Bringing Kintner back to Life
By Tim Cain- H&R Entertainment EditorWednesday, March 7, 2007 9:00 AM CST
The legendary Decatur basketball coach, after all, has been dead for almost a half-century.
The man told McCubbin he had Kintner's picture on his wall "because he was the most honorable and ethical man I ever knew, and I want to look at him every day and be reminded of him."
McCubbin, a Naperville resident, is learning more about her great-grandfather every day as she works on a book about his life. Kintner directed Decatur High School to 649 victories, 11 state tournament berths and three state titles before his 1960 death during a game.
"Everybody I meet is bringing him alive for me," said McCubbin, who admits she is only slowly learning where her great-grandfather fits into the history of Illinois high school basketball and the city of Decatur.
So she's spending time tracking down and talking to those who knew, worked with and played for Kintner, a man who had two gymnasiums in the city of Decatur named in his honor. He coached in one of them for 16 years.
The book's genesis is tied to Kintner being honored at next month's ceremonies in Peoria honoring the Illinois High School Association's "100 Legends of the IHSA Boys Basketball."
"My mom called," McCubbin said, "and said, 'Your great-grandfather is being honored in Peoria - do you want to go?' And I said 'Sure.'
"Then I started to read the invitation. It said he was 'being honored as a legend.'
"His story is one of those things you hear about as a kid, but you don't pay any attention to. Now, I think it's a great story."
Her mother, Gay Harris, said, "They still write about him."
Kintner's name appeared in the Herald & Review in 10 stories in 2006.
"I just thought they didn't have anything better to do in Decatur," McCubbin said with a laugh. "I wanted to learn more about him. So this is how he's coming to life for me."
McCubbin's mother sent a "suitcase full" of newspaper clippings earlier this winter, and "I have to be honest - it sat in our front foyer for three weeks. But I opened it, and from then on, I've thought of nothing else."
She's gradually learning her larger-than-life great-grandfather looms over the lives of many of those with whom he came in contact.
"There's still a lot more I need to do," said McCubbin, who has completed about a dozen interviews so far and corroborated the information via newspaper clips. "What I still need is how peoples' lives were changed. He did have that effect on so many people."
What is perhaps most surprising is that a book on Kintner has not been written. He's been included, of course, in tomes about Illinois high school basketball, including Taylor Bell's "Glory Days: Legends of Illinois High School Basketball," but he's never been the exclusive subject of a book.
"He was a pretty fascinating character," said Herald & Review community news editor Bob Fallstrom, who spent 40 years as the newspaper's sports editor and covered the conclusion of Kintner's career, including producing extensive copy in the aftermath of Kintner collapsing and dying during a February 1960 game at MacArthur High School.
"He is certainly an icon of high school basketball," Fallstrom said, "and his departure was so abrupt. That was the biggest funeral I've ever seen in Decatur."
While he's been interviewed by McCubbin, Fallstrom said he never considered writing a book himself.
"I don't write books," he said. "I can't write that long."
While she's relying on half-century-old memories, McCubbin said she's not concerned about the quality of the stories she's being told.
"I'm not," she said, "because what I'm finding is that Gay Kintner had such an influence on these peoples' lives that what they're telling me, it's like it happened yesterday. I've been reading that emotional attachment that comes with certain memories makes those memories stand out, because of the emotions. These were their glory days.
"I'm hearing some of the same details over and over, like how he was a poor driver, and a lot of things about how he dealt with black kids. Everybody says he was absolutely not prejudiced - he just wanted the best basketball players."
McCubbin has just one regret about the book,
"The only thing I wish is that I'd done it 15 years ago, when my grandfather was still alive," she said of her grandfather Galen, who died at age 76 in 1997.
While McCubbin has no firm dates for the book's conclusion, she does know when she wants it published.
"Yesterday," she said. "I want it to move quickly."
Tim Cain can be reached at timcain@herald-review.com or 421-6908.
