Bennie Wilhelm

Bennie Wilhelm was a starter, as a junior, on the 1939-40 basketball team that was the first to represent Taylorville Township High School in the Illinois High School Association State Finals in Champaign.  He followed that season with a record setting senior year  that lead the Purple and Gold to a 26-4 season, but one game short of having the opportunity to repeat as state finalists.

During that senior season, the 6’2” Wilhelm set the Taylorville individual single game scoring record with a 30 point outburst, not once, but twice.  He established the record in the consolation finals of the Pontiac Tournament, January 3, 1941, scoring 30 of the team’s 59 points as Taylorville defeated Normal 59-24. He equaled the mark on February 22 by scoring 30 points against Vandalia in a 52-37 win.  It must be noted that this scoring was done on a team that averaged 37 points a game during the entire season.

Wilhelm was not just a single sports star, as during his senior year he also played end on the 8-0-2 football team, one of only four Taylorville teams to ever go undefeated.

After graduating from Taylorville Township High School in 1941, Wilhelm entered the United Sates Army during World War II.  Following the war, he enrolled in Arkansas State University where he lettered in four sports.  He started two seasons as a two way lineman on the football team, pitched on the baseball team, threw the javelin on the track team and stared two seasons on the basketball team.  In 1948, Wilhelm ranked sixth nationally in scoring in the National Association of Interscholastic Athletics (NAIA), with an average of 17 points a game.

After graduating from Arkansas State with a Master’s Degree, Wilhelm was offered a tryout with the Baltimore Bullets of the National Basketball Association. He turned down the offer to begin a coaching career at Steel, Missouri.  He continued a career in coaching with stops in Missouri, Illinois and California.

In 1993, Wilhelm was inducted into the Arkansas State University Hall of Honors.  He lived in Riverside California since 1984 and enjoyed playing golf and served on the Board of the Southern California Golf Association.