From a college baseball national championship to the first commencement ceremony, historian Tom Emery explores this month in Illinois State University history.
June 6
On this date in 1969, the Illinois State baseball team, under the direction of legendary head coach Duffy Bass, captured the NCAA College Division national championship.
After sweeping through the regional, Illinois State advanced to the four-team finals in Springfield, Missouri, and finished off the stellar season with a 12-0 win over Southwest Missouri State (now Missouri State) in the title game.
A close-knit group with a team-oriented approach, Illinois State entered the 1969 season with plenty of optimism. The ISU program, which dates to 1890, had caught fire in the mid-1960s, with records of 28-4 and 20-13-1 in 1966 and 1967, respectively. That was followed by a 27-7 season in 1968, which ended with a disappointing postseason loss to Middle Tennessee State.
The talent-rich Redbirds were led by power-hitting center fielder Guy Homoly, an All-American who batted a team-high .413 in 1969, the fourth-highest in program history. A two-sport star, Homoly led ISU with 33 runs scored and also finished with a .734 slugging percentage, which is sixth all-time at ISU.
There was also first baseman Tom Klein, who led the Redbirds with 47 hits and batted .349 in his two-year playing career. On the mound, ISU could look to Paul Sperry, whose 1.03 earned-run average on the season is the second-best in program history. There was also Lee “Buzz” Capra, who went on to win the National League ERA crown in 1974, as well as big righthander Bob Graczyk.
Other notables on the 1969 Redbirds were infielder Jim Brownlee, a former Marine who later was the ISU head coach from 2003-09, and student manager Mike McCuskey, a future chair of the university board of trustees.
In addition to Capra, Homoly, Graczyk, and Sperry were also drafted by Major League Baseball teams and played pro ball.
The Illinois State baseball facilities in 1969 were nothing like the current home of Redbird baseball, Duffy Bass Field. At the time, the outfield fence was nothing more than a snow fence. It had to be taken down whenever physical education classes needed to be conducted in the outfield.
The Redbirds finished the regular season with seven-straight wins and a 27-5 record, but lost Homoly to a broken leg late in the year. They proceeded to blow through the Mideast Regional at Cleveland, Mississippi, with victories over Tuskegee (7-6), Valparaiso (4-0), and host Delta State (7-6). Capra was named the regional’s Most Outstanding Player.
The regional title sent Illinois State to the College Division World Series, a name that is obsolete today. The College Division had been created when the NCAA separated it from the University Division in 1957 and is now considered NCAA Division II.
Whatever the name, the Redbirds were ready for it. The Series was a four-team affair, consisting of the four regional champions, in a double-elimination format. Illinois State faced Puget Sound in its first game on Wednesday, June 4, and Capra went the distance, outdueling future major leaguer Rich Hand in a 5-3 win.
Capra allowed only one hit through five innings before Puget Sound rallied. One of the standout plays was a tremendous grab by Capra on a line drive to start a double play. Hand struggled all day with a blistered finger, reportedly the result of too much playing at a penny arcade.
In the second game on Thursday, June 5, the Redbirds faced host Southwest Missouri State, which had won 16 of its last 18 games. But Graczyk was in control all night, shutting down the Bears until a meaningless run in the ninth inning of a 5-1 Illinois State victory. The Bloomington Pantagraph summarized the game as “gilt-edge pitching from Graczyk, glittering defense, and eager hitting.”
Nearly every member of the Redbirds talked throughout the tournament about the team’s chemistry, closeness, and enthusiasm. Those traits were on display on the bus trip back to the motel after the win. The Pantagraph reported that “the exuberant baseball team sang several rousing choruses of ‘Take Me Out to the Ballgame.’”
The loss dropped Southwest Missouri State into an elimination game, which they won over Florida Southern to advance to the preliminary championship game against the Redbirds on Friday evening. Sperry was on the hill for Illinois State, and after a scoreless first inning, Illinois State exploded for eight runs in the second inning.
