1917–18 Illinois Fighting Illini men's basketball team

1917–18 Illinois Fighting Illini men's basketball
1917–18 Illinois Fighting Illini men's basketball
Conference	Big Ten Conference
Record	9–6 (6–6 Big Ten)
Head coach	Ralph Jones (6th season);
Captain	George Halas
Home arena	Kenney Gym
	Seasons ← 1916–17 1918–19 →

1917–18 Big Ten Conference men's basketball standings
v t e	Conf				Overall
Team	W		L	PCT	W		L	PCT
Wisconsin	9	–	3	.750	14	–	3	.824
Minnesota	7	–	3	.700	13	–	3	.813
Northwestern	5	–	3	.625	7	–	4	.636
Illinois	6	–	6	.500	9	–	6	.600
Chicago	6	–	6	.500	14	–	10	.583
Purdue	5	–	5	.500	11	–	5	.688
Ohio State	5	–	5	.500	12	–	7	.632
Indiana	3	–	3	.500	10	–	4	.714
Iowa	4	–	6	.400	6	–	8	.429
Michigan	0	–	10	.000	6	–	12	.333

The 1917–18 Illinois Fighting Illini men's basketball team represented the University of Illinois.

Regular season

Under the direction of coach Ralph Jones, the 1917–18 season for the Illinois Fighting Illini men's basketball team, was unusual because World War I was happening in Europe. Co-captain George Halas, for example, left the team in January 1918 to help out with the war effort.^[1] In only the second season of having 10 members, the Big Ten Conference continued their 12-game schedule of home and road competitions. The Illini finished their season with an overall record of 9 wins and 6 losses and a 6-win 6-loss conference mark. The starting lineup included co-captain Earl Anderson and B.E. Mittleman at the forward positions, J.S. Probst and P.C. Taylor at center, and co-captain George Halas and Burt Ingwersen as guards.^[2] Anderson would be named a consensus All-American for the season.

Roster

1917–18 Illinois Fighting Illini men's basketball team

Players

Coaches

Pos.	Name	Height	Weight	Year	Hometown
F	Earl Anderson	—	—	Sr	Charleston, Illinois
G	George Halas (C)	—	—	Sr	Chicago, Illinois
C	John S. Probst	—	—	So	East Aurora, Illinois
C	Paul C. Taylor	—	—	So	New Orleans, Louisiana
G	Charles W. Vail	—	—	Fr	Chicago, Illinois
F	Burt Ingwersen	—	—	So	Urbana, Illinois
G/F	William K. Kopp	—	—	Fr	Beverly Farms, Massachusetts
F	Benjamin F. Mittleman	—	—	Jr	East Farmingdale, New York
F	James Garfield Stevens	—	—	Jr	Alfred, New York
G	Raymond Christian Haas	—	—	So	Evansville, Indiana

Head coach

Ralph Jones (Indianapolis YMCA Training School) (6th year)

Assistant coach(es)

Legend

(C) Team captain
(S) Suspended
(I) Ineligible
(W) Walk-on

Injured
Current redshirt

Roster

Schedule

Source^[3]

Date time, TV	Opponent	Result	Record	Site (attendance) city, state
Non-Conference regular season
12/15/1917* no, no	Millikin	W 40–13	1-0	Kenney Gym (199) Urbana, IL
12/19/1917* no, no	at Millikin University	W 31–13	2-0	Millikin Gymnasium (-) Decatur, IL
1/5/1918* no, no	Wabash College	W 24–9	3-0	Kenney Gym (-) Urbana, IL
Big Ten regular season
1/9/1918 no, no	Purdue	W 27–17	4-0 (1-0)	Kenney Gym (635) Urbana, IL
1/14/1918 no, no	Minnesota	W 28–17	5-0 (2-0)	Kenney Gym (1,008) Urbana, IL
1/19/1918 no, no	Wisconsin	L 21–22	5-1 (2-1)	Kenney Gym (1,108) Urbana, IL
2/2/1918 no, no	at University of Chicago	L 19–23	5-2 (2-2)	Bartlett Gymnasium (-) Chicago, IL
2/9/1918 no, no	Northwestern Rivalry	W 38–22	6-2 (3-2)	Kenney Gym (925) Urbana, IL
2/11/1918 no, no	Ohio State	W 35–21	7-2 (4-2)	Kenney Gym (673) Urbana, IL
2/16/1918 no, no	at Purdue	L 26–29	7-3 (4-3)	Memorial Gymnasium (-) West Lafayette, IN
2/18/1918 no, no	at Ohio State	W 26–23	8-3 (5-3)	The Armory (-) Columbus, OH
2/23/1918 no, no	at Wisconsin	L 15–23	8-4 (5-4)	University of Wisconsin Armory and Gymnasium (-) Madison, WI
2/25/1918 no, no	at Minnesota	L 22–35	8-5 (5-5)	University of Minnesota Armory (-) Minneapolis, MN
3/2/1918 no, no	at Northwestern Rivalry	L 14–29	8-6 (5-6)	Patten Gymnasium (-) Evanston, IL
3/6/1918 no, no	University of Chicago	W 20–17	9-6 (6-6)	Kenney Gym (518) Urbana, IL
*Non-conference game. ^#Rankings from AP Poll. (#) Tournament seedings in parentheses. All times are in Central Time.

