After many historic events, Kingman Gym hosts first basketball supersectional

OTTAWA – Since Dec. 2, 1932, when the Ottawa High School boys basketball team defeated Paxton, 36-27, in the first game in Kingman Gymnasium, there have been countless special events held within its walls.

However, Monday night brought with it a first for the historic venue – an IHSA basketball supersectional – as Wheaton St. Francis and Metamora played in the Class 3A Ottawa Supersectional for a chance to advance to the state finals at the Start Farm Center in Champaign this weekend.

Metamora’s Redbirds, who played for a decade before this season in Ottawa’s Dean Riley “Shootin’ the Rock” Thanksgiving Tournament, winning seven titles – improved to 35-5 since 2011 in Kingman with a 60-44 victory over the Spartans.

There were just a few empty seats, and according to one media member the decibel levels reached 120 (equal to an ambulance siren) and averaged about 90-100 during much of the contest.

“In the past years, Class 1A/2A would play one week, Class 3A/4A the next, and Northern Illinois University would host all four of those games,” OHS athletic director Mike Cooper said. “But with this year and all four classes holding supersectionals on the same night, that wasn’t going to be possible.

“The IHSA needed two other schools to host games, and they asked us if we’d be willing to host a game. Kingman is not only a good-sized gym, but it also is in the middle travel-wise of the sectional teams. We were a good center point for any of the schools that had a chance to make it to this game.”

Ottawa’s gym is named after Charles Kingman, who was principal of OHS from 1913-1932. Kingman died in February 1932. The gym was dedicated in Kingman’s name Jan. 6, 1933, as 2,300 spectators saw Lowell “Pops” Dale’s Streator Bulldogs top Ottawa 29-19.

Besides being the location of hundreds of rivalry hardcourt battles between the Pirates and Streator, as well as OHS battles with the La Salle-Peru Cavaliers, Kingman has hosted numerous boys and girls basketball regionals and sectionals. In fact, in its opening season in 1932, Kingman hosted a 13-team district tournament which included the host Pirates as well as Serena, Hennepin, Seneca, Leland, Grand Ridge, Newark, Hall, Marseilles, Earlville, Streator, L-P and Sheridan.

Cooper said that normally a school “puts in” to host a postseason event to the IHSA and then hopes it is awarded it, but this was a unique situation they were happy to take on.

“We’ve hosted a number of sectionals and regionals on both the boys and girls sides over the years,” Cooper said. “I think the IHSA had faith that we would do a good job and gave us the chance to host this event.”

The last prior basketball postseason event held at Kingman took place in 2017, when Edwardsville – behind 45 points from current Kansas State player Mark Smith – defeated Danville, 81-59, in a Class 4A sectional championship. Before that, former NBA player Chasson Randle, then with Rock Island, fell to Peoria Richwoods in the 2010 Class 3A sectional title game.

“We’ve had our share of outstanding basketball players – at least three players that were named Illinois Mr. Basketball – play in either regionals or sectionals here,” Cooper said. “I feel like it’s an honor to be able to get a chance to host these types of events locally.”

Kingman also over the years has hosted performances by Gene Autry in 1954 and the Harlem Globetrotters a number of times, including on New Year’s Eve in 1969, to name a few.

“This was definitely an event, as far as being an athletic director goes, that would be on the bucket list,” Cooper said. “We’ve hosted so many other postseason events, but this was one – especially being a boys basketball supersectional – that I don’t know if I ever thought we’d have a chance to do.

“We as a high school were excited to get this chance. Hopefully the fans enjoyed their time here in Ottawa and Kingman. The atmosphere, well it doesn’t get much better than what we had here tonight.”