1949–50 Illinois Fighting Illini men's basketball team

1949–50 Big Nine Conference men's basketball standings
v t e	Conf				Overall
Team	W		L	PCT	W		L	PCT
No. 2 Ohio State	11	–	1	.917	22	–	4	.846
No. 16 Wisconsin	9	–	3	.750	17	–	5	.773
No. 20 Indiana	7	–	5	.583	17	–	5	.773
Illinois	7	–	5	.583	14	–	8	.636
Iowa	6	–	6	.500	15	–	7	.682
Minnesota	4	–	8	.333	13	–	9	.591
Michigan	4	–	8	.333	11	–	11	.500
Northwestern	3	–	9	.250	10	–	12	.455
Purdue	3	–	9	.250	9	–	13	.409

Rankings from AP Poll

The 1949–50 Illinois Fighting Illini men’s basketball team represented the University of Illinois.

Regular season

The 1949-50 season looked to have solid promise based on the fact that the team had 3 returning starters from a "Final Four" team a year earlier. Unfortunately for the Fighting Illini men's basketball team, the conference season proved to be more difficult than expected. With 5 of the team's 8 losses coming at the hands of conference competition, the Illini, not only placed in a third place tie in the Big Ten, they also missed out on the opportunity to play in a post-season tournament. Head coach Harry Combes had guided the team a year earlier to a Big Ten championship, a third place finish in the 1949 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament and a final AP ranking of No. 4 in the nation. The 1949-50 team compiled an overall record of 14 wins and 8 losses with a conference record of 7 wins and 5 losses. The starting lineup included captain William Erickson, Roy Gatewood and Donald Sunderlage as forwards, Rodney Fletcher, and Burdette Thurlby at guard and Walter Osterkorn and Mack Follmer rotating at the center position.^[1]

Roster

No.	Player	Position	Height	Weight	Class	Hometown	High School
6	Jim Cottrell	G	5–10	167	Jr.	Champaign, Illinois	Champaign Central High School
8	Roy Gatewood	F	6–2	174	Sr.	Salem, Illinois	Salem High School
11	Donald Sunderlage	Forward	6-1	180	Jr.	Elgin, Illinois	Elgin High School
13	Wally Osterkorn	F-C	6–4 1/2	207	Sr.	Chicago, Illinois	Amundsen High School
14	Burdette Thurlby	Guard	6–2	180	Sr.	Kirkland, Illinois	Kirkland High School
21	Walt Kersulis	C	6–4	197	Sr.	East St. Louis, Illinois	East St. Louis Senior High School
22	Van Anderson	F	6–2	185	Sr.	Sullivan, Illinois	Sullivan Community High School
23	Ted Beach	F	6–1	165	Jr.	Marion, Illinois	Marion High School
27	Mack Follmer	Center	6–4	200	So.	Forrest, Illinois	Forrest High School
30	Glen Trugillo	F	5–11	160	Jr.	Rockford, Illinois	East High School
33	Bill Erickson (captain)	G	6–1	184	Sr.	Rockford, Illinois	East High School
34	Seymour Gantman	Guard	5–7	165	So.	Chicago, Illinois	Marshall High School
35	Ren Alde	Guard	6–2	180	So.	Pana, Illinois	Pana Senior High School
37	Rod Fletcher	Guard	6–4	194	So.	Champaign, Illinois	Champaign Central High School
38	Herb Gerecke	Guard	6–1	180	So.	Pekin, Illinois	Pekin High School
	John Marks	Reserve			Jr.	Edwardsville, Illinois	Edwardsville High School
	Cliff Fulton	Reserve

Head Coach: Harry Combes (3rd year at Illinois)^[2]

Schedule

Source^[3]

