Athletics
Allendale High School definitely offered boys basketball. It is thought the school also offered track, plus at one
time offered football, baseball, and girls' basketball during the 1920's (according to alumnus Franklin Pemberton). During
its' early years, the Yellowjackets played on an outdoor court that was the same place where the baseball team also played,
before moving indoors to a converted church building, then eventually to a gym at the school.
Allendale was a member of the Little Ten Conference. During the middle and late 50's, they were a "powerhouse" in
that conference and area. If you have any further information to share regarding Allendale High School athletics please
e-mail us at eganann@sbcglobal.net.
Boys Basketball
The Allendale High School basketball team won seven District titles during its existence. Two
titles each were won in the 1930's, 1940's, and 1950's with the last title coming in 1961. One bit of information
was offered to us by Gary Spicer:
"Their coach during that time (1950's/1960's) was Dell Atkinson. Atkinson
went to Mt. Carmel to coach during 1960-62 seasons. He then went back to Allendale and picked up where he left off
(in 1965)."
| Earliest known boys' basketball team at Allendale |
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| courtesy of Franklin Pemberton |
If you have any other information about these or any other great teams in AHS history, please drop us a line. Thanks
to Franklin Pemberton the photos as well as helping us fill in some gaps with regards to Yellowjacket hoops history below!
1930-31 14- 4
Coach L.C. Small
1932-33 21- 6 (good record!)
Coach Erret Warner
| 1932-33 AHS basketball team |
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| First known team to win 20 games in a season (courtesy of Franklin Pemberton) |
1934-35 18-11
Coach Lester Courter
1935-36 16-10 District Champions
Coach Harold Diel
1936-37 15-10 District Champions Coach
Harold Diel
| 1937-38 Allendale Basketball |
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| courtesy of Franklin Pemberton |
1937-38 23- 6 (good record!) Coach
Harold Diel
1938-39 15-11
Coach Harold Diel
1939-40 12- 6
Coach Harold Diel
1940-41 18- 8 Coach
Paul Leming
| 1941-42 Yellowjackets |
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| Most wins in a season (courtesy of Franklin Pemberton) |
1941-42 31- 7 (outstanding record!) Coach
Armer
1944-45 14- 3
Coach Dell Atkinson
1945-46 16- 7 District Champions
Coach Dell Atkinson
1946-47 27- 6 District Champions
Coach Dell Atkinson
| 1946-47 Allendale basketball team |
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| Courtesy of Franklin Pemberton |
1948-49 19- 5 Coach
Dell Atkinson
1949-50 12-11
Coach Dell Atkinson
1951-52 17- 8
Coach Dell Atkinson
1953-54 12-11 Coach Dell
Atkinson
1954-55 18- 9 Coach
Dell Atkinson
1955-56 20- 9 District Champions Coach
Dell Atkinson
Little 10 Conference Champs
1956-57 22- 4 District Champions Coach
Dell Atkinson
Little 10 Conference Champs
1957-58 23- 4 Little 10 Champs Coach
Dell Atkinson
1960-61 20- 5 District Champions Coach Roettger
1961-62 19- 7
Coach Roettger
1962-63 14- 9
Coach Way
1963-65 Coach
Simpson
1965-66 13- 9
Coach Dell Atkinson
1966-67 19- 5 (good record!)
Coach Dell Atkinson
1968-69 14-10
Coach Dell Atkinson
1969-73
Coach Andrew
1973-78 Coach
Loveless
1978-79 13-12
Coach Loveless
1979-84 Coach
Loveless
1984-86 Coach
Scott
1986-87 (final season) Coach
Carlton
Facts Regarding Some of the Better AHS Teams as provided by alumnus Franklin Pemberton:
1941-42 Team Record 31 - 7, Averaged 42.2 points per game. Scored 1605
points.
PLAYERS - Frank Adams, Ralph Andrews, Vance Kepley, Joe Leighty, Rex Talley, Robert Breen,
J. Ray, Ray Buchanan, R. Kepley, Wm. Corrie, and Gene, Dale and Bill Beesley.
1954-55 Team Record 18 - 9. Won inaugural Wayne City Holiday Tournamment. Still going
strong after 50+ years.
Players - Keith Loeffler (15.9 pts per game), Franklin Pemberton (15.0), Gail Cisel (9.3), Jack
Johnson (6.9), Jack Wampler (7.9), Dennis Adams (0.7), Wayne Welton (4.3), Ed Wampler, Chuck Saltsgaver, Joe Boyd.
| 1955-56 Yellowjacket basketball program |
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| Courtesy of Franklin Pemberton |
1955-56 Team Record 20 - 9, District / Conference Champions
Players - Keith Loeffler (17.9), Franklin Pemberton (17.0), Gail Cisel, (10.8), Jack Johnson, (8.7), Dennis Adams
(9.4), Jerry Grounds,(2.3), Larry Benham (4.2), Frank Saltsgaver, Norman Gher, Chuck Saltsgaver, Robert Keneipp, Ed Wampler
Excellent team with the following credentials:
(1) All-time highest scoring AHS team with 2,081 points for the season.