Player stats

Player	Games Played	Field Goals	Free Throws	Points
Earl Anderson^[4]	15	67	67	201
Bert Ingwersen^[5]	15	24	1	49
Paul Taylor^[6]	14	24	0	48
J.S. Probst^[7]	10	15	0	30
Benjamin Mittleman^[8]	7	13	0	26
Charles Vail^[9]	11	8	0	16
J.G. Stevens^[10]	7	5	0	10
George Halas^[11]	5	1	0	2

Awards and honors

George Halas was enshrined in the Pro Football Hall of Fame (1963), for his role in the development of the National Football League as well as for his coaching and playing for the Chicago Bears.

Earl Anderson was named a Consensus All-American for the 1917-18 season.

References

^ A Century of Orange and Blue: Celebrating 100 Years of Fighting Illini Basketball By Loren Tate, Jared Gelfond pg.17 ISBN 1-58261-793-7
^ Fighting Illini Basketball: A Hardwood History By News-Gazette, Sports Publishing LLC ISBN 1-58261-356-7
^ University of Illinois Fighting Illini Statistics Summary for 1917-18 Archived 2013-12-17 at the Wayback Machine, FightingIllini.com
^ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on December 17, 2013. Retrieved December 17, 2013.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
^ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on December 17, 2013. Retrieved December 17, 2013.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
^ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on December 17, 2013. Retrieved December 17, 2013.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
^ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on December 17, 2013. Retrieved December 17, 2013.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
^ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on December 17, 2013. Retrieved December 17, 2013.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
^ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on December 17, 2013. Retrieved December 17, 2013.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
^ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on December 17, 2013. Retrieved December 17, 2013.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
^ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on December 17, 2013. Retrieved December 17, 2013.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)

[1] A Century of Orange and Blue: Celebrating 100 Years of Fighting Illini Basketball By Loren Tate, Jared Gelfond pg.17 ISBN 1-58261-793-7

[2] Fighting Illini Basketball: A Hardwood History By News-Gazette, Sports Publishing LLC ISBN 1-58261-356-7

[3] University of Illinois Fighting Illini Statistics Summary for 1917-18 Archived 2013-12-17 at the Wayback Machine, FightingIllini.com

[4] "Archived copy". Archived from the original on December 17, 2013. Retrieved December 17, 2013.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)

[5] "Archived copy". Archived from the original on December 17, 2013. Retrieved December 17, 2013.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)

[6] "Archived copy". Archived from the original on December 17, 2013. Retrieved December 17, 2013.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)

[7] "Archived copy". Archived from the original on December 17, 2013. Retrieved December 17, 2013.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)

[8] "Archived copy". Archived from the original on December 17, 2013. Retrieved December 17, 2013.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)

[9] "Archived copy". Archived from the original on December 17, 2013. Retrieved December 17, 2013.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)

[10] "Archived copy". Archived from the original on December 17, 2013. Retrieved December 17, 2013.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)

[11] "Archived copy". Archived from the original on December 17, 2013. Retrieved December 17, 2013.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)

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v t e Illinois Fighting Illini men's basketball
Venues	Kenney Gym (1906–1925) Huff Hall (1926–1963) State Farm Center (1963–present) Prairie Capital Convention Center (2015)
Rivalries	Indiana Iowa Missouri Northwestern
Culture & lore	Whiz Kids Flyin' Illini Orange Krush Fighting Illini Sports Network Oskee Wow-Wow Illinois Loyalty Chief Illiniwek 1960s slush fund scandal
People	Head coaches NBA draftees Statistical leaders
Seasons	1905–06 1906–07 1907–08 1908–09 1909–10 1910–11 1911–12 1912–13 1913–14 1914–15 1915–16 1916–17 1917–18 1918–19 1919–20 1920–21 1921–22 1922–23 1923–24 1924–25 1925–26 1926–27 1927–28 1928–29 1929–30 1930–31 1931–32 1932–33 1933–34 1934–35 1935–36 1936–37 1937–38 1938–39 1939–40 1940–41 1941–42 1942–43 1943–44 1944–45 1945–46 1946–47 1947–48 1948–49 1949–50 1950–51 1951–52 1952–53 1953–54 1954–55 1955–56 1956–57 1957–58 1958–59 1959–60 1960–61 1961–62 1962–63 1963–64 1964–65 1965–66 1966–67 1967–68 1968–69 1969–70 1970–71 1971–72 1972–73 1973–74 1974–75 1975–76 1976–77 1977–78 1978–79 1979–80 1980–81 1981–82 1982–83 1983–84 1984–85 1985–86 1986–87 1987–88 1988–89 1989–90 1990–91 1991–92 1992–93 1993–94 1994–95 1995–96 1996–97 1997–98 1998–99 1999–2000 2000–01 2001–02 2002–03 2003–04 2004–05 2005–06 2006–07 2007–08 2008–09 2009–10 2010–11 2011–12 2012–13 2013–14 2014–15 2015–16 2016–17 2017–18 2018–19 2019–20 2020–21 2021–22 2022–23 2023–24 2024–25
Helms and Premo-Porretta national championships in bold; NCAA Final Four appearances in italics