HP_122817

28 | December 28, 2017 | The highland park landmark sports
hplandmark.com
Landmark writer named to hall of fame
Michael Wojtychiw
Sports Editor
Lou Boudreau, Dan Issel,
George Mikan, Isiah
Thomas and Jerry Sloan.
Those five Illinois basketball
greats have all
been inducted into the Illinois
Basketball Coaches
Association Hall of Fame,
but now they’ll have to
move over to welcome a
new member to the group:
longtime sports and current
22nd Century Media
reporter, Loyola football
beat writer, and Wilmette
resident Neil Milbert.
Earlier this month, the
association announced its
2018 hall of fame class,
which includes Milbert,
who will go in as one of
seven media members
during a May 5 banquet
at Illinois State University
in Normal. Milbert is being
honored thanks to his
many years at the Chicago
Tribune and the last seven
years of writing for 22nd
Century Media.
“The body of work led
me to getting the nomination
to the hall of fame
and it’s humbling because
it’s a big honor. It was unexpected,”
Milbert said.
“I got a lifetime achievement
award from the National
Turf Writers Association
a few years ago,
but this one means more
because there’s more basketball
writers in Illinois
than there are racing writers
in the entire country.”
The sport of basketball
has been a favorite of
Milbert’s going back to
a young age. As a child,
Milbert was diagnosed
with the rheumatic flu one
summer, causing him to
spend an entire summer in
bed and really knocking
him out from any sporting
activities for two to three
years.
That, in a way, turned
out to be a blessing in disguise.
“I became a student of
sports as a child because,
when I was in bed that
summer, I knew every
player in baseball,” he
said.
After graduating from
Marquette University in
1961, a paper in Ottumwa,
Iowa, hired the Iowa
native to work on its news
side, but he was only there
for a couple months due to
being drafted and enlisting
in the Marine Corps.
After six months of active
duty and then serving four
and a half years in the reserves,
Milbert joined his
college roommate in New
Jersey and worked the
sports desk at The Jersey
Journal in Jersey City,
New Jersey, beginning in
September of 1962.
Milbert worked his way
up to the St. Peter’s College
beat in 1965. He held
the beat for three years,
and witnessed some incredible
moments, including
a couple big upsets.
“I got these guys when
they were sophomores,”
Milbert said. “When they
were juniors, the [National
Invitation Tournament]
was a big tournament because
the NCAA field was
much smaller. They got
invited to the NIT and got
blown out by Southern Illinois.
So low and behold,
the next year they managed
to get back to the
NIT and their first game
they win against Marshall.
Second game, they play
Duke, which was No. 4 in
the country, and I thought,
‘St. Peter’s is going to get
blown out again,’ because
Duke had been upset in
the ACC Tournament and
therefore didn’t qualify
for the NCAA Tournament.
Low and behold, St.
Peter’s upset Duke.
“Those were my first
experiences covering college
basketball.”
After coming to the
Chicago Tribune in the
early ’70s, Milbert had
few opportunities to cover
basketball. He mainly followed
high school state
playoff games when the
paper would have its staffers
cover regional and sectional
games. At the time,
Milbert was a Blackhawks
beat writer, as well as the
paper’s main horse racing
reporter.
That was until the mid-
’80s, when he was assigned
the Northwestern
men’s basketball beat.
“One [team I’ll remember]
was a really good
Northwestern team that
had a bunch of guys transfer
out. This new group
came in as freshmen and
Ricky Byrdsong came
in [for] his first year as
head coach,” Milbert said.
“They went undefeated
in nonconference play
but struggled in conference
play. To make it to
the NIT, they needed to
go .500 and had one game
left, against Michigan,
who had four of the Fab
Five remaining. It was
a terrible matchup, but
Northwestern took them
to overtime, upset them
and went to the NIT.
“That was monumental
and was a thrill for me to
see how far these guys
had come.”
Milbert would follow
that up with covering
the University of Illinois
at Urbana-Champaign
team that would make the
NCAA title game, as well
as sitting right in front of
Bryce Drew when he hit
an iconic 3-pointer to beat
Ole Miss in the first round
Neil Milbert poses for a photo at his desk in his Wilmette home; he will be inducted
into the Illinois Basketball Coaches Association Hall of Fame in May 2018. Michael
Wojtychiw/22nd Century Media
of the 1998 NCAA Tournament.
“I was sitting there,
thinking, ‘Oh boy, not
enough time, three seconds,’”
Milbert added.
“I see this guy wind up,
throw the long pass the
entire court, one of the
Valpo players set it up to
Bryce Drew and he hit
the shot right in front of
me. It was an incredible
moment, I’ve never seen
anything like that.”
Milbert left covering
college basketball after
leaving the Tribune and
started writing for 22nd
Century Media’s North
Shore papers in 2010. One
of his first assignments
was a summer league
basketball game between
Glenbrook South and
Loyola Academy.
He has a few high school
basketball games he’ll always
remember covering.
“A memorable team
is Steve Weissenstein’s
GBS girls team when they
played in a tournament
in Schaumburg,” Milbert
said. “They struggled there,
but Steve said, ‘Oh, we’re
going to be good at the end
of the year. These are all inexperienced
girls and I like
some of the things I saw. I
wouldn’t want to play us in
February.’
“And he was right. They
turned it around and really
had a good year. That to
me was a mark of a good
coach.”
Milbert noted that one
of the major differences
between covering high
schools and colleges is
that high school reporters
have to do many things
themselves. When covering
college teams, reporters
get stats handed
to them and can request
players and coaches to
talk to through the media
relations employees at the
schools. High schools are
a different story.
“I’ve always had a respect
for high school
writers because in the old
days, they always had to
find a phone, to plug their
computers in, and it’s always
been more difficult
because of that aspect,”
he said. “As far as the
game, the no shot clock. If
a team gets the lead in the
fourth quarter, they’ll sit
on the lead. It’s a different
game than college.
“I’ve only done a handful
of professional games,
but I like the high school
game better. I like the
coaches strategizing,
things like that. I feel like
there’s more coaching
on the high school level,
maybe not more than college
but more than in the
pros. Coaches can have a
greater impact.”
The hall of fame banquet
will be May 5 at Illinois
State’s Redbird
Arena and will include 99
new inductees.