Engineering and Basketball

By Gregory D Cargill
CEE Alumni Association Board President

With the incredible success of the UIUC men’s basketball team this past season, perhaps the title of this piece should be “Basketball and Engineering.” Yes, I know that I’m taking a chance by writing about basketball in the CEEAA newsletter, but it has been a fabulous season and besides, my pastor created a sermon about the Illini the day after the Arizona game! So here goes.

As I said at the CEEAA Chicago dinner, the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE) is at the top of the rankings again this year; in fact, we have been in this lofty position for many years. While it was wonderful to be an alumnus (which is a very good thing to begin with) during the recent basketball season, I would describe being part of our CEE Alumni Association as being a perennial member of one of the great teams of all time! From the point of view of the CEEAA, one of the most important elements to come out of the ?March to the Arch? is the national attention brought to the University of Illinois! Yes, as graduates we already know the excellent academic heritage our university has in so many fields. Yet the national spotlight provided an opportunity to talk about the UIUC business school, the architectural career path, the multiple departments within the College of Engineering, etc., etc. It was heartwarming that many people actually discussed the truly great education one can receive at the U of I?and to be able to watch those fabulous basketball games!

My love for Illinois sports (yes, those are Regional/Final 4 hats in the picture in the Alumni News article) truly began with the 1968-1969 men?s basketball team. A couple of years earlier the so-called ?slush fund? scandal had rocked the U of I sports programs and left them in disarray. This is not to say that there weren?t individual highlights like Jim Dawson winning the Silver Basketball award and Preston Pearson (who later became an NFL star), who decked an opponent in the Assembly Hall. But it was that gritty basketball bunch of Dave Scholz, Greg Jackson, Mike Price, Randy Crews and Jodie Harrison that rose to the challenge of the ?68-?69 season. The Assembly Hall (designed by an Illinois alumnus) was packed and rockin? for every home game; the demands for tickets prompted a bunch of passionate students to start the ?line? for tickets weeks before they went on sale. Our team beat a very good Michigan team (with Rudy T.) and put up a great fight before losing to Houston (and the Big E). The mark of that team was ?never say die.? They competed at the 100 percent level (an engineer will not say ?110 percent? for obvious reasons) in every game and represented the university with pride at a time when we really needed it! To finish 19-5 was quite an accomplishment; and I?ll never forget Dave S. making one of those All-American teams!

As you have probably realized by now, this article is more about basketball than engineering. Yet, many aspiring engineers did attend those exciting Big 10 contests (when there were ten teams in the conference) before, during and after my era. Perhaps it is no coincidence that engineers can identify with the extra effort, attention to details, teamwork, high level of motivation, plus the grace and dignity (we call this ?ethics?) shown on and off the court this past season. Hopefully, as engineers and representatives of UIUC we exhibit these characteristics?just like the basketball teams of ?68-?69 and ?04-?05 did! We salute you!