1949–50 Illinois Fighting Illini men's basketball team

1949–50 Illinois Fighting Illini men's basketball
1949–50 Illinois Fighting Illini men's basketball
Conference	Big Ten Conference
Record	14–8 (7-5 Big Ten)
Head coach	Harry Combes (3rd season);
Assistant coach	Howie Braun (13th season)
MVP	Wally Osterkorn
Captain	Bill Erickson
Home arena	Huff Hall
	Seasons ← 1948–49 1950–51 →

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

1949–50 Illinois Fighting Illini men's basketball team

Players

Coaches

Pos.	#	Name	Height	Weight	Year	Previous school	Hometown
G	7	Jim Cottrell	5 ft 10 in (1.78 m)	167 lb (76 kg)	Jr	Champaign Central High School	Champaign, Illinois
F	8	Roy Gatewood	6 ft 2 in (1.88 m)	174 lb (79 kg)	Sr	Salem High School	Salem, Illinois
G	11	Don Sunderlage	6 ft 1 in (1.85 m)	180 lb (82 kg)	Jr	Elgin High School	Elgin, Illinois
C	13	Walter Osterkorn	6 ft 4.5 in (1.94 m)	207 lb (94 kg)	Sr	Amundsen High School	Chicago, Illinois
F	14	Burdette Thurlby	6 ft 2 in (1.88 m)	180 lb (82 kg)	Sr	Kirkland High School	Kirkland, Illinois
C	21	Walt Kersulis	6 ft 4 in (1.93 m)	197 lb (89 kg)	Sr	East St. Louis Senior High School	East St. Louis, Illinois
F	22	Van Anderson	6 ft 2 in (1.88 m)	185 lb (84 kg)	Sr	Sullivan Community High School	Sullivan, Illinois
F	23	Ted Beach	6 ft 1 in (1.85 m)	165 lb (75 kg)	Jr	Champaign Central High School	Champaign, Illinois
C	27	Mack Follmer	6 ft 4 in (1.93 m)	200 lb (91 kg)	So	Forrest High School	Forrest, Illinois
F	30	Glen Trugillo	5 ft 11 in (1.8 m)	160 lb (73 kg)	Jr	East High School	Rockford, Illinois
G	33	Bill Erickson (C)	6 ft 1 in (1.85 m)	184 lb (83 kg)	Sr	East High School	Rockford, Illinois
G	34	Seymour Gantman	5 ft 7 in (1.7 m)	165 lb (75 kg)	So	Marshall High School	Chicago, Illinois
G	35	Ren Alde	6 ft 2 in (1.88 m)	180 lb (82 kg)	So	Pana High School	Pana, Illinois
G	37	Rod Fletcher	6 ft 4 in (1.93 m)	194 lb (88 kg)	So	Champaign Central High School	Champaign, Illinois
G	38	Herb Gerecke	6 ft 1 in (1.85 m)	180 lb (82 kg)	So	Pekin High School	Pekin, Illinois
		John Marks	—	—	Jr	Edwardsville High School	Edwardsville, Illinois
		Cliff Fulton	—	—	Sr	Mooseheart High School	Mooseheart, Illinois

Head coach

Harry Combes (University of Illinois) (3rd year)

Assistant coach(es)

Howie Braun (University of Illinois) (13th year)

Legend

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

Injured
Current redshirt

Roster

Schedule

Source^[2]

