John Battle still is known in Chicago.
”When I walk down the street,” he says, ”people still ask me, `Hey, aren`t you the guy that scored all those points?` ”
And that`s who John Battle is: the guy who set the Illinois record for most points in one prep basketball game, 91, and the national mark for most points in two consecutive games, 176.
John Battle is known in Goodwell, Okla., too. He has a reputation as a radio announcer, an actor and a director. And this year, in his spare time, he was a leading scorer on the Panhandle State basketball team.
Battle`s odyssey has encompassed nearly six years, three colleges and a lot of broken promises. He hopes that it still may include a trip overseas for some more basketball. And he has found that, as with many long journeys, you never know where you`ve been until you`ve moved someplace else.
Never was John Battle`s name more heralded than on a cold, Wednesday night, Jan. 31, 1979. The Cathedral High School center scored those 91 points in a 135-28 victory over Roycemore–just three days after getting 85 in a 149-25 victory over St. Mary of Perpetual Help.
He broke the state mark of 90 points set by Carver`s Darius Cunningham against Morgan Park in 1959. But he also broke a bone in his foot, ending his high school career.
He also changed his life. It gave him a value to recruiters he might never have achieved had he scored only 40 or 50 points.
Battle began his high school career as a swimmer for Kenwood High School, but he was recruited by Cathedral to play basketball and gave up the pool. Battle started for Cathedral as a junior and the next year teamed up with his coach, Tom Shields, to rewrite the record books.
Shields, who last month coached Providence-St. Mel to the Illinois Class A title, was just beginning his career at Cathedral, a small North Side parish school. It was Shields who notified the newspapers when Battle scored his 85 points and followed up with a question: What was the state record for points? Cathedral, Roycemore, St. Mary. Fine schools all, but not a basketball power among them. ”We weren`t going to get recognition for winning games,”
Battle recalls. ”So we decided to go for the publicity.”
Roycemore`s players were little more than props for that publicity. Roycemore was 0-7 going into the game at the National College of Education`s gym in Evanston and had practiced only twice all season.
Battle had 56 points at halftime, when Cathedral led 82-16 thanks to an all-court press. Then, early in the third quarter, a Roycemore player stumbled into Battle. John was injured. It was thought to be a bruise, and Battle played on.
He broke the state scoring mark on a layup with 48 seconds to play. He had made 45 of 60 shots from the field. It wasn`t learned until well after the game that he had broken a bone in the back of his left foot.
Shields took off the press in the second half. ”We could have scored 200 points if we wanted to, but we weren`t going to do that,” Shields said. He did say he was going after a record for Battle.
With Battle sidelined, Cathedral lost its first game in the regional tournament. Weeks later, Shields was named head basketball coach at Providence-St. Mel, and Battle was deciding on his next school, too. Thanks to the publicity, he had some choices.
”I think the coach did a good thing drawing attention to the kid and himself,” Chicago State coach Bob Hallberg said at the time. ”The kid will definitely get a college scholarship out of those two ballgames.”
”I never heard of him until two weeks ago,” said Jerry Lyne, then the basketball coach at Loyola. That might be because he was part of the glorious 1979 Chicago high school graduating class that produced such players as Terry Cummings, Isiah Thomas and Darryl Walker.
”During the summer, I used to play against Cummings all the time,”
Battle says. ”I never doubted my ability to play basketball.”
But though publicity got him a scholarship, it was up to him to keep it.
”I was recruited by Illinois-Chicago and was told by the coach (Tom Meyer)
that he expected me to be the team`s top scorer and rebounder,” Battle recalls now.
UIC wasn`t Cathedral, though. When, in practice, Battle was told about all his shortcomings, ”it totally messed me up. Meyer told me I wasn`t a player and that I had played against weak competition in high school. I didn`t think I could handle college basketball after that.”
”John was always a likable young man,” Meyer says. ”I felt he`d be a great scorer and rebounder for us, but you must understand he never played against the Public League-Catholic League kind of competition.
”He had all the tools, but he needed experience against hard-nosed competition.”
Meyer said he pushed Battle during practice, trying to improve his concentration. ”John wanted a lot of playing time,” the coach recalls. ”I couldn`t guarantee it, and as luck would have it, I was able to recommend him to my friend Phil Carter, the coach at Baptist College in South Carolina.”
Battle spent two years, the 1979-80 and `80-81 seasons, at Illinois-Chicago. After transferring to Baptist, another Division I school, the points began to come: He averaged 8.5 and led Baptist (13-14) in rebounding with a 6.9 average in the 1981-82 season.
”He was a super kid,” recalls Baptist College sports information director Howie Bagwell. ”But to tell you the truth, I never knew he scored so many points in one game. He never said anything about it.”
After three semesters at Baptist, Battle decided to transfer again. ”My coach (Carter) resigned, and I didn`t know what to do,” he says. ”I got in touch with this service which could place me in the kind of college I wanted.”
What Battle wanted was a chance to get a degree, plus a coach who had contacts with foreign teams. He wanted to play overseas after college and says one of the reasons he left Baptist College was because he believed his new coach didn`t have the right connections. So it was off to Panhandle State, an NAIA school.
He had to sit out the 1983-84 season as well as the first semester of his senior year, recalls Panhandle State`s sports information director, Lynn Meredith. But in his final 18 games in college, Battle, now 6-9, averaged 14.2 points and 9 rebounds.
”We were 13-22 on the season but 9-9 when John played,” said Meredith.
”He was our top scorer in three games, our top rebounder in 14. We thought he would be the key to our season when he could play.”
”John`s experience in college was an eye-opener to me,” said Shields, recently named coach at Clarke College in Dubuque, Ia. ”I always thought he had the ability to play college basketball someplace. I said he was a Division I player, and I think a lot of people thought I was kidding.”
Now, Battle is looking overseas. At Panhandle, he`s had ”a few offers”
from Australian, Argentine, French and Spanish teams. In May, he`ll receive his degree in speech communication and just this week showcased his talents in the student play ”Love, Sex and the IRS.”
His outlook now? ”Sure, it`s nice to score 91 points and have the record,” Battle said. ”But I`ve still got a lot of things I want to do. I still haven`t fulfilled all my dreams.”
