Tweet #W1NasONE

Article by Dan Verdun

He will forever be known as "Tomkat."
           
When Eastern celebrated its 100th anniversary of intercollegiate basketball during the 2009-10 season, Tom Katsimpalis was selected as one of the 10 greatest players in Panther hoops history.

"That was truly something. It meant a great deal to me," Katsimpalis said years after from his retirement home near Mobile, Alabama
           
Katsimpalis grew up in Gary, Indiana. He played baseball, football, basketball and ran cross country at Gary's Froebel High School.
           
"My high school basketball coach required that we run cross country, which I wasn't too fond of," Katsimpalis said. "My senior year I told him that I wasn't going to run. I guess that I blackmailed him because I still got to play basketball."
           
Katsimpalis was such a skilled prep player that word got to Eastern head basketball coach Bill Healey.
           
"One day I was washing windows and (Eastern football and track coach Pat) O'Brien drove up," Katsimpalis recalled. "He told me that he was visiting me on behalf of Coach Healey."
           
Katsimpalis followed O'Brien to Charleston where he spent three days.
           
"I stayed with Coach O'Brien and really took to Eastern," he said.
           
And Eastern also took to Katsimpalis. The Indiana native starred for Healey's powerhouse Panther teams of the early 1950s. Katsimpalis played center on four teams that combined for an 87-17 record, advanced to the NAIB national tournament finals three times and won four Illinois Intercollegiate Athletic Conference championships. The 1951-52 team posted a perfect 22-0 regular season record en route to a 24-2 overall mark. The team was later inducted into the Illinois Basketball Hall of Fame.
           
"All I have are fond memories," said Katsimpalis. "Rex Darling, who was the assistant, and Bill Healey were great coaches. I played with such wonderful guys. The camaraderie of our team was just so good. Coach Healey had us run the offense without the ball in practice because he didn't want us to shoot too soon. It was a revolving offense. But, we still managed to rack up the points when we got our hands on the ball."
           
Katsimpalis recalled playing games in Lantz Gym, which today is known as McAfee Gym.
           
"It wasn't a regulation court. I wasn't 94 feet, instead it was 96. When they built they gym they were supposed to put the backboards inside the lines, but instead they put them on the lines which threw everything off a bit."
           
Katsimpalis also recalled those hot, steamy nights within the walls of the brick building.
           
"Lantz was always filled. They put folding chairs around the perimeter of the floor. There were bleachers on the stage," he said. "The most unique thing was probably the brick wall right behind the lines. They finally put wrestling pads up so you wouldn't get hurt when you ran into the wall.

"I remember (EIU president) Dr. (Robert) Buzzard standing up and turning around and looking at the crowd when they got too excited and loud. The people would all quiet down a bit when he did that."
           
Katsimpalis was Eastern's first Little All-American. Ironically he earned that honor by coming off the bench as a freshman to spark the Panthers to the 1949 NAIB quarterfinals. Katsimpalis scored a tournament record 78 points in three games at Kansas City.
           
"We always did really well until we ran into a big team," Katsimpalis said. "I was the tallest player we had."
           
When asked how tall that was, Katsimpalis chuckled.
           
"It depended on who we were playing," he said, "Coach Healey adjusted my height. One time I was listed at 6-foot-5, another time at 6-6. Sometimes I was 6-3."
           
How tall was Katsimpalis during his playing days?
           
"I was around 6-2 and a half," he said.
           
"Whenever he played someone really big inside it was difficult for us," Katsimpalis said. "When we played Hamline they had a big center by the name of (Vern) Mikkelsen who later played in the pros."
           
Mikkelsen, listed at 6-foot-7, indeed played in the pros. He spent 11 years with the NBA's Minneapolis Lakers. Sports historians call Mikkelsen the NBA's first power forward and note his tenacious defense.
           
"We were two-timing (double-teaming) him," Katsimpalis said.
           
The tactic backfired when another Hamline player hit the game-winning shot to edge Eastern by a single point.
           
"I can still see that forward clicking in that shot to beat us," Katsimpalis said nearly 60 years later.
           
Katsimpalis also remembers beating "some really good teams." Yet, he and his teammates wanted more.
           
"We wanted to play even better competition," he said. "We wanted to play the University of Illinois. They wouldn't schedule us, which I understand."
           
According to Katsimpalis, the teams finally "met" during the mid-1950s.
           
"The U of I had a barnstorming team," he said. "They had four starters from Illinois and another one from Indiana State. I vividly remember playing them in Mattoon. We played they three times and beat 'em all three times."
           
In 1951, Katsimpalis was among the nation's top 10 free throw shooters statistically.
           
"I'll tell you a funny story about Tom Katsimpalis," said former Illinois State player Frank Chiodo. "Eastern was coming down on a 2-on-1 fast break, and I was the guy back on defense. Katsimpalis took the pass and went to the basket. I laid him out but good. I put him into the band. Well, he gets up, shakes it off and goes to the free throw line. He shoots the first one with his right hand and makes it. Then he shoots the second with his left hand and makes it. I said, 'You win!'"
           
Upon hearing that story secondhand, Katsimpalis chuckled, "Where do these people get this from?"
           
Katsimpalis was the IIAC Most Valuable Player as a senior in 1952. He was a three-time First Team All-Conference selection. Katsimpalis was the Eastern team MVP in consecutive years.
           
In addition, Katsimpalis set game (38), season (500) and career (1,538) scoring records that stood for many years. He still stands as the school's No. 7 career scorer, just 33 points behind Kevin Duckworth, who played 23 more collegiate games. Duckworth, of course, wound up playing 11 years in the NBA.
           
After his collegiate playing days, Katsimpalis was selected in the seventh round of the NBA draft by Minneapolis. He later had a tryout with the New York Knickerbockers.
           
"It was a fun thing to have done, but it's nothing like what the NBA has become," he said.
           
He coached high school basketball until returning to Eastern as an athletic administrator in 1959.
           
Katsimpalis became Eastern's Director of Athletics in 1964. He held the position for 10 years as the Panthers moved from NAIA competition into the Division-II level.
           
"When I gave up the director's position, I taught for about three years before I retired," he said.
           
Katsimpalis earned his master's degree from the University of Illinois and his doctorate from Northern Colorado University.
           
In 1960, Katsimpalis was inducted into the NAIA Hall of Fame. In 1982, he was enshrined in Eastern's Hall of Fame. When ESPN published its College Basketball Encyclopedia in 2009, Katsimpalis was selected into the all-time Panther starting five.
           
Katsimpalis, 91, passed away on Aug. 24, 2020 in Fairhope. Ala.