Date time, TV	Rank^#	Opponent^#	Result	Record	Site (attendance) city, state
Non-Conference regular season
12/3/1949* no, no		at Butler	W 60–56	1-0	Hinkle Fieldhouse (7,704) Indianapolis, IN
12/8/1949* no, no		Toledo	W 67–51	2-0	Huff Hall (6,905) Champaign, IL
12/10/1949* no, no		at Oklahoma	L 47–55	2-1	McCasland Field House (4,500) Norman, OK
12/14/1949* no, no		Arkansas	W 65–53	3-1	Huff Hall (6,905) Champaign, IL
12/17/1949* no, no		Oklahoma	W 57–47	4-1	Huff Hall (6,905) Champaign, IL
12/22/1949* no, no		St. Louis	W 59–47	5-1	Huff Hall (5,333) Champaign, IL
12/23/1949* no, no		UCLA	L 63–65	5-2	Huff Hall (6,905) Champaign, IL
12/27/1949* no, no		Columbia	W 58–46	6-2	Huff Hall (4,760) Champaign, IL
12/30/1949* no, no		Princeton	W 68–61	7-2	Huff Hall (4,593) Champaign, IL
Big Ten regular season
1/2/1950 no, no		at Wisconsin	L 50–59	7-3 (0-1)	Wisconsin Field House (13,000) Madison, WI
1/7/1950 no, no	No. 16	at Ohio State	L 62–83	7-4 (0-2)	Ohio Expo Center Coliseum (-) Columbus, OH
1/9/1950 no, no		Purdue	W 59–54	8-4 (1-2)	Huff Hall (6,905) Champaign, IL
1/16/1950 no, no		Northwestern Rivalry	W 76–50	9-4 (2-2)	Huff Hall (6,905) Champaign, IL
1/21/1950 no, no		No. 11 Ohio State	W 66–50	10-4 (3-2)	Huff Hall (6,905) Champaign, IL
2/1/1950* no, no	No. 20	at St. Louis	L 42–62	10-5	Bauman–Eberhardt Center (-) St. Louis, MO
2/4/1950 no, no		at Minnesota	W 67–57	11-5 (4-2)	Williams Arena (13,527) Minneapolis, MN
2/11/1950 no, no		at Iowa Rivalry	L 65–70	11-6 (4-3)	Iowa Field House (13,394) Iowa City, IA
2/13/1950 no, no		No. 16 Indiana Rivalry	L 72–83	11-7 (4-4)	Huff Hall (6,905) Champaign, IL
2/18/1950 no, no		Michigan	W 70–60	12-7 (5-4)	Huff Hall (6,905) Champaign, IL
2/25/1950 no, no		Wisconsin	W 76–58	13-7 (6-4)	Huff Hall (6,905) Champaign, IL
2/27/1950 no, no		at No. 17 Indiana Rivalry	L 66–80	13-8 (6-5)	The Field House (10,036) Bloomington, IN
3/4/1950 no, no		at Northwestern Rivalry	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.

Rankings

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	19	39	24	102
Roy Gatewood	17	38	18	94
Mack Follmer	22	34	13	81
Van Anderson	19	25	14	64
Walt Kersulis	19	23	14	60
Ted Beach	19	20	13	53
Cliff Fulton	17	7	7	21
Herb Gerecke	6	3	5	11
Seymour Gantman	7	3	3	9
Jim Cottrell	4	1	2	4
John Marks	1	1	0	2
Glen Trugillo	2	1	0	2
Ron Alde	1	0	0	0

^[3]

Awards and honors

Bill Erickson
- Converse Honorable Mention All-American (1950)
Wally Osterkorn
- Team Most Valuable Player ^[4]

Team players drafted into the NBA

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

^[5]

Rankings

References

^ 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 1949-50 Archived 2014-04-07 at the Wayback Machine, FightingIllini.com
^ "Season Stats". Archived from the original on April 7, 2014. Retrieved March 31, 2014.
^ "List of MVPs" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on October 30, 2014. Retrieved January 15, 2013.
^ 1950 NBA Draft Archived 2010-01-17 at the Wayback Machine

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

[2] University of Illinois Fighting Illini Statistics Summary for 1949-50 Archived 2014-04-07 at the Wayback Machine, FightingIllini.com

[3] "Season Stats". Archived from the original on April 7, 2014. Retrieved March 31, 2014.

[4] "List of MVPs" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on October 30, 2014. Retrieved January 15, 2013.

[5] 1950 NBA Draft Archived 2010-01-17 at the Wayback Machine

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]

[5]

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