Remembrances: Little Fanfare for Passing of Chicago Hoop Legend Teddy Grubbs
"Coach Yates Hoopfest" on May 21 at Fremd; St. Viator's Cannella Plays for XFL Title; Barrington's Peterson Helps Northwestern to Repeat Big Ten Title
The passing of Teddy Grubbs should have been headline news in Chicago.
At least that’s what many Chicago-area basketball fans in the late 1970s and early 1980s would have figured when Grubbs was an All-American and one of the first in a long line of legends to come out of burgeoning Chicago high school power King. Scoring 28 points in his fourth college game for national power DePaul at UCLA looked like an early indicator Grubbs was on the fast track to stardom.
Sadly, his basketball career was derailed when he left school during his junior year because of what was frequently termed as “personal problems.” Grubbs never reached the collegiate or professional stardom of DePaul teammates and Chicago prep stars Mark Aguirre and Terry Cummings. And the late-April death of Grubbs, a classic “what might have been” story along with DePaul basketball, isn’t something I’ve seen or heard anywhere outside of some social media platforms.
One of those posts on Twitter, from ex-DePaul player Marty Embry, had a photo with information about a visitation on Friday at the Angelus Funeral Home on Chicago’s south side and the wake and funeral mass Saturday at the Zion Hill Missionary Baptist Church just southwest of the Loop. There is no actual obituary for Grubbs on the Angelus or Legacy.com websites and no mention of a cause of death.
All of it seems tough to believe for someone who was among those once captivated by DePaul basketball. Local stars like Hersey’s Andy Pancratz and Dave Corzine, Proviso East’s Joe Ponsetto and Thornton’s Curtis Watkins helped give a once-struggling program a huge boost and then Aguirre arrived from Westinghouse and immediately made a national impact. My childhood friend Jim Barnes recalled how we would all try to imitate Aguirre’s signature one-hand flush dunk - although for us it was a layup or slam on our Nerfoop - that he broke out in his first college game on UCLA All-American David Greenwood at Pauley Pavilion.
Chicago went nuts in March 1979 when DePaul beat UCLA to go to the Final Four. Thousands of the city’s success-starved sports fans mobbed O’Hare Airport for their return and grandfatherly coach Ray Meyer became an iconic figure. If it wasn’t for a late-game leg injury against UCLA that slowed Watkins in a 2-point national semifinal loss to Indiana State and Larry Bird, a lot of books and TV programs about the genesis of the Bird-Magic Johnson rivalry may have never been produced.
But finishing third in the nation - yes, the NCAA still played third-place games then - was going to be just a beginning for DePaul. The 6-foot-9 Cummings was bringing his all-state talents from Carver. Skip Dillard, via a junior college transfer, and Bernard Randolph were bringing their talents from Aguirre’s alma mater. Ray and Joey Meyer almost landed Isiah Thomas out of St. Joe’s before he chose Indiana and Bob Knight.
This amazing infusion of talent featured the 6-8 Grubbs. The two-time all-state pick by the Chicago Sun-Times and Parade and McDonald’s All-American arrived at DePaul with greater acclaim and credentials than Cummings, who averaged 16.4 points and made two All-Star teams during an 18-year NBA career. Grubbs could score inside and from long range and was going to be a prominent part of more shots at Final Fours and national championships.
Grubbs didn’t have a monster freshman season like Aguirre. It was more of a typical uneven first year, but the UCLA outburst was an indicator of what was possible once he fully adjusted to college life and the game. He averaged 7.8 points a game and an early NCAA exit to those same Bruins would be a blip as DePaul moved out of cramped Alumni Hall on campus to the sparkling new Rosemont Horizon (now Allstate Arena). The Demons played to raucous full houses twice the size of the terri-Bulls at the old Chicago Stadium before they were gifted Michael Jordan after Portland drafted brittle Sam Bowie in 1984.
Grubbs’ scoring increased just slightly as a sophomore but not as much as concerns inside and outside the program about his inconsistent play and speculation on the reasons. The Demons were ranked No. 1 at the end of the regular season but suffered the most galling of three consecutive one-and-done NCAA exits in a buzzer-beating 49-48 stunner to St. Joseph’s. No one could fault Grubbs as he had 11 points and 10 rebounds while Aguirre and Cummings combined for just 14 points and 5 rebounds.
