1956–57 Illinois Fighting Illini men's basketball team

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1956–57 Illinois Fighting Illini men's basketball
ConferenceBig Ten Conference
Record14–8 (7-7 Big Ten)
Head coach
Assistant coaches
MVPHarv Schmidt
CaptainHarv Schmidt
Home arenaHuff Hall
Seasons
1956–57 Big Ten Conference men's basketball standings
Conf Overall
Team W   L   PCT W   L   PCT
Indiana 10 – 4   .714 14 – 8   .636
No. 11 Michigan State 10 – 4   .714 16 – 10   .615
Minnesota 9 – 5   .643 14 – 8   .636
Ohio State 9 – 5   .643 14 – 8   .636
Purdue 8 – 6   .571 15 – 7   .682
Michigan 8 – 6   .571 13 – 9   .591
Illinois 7 – 7   .500 14 – 8   .636
Iowa 4 – 10   .286 8 – 14   .364
Wisconsin 3 – 11   .214 5 – 17   .227
Northwestern 2 – 12   .143 6 – 16   .273
Rankings from
AP Poll

The 1956–57 Illinois Fighting Illini men’s basketball team represented the University of Illiniois.

Regular season

Fighting Illini basketball team. During his ten years as coach, Combes had established the Illini as a national powerhouse with sportswriters taking note. For example, the Associated Press
began its basketball poll in 1949 with United Press International adding its poll in 1951 and from 1951-56 the Illini finished the season ranked in the Top 20 nationally every year. Illinois’ highest final ranking in the 1950s was second in both polls in 1952.

The 1956-57 team, unfortunately, would begin a downward spiral for Combes' tenure, sending the program into a timespan where his teams would finish in the lower half of the

Big Ten. They would finish with an overall record of 14 wins and 8 losses. The starting lineup included George Bon Salle at the center position, Roger Taylor and Don Ohl at guard and Harv Schmidt and Hiles Stout at the forward slots.[1]

Roster

1956–57 Illinois Fighting Illini men's basketball team
Players Coaches
Pos. # Name Height Weight Year Previous school Hometown
F
 		10 Hiles Stout 6 ft 4 in (1.93 m) 205 lb (93 kg) Sr Central High School Peoria, Illinois
G
 		12 Roger Taylor 6 ft 0 in (1.83 m) 160 lb (73 kg) So Rich High School Park Forest, Illinois
F
 		14 Jim Chengary 6 ft 3 in (1.91 m) 190 lb (86 kg) Jr Bowen High School
Chicago, Illinois
G
 		20 Bill Altenberger 6 ft 1 in (1.85 m) 179 lb (81 kg) Sr Senior High School East St. Louis, Illinois
C 22 George Bon Salle 6 ft 8 in (2.03 m) 225 lb (102 kg) Sr Loyola Academy Chicago, Illinois
C 24 Ted Caiazza 6 ft 7 in (2.01 m) 235 lb (107 kg) Jr Lyons Township High School
LaGrange, Illinois
G
 		30 Billy Bolk 5 ft 11 in (1.8 m) 175 lb (79 kg) Jr James A. Garfield High School Terre Haute, Indiana
F
 		32 Harvard Schmidt (C) 6 ft 6 in (1.98 m) 195 lb (88 kg) Sr Kankakee High School Kankakee, Illinois
F
 		33 Al Gosnell 6 ft 4 in (1.93 m) 190 lb (86 kg) So Lawrenceville High School Lawrenceville, Illinois
F
 		34 Larry Breyfogle 6 ft 3 in (1.91 m) 165 lb (75 kg) Jr Lawrenceville High School Lawrenceville, Illinois
F
 		40 Lloyd Eggers 6 ft 3 in (1.91 m) 185 lb (84 kg) So Toledo High School Toledo, Illinois
G
 		42 John Paul 6 ft 1 in (1.85 m) 175 lb (79 kg) Jr St. Edward High School Elgin, Illinois
G
 		44 Don Ohl 6 ft 3 in (1.91 m) 180 lb (82 kg) Jr Edwardsville High School Edwardsville, Illinois
C 48 Bob Brown 6 ft 7 in (2.01 m) 196 lb (89 kg) So DuPont High School Wilmington, Delaware
F
 		52 Tom Haller 6 ft 3 in (1.91 m) 180 lb (82 kg) So Lockport Township High School Lockport, Illinois
F
 		54 Bernie Thompson 6 ft 2 in (1.88 m) 175 lb (79 kg) So Fairmont Senior High School Fairmont, West Virginia
Head coach
  • University of Illinois
    ) (10th year)
Assistant coach(es)
Legend
  • (C) Team captain
  • (S) Suspended
  • (I) Ineligible
  • (W) Walk-on

