Len Scaduto, Known For His Grit, Led '71 OLCHS Spartan Basketball Team To 2nd IHSA Finish

By Jack Danilewicz

HONOLULU – Len Scaduto, who led Oak Lawn Community High School to a second-place finish at the 1971 Illinois High School State Basketball Tournament, passed away on May 13. He was 93.

Scaduto was the head varsity coach at Oak Lawn for 29 years (1962-1991), where he won 411 games during his tenure. He produced 15 winning seasons in a 17-year period at one point during his run as Oak Lawn’s head carsity coach and won five regional titles (1967, 1971, 1972, 1974 and 1988) at the school. He opened the Len Scaduto Driving School in the early ‘70s.

Scaduto had been the freshman-sophomore basketball coach at Oak Lawn for five seasons before being hired as the Spartans’ head varsity coach in 1962. He had resigned his position as frosh-soph coach upon applying for the varsity job.

“The position was not opened to the outside, and John Lewis, the athletic director, recommended me for the job and the Board of Education hired me to the position,” Scaduto said in 2024.

Scaduto is best remembered locally for his 1970-71 Oak Lawn team, which finished 30-3 enroute to its second-place finish at the 1971 IHSA Basketball Tournament. Led by starters Brett Arnold, Jim Bocinsky, Bob Carr, C.J. Kupec and the late Tom Dubetz, the unranked Spartans fell to Thornridge, 52-50, in the ‘71 IHSA Title Game. The ‘71 State Championship Game also marked the final one-class State Basketball Tournament in Illinois and the only time in its 64-year history that two Chicago-area schools met for the final prize.

Len Scaduto on the bench in 1971 during the Spartans' 30-3 season

“We had the hardest road of anyone to get as far as we went,” said C.J. Kupec, who went on to star at Michigan before a pro career that included stops with the Los Angelas Lakers and the Houston Rockets before a long stint playing overseas. “We got used to playing the role of the underdog. We took it game by game. We listened to our own publicity. We just went out and played hard.”

Although unranked, Oak Lawn was soon on everyone’s radar in March 1971 after defeating defending state champ Lyons Township, 67-61, in a Regional Final in LaGrange. The Spartans went on to take down Proviso East (61-58), which had won the State Championship in ‘69, and St. Patrick (51-48) to capture the Hinsdale Central Sectional a week after the win over Lyons Township. The Spartans were soon labeled “The Giant Killers” by Chicago Tribune writer Bill Jauss after they downed Proviso East.

A win over New Trier East (66-54) in a Super-Sectional at Northwestern University’s McGaw Hall punched Oak Lawn’s ticket for a berth in the quarterfinals in Champaign-Urbana. Once downstate, inside the University of Illinois’ Assembly Hall, the Spartans continued their winning ways, taking down Benton (71-58) in the quarterfinals. The following day, on Saturday afternoon, Oak Lawn defeated Springfield-Lanphier, 69-65, in the semifinals. When Thornridge defeated Kewanee (63-58) in the afternoon’s second semifinal, the first all-Chicago final was set for that evening.

Oak Lawn’s heralded State Tournament appearance had come nearly four years after a deadly tornado had decimated the town on April 21, 1967. Thirty-three lives were lost. Oak Lawn High School had been in the twister’s path. The Spartan Gym and pool across the school’s lobby both needed extensive repairs afterward.

For his part, Scaduto always regarded Oak Lawn’s run in ‘71 as “a once-in-a-lifetime" experience.’’

“We had to pinch ourselves to believe we were playing for the State Championship,” he said in an interview in 2024. “We never saw ourselves getting that far. If we won our regional, we thought we had done our job, as that was as far as we thought our talent could take us.”

An intense Len Scaduto on the bench during the Oak Lawn Spartans storied 1971 season

Scaduto and Oak Lawn had begun the 1970-71 season with only one returning starter from a team that had gone 20-7 the year before. The Spartans had also to replace a stellar back court that had included Don Wesselhoff and Bruce Parks as well as forwards Mitch Nowicki and Ryan Shea. Bob Carr was among the key contributors from the 1970-71 team who had to wait his turn.

“One of the things I respected was that he always rewarded the seniors who stayed with the program,” said Carr. “I always respected that and the guys ahead of me. That was his philosophy. C.J. (Kupec) was really the only one who played before he was a senior. The rest of us went up through the ranks. It was part of the culture that Len had created.”

Thornridge, which was led by junior Quinn Buckner, would go on to win a state record 58 straight games, including a 33-0 season in 1971-72. No team came closer than 14 points of the Falcons that year. Thornridge’s record would stand until 1982, when Quincy won its 64th consecutive game under Jerry Leggett.

