Little Giants basketball comes to life
I recently had the pleasure of meeting former and current DePue High School players from each decade back to the 1940s for a story on the rich history of Little Giants basketball. It was amazing to hear how each one passed down the legacy to the next generation. All-stater Ron Zagar ‘(57) told me how he looked up to Joe Garcia, a star member of perhaps DHS’ best team in 1946-47, and Eric Bryant shared a story about a meeting with Zagar when he was at impressionable age and worshipped Zagar widely.
When I asked what DePue meant to them, they each shared a sense of pride and tradition having worn the orange and blue colors for DePue High Schools. Their gathering served as a living history lesson to some current Little Giants players who were awestruck listening to their stories.
Joe Garcia, class of 1947
“A good part of our life is devoted to basketball. We had a terrific record when I played in ‘47. We won 29 games and lost two games, and both those games were by one point. I don’t know if that means anything.”
Ron Zagar, 1957
“It was almost a requirement playing basketball growing up in DePue. It was the thing to do. I looked up to Joe Garcia and other guys in the ‘40s and early ‘50s. I just took a liking to it. I had some good teammates. We had a really good group of guys. The only regret I have is there wasn’t a class system at that time. We were in with the big schools. We moved into this gym in ‘56. It was filled for darn near every game. We lost the last game we played here (in the 1957 district finals) ... We made a basket, Manlius took the ball out of bounds, they made a pass to halfcourt and made a layup at the other end as time expired. Two passes.
“Stepping back into the gym, it brings back a lot of memories for me. This is where it all started for me. I loved it, and I still love it to this day. I don’t follow it as much as I used to, but I just love basketball.”
Tom Dobrich, 1965 (former DHS coach)
“Having done a lot of research on DePue basketball, for me it means lot of pride, a lot of tradition, a lot of awe of many teams that were very, very good and the players who were the DePue uniform, or the Zinc City Boys uniform, I’m just very, very proud to have been associated with DePue basketball, and being able to play for the Little Giants is quite an honor.”
Eric Bryant, 1966 (former DHS coach)
“It meant an awful lot. I grew up in a time when I was little watching Ron Zagar play. I was sitting outside here waiting to get into practice when I was about fifth grade and he walked by me, and of course he was everybody’s idol back then, he slapped me on the back, and said, ‘Hang in there kid. You’re going to be a good one.’ That meant a lot to me. Growing up in a town that had a good tradition of basketball was fun. We worked hard. We didn’t have much else to do. We didn’t have video games and that stuff. It was real important to me. I made a profession out of it and had a great time. I was always proud to say I was from DePue.”
Brian Suarez, 1978
“Back then, it was a team really. It was a bunch of friends playing together. We never sat at home playing video games and that kind of stuff. We were always out on the courts, baseball, basketball, didn’t matter, playing football. When we got out on the court, it was almost like we knew what each other was going to do. Especially, the coach we had, he taught us even more about playing as a team. He taught us about life, really. Yeah, there’s a lot of good memories that came from this school.”
Randy Suarez, 1985
“Thinking about it, it brings chills down my spine still. To have the community involved in the good teams that we did, share in the past. And I see that in my parents, it was handed down to my brothers, my older brothers handed it down to me. It was more of a community gathering and a feel-good when the teams were doing well. It also instilled in me the disciplines and the joy of winning and also in defeat taught me life-long lessons.”
Luke Dobrich, 1996
“I grew up in this gym really. From the time I was 2, 3, 4 years old, I spent hours in this gym, watching these guys play and hearing about some of these guys. I was too young, and dreaming about being a part of that tradition and dreaming one day being on this court playing, is my best memories, what I think DePue is all about.”
Austin Zimmer, 2014
There’s some pretty good history and it gives me some pretty good motivation to actually to go out and do better.
Jose Raya, 2014
“It feels good to play for a school that has so much history. It motivates us, or me, to play better.”
• Little Giants trivia: While DePue has fallen on tough times the past decade, there was a time, as our December story reviewed, that tiny DePue played big-time basketball. From 1921-53, DePue held a 37-25 series edge over the count seat Princeton, including a 3-1 record in district play and a 2-4 mark in regionals.
PHS came into prominence with its state squads in the mid-’50s with Coach Don Sheffer, All-American center Joe Ruklick and All-State guard Lew Flinn and began to turn the tide. PHS lost still three of five meetings from 55-57 with Zagar lighting up the hoops for DePue, but the Tigers went on to take the last 14 contests, the final four coming at regional. The county neighbors have not met since the 1993 regionals.
The All-Time DePue Team I ran from the 1950s-on was one person’s look at the all-time greats at DePue. There’s certainly been a lot of standouts over the years.
While digging into the record books, I looked up some basketball history between Princeton and Tiskilwa, which a local sports fan was asking about. prior to the annexation in the mid-’90s, PHS and Tiskilwa met 27 times on the hardwood from 1921-83 with the Tigers holding a 15-12 series edge.
The Indians seemed to win when it counted the most, taking four straight regional clashes from 1979-83 and seven of nine regional meetings dating back to 1954. PHS did sweep four meetings in the Bureau County Tournament and district games in ‘31 and ‘34 and a regional clash in ‘37.
Congrats to newlyweds PHS volleyball coach Andy Puck and his new bride, the former Gina Lopez, who were married over Christmas break in Hawaii. He used to coach at Hall and now works at PHS. She’s a PHS graduate and former basketball standout and now works at Hall.
Kevin Hieronymus is the BCR Sports Editor. Contact him at khieronymus@bcrnews.com.
