine 34
Rematch recap: Hoffman had a game-long power play with its powerful inside duo of 6-7 Nick Abruzzo, who played football at Indiana, and 6-3 Mark Ganek to shoot 55.8 percent from the field (24-for-43). Abruzzo had 22 points on 10-for-14 with 6 rebounds and 2 blocks and Ganek scored 20 on 7-for-9 with 9 rebounds. Point guard Marty Manning orchestrated the offense with 8 points and 5 assists. Palatine got 17 points from Keith Peterson. Hoffman advanced to its first AA Elite Eight in Peoria and lost 42-41 to Westinghouse.
1998 - Big Split for Mustangs
Sectional semifinal - Rolling Meadows 58, Fremd 57
MSL - Fremd 60, Rolling Meadows 51
Rematch recap: Meadows star Rob Garnes said experience was the key for Fremd in pulling away for the MSL title. The Mustangs learned quickly in the rematch as they never trailed behind Garnes (17 points, 10 rebounds), Glenn Paddack (12, 6 assists), Nick Troy (10, 4 assists) and Dan Sommerschield (9) to snap Fremd’s 15-game winning streak. Fremd got within 1 point six times in the fourth quarter behind Eddie Hebert (27, 10 rebounds) and Ryan Ridge (11, 3 3s). Meadows lost the sectional final 80-65 to Elgin and future Illinois guard Sean Harrington.
2025 - Miletic Has Magic Touch for Meadows
Sectional semifinal - Rolling Meadows 73, Fremd 58
MSL - Rolling Meadows 69, Fremd 62
Rematch recap: Meadows led wire-to-wire in the MSL championship but found itself down 7 points at halftime in its first sectional final appearance in 24 years. But Marquette-bound Ian Miletic followed up a 37-point performance in an OT sectional semifinal win over Stevenson with 35 against Fremd. Gavin Escobedo provided a big boost with all 9 of his points in third quarter and senior supersub Lazar Lazarevic scored 9 of his 13 in the fourth. Meadows reached a supersectional for the first time since 1990 and matched Fremd (2016-17) and Hoffman Estates (2003-04) for the MSL record for wins in a season at 30.
All-MSL Sectional Championships
Class AA
1982 (Forest View) - Arlington 74, Prospect 60
1985 (Prospect) - Hersey 52, Prospect 50
1986 (Fremd) - Fremd 54, Schaumburg 50
1988 (Fremd) - Fremd 86, Schaumburg 65
1990 (Fremd) - Conant 60, Fremd 57
1991 (Fremd) - Prospect 66, Barrington 63
1992 (Fremd) - Fremd 55, Conant 53
1994 (Elgin) - Conant 71, Schaumburg 52
1996 (Schaumburg) - Hoffman Estates 58, Schaumburg 53
1997 (Addison Trail) - Conant 73, Fremd 70
2001 (Conant) - Schaumburg 72, Rolling Meadows 46
2004 (Buffalo Grove) - Hoffman Estates 62, Schaumburg 52
Class 4A
2017 (Forest View) - Fremd 43, Conant 42
2025 (Schaumburg) - Rolling Meadows 73, Fremd 58
All-MSL Supersectional