LaMarr Justice will never forget.
It was a time in the late 1980s and early 1990s, coming shortly before the AAU and travel basketball scene developed into the huge thing it is today.
Aurora-area playgrounds, however, served Justice and two of his very good friends — Corey Williams and Billy Taylor — quite well.
So well, in fact, all three were named Monday to the 2021 class for the Illinois Basketball Coaches Association Hall of Fame. Due to the coronavirus pandemic, details for the induction banquet have yet to be released.
“We traveled with the guys we rolled with, and we played in Batavia, Aurora and other towns,” said Justice, a 1991 Batavia graduate who played on scholarship at Notre Dame. “No parents. No refs. Your five against our five.
“You had to win to stay on the court. If you lost, you had to wait your turn to get back on.”
Justice and Williams, who was a year younger and played for Lute Olson at Arizona, were teammates on the 1990-91 Batavia team that finished 27-2 and advanced to state.
Batavia, with an enrollment of 866, was the smallest school that season to make the Sweet 16 of the Class AA state tournament.
Retired coach Jim Roberts’ best team is known for upsetting powerhouse West Aurora, which was led by Taylor. Those Blackhawks ended up 28-2 and were trying to make it to state for a second straight season.
Justice and Taylor, teammates in South Bend who played for coach John MacLeod for four years, were co-captains for Notre Dame as seniors.
“It’s pretty cool that we’re essentially all going in together,” Justice said. “We played together all those summers, and those are two of my closest friends.”
The class includes several other area inductees:
Dan Batka, whose 30-year career includes a successful 10-year stint as head coach at Lake Park, where he went 162-122, and the past 11 years as an assistant to both Gordie Kerkman and Brian Johnson at West Aurora.
John Moran, who graduated as Jacobs’ career leader with 1,918 points, 443 assists and 344 steals before setting the program record at Northern Iowa, starting and playing 135 games. He graduated with 1,048 points.
Elgin radio broadcaster Jeff Myers for media.
Back-to-back Class 1A state championship girls basketball teams from Hinckley-Big Rock, both coached by Greg Burks.
St. Edward’s John Gazdik, voted in as a friend of basketball.
Williams, meanwhile, played professionally overseas for 12 years. Looking back, he fondly remembered those playground games.
“I knew Billy really well from those pickup games,” Williams said. “Pretty sure I met him in seventh grade at McCullough Park in Aurora. We knew all those guys from East Aurora and West Aurora. We’d get together for 3-4 hours every Saturday.”
Taylor, who went into the coaching profession, is currently an assistant under Fran McCaffery at No. 3 Iowa. McCaffery was an assistant when Justice and Taylor played at Notre Dame.
“I grew up playing against them and others,” Taylor said of Justice and Williams. “They’re great people and it will be great to get together and reminisce with them.”
Taylor also remembered McCullough Park.
“Coach Roberts would bring them to play us, and it was also a great opportunity to play older guys,” Taylor said. “That was an unbelievable basketball education.
“You can get a lot from AAU with mentoring and playing people from out of state, but we got to play (former collegians and pros) like Kenny Battle, Rodney Davis, Randy Norman and Thomas Wyatt from Aurora.”
Justice said Taylor’s father, Dennis, and his friends would also be in the mix.
“Going against guys who were bigger, stronger and faster taught us a lot,” Justice said. “When we got back to high school, playing guys our size and level, we had no fear whatsoever.”
Justice, who works for a German software company, has encouraged 13-year-old son Xavier and his friends to play on their own, too.
“Call your own fouls and traveling and learn to play the game that way,” Justice said. “All you need is a ball and pair of shoes. That’s where we started.”
And it took them far.
