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Newspaper Recalls Prof. Thomas Ball's Role in Ending a Long HS Basketball Losing Streak

Newspaper Recalls Prof. Thomas Ball's Role in Ending a Long HS Basketball Losing Streak

December 26, 2016

Basketball Hoop 2smA story in the News-Gazette of Champaign-Urbana, Illinois recalls how University Laboratory High School's boy's basketball team ended its 96-game losing streak on November 27, 1979 and the coach -- now a DePauw University professor -- who turned the tide.

"This year marks the 40th anniversary of the arrival of the man who pulled the team from its losing streak. Tom Ball was a graduate student in kinesiology at Illinois and teaching physical education at Uni High when he was offered an assistant coaching spot with Randy Model for the 1976-77 season. It was Model’s second -- and last season -- with the team. After going 0-41, he was gone, leaving Ball in charge. Ball’s Ph.D. was conferred by the UI in 1985, and he is now a kinesiology professor at DePauw University in Indiana. He hasn’t done much coaching since he left Uni High and remembers the unique challenge of leading that team."

'I had some seniors who were 15," Ball recalls. "I can only think of one time when I had a senior who was 17."

Newspapers 011He adds, "The hardest thing to do was to get the players to believe they could win a game. We’d be in games in the fourth quarter, and I’d see a change in my players. All of a sudden they’d start making mistakes they hadn’t been making before and doing things wrong … In their mind, they weren’t good enough to win."

The complete article, which includes players' reminiscences of Ball and his coaching style and his focus on academics and sportsmanship, at the newspaper's website.

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