The 1961-62 WCHS basketball team became the first since 1911 to make it to the IHSA state tournament.  The town was completely swept up in Panther-mania, and looking back at the old clippings and photos, one is reminded of the movie Hoosiers and the days of one-class basketball.

The expectations for the team were high, as the previous year, Washington had made it to the Sweet Sixteen before losing to Mason City.  Returning players Virgil McElfresh, Clark Pool, and Jim Gresham brought loads of talent, experience, and motivation to get to Champaign.

The '61-'62 team blitzed through their first 7 games, where the closest game was a 16-point win against Pontiac.

As the calendar turned from 1961 to 1962, the Panthers got their first reality check. In Pekin on January 6, the Panthers were surprised by a full-court press from Pekin coach Dawdy Hawkins, which kept them from getting on track throughout the game.  Pekin led the entire game and pulled away late, leading to a lopsided 69-47 defeat.

After a second loss to Peoria Spalding on January 23,  the team closed the regular season with ten straight victories to finish the regular season with a 20-2 record.

When the experts analyze the Washington 1962 state tournament run, the one thing they cannot say is that the Panthers had an easy path.  For their first-round regional game at East Peoria, Washington took on Tremont, a team that was 27-1 on the season.  Washington led by 13 points at one point, and Tremont came all the way back and actually led for parts of the fourth quarter.  Virg McElfresh made two key free throws with 9 seconds left, and the Panthers won 68-67.

In the regional championship came a rematch with Pekin, who crushed them by 22 points earlier in the season.  The Panthers had an answer for the press this time and even surprised Pekin by throwing one back at them in the second half, leading to a 72-56 regional championship victory.

In the first game of the sectional at Robertson Memorial Fieldhouse, the Panthers faced Peoria Woodruff, who also liked to press, but a hot Washington shot 53% for the game and 20-23 from the free throw line to come away with a 58-47 win, setting up the sectional championship against Lincoln.

Lincoln was no match for Washington that night.  Washington shot 54% from the field in this game, forcing Lincoln out of their zone designed to stop McElfresh and Pool, and the sectional championship belonged to WCHS by a score of 75-57.

Next up was the super-sectional, where the Panthers' dreams were shattered the previous year.  Their foe was Pontiac who they had already beaten twice in the last three months by 16 and 19 points.

After the first quarter, the Panthers were hit with the reality that Pontiac wasn't here to get the same results.  The Panthers were down 17-12 at that point.  Washington battled back in the second quarter to take a slim halftime lead.  The entire second half consisted of back-and-forth heroics from both teams. One article described the game as:  "a super-sectional that has never been equaled in Central Illinois from the standpoint of last-minute thrills."  With the score 58-57 in favor of Washington, Pontiac's Jerry Rapp had a 5-foot shot with two seconds left to give them the victory, but it caromed off the rim, and the Panther faithful went into a frenzy.  The Panthers were going to Champaign.

After a whirlwind week of preparation, planning, and send-offs, the Panthers were set to take on Quincy in the first round of the Elite 8.  A lucky 400 Washington faithful witnessed the game in person in the tiny, aging Huff Gym on the University of Illinois campus.  In 1963, the tournament moved to the brand new Assembly Hall.  Against Quincy, Washington had probably their worst shooting game of the year, shooting only 25% for the entire game.  Despite that, the Panthers led most of the game until about midway through the fourth quarter when Quincy surprised them with a press, and the momentum shifted quickly.  The Blue Devils rattled off eleven straight points and went from five down to six ahead with just over two minutes to play.  Washington could not recover and lost the game 45-37.

Returning from Champaign, dozens of cars met the team in Eureka for a processional to the square to celebrate their accomplishments.  Crowds estimated from 1,000-2,000 people stood and cheered the team as they stood on a flatbed truck in the closed-for-traffic square.

• Virgil McElfresh would be named to the 1962 All-State Team.

• Clark Pool would be named to the 1963 All-State Team.

• McElfresh (Austin Peay), Pool (Wake Forest), and Jim Gresham (Illinois Wesleyan) would all play college basketball.

• The Panthers would only play one more season in the west gym after the 1961-62 season, moving to what we now refer to as the Torry Gym for the 1963-64 season.

• Dick Van Scyoc would coach the Panthers for four more years and then move on to Peoria Manual in the Spring of 1966, closing out his Hall of Fame career in 1994 with his first and only state championship.