The strangest play of the rally was second baseman Ernie Pedersen’s two-out RBI double that only traveled five feet. Pederson, who had opened the scoring in the second with a run-scoring triple, popped up in front of the plate in his second at-bat, but the Bears’ catcher lost sight of the ball. Pedersen, with the hustle that had been an Illinois State trademark all season, scampered into second.
The Redbirds scored twice in both the third and sixth innings on the way to a 12-0 blowout and the program’s first-ever national championship. Klein, who was 7-for-13 in the World Series, was named the Most Valuable Player.
The team was honored with a motorcade back in Normal late Saturday afternoon. Bass and the players rode a fire truck from the old Howard Johnson Motor Lodge on the Route 66 service road through the streets of Bloomington-Normal and to Horton Fieldhouse.
The 1969 Illinois State baseball team remains part of the fabric of the University and was honored at a 50th anniversary celebration in May 2019. Then and now, the players rave about how close the team was.
Five decades after their remarkable run to the title, Capra said the national championship “will always be among the fondest memories…it’s something that remains embedded for the rest of your life. We had guys who just loved the game.”
June 6
On this date 80 years ago, the Allied forces landed on Omaha Beach in Normandy, France, in a massive invasion that forever became known as D-Day.
A number of Illinois State students and staff were part of the 156,000 troops in the invasion, formally known as Operation Overlord, an offensive spearheaded by Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower to land enormous Allied forces in western Europe. An estimated 50,000 vehicles, 13,000 planes, and 5,000 ships and landing craft were involved.
One of five beaches along Normandy that saw action, Omaha was the deadliest on D-Day, mainly because of the imposing German defense. Some 3,000 barricades were placed along the beach, while mines and mortars presented other hazards. Well-positioned machine gun nests instantly opened fire as the Allies stepped off their Higgins boats and other transports.
By nightfall, some 100,000 troops had made it ashore. Within five days, over 326,000 soldiers and 100,000 tons of equipment had landed as the beachhead became a key drop-off point for Allied supplies. Eleven months later, the war in the European theater was over.
Among the members of the Illinois State community at D-Day was Alexander “Lex” Samaras, a product of Hoopeston in eastern Illinois who transferred to ISU in 1941.
A music education major, Samaras met his future wife, Carolyn, at the University Co-Op on his second day on campus. They married on December 26, 1943, a union that produced four children and lasted until her death in 2014.
Samaras was in the U.S. Navy during World War II and was at Normandy on D-Day. In a 2016 interview, he recalled that, “I felt so sorry for Carolyn. During the war and after D-Day, everyone else was hearing from their spouses. She didn’t hear anything until August. All those months she thought I was dead.”
After the war, Samaras spent 20 years as a music teacher and later ran a confectionary/restaurant. He later said that ISU “meant my life.”
Another on the beachfront at Normandy was Lt. Bob Monninger, an employee of the University Heating Plant at ISU for 25 years until his retirement in 1977. Like many veterans of combat, Monninger rarely spoke of his experiences for much of his life.
Finally, in his elderly years, his wife, Eleanor, who had worked in food service at ISU, persuaded him to share his experiences. As she said in a 2023 interview with local NPR affiliate WGLT, “you’ve got to write this down so someone will know what you went through.”
Monninger remembered the difficulty of climbing down rope ladders in the disembark, “with all the equipment I was carrying and the sea being so rough.” He was part of a unit charged with locating a position for over 150 howitzers.
In those horrific hours, Monninger somberly recalled the wounded on the beach, as well as the dead bodies floating in the water. Still, like so many soldiers, he kept his focus.
Eleanor said that “somebody asked him once, ‘you must have been terrified.’” Bob replied that “I wasn’t really terrified. I’d been through two other invasions, so I knew what was going to happen. It was scary, but I wasn’t terrified.”
Monninger remained in the Army for several more battles until chronic bouts with malaria ended his service. He then returned to Macomb, where he and Eleanor had both grown up. They married on March 12, 1945, a month after his return, and raised a family of three children.
Bob Monninger died on May 8, 2002, and is buried in Camp Butler National Cemetery near Springfield. Today, the Robert C. Monninger Scholarship, established by his family, is awarded to an ISU student who is enrolled full-time in the university’s Construction Management Program.
