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Ben Wilson Still Remembered….
by Amal | on October 24, 2012
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Ben Wilson’s death still resonates
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2. Former Simeon basketball star Ben Wilson is pictured in November of 1984. (Tribune File
Photo /October 24, 2012) Posts
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Sports Editor’s note: Simeon basketball star Ben Wilson, who was shot to death in November
of 1984, is on the minds of many after being the subject of an ESPN “30 for 30″ documentary Benefits of Having a Personal Budget
Tuesday. The Tribune’s K.C. Johnson — who played for the Evanston team that lost to Wilson’s
team in the 1984 Class AA state championship game, and then played Simeon again the day
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after he died — wrote a powerful piece about Wilson to mark the 25th anniversary of his death
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in November of 2009. Here is Johnson’s story.
This story originally was published Nov. 15, 2009. Benefits of Blogging…Fun, Earn Income And
On March 24, 1984, Ben Wilson and his Simeon teammates gracefully and emphatically ended Much More…
our basketball dream.
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Led by Purdue-bound Everette Stephens, our Evanston team was unbeaten, a run galvanizing a
community that had seen its share of racial tensions.
But in the Class AA state championship game at Champaign’s Assembly Hall, Wilson’s wizardry —
and Bobby Tribble’s, and Tim Bankston’s — dropped us to 32-1, state runners-up to a team that
clearly was better than us.
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That’s why, even after Wilson became the nation’s No. 1-ranked high school player over the
offseason, we so looked forward to the fall rematch.
start now
Little did anybody know, that championship game was Wilson’s last.
Around noon on Nov. 20, 1984, Wilson, 17, inadvertently bumped into one of three youths
outside a convenience store just blocks from Simeon. Words were exchanged. Three shots were
fired. Two pierced Wilson’s aorta and liver.
They operated. He died at 6 a.m. the next day.
That was only about 13 short hours before Wilson was to begin his senior season — with his
next stop likely at DePaul or Illinois — against our Evanston team in the Rockford Boylan
Tournament.
The news was devastating. The Rematch? That didn’t matter.
We practiced, in a daze, at our gym, on the day he was shot.We waited, wondering if we’d even
board the bus to Rockford, on the day he died.
On Simeon’s call — and in honor of the player everybody called Benji — we got on the bus. We
played ball.
On Nov. 21, a quarter-century will have passed since Wilson’s death. And yet the memory of
carrying flowers over to every Simeon player during an emotional pregame ceremony remains
fresh.
“It was surreal,” says Steve Wool, now a history teacher and girls varsity basketball coach at
Evanston. “We were looking in the eyes of peers, knowing that someone our age had just been
murdered. That put mortality into perspective.”
Wilson’s death touched a nerve in Chicago and beyond, producing outrage and demands for
street violence to end. Roughly 8,000 attended his wake in Simeon’s gym two days after he
died. The following day, 10,000 crammed into Jesse Jackson’s Operation PUSH headquarters for
his funeral.
Jackson, Chicago mayor Harold Washington and the world screamed for lessons to be learned
from this waste.
I’d kept mine to myself. It was time for that to change.
I made trips to Simeon and Evanston. I sought out players and coaches, teachers and friends.
What do they remember? Do they still feel it? How had his death affected them?
This was the dominant answer: Anyone who ever had any contact with Benji doesn’t need an
anniversary to feel his impact.
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3. “I think about him every day,” says Nick Anderson.
Anderson played 13 seasons in the NBA, mostly with Orlando, and wore Wilson’s No. 25
throughout. His personal tribute.
Anderson grew up on the West Side. Prosser kid. He transferred to Simeon on the South Side in
1984 to join forces with Wilson, to see if Simeon could defend its state crown.
Instead, he watched his friend die.
“I will never forget that, seeing Ben like that,” Anderson says. “It still …”
Anderson regains his composure, talks of happier times.
“I can remember that summer that I transferred, we spent the whole summer together, playing
ball, hanging out, going to movies,” Anderson says. “He’d spend the night over at my house. I’d
spend the night over at his. We just became so close. He was a brother to me.
“Even though he was so talented, he was so humble. His character always shined through.
Being the No. 1 player in the nation, he didn’t let that go to his head. He was just one of the
guys.”
But was it the right decision? To play, in Rockford, against Simeon, on the day he died? I’ve
struggled with that.
“I think it was because I believe that’s the way Benji would’ve wanted it,” Anderson says.
We agree, though: That night was lump-in-your-throat hard.
As a recent transfer, Anderson wasn’t yet eligible and watched in street clothes. As a minor-
minutes reserve, I watched most of the game in uniform from the bench.
“I remember we came out and there was a moment of silence,” Anderson says. “And you could
hear people crying in the stands and on the floor.
“I couldn’t focus on anything. I’m wondering what’s going on, why we have to be there. But we
played that game for Benji.”
Simeon won, crushing us 71-50.
Anderson and I have crossed paths occasionally on the NBA beat. This is only the second time
we’ve talked about Benji. How could any good come from this tragedy?
“It motivated me to make the NBA for Benji, and it also taught me never to take life for granted
because you can be here today and gone tomorrow,” Anderson says. “It also taught me that
friendship is very important. When you have true friends, you never forget them. And he was
surely a true friend of mine.”
Wool has me and former teammate Eric Dortch in stitches, reminding us of the time his dad
stopped to aid passengers in a broken-down van. They were Simeon players en route to a
summer-league game against us in July 1984.