(2) Most points scored in AHS history for 2 consecutive years (3,777 in '55 and '56 seasons)
(3) Average most points per game, 71.8
(4) Only AHS team to score 100 pts in a game..100, 105, and 106 during 1955/56 season.
(5) Only AHS team in 60+ years to score 2000 points or more in one season.
(6) AHS record for most fieldgoals in season with 819.
(7) Had 4 members of team selected to the inaugural Little Ten Conference AllStar team;
Pemberton (unanimous), Loeffler, Cisel, and Johnson
(8) Won Conference and District Tournaments.
(9) Six players on team that had played together for 8 years.
(10) Never lost to a zone defense, long range shooters!
(12) Smallest school in conference and possibly in all of southern Illinois.
Other notes about the 1955-56 Yellowjacket squad from Frank Pemberton:
Norm Gher (Class of 1960) was the first AHS basketball player to ever receive a division 1 school
basketball scholarship. But he did not receive the first scholarship in basketball, with that honor going to Franklin Pemberton.(Class
of 1956)
His scholarship was for basketball with JC or small colleges. ALL were recruiting him to play point guard, the
position he did play for the 183rd battalion in Herzogenaurach, West Germany. The team was 53-11 in 1958/59.
Also from the basketball team of 1956, the four all-conference players were all baseball pitchers.
Mr. Johnson had one hellacious curve, that made most batters have a "chicken" leg. Mr. Loeffler was just a smart player and
befuddled most of the batters. Mr. Cisel was just fast and had his batters neutralized. Mr. Pemberton was fast and had a "sharp"
slider.
Don't recall their records because baseball was a secondary sport during the reign of basketball. Until high
school, these four were fast softball pitchers, then all switched to baseball. They all played volleyball together. All six
of the players from the Class of 1956 had most high school math classes together. It goes on and on.
P.S. Frank Saltsgaver,
(a freshman) was the player that scored the 100th point for Allendale in the 106-40 win over Grayville on Dec 9,1955.
Am actively hunting the two other 100th point scorers.
(Thanks Frank, for being such a font of information on this special group of AHS student-athletes!)
| Yellowjacket Seniors of 1955-56 w/Coach Atkinson |
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| (l-r) G. Cisel, J. Johnson, F. Pemberton, Coach Atkinson, L. Benham, R. Keneipp, & K. Loeffler |
1956-57 - 22
wins 4 losses Third place in the Holiday tourney-Little Ten Conference--Little Ten Tourney--District Tourney. Team members--Jerry Grounds--Norman Gher--Frank Saltsgaver--Dennis Adams--Ed Wampler--John Hipsher--Ed Mills--Wayne
Carey--Wayne Beck
1957-58 - 23 wins 4 losses. 2nd place in the
Holiday tourney- First in Little ten Conference and Little Ten Tourney-second place in the district tourney Team--Norman
Gher--Frank Saltsgaver--Ed Wampler--John Hipsher--Bill Schafer--Wayne Carey--Ed Mills--Wayne Beck--Bob Benham--Larry Kight--Lawrence
Lanman--Submitted by John Hipsher
1960-61 - Team Record 20 - 5, District Champions
Players-Steve Kemper, Joe Wilcox, Jack Boyd, Joe Gher, Gail Beesley, B. Howes, Jr. Briner, Charles Sanders, Mike
Schafer, Waren Riggs.
**Information from Don Gher:
"I see that my friend Frank Pemberton passed on some photos etc. My dad was a member of the
first team to win 20 games photo and our cousin Harry was in the earliest known photo. BTW, our coach,
Dell Atkinson, recently was named to the Illinois
Basketball Hall of Fame. I am in Seattle, but wrote a letter of recommendation for him, Frank spearheaded.
NOTE: The following item was submitted by Frank about Dell Atkinson's induction into the IBCA Hall of Fame:
"Dell Atkinson (Coach) will be inducted (posthumously) into the Illinois Basketball Coaches Association Hall of Fame on
April 24, 2010. He was selected on the second attempt at the behest of myself and several coaches who believed that he should
be in the HoF. Dell succumbed in August 1969. So after 40+ years, he has been honored by peers and fans. He also coached a
few years at Mt. Carmel and WVC (Wabash Valley College). He had coached at Allendale for 22.5 years."