It looked like a good sign it would finally turn around for Grubbs, but early in his junior year he was pulled from the starting lineup and his minutes dropped to around 13 a game. Later that season he became headline news since he was no longer even on the bench and he left the team and school to deal with his personal issues. There was a thought he would come back to DePaul but didn’t, he briefly attended an NAIA school, had some brushes with the law and in the summer of 1985, in a story by one-time Daily Herald colleague Mark Alesia for the Chicago Tribune, he tried out for a team in the old Illinois Prairie State Games.
Alesia’s story quoted former Loyola star guard Carl Golston on Grubbs: “Going through the tragedy he’s been through, there’s a lot of mental stress. He was in a deep depression. The staff at DePaul didn’t help, either.” Golston said Aguirre would get on the low-key and quiet Grubbs. Would it have been different for Grubbs and DePaul if there were the support systems many schools seem to have in place for their athletes and students today? What if he had gone to a different school out of the limelight?
From there, about the only mentions of Grubbs seemed to be on how his situation at DePaul was handled and a complete shutoff of the pipeline of great players from the Chicago Public League. The program was still getting stars for awhile, but they came from the Catholic League, the suburbs, Peoria or out of state, and that ultimately dried up and Joey Meyer was fired after winning 3 games in 1997. Pat Kennedy brielfy recaptured some glory when he landed Public League stars Quentin Richardson, Bobby Simmons and Lance Williams, but DePaul has basically been used as a floor mat by the rest of the Big East Conference and this coming season will be its 20th since its last trip to an NCAA tournament.
A few months ago I talked with one of the people working on a documentary about former King star Leon Smith, who had a brief stint in the NBA and has dealt with his own personal problems that can be traced to his early childhood. Grubbs’ death made me realize I had forgotten to mention him in discussing the long line of King stars that included Efrem Winters, Marcus Liberty, Jamie Brandon, Rashard Griffith, Thomas Hamilton, Imari Sawyer and Smith.
Hopefully Teddy Grubbs quietly found plenty of peace in a life that once looked like it would shine brightly from big-time basketball stardom.
Fundraiser for Fremd Girls Basketball Coach Dave Yates
The “Coach Yates Hoopfest” will be held on Sunday, May 21 from 1:30 p.m.-6:30 p.m. at Fremd High School in support of girls basketball head coach Dave Yates, who recently had a brain tumor removed. The “Coach Yates Hoopfest” will have a grade school skills camp, a 2-Ball Tournament and an alumni scrimmage with all proceeds, donations and sponsorships will go to the Yates family.
Yates was an all-area basketball star at St. Edward High School in Elgin and has been one of the state’s most successful girls basketball coaches since he took over at Fremd in 2006. He won a Class 4A state title in 2020, finished second in 2015 and 2016 and fourth in 2017.
Cannella Gears Up for XFL Title; USFL Local Update
Ex-St. Viator football star Sal Cannella will be playing for an XFL title at 7 p.m. next Saturday (May 13) on ABC and ESPN when the Arlington Renegades face the D.C. Defenders in San Antonio’s Alamodome. The 26-year-old tight end has caught 42 passes for 415 yards this season and had 2 catches for 18 yards in a playoff win last week over Houston.
The 6-foot-4 Cannella was also a first-team all-USFL tight end with New Orleans in 2022 and went to training camp with the Green Bay Packers last season.
Amani Dennis, who starred at Wheeling and played at Carthage College, is playing cornerback for the Philadelphia Stars of the USFL. The 25-year-old Dennis had 2 interceptions in a Week 2 loss to the Michigan Panthers and has 9 tackles.
Ex-Barrington star tight end Josh Babicz, who played at North Dakota State, is playing for Michigan in the USFL. The 6-6, 24-year-old Babicz has 1 catch for 9 yards and he spent time on the practice squads of the Carolina Panthers and Packers last season.
Peterson Helps Northwestern Softball to Big Ten Repeat
Barrington senior Kendall Peterson helped make the final home softball game for her and her Northwestern classmates memorable last Sunday (April 30). Peterson’s 2-run, 2-out bases-loaded pinch hit single started a 6-run fifth inning outburst that sent the Wildcats to a 10-9 victory over Nebraska and clinched at least a share of a second consecutive Big Ten Conference regular-season title.
Northwestern (34-11), ranked 18th in last week’s NCAA Division I poll, wrapped up the outright title with a victory Saturday at Rutgers. Peterson has appeared in 19 games and is hitting .381 (8-for-21) with a double and 8 RBI.
The Big Ten tournament starts Wednesday at the University of Illinois as the Wildcats look to make another run to the College World Series.
Great work, Marty!