Granite City
Press-Record
Tome inked on ’40 basketball champs
Book to hit shelves next month
By Chris Coates
Wednesday, October 10, 2007 8:14 AM CDT
It was in 1980 that Dan Manoyan, then a cub reporter for a newspaper
in suburban Chicago, first stumbled across an old Illinois High School
Sports Association record book and took note of the curious team that
won the 1940 men’s basketball state championship.
The squad, from Granite City High School, was chock full of immigrant
names: Hagopian, Mouraudian, Markarian, Bozarth, Gages, Parsaghian,
Eftimoff.
Manoyan, himself half-Armenian, was intrigued that such a diverse
group of Armenians, Hungarians, Yugoslavians and Macedonians would
find a place on the court, let alone storm the state championships. It
was a point of honor. Twenty-seven years later, Manoyan, now a
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel sports reporter, has penned a book about
the team, still the only to win a men’s basketball championship in
Granite City history, and its place in local history.
"Men of Granite" hits stores next month.
Manoyan said he came up with the idea for the tome in February 2006
after visiting St. Louis and passing through Granite City.
Seeing the city’s sign, he said, triggered memories of the team – and
got him thinking about writing a narrative.
"I’ve always wanted to write a book and I thought maybe something’s
there," Manoyan said from his home in Wisconsin Tuesday.
The 10-man team, nicknamed the Happy Warriors, was comprised of seven
first-generation Americans, many from Lincoln Place, a 10-block
section of Granite City home to the working immigrants of the area’s
bustling steel mills.
Among them was Andy Phillip, who went on to play All-American for the
University of Illinois and a score of NBA teams in the 1950s. He was
elected into the Basketball Hall of Fame in 1961.
Manoyan spent two years interviewing about 15 people involved with the
team, mostly widows and relatives of players, and its two surviving
members, Andy Hagopian and John Markarian.
Manoyan also contacted "Babe" Champion, the longtime Granite City
coach and teacher who, in retirement, has turned into a major booster
of efforts to memorialize the 1940 team.
Although Champion graduated from Granite City High School in 1951, the
1940 team was still legendary even a decade later – and still is
today, he said.
"We knew all those names," said Champion, who ended up helping Manoyan
coordinate research for the book, including navigating records in the
Granite City High School Hall of Fame and other archives.
"We spent a lot of time in the library," Champion said.
The research and hours of interviews helped Manoyan knit together a
narrative that sheds new light on personal details of the players,
their camaraderie on and off the court, and their importance to
Granite City.
A year later, the product of all the research and writing is ready to
hit shelves in mid-November.
Champion has read an early draft and called it "awesome."
"It’s super," he said, noting that the book deals both with sports and
cultural issues of the era. "It’s what this whole area is about – its
heritage. People need to know about this."
The book, which retails for $24.95, will first be sold by mail order,
although eventually it will hit online book retailers, Manoyan said.
For now, Champion and 1946 alumnus Gus Lignoul are handling marketing
and have pledged to sell 1,000 copies. The duo are pitching the book
at community and club meetings.
"We’re just going to hustle them," he said, adding that groups can use
the books for fund-raisers.
For Manoyan, who is expected to return to Granite City next month to
promote the book, his only regret is that he should have started
penning the book sooner, when more players were still alive.
"I wish I would have done this 10 years ago," he said.
E-mail: ccoates@yourjournal.com
For more information about "Men of Granite," email
champion@granitecity.com or write:
"Men of Granite"
P.O. Box 1493
Granite City, IL 62040
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