John Swaney High School offered basketball for sure. This is evidenced by the four District titles won by the Pirate boys' basketball teams. The Pirates also saw one of its boys bring home two medals from the Illinois State Track Meet under the old one class system. Baseball was offered throughout the existence of SHS. Short runs in wrestling and football are touched upon later.Tennis courts were built on the school grounds; however, tennis was never offered as a competitive sport. The successes of the school in athletics are listed below.

 

 

The Swaney High School Pirates took home a total of four District titles. Two of the titles were won as Swaney High School and two were won as Magnolia-Swaney High School. 

 

As (McNabb) Swaney High School:

 

1919-20                  LaSalle District Tournament           Coach's name & record needed

                               1st Rd Beat DePue 35-21

                               Semi-Final lost to Streator 30-16

                               Streator Beat LaSalle in title game

   

1920-21                  LaSalle District Tournament           Coach's name & record needed

 

1927-28                  IHSA District Champions             Coach's name & record needed

                               District Scores Needed.

                               Peoria Sectional Tournament

                               1st Rd lost to Manito 23-11

    

1929-30                  IHSA District Champions             Coach's name & record needed

     

1930-31                  Tri-County Tourney Runner-Ups    Coach's name & record needed

                               District Scores Needed.

               

1931-32 Postseason scores, record, and coach's name needed.

   

1932-33                  Wenona District Tournament          Coach's name & record needed

 

1948-49 Postseason scores, record, and coach's name needed. 

  

1949-50                  Varna District Tournament              Coach's name & record needed

1952-53                  Hennepin District Champions      Coach's name & record needed

                               Semi-Final Beat Long Point 71-57

                               Semi-Final lost to Henry 71-55

       

1953-54                  Hennepin District Champions      Coach's name & record needed

                       

One of the best players to grace the hardwood of McNabb-Magnolia-Swaney High School was Jim Kinney. He had a couple of huge perforamances in the 1956-57 Basketball season. In a December 14, 1956 game against Neponset, he scored 56 points to lead his team to victory. A few games later, he broke his own record by putting up 61 points in a January 15 game against Hennepin. He was 23-for-45 from the field in that game.

 

 

One athlete excelled in track on a State Meet level at Swaney High School. Thomas Quinney brought back two medals in two different years for the Pirates. The skipped year is not a misprint. We are not sure as to why Thomas Quinney did not place in the 1932-33 meet.

 

 

Wrestling 

 

Wrestling was also offered at Swaney High School. In fact, the boys there excelled at the sport. It was before the 1933 school year started when a teacher named Paul Benbow was hired to teach Chemistry and Agriculture. Mr. Benbow was also a former wrestler at the University of Illinois. He received permission to start a wrestling program for the boys of Swaney HS. What a great Coach he would prove to be, leading the boys to incredible heights from 1933 to 1936.

 

The Swaney boys teams had to travel far in some cases just to find another team to compete with as there were very few wrestling programs in the area at the time. A State Wrestling Tournament (wrestling was not officially recognized by the IHSA until the 1936-37 school year) was held by the schools who had programs.  The Swaney boys were winners of the tournament in 1934!  Imagine, State Champions for such a small school who competed against much bigger schools such as Champaign!  One of the rewards for winning the tournament was that Swaney High School was able to host the State-wide tournament the very next year.

 

Two of the boys from Swaney were recognized as Individual Champions for the school. Thomas Quinney and Gwynne Peterson both earned multiple individual championships for their respective weight classes.   

 

Mr. Benbow left the school after the spring of 1936 and the wrestling program came to end. 

 

 

Though very brief, the football "program" at Swaney High was not without a great story. The school started a team in 1922. The Henry News Republican reported that the football team played its first game on October 7th, 1922. They were matched against a much larger school in Chillicothe. A much larger school meant much larger players and the result was none too pretty. The Swaney boys worked to the bitter end but came up on the short end of a 101-0 score. Their second game against Wenona resulted in a lopsided defeat, too. It also ended in many injuries for the boys on the team and football was discontinued then and there.  The football program ended with a record of 0-2 and was never restarted.     

 

 

We have received a great amount of information from local historian Lonna Nauman and will post more later. If you have any other information you would like to share regarding Swaney High School please complete a or a Guest Commentary Form. We always are looking for photos of the school building and great teams and coaches of note. You can also reach us via e-mail at ihsgdwebsite@comcast.net or write us at:

 

6439 N. Neva St. 

Chicago, Il.    60631