1915–16 Illinois Fighting Illini men's basketball team

The 1915–16 Illinois Fighting Illini men's basketball team represented the University of Illinois.

1915–16 Illinois Fighting Illini men's basketball
ConferenceBig Ten Conference
Record13–3 (9–3 Big Ten)
Head coach
CaptainRay Woods
Home arenaKenney Gym
Seasons
1915–16 Western Conference men's basketball standings
Conf Overall
Team W   L   PCT W   L   PCT
Wisconsin 11 1   .917 20 1   .952
Illinois 9 3   .750 13 3   .813
Northwestern 9 3   .750 13 3   .813
Minnesota 6 6   .500 11 6   .647
Indiana 3 5   .375 6 7   .462
Chicago 4 8   .333 15 11   .577
Iowa 2 4   .333 11 4   .733
Ohio State 2 8   .200 9 13   .409
Purdue 2 10   .167 4 10   .286

Regular season

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The 1915–16 season was a follow-up to an undefeated season, in which the Fighting Illini men's basketball team won both a national and Big Ten Conference championship. Coached by Ralph Jones, the Illini continued their winning ways by finishing the season with an overall record of 13 wins and 3 losses and a 9 win 3 loss conference mark. Taking second in the Western Conference to the National Champion Wisconsin Badgers men's basketball team. During the season, the Illini dropped two games to Northwestern and one to eventual champion Wisconsin, but the first loss to the Wildcats was the Illini's first-ever overtime game as Northwestern scored two points in the overtime period to beat Illinois, 23-21, February 12, 1916, at what is now the Kenney Gym Annex. The starting lineup included Gordon Otto, Dan W. Elwell and Ralf Woods rotating at the forward position, center C. G. Alwood, and guards Clarence Applegran and captain Ray Woods.[1] Woods was named an All-American for his work during this season.[2] Woods and Alwood were named All-Big Ten players for the season.

Roster

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1915–16 Illinois Fighting Illini men's basketball team
Players Coaches
Pos. # Name Height Weight Year Hometown
F Clarence O. Applegran
Fr Chicago, Illinois
F Clyde Alwood
Jr Clinton, Illinois
G Ray Woods (C)
Jr Oak Park, Illinois
G Ralf Woods
Jr Oak Park, Illinois
F John B. Felmley
So Bloomington, Illinois
F Gordon Otto
Jr Miami, Florida
C Elmer T. Rundquist
So San Antonio, Texas
F Dan William Elwell
Jr Champaign, Illinois
G Vaughn Waldow Dean
Jr Decatur, Illinois
Head coach
  • Ralph Jones (Indianapolis YMCA Training School) (4th year)
Assistant coach(es)

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

Roster

Schedule

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Source[3]

Date
time, TV
Opponent Result Record Site (attendance)
city, state
Non-Conference regular season
12/13/1915*
no, no
Millikin W 36–16  1-0
Kenney Gym (1,892)
Urbana, IL
12/17/1915*
no, no
at Millikin University W 34–19  2-0
Millikin Gymnasium (-)
Decatur, IL
1/1/1916*
no, no
at Illinois Wesleyan W 25–18  3-0
Bloomington YMCA (-)
Bloomington, IL
1/4/1916*
no, no
Wabash College W 24–16  4-0
Kenney Gym (-)
Urbana, IL
Big Ten regular season
1/11/1916
no, no
Purdue W 22–11  5-0
(1-0)
Kenney Gym (2,507)
Urbana, IL
1/15/1916
no, no
Ohio State W 21–10  6-0
(2-0)
Kenney Gym (2,497)
Urbana, IL
1/22/1916
no, no
Wisconsin W 27–20  7-0
(3-0)
Kenney Gym (3,383)
Urbana, IL
2/9/1916
no, no
at University of Chicago W 30–17  8-0
(4-0)
Bartlett Gymnasium (-)
Chicago, IL
2/12/1916
no, no
Northwestern
Rivalry
L 21–23 OT 8-1
(4-1)
Kenney Gym (3,147)
Urbana, IL
2/19/1916
no, no
at Wisconsin L 14–34  8-2
(4-2)
University of Wisconsin Armory and Gymnasium (-)
Madison, WI
2/21/1916
no, no
at Minnesota W 27–22  9-2
(5-2)
University of Minnesota Armory (-)
Minneapolis, MN
2/26/1916
no, no
University of Chicago W 31–13  10-2
(6-2)
Kenney Gym (3,218)
Urbana, IL
2/29/1916
no, no
at Northwestern
Rivalry
L 16–25  10-3
(6-3)
Patten Gymnasium (-)
Evanston, IL
3/4/1916
no, no
at Purdue W 29–19  11-3
(7-3)
Memorial Gymnasium (-)
West Lafayette, IN
3/6/1916
no, no
at Ohio State W 28–22  12-3
(8-3)
The Armory (-)
Columbus, OH
3/13/1916
no, no
Minnesota W 20–9  13-3
(9-3)
Kenney Gym (-)
Urbana, IL
*Non-conference game. #Rankings from AP Poll. (#) Tournament seedings in parentheses.
All times are in Central Time.

Player stats

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Player Games Played Field Goals Free Throws Points
Ralf Woods[4] 10 35 52 122
Gordon Otto[4] 15 25 40 90
Clyde Alwood[4] 15 45 0 90
Ray Woods[4] 16 26 0 52
John Felmley[4] 5 12 2 26
Dan Elwell[4] 10 6 1 12
Clarence Applegran[4] 16 3 0 6

Awards and honors

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Ray Woods was elected to the "Illini Men's Basketball All-Century Team" in 2004. Woods was also selected as an All-American for the 1915–16 season.

References

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  1. ^ A Century of Orange and Blue: Celebrating 100 Years of Fighting Illini Basketball By Loren Tate, Jared Gelfond pg.20 ISBN 1-58261-793-7
  2. ^ Fighting Illini Basketball: A Hardwood History By News-Gazette, Sports Publishing LLC ISBN 1-58261-356-7
  3. ^ University of Illinois Fighting Illini Statistics Summary for 1915-16 Archived 2013-12-17 at the Wayback Machine, FightingIllini.com
  4. ^ a b c d e f g "Archived copy". Archived from the original on December 17, 2013. Retrieved December 17, 2013.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)