Dec. 12, 2007

by Jeff Smith
Contributor, BigTen.org

It was March 1, 1943, and the Illinois men's basketball team was coming off an impressive 92-25 drubbing of the University of Chicago. The Fighting Illini boasted a close-knit squad, led by a group of five guys affectionately referred to as the "Whiz Kids." Art Mathisen, Ken Menke, Andy Phillip, Jack Smiley and Gene Vance made up a talented young group of four sophomores and one junior. After back-to-back Big Ten titles in 1942 and 1943, the Fighting Illini were the nation's top team and looked poised for a run at the national championship. But then duty called, and things were never again the same.

Mathisen, Menke and Smiley were drafted into the military and sent overseas for World War II, leaving Phillip and Vance behind. The most defining era of basketball for the Illini was soon trumped by one of the most defining eras in the history of this country.

With three of the five Whiz Kids called to serve, Phillip, Vance and head coach Doug Mills were left with a tough dilemma that in turn was avoided with a very simple solution. If the whole team could not participate in the NCAA Tournament, Illinois would simply drop out.

Remember, this was the nation's top-ranked team that had a very likely shot to win the national championship.

For Vance, the lone living Whiz Kid, missing the NCAA Tournament is still his biggest disappointment, but not playing in the postseason event was the right thing to do.

"It was very disappointing," he said. "Andy and I were the only ones left, but we said if they can't go to the tournament, none of us will."

It was a remarkable decision that will leave basketball historians wondering what could have been. The tournament did take place, with Wyoming beating Georgetown for the 1943 title.

In June, Phillip and Vance joined their teammates overseas when both were called to serve a 16-month duty in the Army.

While serving in Europe, Vance, a first lieutenant, ran into his teammate Smiley, a corporal. When they had a chance, the two talked basketball and how tough it was to miss out on a run at the national championship.

"I don't think we ever talked about it that much, but we thought we were pretty good," Vance said.

And they were.

During the 1942 and 1943 seasons, the Whiz Kids helped Illinois win 25 of 27 Big Ten games and finish with a combined overall mark of 35-6. The 1942 squad went 18-5 overall and 13-2 in conference play and then returned all five starters to a 1943 team that finished 17-1 and a perfect 12-0 in Big Ten action. The team's lone blemish in 1943 was to military service team from Camp Grant, which was loaded with talented players.

The Fighting Illini set several conference records during the 1943 campaign, including most points in a single game (92) and a season (755), as well as largest margin of victory (67). Illinois' second-straight conference title marked the first time in league play a team had accomplished the feat since Wisconsin won back-to-back Big Ten titles in 1913 and 1914.

What made the young group of "Kids" so successful was the balance amongst its players and the up-tempo approach Mills brought to the game. Every player ran, passed, scored and played defense.

"We kept running all the time," Vance said. "Doug just kept yelling at us, `Keep going! Keep going!'."

That approach often wore out the Illini's opponents. During the two-year stint in Champaign, the Illini averaged 58 points per contest and won by more than 20 points in 35 of the 41 games.

Phillip played a starring role for Illinois, setting Big Ten records in 1943 for most points in a game (40) and season (255), as well as field goals made in a game (16) and season (111). A two-time All-American and the Big Ten's Most Valuable Player in 1943, Phillip went on to have the most success of any of the Whiz Kids as a five-time All-Star in 11 years with the Boston Celtics in the NBA.

Vance, however, was a three-time honorable-mention All-American, having also earned first-team All-Big Ten in 1942 and 1943 and second-team honors in 1947.

Yes, 1947.

The Whiz Kids reunited after the war, minus Mathisen, the 1943 team captain. He was the lone Whiz Kid a year ahead of the others and had exhausted his eligibility, but the rest of the Kids returned to school and the basketball court hoping to ignite the flame that had all but been extinguished when they left for the war.

Things were not the same however. Illinois went 14-6 during the 1946-47 season and finished tied for second in the conference at 8-4. Three years in the service had taken its toll on what used to be young fresh bodies, causing the post-war Whiz Kids to be a few steps slower than they once were.

As it turned out, the convincing victory over Chicago on that first day of March in 1942 would be the last game the five Whiz Kids would spend together.

"Looking back now (that game) was pretty special," Vance said. "Back then, we thought we were going to return sooner than we did. That game was the most special point of our whole career."

Following his time at Illinois, Vance went on to play professionally from 1948-52, while also returning to duty in the Korean War. He began his career with the Chicago Stags of the Basketball Association of America. Once that league folded into the NBA, he played for the Tri-Cities Blackhawks and the Milwaukee Hawks. He then returned home to Illinois to coach the LaSalle-Peru Cavaliers. Four years later he began working at Illinois and served in a number of roles from 1956 to 2000, including as Illinois' Director of Athletics from 1967-72.

"I will always be linked to Illinois," Vance said.

Since 2000, Vance has dealt with the deaths of the other four Whiz Kids. Smiley died in 2000, and was followed by Phillip in 2001, Menke in 2002 and Mathisen in 2004.

"It has been awfully hard. I'm the only one left," he said. "It's tough to look back and see that I was there to bury the other four."

Now 84 and living in Champaign, Vance has recently been honored with several distinctions by Illinois and his hometown of Clinton, Ill. In 2004, Vance and Phillip were named to the Illini's 20-member All-Century Team, while last December in Clinton, the post office was renamed the Gene Vance Post Office in his honor.

But perhaps his greatest honor of all came prior to the 1943 NCAA Tournament when he and Phillip decided against competing in the postseason.

"Most of them had not even reached their peak," Mills once said. "There's no telling how great they would have been as seniors."

And we too, all left to wonder.

What if?