Dean Riley OTTAWA / IVCC Accomplishments • Legendary basketball coach at Ottawa, compiled a 332-146 career record with 17 winning seasons • Won eight regionals, two sectionals & led the 1977-78 team to the Elite 8 in Class AA • At IVCC, program went 234-118 in 12 seasons • His 1987-88 team finished third in the nation and 198889 team went 30-2 and was ranked No. 1 in the nation for most of the season • Member of the Ottawa High School HOF, ICA Hall of HOF, National Junior College HOF and annual Ottawa Thanksgiving tournament named in his honor
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By Andy Tavegia
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f you go to Ottawa Township High School’s season-opening boys basketball Thanksgiving tournament or even just a practice anytime throughout the season, it’s no coincidence you may walk away thinking of Dean Riley. Even in the years since his passing, his fingerprints, his terminology and his name are all over a program that — very much like Riley’s Pirates teams of the 1960s and 1970s — have been as successful as any program around. That’s by design and a major tribute from current OTHS coach Mark Cooper. He’s known Riley since Cooper was a little boy attending his basketball camp and was a major part to two wonderful Riley-coached teams at Illinois Valley Community College. “He obviously had a great impact on my life, and anything I can do to carry on his name … I owe that to him,” Cooper said. “The things he stood for while he was at Ottawa and the coach at IVCC and the coach of me, I want to carry on those traditions and what our program tries to represent is what he was all about.” But it’s more than just a bunch of winning seasons, words, and a Thanksgiving tournament that carries the Riley name and was established not long after Cooper took the reins at Ottawa. It’s a matter of respect and the ethics of a man that played a major role in basketball across the Illinois Valley. “A lot of my sayings and phrases and how I carry myself is a compliment
WHERE are they NOW
8 September 29, 2021 | Illinois Valley Sports Hall of Fame | A NewsTribune Publication
