When the men’s and women’s basketball programs at Illinois State University and Illinois Wesleyan University face off in an exhibition doubleheader on Sunday, October 29, at CEFCU Arena, it will be the first time that’s happened in a generation. But the programs have a long history of intercity competition.
The women’s teams will tip the day off at 1 p.m., with the men starting 30 minutes after that game ends. CEFCU Arena open its doors at noon. Tickets are on sale now. General admission tickets are $20 for both games. There’s free admission for Illinois State and Illinois Wesleyan students with a student ID.
The women’s teams played each other a handful of times back going back to the 1970s, and the men last met on January 13, 1970.
Here are some interesting things to know about the Redbirds and the Titans and this competitive, neighborhood rivalry:
- While this upcoming meeting has taken decades to come back around again, the teams have met more than 100 times over the years. Their first game was way back in 1910.
- The Titans won that last game over 50 years ago when team captain, Tom Gramkow, now a retired State Farm agent, hit a jump shot from near the top of the key to give his team a 69-68 victory as time ran out (click below to hear the final seconds).
- The GOAT, Doug Collins, did not play that night. According to The Pantagraph, Collins was among the 7,000 crowded into Horton Field House, but as a freshman, he was only allowed to watch from the sidelines.
- The series was renewed after all these years when the women’s teams decided to play each other.
Mia Smith, head coach at Illinois Wesleyan, said in a press conference in August that assistant coaches, Brian Ehresman (Illinois Wesleyan) and Scott Gillespie (Illinois State), had a lot to do with it.
“This game probably came together a couple years ago when they (Ehresman and Gillespie) were en route to a recruiting event, sitting in the car talking about this game, and they said, ‘Do you think we can talk our head coaches into playing this game?’ And here we are,” Smith said.
- On the men’s side, Ryan Pedon, Redbirds head coach, recalled a recent conversation with Ron Rose, Titans head coach, about the possibility of their teams playing again.
“Ron and I sat together in Milwaukee last summer, and Ron asked if I’d ever entertain the idea,” Pedon said. “And I said, ‘Yes.’ He beat me to the punch. I was going to approach him. It’s something that we’ve had our eye on for a while.”
“It could be a great tradition, but let’s see how this goes and see if it’s beneficial for both parties. I don’t see how it couldn’t be.”
Kristen Gillespie
- Rose said a recent 50-year reunion of the Wesleyan team that won in 1970 helped make it happen.
“It spurred the idea that maybe this was the time to do this again,” he said.
- Kristen Gillespie, Illinois State women’s basketball head coach, said this about her counterpart, Mia Smith, head coach at Wesleyan: “Winning is what she does.”
That’s a fact. Smith is beginning her 25th year on the job. She’s the school’s all-time victories leader with a 458-190 overall record. She led her team to the NCAA Division III Championship in 2012.
- Rose has coached one game at CEFCU Arena, and that didn’t go well.
“The only time I’ve ever coached here was in the super sectional in my last year at Bloomington High School, and we lost a rough game to Peoria Richwoods,” Rose said. “That’s one that still wakes me up at night sometimes.”
- Although the Titan and Redbird women’s basketball programs have very little history of playing each other, several Illinois Wesleyan women’s basketball players have already played at CEFCU Arena as members of IHSA state-qualifying teams: Sawyer White (Montini Catholic High School third-place finish 2020), Laura Mahlum (Barrington Community High School second-place finish 2022), Emma Kornak (Geneva High School state championship 2018), Ava Bardic (Stevenson state championship 2022), Sara Balli (Lake Park fourth-place 2020), Payton Jacob (St. Joseph Ogden third-place 2019), and Anna Beyers (Pana third-place 2022). Illinois State players who also played at CEFCU in high school include: Shannon Dowell (O’Fallon Township High School state championship in 2023) and Lauren Cohen (Glenbard South High School, state appearances in 2018 and 2019). CEFCU Arena is the home of the IHSA Girls Basketball State Finals.
- Illinois State’s walk-on guard, Ty Blake, and Wesleyan’s freshman guard, Mason Funk, were teammates in high school at University High in Normal.
- Ehresman, the Wesleyan assistant women’s coach, spent four years at Illinois State as a graduate assistant and as video coordinator.
- Who leads the series? Each school’s records differ, but Illinois State has the Titans with a 68-36 advantage, and Illinois Wesleyan has its team ahead at 69-42.
- Will this game become a tradition again?
“Wait and see,” Pedon said. “I love the idea of doing good in our community. I certainly don’t think it should be 53 years until we play them again. I’m open to it but non-committal on this particular day.”
Gillespie struck a similar chord.
“It could be a great tradition, but let’s see how this goes and see if it’s beneficial for both parties,” she said. “I don’t see how it couldn’t be.”
- Proceeds from Sunday’s games will be split between Western Avenue Community Center, a social service organization and community center in Bloomington, and a mental health partnership between Illinois State and Illinois Wesleyan.
