GHS Hall of Fame: Remembering the Legendary '63 Basketball Team

Arguably the greatest basketball team in the history of Geneva High School will be honored Saturday, during a unique halftime show that promises to tug at the heartstrings of any Geneva sports fan.

The 1962-63 Vikings basketball team will, in its entirety, be inducted into the Hall of Fame during the 50th-anniversary year of its remarkable achievement of reaching the Elite Eight and competing in the very first IHSA Basketball Finals Weekend to be held in the then-brand-new, 16,000-capacity Assembly Hall on the University of Illinois campus in Champaign.

What made Geneva’s feat even more notable was the fact that, with an enrollment at the time of fewer than 500 students, it was playing against much-
larger competition in what was, until 1971, Illinois' single-class basketball tournament.

Coach Mel Johnson’s Vikings had started the season with an unremarkable 2-2 record — suffering a 1962 Thanksgiving Tournament loss to Lockport, and a Dec. 1 nonconference defeat at East Aurora.

But they then proceeded to win no fewer than 28 consecutive games, throughout the remainder of December, January, February and March — not losing again until the last quarterfinal game on Friday evening, March 22, 1963, when they fell to ultimate 1963 state champion Carver, 57-50. It
was the first undefeated Little Seven Conference season in Geneva’s history and, so far, the only 30-win Viking basketball season ever.

Now, you can cheer on the 1963 team at the 13th annual induction ceremonies for the Vikings’ Athletic Hall of Fame, scheduled for Saturday evening, Feb. 2, 2013, in the school’s main contest gymnasium. The presentation will be made during halftime of the Geneva-vs.-Quincy boys’ varsity basketball game, set to tip off at 6 p.m.

Also scheduled to be honored on Hall of Fame Night on Feb. 2 is Geneva's first and only wrestling state champion, Ray Soto.

The Geneva Community High School Athletic Hall of Fame selection committee, chaired by Athletic Director Jim Kafer, consists of retired Geneva High head football coach Jerry Auchstetter, longtime Geneva journalist Rick Nagel, Hall of Fame inductee and sports psychologist Dr. Peter Temple and former Geneva Republican sports editor and Geneva PA announcer Kurt Wehrmeister.

After the Feb. 2 induction ceremony, and conclusion of the basketball game with Quincy — to which all previously inducted Hall of Fame members are extended invitations — friends and fans will have the opportunity to visit with the 2013 inductees at a coffee-and-cake reception in their honor in the north balcony of Geneva High’s contest gymnasium.

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• Geneva High School Athletic Hall of Fame Feb. 2 Induction

Past Hall of Fame Articles

• You Pick Geneva's Greatest Athletes

• 3 Beloved Coaches To Be Named to GHS Athletic Hall of Fame Jan. 22
• Coach John Barton's Fire Puts Him in GHS Hall of Fame
• GHS Hall of Fame: Soccer Star Katy Lindenmuth Green Led Wisconsin to Big Ten All-Conference Title
• GHS Hall of Fame: Kurt Wehrmeister Is the 'Voice of the Vikings'
• Geneva High School Inducts 3 Hall-of-Famers
• Beloved Geneva Coach John Barton Dies at 71
• Geneva Community Remembers Coach John Barton
• Allen Mead Chosen for State Coaches Hall of Fame—Finally
• A Gay Athlete’s Journey: Todd Searcy's Decision to 'Come Out'
• A Gay Athlete's Journey: Todd Searcy Tackles AIDS