Ron Zagar

DEPUE

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Accomplishments

• A 1957 DePue alumnus,

Zagar scored 1,014 points his senior season and averaged 37.6 points and 15 rebounds per game • Scored 2,514 career points, which remains the most career points ever scored by an area boys or girls basketball player • Played college basketball at

Iowa from 1957-61 • Played in the American

Basketball League in 1961 and averaged 11.7 points, 2.5 rebounds and 2.6 assists per game in his 79-game career

By Bobby Narang

At the time, Ron Zagar wasn’t very happy about his position change in basketball.

But now, the 1957 DePue High School chuckled at the thought of how a 5-foot-10 center became one of the most decorated athletes in Illinois Valley sports history.

Zagar, 82, is one of the inductees into the Class of 2020-21 NewsTribune’s Illinois Valley Sports Hall of Fame. He played two sports in his illustrious high school career, starring in basketball and baseball — the only two sports offered at the time.

Zagar, a Spring Valley resident, is also a member of the Illinois Basketball Coaches Association Hall of Fame and was inducted into the Bureau County Hall of Fame.

“Sports has been everything in my life,” Zagar said. “The is my third hall of fame now. All three have been wonderful feeling. I feel honored to be included with some of these great athletes, but a lot of people contributed to me being inducted. It’s funny to me because I was a 5-10 center. I jumped the ball at the start of the game. WHERE are they“It’s been 64 years since I graduated from high school, so not too many people can remember me. I think I’ve got two teammates left in the area. This is NOW a last hurrah, so I feel honored. Each one was a great honor, but this one being Illinois Valley ranks up with rest of them. I’m honored and surprised, and humbled in a way, too.”

Zagar said sports opened up many doors for a kid from a small school with a current enrollment of 109 students. Zagar said, “I loved basketball and our community, still to this day.” He scored 1,014 points in his senior season, averaging a robust

37.6 points and 15 rebounds for DePue. He finished with 2,514 points, which is the most in school and area history. Zagar played three years at Iowa, and had a oneyear stint in the American Basketball League, where he averaged 11.7 points, 2.5 rebounds and 2.6 assists in his 79-game professional career.

But Zagar prefers not to dwell on his personal accomplishments or wide number of honors. He praised his teammates for helping him become a well-rounded player. Zagar admitted one of his biggest athletic achievements was earning one of the allstate honors in his senior year at DePue.

“I can’t stress the fact that my teammates were so great and my family and the community were so wonderful,” he said. “I never dreamed I would experience all of this from basketball.”

His prodigious athletic talents allowed him to seek bigger pastures, away from his small-town roots. Zagar’s basketball career included playing against Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Famers Connie Hawkins and Oscar Robertson. Zagar said one of his biggest thrills in his athletic career was competing against Robertson in college. In a Sports Illustrated article from Jan. 4, 1990 on the Holiday Festival at Madison Square Garden, Zagar was called a “pintsized guard” by the writer. Robertson scored 50 points in Cincinnati’s win over Iowa, while Zagar scored a career-high 21 points.

“I never dreamed that I would play one day at Chicago Stadium and Madison Square Garden,” Zagar said. “Oscar Robertson was the greatest player I’ve ever seen, still to this day.”

Zagar said he always dreamed of playing basketball at a high level. His passion for the game started when he was a young child, playing in a 20-foot hallway in his house with a make-shift basket on each end. Zagar, who was drafted by the Milwaukee Braves baseball organization, nearly played football at Iowa. But he elected to stick with basketball, despite the urging of then-Iowa football coach and eventual Minnesota Vikings coach Jerry Burns.

“I just always took a liking to basketball, and DePue had a history of being a fine basketball community and I followed it and just stuck with it,” he said. “Little did I know it would take me this far.”

Zagar said his two sons, sister, nephew and brotherin-law are his remaining family members.

“I just always took a liking to basketball, and DePue had a history of being a fine basketball community and I followed it and just stuck with it. Little did I know it would take me this far.”

Ron Zagar

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