Inductees The 1951 unbeaten Pekin High School football team was the first team in the history of the school to win 10 games. Coached by the highly successful football and basketball coach, Jim Lewis, the team was considered the mythical No.1 team in the state.
The team, then known as the Chinks, scored 309 points and permitted 71 and completely dominated Greater Peoria and Illini Conference foes except Manual, a 7-6 victim of Pekin in a storied game played at the Peoria Stadium.
Pekin won the Greater Peoria, Illini Conference and big 12 Conference titles, cementing the latter in a thrilling 33-27 win over previously unbeaten Springfield before 7,500 fans in Pekin in the ninth game of the season.
The potent Pekin offense was led by Dick Heihs, who scored 14 touchdowns; Gary Newell, who tallied nine and Jim Herget with six.
Rugged lineman Ed Skaggs was named a guard on the first all-state teams of both the Chicago Daily News and the Chicago Tribune. Herget was selected to the fourth team of the Daily News. Pekin was not included in coaches' balloting for Greater Peoria honors.
THE 1951 SEASON
Pekin 28, Argo 13
Pekin 6, Streator 0
Pekin 26, East Peoria 6
Pekin 33, Central 6
Pekin 47, Canton 0
Pekin 39, Spalding 6
Pekin 50, Lincoln 0
Pekin 33, Springfield 27
Pekin 7, Manual 6
Pekin 40, Woodruff 7
Chuck Buescher Chuck Buescher was one of the most successful coaches in the Tri-County area. He graduated from East Peoria High School. Chuck was a three-year, two sport letterman as a student at Bradley University, playing both baseball and basketball from 1963 through 1967. |