CHAMPAIGN – Kenny Battle deserved to be in the Illini Hall of Fame.
The energy behind the Flyin’ Illini who scored over 1,000 points in his two-year career after transferring from Northern Illinois, Battle finally joined teammates Nick Anderson and Kendall Gill after earning the nod when the school announced its seventh class Monday.
“It took them long enough,’’ Battle said this week. “The seventh time was the charm, I guess.’’
No doubt.
The sparkplug on arguably the most famous team in the school’s history, it seemed a no-brainer to get Battle into The Hall. He joined a class that included football stars Rashard Mendenhall and Al Brosky, pitcher Ken Holtzman, track and field All-America Aja Evans and former volleyball coach Mike Hebert.
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Battle has always been a confident guy, even since he showed up on campus. He served a redshirt year in 1986-87, when he was the ultimate practice player going against Ken Norman, then became Flight 33 on that Flyin’ Illini team.
If you haven’t already done it, do yourself a favor. Hit YouTube and grab a brew.
Former Illini assistant Mark Coomes did some of the early behind-the-scenes work in landing Battle. A former NIU assistant under coach John McDougal, Coomes made early calls to gauge interest in Battle coming to the Illini.
“Here’s the thing,’’ Coomes said. “I was in college coaching for 35 years. If I was going to pick one guy to start a basketball team, I would pick Kenny Battle. His energy was unbelievable. His quickness and jumping ability were incredible.
“He just elevated everyone around him. He wasn’t really a skilled shooter or ballhandler. It was his explosiveness and his attitude.’’
Former guard Doug Altenberger knew what Coomes was talking about. He got the first impression when Battle showed up in the fall of 86 but figured this show wouldn’t last. It took a month or so to realize this was no act.
“The first week, I remember him coming to practice,’’ Altenberger said on video production about 100 years of Illini basketball. “This won’t last. He’s hyped up, all crazy and running all over the court. Two weeks go by, this won’t last much longer. A month goes by and a month and a half, I finally figured it out. This guy is like this every day.’’
During that first season, Battle was hidden behind closed doors. Well, actually, he wasn’t really hidden. His practice battles with Illini star Ken Norman were legendary around Champaign-Urbana, where fans knew coach Lou Henson had an open door policy. They could find an unlocked door to Assembly Hall or Huff Gym and watch practice, and sometimes practice was better than the games.
“Every day in practice, it was tough,’’ Battle said. “He talked shit. I talked shit. It got so fierce because we were playing a game. (Norman) got so ticked off one day that coach Henson kicked him out of practice. But everything was respectful.’’
Battle just didn’t like to lose.
“I brought that mentality,’’ he said. “I didn’t give an F about who I was playing, who was on the other team, how popular they were. It didn’t matter. My goal was to play hard, play smart, fire up my teammates.
“Every day, I was going to talk shit, bust their ass, piss them off, and they wanted to fight. I didn’t care. I was going to get the best out of each and every one of my teammates. That’s why coach Henson fell in love with me. He’d say, ‘My job is easy now that I have Kenny Battle.’’’
If that sounds like some self-promotion, Norman will back it up.
“The guy was the greatest competitor, bar none, at any level that I’ve ever seen in my life,’’ Norman said on that Illini video production.
There was once a Kenny Battle Most Inspirational Award given out each season.
And as Battle remembered it, he teamed with Norman during a summer league at Illinois Institute of Technology one summer and kicked Michael Jordan’s butt. Unfortunately, there’s no film to back it up.
Battle has only one regret. He didn’t get to play on that 86-87 team because of NCAA transfer rules made him sit it out.
“People don’t know how bad it hurt me that I couldn’t play with Snake,’’ he said. “We would have done great things if I could have been on that team with the guys we had that year.’’
It must have hurt NIU that they lost this kind of talent. According to Battle and Coomes, it was their own fault.
Battle was part of a five-sophomore starting lineup that finished around .500, but the NIU president and McDougal went sideways and McDougal was fired. McDougal and Battle both had history at West Aurora, so Battle was probably gone. Then the writing was on the wall when Jim Rosborough, McDougal’s replacement, said the ball would be shared equally the following season.
“He made a statement,’’ Coomes said. “This is not Kenny Battle University. We’re going to have a complete team here. From that point, I think Kenny decided Northern Illinois wasn’t the place for him.’’
Battle, who visited his former coach McDougal the day prior to his death in 2016, didn’t have anything nice to say about Rosborough.
“I can’t say the words to describe such an evil individual,’’ Battle said.
Illinois and Cincinnati were hot after Battle, but with Henson, Jimmy Collins, Dick Nagy and Coomes working it, this was a no-brainer.
Even if Battle had to wait for the seventh class to reach the Illini Hall of Fame, it was worth the wait for us. This guy still brings it. He’s a Hall of Fame quote machine with a Hall of Fame game to back it up.
