Eight Marionites brought claim to the Williamson County seat with the only state championship brought back to Marion in 1921.
The eight were Owen Stotlar, John Slater, Norman Belford, Raymond Biggs, Willis Stone, William Wallace and Luke Johnson and Ray Robinson.
The eight were molded together by coach E.H. Schreiber who guided Marion by Rockford 24-23 on a last second shot by Wallace.
The year before, Schreiber had coached Marion to third place in the state tournament.
Marion trailed by as many as 11 points in the contest before staging a last quarter rally that had the home team outscore their opponents 8-2 for the win.
One of the standouts on the team was all-state forward Norman Belford who scored over half of Marion points in the tournament.
To reach the finals, Marion had to win three overtime (back then called extra periods) games.
The path to the state tournament was a rocky one for the Wildcats as they defeated Elgin (15-14), Galesburg (19-15), Macomb (25-15), and New Trier (26-24) before the championship win over Rockford.
It was reported Schrieber wanted to sneak out a side door on the train and allow the boys to take all the honors, but the huge crowd at the train station had different ideas and hoisted him on their shoulders to a trip to the square.
Sam’s Notes: When the Marion High School basketball team arrived home at the Illinois Central depot on N. Market Street they were greeted home by hundreds of people. Prior to entering town, the team was allowed to ride the engine into town.
In March 1921, the local Elks Club sponsored a dinner for the team and invited guests to celebrate their victory.
(Data extracted from Marion Daily Republican 1976 article by Jimmy Dean)