Scaduto faced seven coaches who would later go on to be inducted into the Illinois Basketball Coaches Association Hall of Fame during the Spartans’ tournament run in ‘71, including Gene Pingatore (St. Josephs), Ron Nikcevich (LaGrange), Glenn Whittenburg (Proviso East), Max Kurland (St. Patrick), John Schneiter (New Trier East), Arlyn Lober (Springfield-Lanphier) and Ron Ferguson (Thornridge). Scaduto’s own induction into the IBCA Hall of Fame would come in 1990. (C.J. Kupec and Jim Bocinsky were inducted into the IBCA Hall of Fame in 1978 and 2021, respectively).

Basketball’s popularity multiplied in Oak Lawn in the years before and in the immediate aftermath of the 1971 season.

“Back then, Oak Lawn basketball was just a dynasty — there was a huge tradition,” Don Wesselhoff said. “We were really into basketball when we went to Covington (Junior High). We had a good team and had been playing basketball together on the playground for three or four years. Len caught wind of us, and he came and spoke to us about playing at Oak Lawn. We’d never experienced that.”

Over 200 kids began enrolling in Scaduto’s Summer Basketball Camps, while the white t-shirts given to campers displaying the phrase “Future Spartan Basketball Player” became a staple among youth in the community. Scaduto also set up a Youth “Biddy” Basketball League in Oak Lawn to promote interest in the sport and his program. The games were played on Saturday mornings at Oak Lawn elementary schools, with members of Oak Lawn’s Varsity Basketball team serving as coaches for the teams taking part.

“Five different schools fed into Oak Lawn,” Scaduto said in 2024. “If you took the top three players from each school, you would have a heckuva program.”

During his own days as a student-athlete, football had been Scaduto’s best sport. Raised in Chicago’s Lakeview neighborhood, he attended DePaul Academy, where he competed in basketball, football and track. When a knee injury ended his football career at DePaul in his senior year, he recovered in time to take up boxing for the winter season of 1950. He would advance all the way to the Chicago City Championship, where he suffered his only defeat.

Scaduto became a lifelong Chicago Cubs fan in his grade school years. His home on Cornelia Avenue was only blocks from Wrigley Field. “When I was in the 6th, 7th, and 8th grade, and the Cubs were in town, a group of us would often race to the ballpark after school,” said Scaduto.

“We would usually see the last 2½ innings. If we arrived at the ballpark before the gates opened, we would find a way to sneak in. We would climb a high fence when the police were not around. Sometimes we would rush the usher at the gate with 6-10 kids, or one of us would have an old ticket stub in our hand from a previous game and go through the turnstile. When the usher realized what was happening, the kid would be through the turnstile and running. The usher would chase the kid.

“The rest of us would be hiding. When the usher would leave, we would run through the gate in the other direction. The person with the ticket stub would usually get caught and get thrown out of the park. Nevertheless, all the others got in and saw the rest of the game.”

Len Scaduto rallies Spartan C.J. Kupec, who went on to star at Michigan before a pro career.

Despite his season-ending injury on the gridiron at DePaul, Scaduto earned a football scholarship to Northern Illinois University (then known as Northern Illinois State Teachers College). He graduated from NIU in 1954 and would spend two years teaching and coaching at Marmion Military Academy in Aurora before arriving at Oak Lawn in the fall of 1956.

Scaduto retired from Oak Lawn in 1991 and moved to Honolulu, although he still spent summers at his Lake House in Syracuse, Indiana. He spent three years as an assistant coach at Division II powerhouse Chaminade University in Honolulu and 12 seasons as an administrative assistant at the University of Hawaii.

Scaduto’s three years as an assistant coach at Chaminade (1990-1994) were highlighted by upset wins over Providence and Stanford at the 1991 and 1992 Maui Invitational Tournaments, considered among the school’s greatest victories.

Lindblom Math and Science Academy product Charles McLemore was among the players Scaduto helped recruit to Chaminade, where he earned All American Honors in 1993.

During his time at the University of Hawaii, the Rainbow-Warriors made NCAA Tournament appearances in 2001 and 2002 under Head Coach Riley Wallace, an Illinois native, who was raised in downstate Jerseyville.

Scaduto was an assistant coach on Allan Silva’s staff at Farrington High School in Honolulu in 2008, when the Governors captured a Hawaii Division II State Championship. He also coached alongside Silva at St. Louis School (under head coach Artie Wilson) as well as the Hawaii Swish, a semipro team, until the Covid pandemic hit in 2020.

A celebration of the legendary coach's life is planned later in the Oak Lawn area.