Legendary Prospect basketball coach set the bar high
Dick Kinneman, the first boys basketball coach at Prospect High School, set the bar high and created a legacy that is remembered some 50 years later. The North Barrington resident died Thursday. He was 91.
"Coach was the first and the greatest," said John Camardella, current boys' basketball coach at Prospect. "We've been able to host a couple of reunions for his teams from the '60s and the way his former players speak about him demonstrates the profound impact his life had on the lives of others."
Kinneman came to Prospect in 1959, and within one year of starting the team, the Knights soared to the No. 2 ranking in the AP state poll. In fact, over the course of his first two seasons, the team won 47 of 51 games.
His teams remained competitive over the next several years and nearly won the state championship in 1966, behind all-area standout Tom Lundstedt, who would go on to play baseball at the University of Michigan, before playing for the Chicago Cubs and Minnesota Twins.
Both Lundstedt and Dave Kingman, another slugger with the Cubs, played on the 1966 basketball team, which seemingly came out of nowhere to win the prestigious Pontiac Holiday Tournament. They ultimately had one of the most memorable seasons in school history with a 21-5 record, winning the Mid-Suburban League and regional championships.
That 1965-66 team returned to Prospect last year for a 50th reunion celebration, and had a pregame introduction to the crowd at the game between Prospect and Wheeling high schools.
"The star of that team was Dick Kinneman," Lundstedt said in a Daily Herald interview. "He taught us how to play hard and play fair. We used to call it 'Kinneman style.'"
Now retired and living in Door County, Wisconsin, Lundstedt still credits Kinneman with helping to shape his life.
"There are very few people in my life who meant more to me than Dick Kinneman," Lundstedt said.
Mike Korcek, who graduated from Prospect in 1966 and is the former sports information director for Northern Illinois University, vividly remembers the excitement Kinneman built up around the basketball program, which permeated the entire school.
"Dick Kinneman was a Prospect icon in the 1960s, still is," Korcek said. "He was a man of integrity and might have been one of the most, if not the most, respected person on the faculty."
Kinneman left Prospect in 1968 to become the athletic director at Hersey High School before finishing out his career in the Northwest Suburban High School District 214 administrative offices.
Yet, his legacy continues.
Camardella says he still thinks of Kinneman, even as he guided Prospect to one of its best finishes in recent years, by winning the regional finals last season.
"I was a young coach the first time I met Coach Kinneman," Camardella says. "He encouraged me to set an example for our players to exude confidence in all moments, not just the big ones. I'll never forget that conversation."
Visitation for Kinneman will take place from 10-11:30 a.m., before an 11:30 memorial service, both on Aug. 26 at Lauterburg & Oehler Funeral Home, 2000 E. Northwest Hwy. in Arlington Heights.