Conant's Redlinger Gave Mid-Suburban League Boys Basketball its First Sweet 16 Taste
Coach Whose Successful Tenure Included Supersectional Trips in 1972 and 1980 Passed Away a Few Days Before Thanksgiving
Dick Redlinger was not averse to using the media to motivate his Conant boys basketball team.
Skepticism would have been natural toward Conant since it was a relative unknown on the high school basketball scene in March of 1972. But Redlinger deviated from the typical “us against the world/nobody believes in us” approach.
Anyone who read Bob Frisk’s columns in the Daily Herald/Paddock Publications for 50-plus years knows they were typically written to inspire. And it was no different in the Friday, March 10 edition of that year as Bob wanted so badly to see a local team break through to the Sweet 16. He wasn’t shy about expressing his hopes Conant would be that team as it got set to face Rochelle in the Class AA sectional championship game at Barrington.
So, Redlinger told Herald sportswriter Larry Everhart he used Bob’s column as a pregame motivator for his team.
“After I read (parts of) that to them, some of the kids had tears in their eyes,” Redlinger said. “They were ready to bust down the doors.”
Redlinger’s Cougars did just that in the proverbial sense as the first boys basketball sectional champion from the Mid-Suburban League and Herald coverage area at the time. Redlinger, who would also win another sectional title in his final year as head coach in 1980 and two MSL crowns, passed away a few days before Thanksgiving from a neurological trauma at his home in Scottsdale, Arizona. He had just turned 80 recently.
“We were close friends and were closer after retirement,” longtime Schaumburg teacher and basketball PA announcer Stu Hymen said in a message after the sad news began to circulate among the Conant community on social media. “Great guy and a great coach.”
Redlinger, who was a basketball star at Aledo in the western part of the state and Western Illinois University, was a physical education teacher at Conant and also its head baseball coach in 1969 and a football assistant coach. Redlinger, who also taught at Palatine before retiring, turned Conant into one of the MSL’s most successful programs during his 11-year tenure from 1969-80 with a 158-108 record and four MSL South and regional titles in addition to the two MSL and sectional crowns.
Redlinger took over the five-year-old boys basketball program after Chic Anderson left Conant to become Palatine’s athletic director. Redlinger’s second team was the school’s first with a winning record at 11-8 and his third was finally the area’s charmed one.
Conant shared the 1971-72 MSL South title with Prospect and Forest View but didn’t have the tiebreaker to play for the league title. They edged Palatine and Fremd to win the regional but then faced a huge obstacle in perennial power Elgin, with Hall of Fame coach Bill Chesbrough, 6-11 Jeff Wilkins, who played six years in the NBA, and 6-7 Terry Drake, who played at Iowa. And the Cougars were without No. 2 scorer and point guard Bill Arkus, who injured his knee in the regional opener.
Conant held Wilkins to 11 points and All-Area pick Chet Pudlosky capped a 23-point, 18-rebound night by firing in a 25-footer from the corner with three seconds left to cap Conant’s stunning turnaround from a 6-point deficit in the final 3:37 to a 65-64 victory. Two nights later, the Cougars rolled by 19 over Rochelle as Pudlosky had 31 points and 9 rebounds, Gary Pemberton scored 18 and Dave Schmitt added 13.
“It really hasn’t sunk in yet,” Redlinger told Everhart. “Maybe we won’t realize what we’ve done until we wake up in the morning.”
A 93-53 supersectional loss to Ernie Kivisto’s high-powered East Aurora team, which took third in the state behind high-scoring future Bradley standout Greg Smith, didn’t diminish the accomplishment. The impact was remembered 20 years later in a column by Frisk.
“I guarantee that was a big deal in the newspaper office,” Frisk wrote. “Yes, there can be cheering in the press box.”
Two years later, Redlinger led the Cougars to their first 20-win season as they went 22-4 behind All-Area picks in 6-8 Steve Irion and 6-5 Roger Sander and standout shooter Dave Sutherland. They stunned Arlington, which featured NFL 1983 defensive player of the year Doug Betters of the Miami Dolphins, 64-63 for their first MSL title. Redlinger was carried off the Grace Gym court as Sander’s rebound basket with three seconds left capped a 9-point run for their only lead. They would ride the momentum all the way to the sectional final where they lost to Elgin with Drake and future Illinois State star guard Derrick Mayes.
The 1976 team lost in the MSL championship to Buffalo Grove and All-American Brian Allsmiller and again in the sectional final to Elgin. But Redlinger would get one more magical run in his final season of 1979-80 led by the All-Area duo of 6-6 Glenn Weeks and 6-5 Ron Schimbke. They were 11-8 when they went on a 10-game winning streak, which included a 71-66 upset of BG for the MSL title where Redlinger told the Herald’s Jim O’Donnell he was approaching the finish line.
“I have two daughters who are in high school and I just think I should be spending more time with my family,” Redlinger said. “This championship means a great deal to me. The first championship back in 1974 was incredible enough, but coming in tonight as such a decided underdog and still winning it is just an incredible thrill.”
There would be a few more punctuated by a 76-74 double-overtime win in the sectional final over Dundee where Redlinger switched from a 2-3 to 1-3-1 zone to erase an 11-point first-half deficit. His coaching career would end in the East Aurora supersectional with a 58-36 loss to DeLaSalle and 6-8 “Massive” Mike Williams, who helped Bradley reach the second round of the 1986 NCAA tournament along with Hersey Hawkins and Jim Les and had a brief stint in the NBA.
His final season also included one of the lowest-scoring games in MSL history - a 24-10 win over Schaumburg where coach Ron Cregier’s team held the ball. Conant led 8-2 at halftime and Redlinger displayed his sense of humor a few days after the game.
“When we called in the results afterwards,” Redlinger said to the Daily Herald’s Keith Reinhard, “one of the papers thought we were calling in wrestling scores.”
Redlinger graduated in 1961 from Aledo, which is located about 30 miles south of the Quad Cities. In his senior year, he scored 21 in a sectional semifinal loss to Princeville and received all-state special mention recognition from the Chicago Daily News, Champaign News-Gazette and Rockford Register-Republic. The Moline Dispatch called him “probably the outstanding basketball player among the ‘small schools’ in western Illinois” and said “he can run, rebound and score and can play a tough game on defense.” He also qualified for the state track meet as a senior in the 120-yard high hurdles and played football.
Redlinger went to Western Illinois where he still ranks fourth in career rebounds (899) and 38th in career points (894). He was a two-time Interstate Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (IIAC) pick along with ex-Arlington star George Bork of Northern Illinois.
This story will be updated when the information on services for Dick Redlinger are available.
Great job, Marty! Love the winning percentage list. Many legends!