Another scholarship at ISU that honors a D-Day veteran is the DWB Dream Maker’s Endowed Scholarship, which supports American soldiers and veterans. Preference is given to an entrepreneurship major, and students studying abroad in France as part of the International Business Institute and Office of International Studies.
The scholarship was established by Sharon Rossmark, a 1978 ISU graduate and former insurance executive, to honor her parents, David and Willie Mae Brown.
David and Willie Mae Brown were married just three days before he was drafted into the Army. He served from January 1943 through December 1945, and retained powerful memories of D-Day for a lifetime.
Rossmark later traveled to Normandy on multiple occasions with her father, and eventually became the executive producer and creative director of a documentary on his experiences. Portions of Brown’s story became part of a History Channel program, A Distant Shore: African-Americans of D-Day, which earned an Emmy in September 2008.
Many members of the Illinois State community served with honor at D-Day and other major campaigns of World War II, and are part of the rich military tradition that has been a thread of ISU for generations.
June 26
On this date in 1970, Sean Hayes, an Illinois State alum who starred as Jack on the NBC hit comedy Will & Grace, was born. Hayes earned seven-straight Emmy nominations and six-consecutive Golden Globe nominations for the role.
Born in Evergreen Park on June 26, 1970, Hayes grew up in Glen Ellyn.
With some high school classmates at Glenbard West, he made a brief appearance in 1986 in his film debut, Lucas, the first film starring Winona Ryder. A highly skilled pianist, he enrolled at Illinois State, where he studied voice and acting.
In 2012, Hayes said that “theatre was my safe place, my safe haven. I could fail miserably and not be judged.” He added that Illinois State is “an awesome school, probably the best theatre school in the country.”
After leaving ISU, he was the music director at the Pheasant Run Theater in St. Charles and did improv at the renowned Second City Theater in Chicago. He also composed the music for a production of Antigone at the Steppenwolf Theatre Company, which features many ISU graduates.
In 1995, Hayes left Chicago for Los Angeles, where he initially worked for $10 a show with a comedy group he had formed. One of Hayes’ early jobs in Hollywood was in a popular commercial for Doritos that premiered during the Super Bowl in January 1998.
His early performances landed him an offer as Jack on Will & Grace, which came from an impromptu meeting at the Sundance Festival. Hayes, though, recalled that “I couldn’t afford to change my flight or get a second ticket.”
He got the part anyway and appeared for 246 episodes as Jack in the first version of the show from 1998-2006. Hayes then reprised the role in the reboot of the series from 2017-20.
Since then, Hayes has enjoyed consistent success both as an actor and producer. In November 2002, he portrayed comedian Jerry Lewis in the CBS television movie Martin and Lewis, which earned him a Screen Actors Guild Award nomination for Outstanding Actor in a Limited Series or Movie.
Hayes, who starred in the NBC sitcom Sean Saves the World in 2013-14, has also appeared in guest spots on Scrubs, 30 Rock, The Comeback, American Dad!, and Maya & Marty (twice). He was in the live televised musical production of Hairspray in December 2016.
Some of Hayes’ notable successes have been in children’s programming, including 21 episodes as a voice actor in Rapunzel’s Tangled Adventure from 2017-20.
In addition, Hayes has been a successful producer in conjunction with Todd Milliner, a friend whom he met at Illinois State. Together, they formed Hazy Mills Productions, which has created such television hits as Grimm, Hot in Cleveland (co-starring Betty White), The Soul Man, and Hollywood Game Night, which was hosted by ISU alum Jane Lynch.
An accomplished stage actor, Hayes hosted the 64th Annual Tony Awards in 2010. He earned the Tony for Best Leading Actor in a Play in 2023 for Good Night, Oscar, a biographical look at talented, but troubled, pianist and celebrity Oscar Levant.
Hayes has remained active at Illinois State throughout his many professional triumphs. One of his most memorable appearances was a discussion with theatre students in the spring of 2012. He was awarded an honorary doctorate by ISU in 2013.
