The Silver Kewanite - Kewanee Public Library District

The Silver Kewanite
Basketball Season
OUR 1930-31 basketball team was the finest team that Kewanee High has ever
had. They played the hardest schedule on record, meeting such teams as
Moline, Streator, Canton, and Galesburg. They came through a seventeengame
season with eleven victories and only six defeats. Besides this, our team
placed second in the Sectional Tournament, higher than any Kewanee team has
ever placed before.
At first no one dreamed that we would have a championship team by the end
of the season. The team started off rather slowly and did not show much promise.
But about the middle of the season the boys started playing better basketball and ran
up a string of six straight victories.
Kewanee participated in three tournaments this year, the Henry County at
Orion, the District at Kewanee, and the Sectional at Moline. The Henry County
Tournament was held at the first of the season when our team had not yet hit its
stride. In the first game we met Geneseo and squeezed out an 18 to 15 victory.
Then we came up against Orion and were beaten 19 to 15 and thus eliminated from
the tournament. By the time the District Tournament came around, our team was
going full blast, and in the first game of the tournament we met Wethersfield and
downed them by a score of 29 to 20. Our next game was against Galva High, and
we easily defeated them 30 to 9. In the semi-finals we downed the small Mineral
team 30 to 8. Then we met Sheffield, champions of the Little Eight, in the finals,
and defeated them with very little trouble, 30 to 20. The team was presented with
a beautiful bronze trophy for this victory.
By winning our District Tournament, we were entitled to go to the Sectional
Tournament at Moline. Our first game at Moline was against Milledgeville, whom
we defeated 37 to 15 in a very one-sided game. In our next game we went to
Sterling and in a very close and fast game we finally came out ahead by a 2 2 to 19
score. Then just as we were all set to go to our first state meet, we ran up against
the fast Galesburg team and were defeated by a score of 40 to 16. Galesburg won
second in the state meet this year and so we feel that we were certainly eliminated
by a fine team. For second place in the Sectional Tournament we received a large
trophy to add to our fast-growing collection.
By virtue of our two victories over Princeton High this year, we received the
beautiful trophy presented by the Kewanee Star-Courier for the team winning the
first four games out of seven. We won this trophy by winning four out of the first
five games.
It would not be fair to close this summary without mentioning the boys who
were responsible for making the wonderful record in basketball this year. At forward
were Warren Rouse and Harold Strom, who made many a needed point during
the season. At guard we had Chalmer Price, Wendall Swain, and John O'Conner,
who, besides being the main stays in the defense, did a lot to improve the offense
of the team. At center we had Lennart Peterson, who could always be depended
upon to bring the tip-off to Kewanee. At guard we also had the reliable Joe
Thomson, who cost the opponents many a score.
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