Any resemblance of the hardscrabble Southern Illinois community of
Granite City, with its teeming, carbon-belching steel mills, to
Heaven, is purely coincidental. But it looked like the Pearlie
Gates to the Hungarian, Armenian, Yugoslavian and Macedonian
immigrants, who left behind genocide and oppression, intent on
building a better life for their families. Perceptions die hard and
the impression of the inhabitants of the Lincoln Place "ghetto,"
the wrong side of the Granite City tracks, was not a good one.
Enter the Men of Granite. Athletics can be a powerful agent for
change in society and the weapon of choice for a determined group
of young men from Lincoln Place was basketball. They were weaned on
the sport at the Lincoln Place Center, a settlement house built by
their parents with materials provided by the steel mills. They
mastered the game by playing it, day after day, hour after hour.
They learned discipline at the hands of the master, bespectacled
mighty-mite Sophia Prather, a former school teacher who considered
her work at Lincoln Place Center a higher calling. Although the
sons of Lincoln Place Center played the game at a high skill level,
their ascension to the Granite City High School basketball team
wasn't a given. The old school perception was that basketball was
an American game and foreigners didn't have the "essentials"
necessary to succeed. It took an athlete with the stature of Andy
Phillip, born Andras Fulop of sturdy Hungarian stock, to debunk
that notion. Phillip, who would go on to star for the University of
Illinois' "Whiz Kids" and play 11 years in the NBA, was a Granite
City starter from the time he was a sophomore. He opened the eyes
of Granite City's basketball coach, and eventually opened doors to
the untapped wealth of basketball talent from Lincoln Place. By
Phillip's senior year, all five starters - the Hungarian, two
Armenians, a Yugoslav and a Macedonian - were products of Lincoln
Place. They were an unorthodox and superstitious lot - running
plays in Armenian to confuse opponents among other things - but
their steely resolve and dedication to teamwork made them
champions. They became the first team in Illinois High School
history to suffer a tournament loss and emerge as the state
champions. To do that, the Warriors overcame deficits after three
quarters in their quarter-final, semi-final and championship
encounters. Their hard-knocks background prepared them well to be
the quintessential comeback kids of high school sports. Basketball
was only a game for the Men of Granite, but they played it well.
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