Today, The Sean Hayes Theatre Scholarship Fund supports a scholarship in the School of Theatre at the University. Recipients are chosen from a pool of applicants by the selection committee, which includes Hayes, a proud graduate of the Illinois State theatre programs.
June 29
On this date in 1860, the first-ever commencement ceremony was held at Illinois State. Ten students—four women and six men—earned degrees that day.
That commencement was one of the initial activities held in “Old Main,” the first permanent building on campus. Though “the Normal University,” as it was often called back then, was much smaller, there was plenty of anticipation for the first commencement.
The event included a public examination for the graduating students, and the community was welcome to attend. On June 28, the Bloomington Pantagraph ran a notice that “strangers and citizens need hardly be told that the examination in the Normal University begins this morning at nine o’clock, and that the exercises are public. All will be welcome.”
That harrowing experience was followed by commencement the next day, which was a Friday. In that era, the event was an hours-long affair, packed with speeches, programs, and music. Still, around a thousand people attended the event, which was indeed a substantial number. That year, the census in Bloomington numbered only 7,075 residents.
The ceremony was delayed by rain, but once it began, there was a heavy schedule. Music and prayer were followed by addresses from each of the 10 graduates on such wide-ranging topics as the life of educator Horace Mann, fine arts in schools, agriculture, poverty, and past worship practices.
Music was played after every two or three addresses. The graduating class then performed a song before receiving their diplomas from Samuel Moulton, the sitting president of the Illinois State Board of Education, which governed ISU in its earliest years.
Following the ceremony, the Pantagraph reported that “the crowd then adjourned to another room” for a variety of entertainment courtesy of “the ladies of Bloomington.” Thirteen toasts, a staple of early-to-mid-nineteenth-century gatherings in the United States, were offered, with a formal response to each.
Several “voluntary toasts” were also given, including for the university president, the contractor of the construction of “Old Main,” the mechanics (tradesmen) who worked on the building, and the Model School.
The 10 graduates of that first ISU class went on to successful professional lives. Interestingly, the group produced a pair of married couples, as four of them wed one another.
One of those was Enoch Gastman, who is considered the first student in ISU history. He wed a classmate, Frances A. Peterson, on July 25, 1862, two years after their graduation. By then, both were teaching in Decatur, where Enoch would enjoy a remarkable 47-year career, mostly as high school principal and superintendent. Sadly, Frances Gastman died seven months after their marriage, on February 27, 1863.
Another of the class of 1860, John Hull, later served as president of Southern Illinois University-Carbondale in 1892-93, followed by a stint as president of the University of Wisconsin-River Falls. A former Bloomington teacher and principal, as well as McLean County school superintendent, he also married a classmate, Mary Washburn, on April 3, 1862. She died in 1882.
The majority of the men in the first ISU class later served in the Civil War. One, Joseph Howell, was killed at the battle of Fort Donelson on February 15, 1862.
Edwin Philbrook taught in the Decatur area, then became a pension attorney before his death in 1890. He was one of several of the original graduates who underwent a career change, including Peter Harper, who later settled in Louisiana and served as both a state legislator and parish judge before his death in 1887.
Silas Hayes taught school for eight years, then farmed in various locales around Illinois before moving to Los Angeles in 1888. There, he was in the laundry business before his death in 1907.
Many women gave up their careers for marriage, and it seems that Sarah M. Dunn did the same, teaching for five years before her wedding. She later lived, and died, in the Philadelphia area.
Another was Elizabeth Mitchell, who taught in Bloomington and Decatur before her marriage. She then became a respected member of the Bloomington community, residing at 509 East Front Street, where she had also lived as a child, for forty years until her death on November 22, 1923.
Mitchell was the last remaining member of the Illinois State University Class of 1860, which set the tone for the accomplishments of the thousands of ISU grads to follow.
Tom Emery is a freelance writer and historical researcher who, in collaboration with Carl Kasten ’66, co-authored the 2020 book Abraham Lincoln and the Heritage of Illinois State University.
