Hebron remembers its 1952 state champions

Phil and Paul Judson were giants once, members of the legendary high school basketball team from tiny Hebron that 60 years ago rocked Illinois and their community by winning the state championship.

The twins, now 77, roamed the halls of Alden-Hebron High School on Friday with teammate Bill Schulz, also 77, celebrating the anniversary that few in Hebron will ever forget. Many sports fans around the country remember the accomplishment too.

“We didn’t realize what we had done,” said Phil Judson, who lives in Gurnee now.

Their Green Giants came from a school with just 98 students. It won the 1952 state championship against Quincy High School, which had 1,035 students — 300 more than the population of Hebron at the time.

It was the first live telecast of a high school sporting event in Illinois, which helped mark the win indelibly in the minds of many.

And it was also memorialized on Hebron’s water tower in 1984. The basketball feat spurred the documentary “Becoming Giants” and the book “Once There Were Giants,” by Scott Johnson and Julie Kistler. (The movie “Hoosiers” was based on the 1954 Milan team from Indiana and can be a touchy subject in Hebron.)

On Friday, Paul Judson, who now lives in Florida, gazed at an oversize black-and-white photo in the school’s hallway. It depicts hundreds of townspeople and cars filling the streets of Hebron as the team arrived after its majestic win.

“These people were more excited than we were,” he said.

The Judsons recalled how the ride home from Champaign took seven hours because of all the people holding up congratulatory signs along the way.

The bus stopped often so the athletes could sign autographs. They were paraded about on flatbed trucks in many small towns that had been given a jolt by their counterpart from McHenry County.

Once they hit Route 47, the team was met by a line of cars and people that stretched all the way into Hebron.

The two other starters on the team were Ken Spooner, of Huntley, and Don Wilbrandt, who died in 1998.

Hebron was a small, unassuming community of farmers with a spirit and energy that reached across the country, the teammates recalled.

Schulz, now of Northbrook, grew up on a dairy farm, and said he escaped nighttime chores by playing basketball. Some still recall how, at 6 feet 10 inches, he towered above his teammates.

He said he was recognized in Spain about 30 years ago, when a man from Peoria approached him to talk about the game.

Then, about 15 years ago, Schulz said he again was recognized when he attended the Rose Bowl.

But his fondest memory related to the victory could be the large crowds of loyal fans drawn to watch each basketball game that year.

“The place was always packed,” Schulz said.

The visit to their old school wrapped up a spree of celebrations marking the 60th anniversary. Throughout the years, they’ve revisited the memories at book signings and documentary screenings, and have been honored for milestones.

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“It makes us feel like state champs,” Phil Judson said.