All-Time Illini Roster

Source[2]

Schedule

Source[3]

Date
time, TV 		Rank# Opponent# Result Record Site (attendance)
city, state[4]
Non-Conference regular season
12/5/1956*
no, no 		Butler W 98–81  1-0
Champaign, IL
12/8/1956*
no, no 		at Oklahoma W 69–58  2-0
Norman, OK
12/15/1956*
no, no 		No. 7
Loyola (New Orleans)
 		W 83–72  3-0
 Huff Hall (6,128)
Champaign, IL
12/17/1956*
no, no 		No. 7 No. 2 San Francisco W 62–33  4–0
 Huff Hall (6,912)
Champaign, IL
12/21/1956*
no, no 		No. 5 vs. Dayton
Kentucky Invitational Tournament 		W 82–65  5-0
Lexington, KY
12/22/1956*
no, no 		No. 5 at No. 7 Kentucky
Kentucky Invitational Tournament 		L 70–91  5-1
 Memorial Coliseum (9,500)
Lexington, KY
12/28/1956*
no, no 		No. 6 Princeton W 108–87  6-1
 Huff Hall (2,559)
Champaign, IL
Big Ten regular season
1/5/1957
no, no 		No. 5 at No. 19 Minnesota L 88–91  6-2
(0-1)
Minneapolis, MN
1/7/1957
no, no 		No. 5 Iowa
Rivalry 		W 81–70  7-2
(1-1) 		Huff Hall (3,390)
Champaign, IL
1/12/1957
no, no 		No. 10 at Wisconsin W 79–63  8-2
(2-1)
Madison, WI
1/14/1957
no, no 		No. 10 Indiana
Rivalry 		W 112–91  9-2
(3-1) 		Huff Hall (6,899)
Champaign, IL
1/26/1957*
no, no 		No. 9 vs. Notre Dame W 99–81  10-2
Chicago, IL
2/2/1957
no, no 		No. 7 at Purdue L 74–85  10-3
(3-2)
West Lafayette, IN
2/4/1957
no, no 		No. 7 No. 11 Ohio State W 96–89  11-3
(4-2) 		Huff Hall (6,189)
Champaign, IL
2/9/1957
no, no 		No. 15 at Michigan State L 64–70  11-4
(4-3)
East Lansing, MI
2/11/1957
no, no 		No. 15 Northwestern
Rivalry 		W 104–97  12-4
(5-3) 		Huff Hall (6,899)
Champaign, IL
2/16/1957
no, no 		No. 16 at Michigan L 89–102  12-5
(5-4)
Ann Arbor, MI
2/18/1957
no, no 		No. 16 Michigan State L 83–89  12-6
(5-5) 		Huff Hall (6,800)
Champaign, IL
2/23/1957
no, no 		Purdue W 80–78  13-6
(6-5) 		Huff Hall (6,850)
Champaign, IL
2/25/1957
no, no 		at Ohio State W 79–72  14-6
(7-5)
Columbus, OH
3/2/1957
no, no 		Minnesota L 75–86  14-7
(7-6) 		Huff Hall (6,251)
Champaign, IL
3/4/1957
no, no 		No. 6 at No. 10 Indiana
Rivalry 		L 76–84  14-8
(7-7)
Bloomington, IN
*Non-conference game. #Rankings from
Central Time
.

Player stats

Player Games Played Field Goals Free Throws Points
Harv Schmidt 22 156 102 414
Don Ohl 22 145 53 343
George BonSalle 14 104 69 277
Hiles Stout 21 77 88 242
Roger Taylor 22 88 52 228
Bill Altenberger 18 72 26 170
John Paul 21 49 18 116
Ted Caiazza 18 8 14 30
Tom Haller 16 3 10 16
Larry Breyfogle 15 6 1 13
Jim Chengary 4 0 2 2
Bob Brown 1 0 0 0
Lloyd Eggers 4 0 0 0

[5]

Awards and honors

Team players drafted into the NBA

Player NBA Club Round Pick
George Bon Salle
Syracuse Nationals
 1 7
Harv Schmidt
Minneapolis Lakers
 2 3

[7]

Rankings

Main article:
1956–57 NCAA Division I men's basketball rankings

References

  1. ISBN 1-58261-356-7
  2. ^ Men's Basketball Roster
  3. ^ University of Illinois Fighting Illini Statistics Summary for 1956-57, FightingIllini.com
  4. ^ Schedule
  5. ^ "Season Stats". Archived from the original on June 25, 2013. Retrieved March 19, 2014.
  6. ^ "List of MVPs" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on October 30, 2014. Retrieved January 23, 2013.
  7. ^ 1957 NBA Draft Archived 2013-02-03 at the Wayback Machine
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