“My dad actually dropped them off, including Ben, in time to play against us and they beat us in
a tough-fought game,” Wool says. “And I’ll never forget saying to my dad, ‘Why the hell did you
pick them up?’”
It was a healthy respect, between Simeon and Evanston. Simeon beat us in the 1984 title game,
we battled at the St. Benedict summer league and both eagerly awaited Rockford.
“The one thing I always will say about Ben — other than him being the best high school player I
ever saw — is how personable he was,” Wool says. “I remember going out to get some
Gatorade at one of those summer-league games, and he wasn’t high on himself at all. The guy
was an incredible player, but we’d talk and he was humble with how he approached the game
and said he needed to work harder.”
Dortch was our defensive stopper and relished the opportunities to try to guard Wilson.
“His style of play demanded his teammates step up because he gave it his all,” says Dortch, a
supervisor for Blue Cross/Blue Shield.
Of course we stumbled through that practice the day he was shot. And we could not fathom
legendary Simeon coach Bob Hambric deciding to play the day Wilson died.
“I gained an even greater respect for Simeon and their willingness to honor Ben and play in a
very difficult situation,” Wool says. “I don’t know if that’s toughness or heart or determination,
but they went on and had a very successful season without their best player.
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4. “I was amazed they did that.”
Indeed, even without Wilson, Simeon went on from their opening-game victory over us and
returned to the Class AA state quarterfinals in Champaign. Five months later, it took jurors a
mere hour to find Omar Dixon, 15, and William Moore, 16, guilty of murder and attempted
robbery.
Moore, who fired the shots, received a 40-year prison term. Dixon was sentenced to 30 years.
Both are still in prison.
“Basketball is a brotherhood,” Dortch says. “I used to go play pick-up at 63rd and Dorchester
on the West Side and run into these guys. When you run out there, it’s not like, ‘Yeah, I’m from
the suburbs.’ It’s, ‘I’m a basketball player.’ We all shared that respect. And Ben was part of that
brotherhood.
“I have a son who plays basketball now. And I always tell him to look at the players who paved
the way for you, give them respect and then go have that same love for the game.”
Wilson’s death has stayed with Wool.
“As head girls basketball coach here, I try to connect the past to the present,” he says. “Ben has
come up a couple of times when I’ve talked about living in the moment, being accountable for
what you’re doing because you never know when your time is going to be up. …
“Here’s a guy who had ‘it,’ one of the most talented players I’ve ever seen. And fate dealt him a
bad hand. This is somebody who in his 17 years did what he could during his time. And he made
a huge impact with his life — and his death.”
At Simeon, a painting of Wilson hangs above the gym door. The artist was a classmate. It shows
him hitting a right-handed jumper, scoring on a left-handed layup over West Aurora’s Kenny
Battle and smiling in the graduation gown he never got to wear.
There’s also a team photo and the trophy from the 1984 state championship. The gym is
named after Wilson, but there is no signage. His No. 25, traditionally worn by the team’s best
player, was retired permanently on Saturday.
Like Anderson, like fellow NBA player Bobby Simmons before him, Derrick Rose wore No. 25 at
Simeon. Best players. Tradition.
“It was an honor because Benji was a legend,” Rose says.
Rose wasn’t born when Wilson died but, like all Simeon basketball players, he received the book
written by Wilson’s mother, Mary, detailing her son’s life. Rose read it in one sitting.
“They tried to keep his spirit alive, not just in the program but throughout the whole school,”
Rose says. “Benji meant so much to us, and his story really scared me, knowing it happened to
a great player. Anything can happen.
“I just wanted to stay out of the negative. I didn’t go to parties or stupid places. I was a loner. I
didn’t go nowhere but to my friends’ houses and home.”
At the end of our conversation, Rose and I, we lock eyes. Just 21, Rose is the first to extend his
hand. We shake. Strongly.
“Don’t take nothing for granted, right?” Rose says.
Ben Wilson was born exactly seven months before me, and his death isn’t why I pursued a
career covering the NBA.
His death isn’t why Nick Anderson or Derrick Rose starred in the league.
His death isn’t why Reggie Brock returned to teach at Simeon after playing with Wilson and
having his own minor league baseball career. Or why Eric Dortch shares his love of the game
with his son. Or why Steve Wool coaches at Evanston.
But Wilson’s spirit is still with all of us, in some ways, at some times.
As the conversation with Anderson winds down, I tell him I plan on visiting Wilson’s grave.
“Give my boy my best,” Anderson says from Orlando.
The cemetery isn’t far from Simeon. Wilson rests in plot No. 137 in the Garden of Meditation
section, not far from his beloved mother, Mary, who passed in December 2000.
Copyright © 2012, Chicago Tribune
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5. Although I was a junior in high school at his passing, we all new how talented he was. I
remember almost everything as if it was yesterday. Ben Wilson Still Remembered….
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Tags: Ben Wilson, Chicago Basketball, Illinois, Simeon
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About The Author: Amal
A former latchkey kid leading to being INDEPENDENT, self-reliant, DEDICATED
follow er in my belief, FATHER of 3 men, HUSBAND, somew hat EDUCATED, filled
w ith HOPE, GRATEFUL for life, HUNGRY for SUCCESS, alw ays w illing to give a
helping hand, community facilitator, school board member, experienced in various
industries, ENTREPRENEUR and a MAN STILL ON THE GRIND.
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