The Allendale
Yellow Jackets had a long, storied athletic history before the school was consolidated into Mt. Carmel. It won its first
Illinois State District Tournament title in 1936 with Harold Diehl as the coach. The team was 16-10 behind
All-District players Captain Jesse Gher, Richard Andrews and Ted Andrews. Other members of the team were Harold Alsop, Vern Howe, Robert Litherland, Ray McMillen, Raymond Mullinax, Elmer Smith and Edwin Winter.
1968-69 Allendale High School's basketball team was coached by Dell Atkinson
from the late 1940's, with a short tenure coaching Mt. Carmel from 1960-62, until he passed away shortly after the school
year ended in 1969. In his final season, the team finished 14-10 with a 9-5 second place Little Ten Conference record. They also won Third Place in the prestigious Wayne City tournament after upsetting
top-ranked, and Little Ten Conference champ, Mills Prairie 73-69 by coming back from down 20. The team was ousted in the Allendale District
Tournament by Hutsonville 72-70 on a controversial offensive goal tending call at the end of the game. Arch-rival St. Francisville lost both games to the 'Jackets that year, but won the District and gave eventual Regional and Sectional Champ Lawrenceville a
battle before losing late. Ironically, Lawrenceville was led by former Allendale star Walter "Butch" Wolfe,
who had transferred after his sophomore year.
The 1968-69 team was well-balanced offensively led by All-Conference Gary Hadra's 18.6 points per game,
followed by Clyde Lewis at 11.6 p/g, Rick Andrews
11.0 p/g, Don Gher 10.4 p/g and Randy Walker 9.1 p/g. The final starting five, along with
Bernie Lewis, were Coach Atkinson's pallbearers. Other players on the team were Randy
Atkinson, Cliff Blair, Tom Woods, Danny Hadley, Steve Faith and David Bailey.
Two of the all-time best basketball players to come out of Allendale
High were Joe Leighty and Ron Simmons, whose sons Ricky Leighty
and Marty Simmons were both named Illinois' "Mr. Basketball" while playing at Lawrenceville."
Boys Baseball
The Yellowjackets played baseball as well. This story was relayed to us by Wayne City HS alumnus Gary Spicer:
"In the spring of 1955 I played in the Little Ten Conference baseball championship game against
Allendale. What a game. Luckily we batted last 'cause we won 16-15 in 7 innings. We got down to 2 outs in the bottom
of the 7th when the catcher tipped one of our batters' swings on the third strike. We rallied and won the game."
From Don Gher (Class of 1969):
1968-69 9 - 2 (6 - 2 in Conference Play)
Allendale was a perennial baseball power with several conference championships. Tom Andrews, who followed Dell
Atkinson as basketball coach, coached the baseball team for many years. In 1969, they were 9-2 and 6-2 in the
conference as they tied Grayville for the Little Ten crown before losing to the Bisons in a play-off. The team was led
by three-time First Team All Little Ten Conference pitcher Gary Hadra (a 5-2 record), three-time First Team
All Little Ten Conference centerfielder Don Gher (a .407 batting average) and two-time First Team All Little
Ten Conference catcher Clyde Lewis (a .346 batting average). The rest of the line-up was made up of pitcher/infielder
Richard Bates, first baseman Rick Andrews, second baseman Steve Faith,
shortstop Harold Sanders, third baseman Bob Gher, left fielder David Bailey,
right fielder Cliff Blair, outfielder Garland Sanders, outfielder Chuck Gher,
infielder Gail Grounds, infielder Richard Seaton and infielder Mike Andrews."
FOOTBALL & GIRLS' BASKETBALL
According to AHS alum Franklin Pemberton (class of 1956), the school offered both sports in the late
1920's/early 1930's. Very little is known about either team; however, the football team was coached by Gentry Adams with the
following lineup (photo is below):
Left end - Manson Payne
Left tackle - Harry Gher
Left guard - Herb McClain
Center - Randel Talley
Right guard - Randel Payne
Right tackle - Don Price
Right end - Willard Hipsher
Backs - Bob Smith, Fred Sparks, Wayne Smith, and Mark Shepard
Adams coached at the school wherever he was needed and also helmed the boys' basketball team during
the same era.
The girls' basketball team also represented the school at the same time there was a football program, but it possibly
could have been discontinued due to the lack of girls' interscholastic sports at that time, which was monitored by the Illinois
High School Athletic Association (now IHSA). Some of the players for AHS in the photo below were Mary Francis Fox,
Mona Courter, Christella Reiber, Maxine Baird, Nora Mae McFarland, and Jean Andrews.
| 1922 Allendale Football Team |
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| courtesy of Franklin Pemberton |
| 1928-29 Allendale girls' basketball team |
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| Courtesy of Franklin Pemberton |
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