Top sports moments: Storied legacy of city champions
Von Steuben High School
1. Harvey Babetch hit the hardwood Feb. 15, 1951, on a mission against Taft. The Von Steuben senior center scored a then-state-record 87 points -- including 35 in the fourth quarter -- hitting 37 field goals and 13 free throws. The 87 points is third most all-time. It remained a state record for seven years, while the 37 field goals survived as the state's top mark until 1979.
(Al Podgorski/Sun-Times)
Conference: Public League
Colors: Red and gray
Nickname: Panthers
Enrollment: 2,615
State titles: None
Behind the name: Named for American Revolution Army Inspector General Friedrich von Steuben.
2. Coach Vince Carter's 2003 boys basketball squad became the first Panthers team to go Downstate since the 1938 Public League champions. Bryon Johnson, Angel Santiago and Demetrius Evans (that year's slam-dunk champ) all hit for double digits, and Temi Soyebo had 10 assists in a 65-56 supersectional victory against Brother Rice at the United Center.
3. Anchored by Adnan Ovcina, who holds the state record for career goals (538), and featuring Zoltan Noe, Mile Knabe, Tim Ruppe, Jim Fitzgerald, Ociel Benitez and goalie John Pement, the 2005 and 2006 boys water polo teams powered to back-to-back city titles. The feat meant coach Gerald Cole had to make good on his promise to get a tattoo honoring his first championship team.
4. Boys volleyball coach Jim Gill describes his 1999 team as the best he has ever had. Undefeated against Public League competition that year, the Panthers beat Lane Tech to claim the city championship. Led by hard-hitting Ngoc Le, Matthew Knipp, setter Blong Xiong and his cousin Kenneth Xiong, the team also reached the fourth round of the state tournament.
5. Von Steuben girls soccer got off to a fast start, as coach James Edstrom's team beat Kelly on penalties to win the 1995 city championship in the program's first year of existence. Karina Kaiser scored the Panthers' lone goal in regulation, and Lori Dembereckyj made several key saves before Maureen Dorn scored the winning penalty shot at Lane Stadium.
• Harvey Babetch: Member of the 1954 Bradley University basketball team that reached the NCAA tournament
national championship game.
• Rosalyn Bryant: Olympic silver medalist in 1976 with the U.S. 1,600-meter relay team.
• Howie Carl: Guard for DePaul, NBA’s Chicago Packers (1961-62).
• Ernie Flores: Member of 1978 North Park College Division III national champion basketball team.
• Les Grobstein: Chicago sportscaster and talk-show host.
• Lani Hall: Singer.
• Rikki Kleimann: Trial attorney and actress.
• Lynn Sweet: Chicago Sun-Times Washington Bureau Chief.
• Rich Weiner: 1963 Public League scoring champion and a member of the Public League Basketball Hall of Fame.
• Howard Weinstein: President of Arthur Rubloff Co.
Von Steuben High School was a big change of lifestyle for me from the time I started there as a freshman in 1965 until I graduated in June 1969.
Von Steuben, first and foremost, was a great academic school. Not that I did anything to sustain the reputation. I probably dragged it down, as my report card was often as red as the Bulls' road uniforms.
Von also was, and still is today, a basketball school. It always had very good hoops teams, but no football. There was talk of starting a varsity football program after my sophomore season, but not enough guys could get their parents' approval, and that went for mine as well. I was not good enough to make the basketball or baseball teams, but by my junior season I was able to become the public address announcer for Panthers' home games thanks to coach Frank Hood.
I also went on the road with the team, even though I wasn't an official team manager, and I taped play-by-play of the games, which were played back during study hall periods.
Long before the Internet, cell phones or cable TV, we did have a language lab with old-fashioned reel-to-reel tape recorders. But cassette recorders did not hit the market until mid-1968.
In the years since high school, I have worked at WLS, WLUP, WMVP, WSCR and done plenty of play-by-play among other things. I'm always asked if I was one of the more well-known media people from Von Steuben. My response is, ''Hell, I'm not even the best known from my class,'' since Sun-Times Washington Bureau Chief Lynn Sweet was a classmate of mine and one of the smartest people I ever met.
It's fun to be at Cubs, Sox, Bulls or Blackhawks games today and have Von alums come up and say hello. They all were likely better students that I was, but we all are proud of the alma mater.