Date time, TV	Rank^#	Opponent^#	Result	Record	Site (attendance) city, state
12/3/1949* no, no	No. NR	vs. Butler	W 60–56	1-0	Hinkle Fieldhouse (7,704) Indianapolis, IN
12/8/1949* no, no	No. NR	vs. Toledo	W 67–51	2-0	Huff Hall (6,905) Champaign, IL
12/10/1949* no, no	No. NR	@ Oklahoma	L 47–55	2-1	McCasland Field House (4,500) Norman, OK
12/14/1949* no, no	No. NR	vs. Arkansas	W 65–53	3-1	Huff Hall (6,905) Champaign, IL
12/17/1949* no, no	No. NR	vs. Oklahoma	W 57–47	4-1	Huff Hall (6,905) Champaign, IL
12/22/1949* no, no	No. NR	vs. St. Louis	W 59–47	5-1	Huff Hall (5,333) Champaign, IL
12/23/1949* no, no	No. NR	vs. UCLA	L 63–65	5-2	Huff Hall (6,905) Champaign, IL
12/27/1949* no, no	No. NR	vs. Columbia	W 58–46	6-2	Huff Hall (4,760) Champaign, IL
12/30/1949* no, no	No. NR	vs. Princeton	W 68–61	7-2	Huff Hall (4,593) Champaign, IL
1/2/1950 no, no	No. NR	@ Wisconsin	L 50–59	7-3 (0-1)	Wisconsin Field House (13,000) Madison, WI
1/7/1950 no, no	No. 16	@ Ohio State	L 62–83	7-4 (0-2)	Ohio Expo Center Coliseum (-) Columbus, OH
1/9/1950 no, no	No. NR	vs. Purdue	W 59–54	8-4 (1-2)	Huff Hall (6,905) Champaign, IL
1/16/1950 no, no	No. NR	vs. Northwestern	W 76–50	9-4 (2-2)	Huff Hall (6,905) Champaign, IL
1/21/1950 no, no	No. NR	vs. Ohio State (No. 11)	W 66–50	10-4 (3-2)	Huff Hall (6,905) Champaign, IL
2/1/1950* no, no	No. 20	@ St. Louis	L 42–62	10-5	Bauman–Eberhardt Center (-) St. Louis, MO
2/4/1950 no, no	No. NR	@ Minnesota	W 67–57	11-5 (4-2)	Williams Arena (13,527) Minneapolis, MN
2/11/1950 no, no	No. NR	@ Iowa	L 65–70	11-6 (4-3)	Iowa Field House (13,394) Iowa City, IA
2/13/1950 no, no	No. NR	vs. Indiana(No. 16)	L 72–83	11-7 (4-4)	Huff Hall (6,905) Champaign, IL
2/18/1950 no, no	No. NR	vs. Michigan	W 70–60	12-7 (5-4)	Huff Hall (6,905) Champaign, IL
2/25/1950 no, no	No. NR	vs. Wisconsin	W 76–58	13-7 (6-4)	Huff Hall (6,905) Champaign, IL
2/27/1950 no, no	No. NR	@ Indiana (No. 17)	L 66–80	13-8 (6-5)	Wildermuth Intramural Center (10,036) Bloomington, IN
3/4/1950 no, no	No. NR	vs. Northwestern	W 69–52	14-8 (7-5)	Chicago Stadium (14,200) Chicago, 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
Wally Osterkorn	22	125	83	333
Bill Erickson	22	78	73	229
Burdette Thurlby	21	57	52	166
Don Sunderlage	22	54	45	153
Rod Fletcher	22	39	24	102
Roy Gatewood	21	38	18	94
Mack Follmer	21	34	13	81
Van Anderson	21	25	14	64
Walt Kersulis	20	23	14	60
Ted Beach	21	20	13	53
Cliff Fulton	20	7	7	21
Herb Gerecke	8	3	5	11
Seymour Gantman	6	3	3	9
Jim Cottrell	4	1	2	4
Glen Trugillo	2	1	0	2
John Marks	1	1	0	2

^[4]

Awards and honors

Bill Erickson
- Converse Honorable Mention All-American (1950)
Wally Osterkorn
- Team Most Valuable Player ^[5]

Team players drafted into the NBA

Round	Pick	Player	NBA Club
2	15	Wally Osterkorn	Chicago Stags
7	83	Bill Erickson	Tri-Cities Blackhawks

^[6]

Rankings

References

^ Fighting Illini Basketball: A Hardwood History By News-Gazette, Sports Publishing LLC ISBN 1-58261-356-7
^ 1950 All-Time Illini Rosters Archived April 22, 2010, at the Wayback Machine
^ University of Illinois Fighting Illini Statistics Summary for 1949-50, FightingIllini.com
^ Season Stats
^ List of MVPs
^ 1950 NBA Draft

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

[2] 1950 All-Time Illini Rosters Archived April 22, 2010, at the Wayback Machine

[3] University of Illinois Fighting Illini Statistics Summary for 1949-50, FightingIllini.com

[4] Season Stats

[5] List of MVPs

[6] 1950 NBA Draft

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]

[5]

[6]

v t e Illinois Fighting Illini men's basketball
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Helms and Premo-Porretta national championships in bold; NCAA Final Four appearances in italics