|
Members of the 1983 championship team are: (kneeling, from left)
Dawn Schabacker, Brenda Sanders, Assistant Coach Karl Schleich, Head Coach R. Wayne Morgan, Bonnie Hanson, Camie Loudenbeck, (standing) student manager Lynne Siesser, Kathy Phelps, Sharon Kennedy, Luvina Beckley, Tammy Binder,
Cheryl Juris, Lorie Lowry, Kim Wallner and Margie White. |
In 1983, a four-year-old sports cable station was trying to win over viewers, and that company, ESPN, chose college sports as its first main source of programming. North Central College was part of that history as the Cardinals defeated Elizabethtown College in Worcester, Mass., on ESPN, to win the 1983 NCAA Division III women's basketball crown.
The Cardinals (26-6) won the Chicago-Metro Conference Tournament to earn an automatic bid to post season and then hosted both the Central Regional and the West Quarterfinal at Gregory Arena.
In the Central Regional Tournament, the Cardinals defeated Buena Vista College behind 28 points from senior Bonnie Hansen. Then they took 32 points from Camie Loudenbeck and 21 points from 6-0 senior Brenda Sanders to edge Central College in the Regional Championships. Junior guard Kim Wallner scored 26 points and grabbed 10 rebounds as North Central set an NCAA Division III Tournament record with a 100-82 romp over the University of Minnesota-Morris. Sanders and Loudenbeck each scored 23 in an 84-74 win over Knoxville (Tenn.) College in the national semifinal.
The championship game matched the Cardinals against Elizabethtown, the defending champions. North Central led 39-32 at the half and then outscored Elizabethtown 15-0 to start the second half. Hansen and Sanders led North Central with 25 and 24 points, respectively. Sanders and Wallner were named to the all-tournament team, and ESPN named Sanders the game's MVP.
The Cardinals were a unique team. When Hansen scored 28 points against Wheaton College in a 91-86 win on Jan. 25, North Central became the only college basketball team in the nation to boast four 1,000-point career scorers in the starting line-up. Wallner and Sanders rank 1-2 in the all-time career scoring at North Central with 2,421 and 1,986 points, respectively. Loudenbeck is third on the list with 1,541points. Hansen, who set the single-season scoring record of 732 points, ranks fifth with 1,414 career points.
North Central's fifth starter was freshman Luvina Beckley, who finished her career with a .438 field-goal percentage and a 12.1 per game career scoring average. Junior Margie White and senior Dawn Schabacker were the first two members off the bench.
Dr. Wayne Morgan, who won 75 percent of his games as a basketball coach, also guided the Cardinals softball team to fourth in the NCAA Division III Softball National Championships in 1983. The basketball team returned to the Final Four the next year, defeating William Penn College, 65-57, Gettysburg College, 84-74, and Pittsburgh-Johnstown, 105-101, before losing to Rust College, 79-78, in the semifinal.
1982-1983 Women's Basketball Results
| Opponent |
W/L |
Score |
| Carroll College (Wis.) |
W |
62-59 |
| UW-Parkside |
W |
91-76 |
| Elmhurst College |
W |
86-75 |
| Quincy College |
W |
83-59 |
| Indiana Institute of Tech. |
W |
87-63 |
| College of Saint Francis (Ill.) |
L |
69-75 |
| Millikin University |
W |
103-76 |
| College of Saint Francis (Ill.) |
W |
83-71 |
| National College of Education (Ill.) |
W |
74-52 |
| UW-Parkside |
L |
66-69 |
| UW-Green Bay |
L |
77-83 |
| Illinois Wesleyan University |
W |
93-55 |
| Wheaton College (Ill.) |
W |
91-86 |
| Lewis University |
W |
80-78 |
| Indiana Central University |
W |
88-74 |
| North Park College |
W |
77-63 |
| Elmhurst College |
W |
71-52 |
| Wheaton College (Ill.) |
W |
91-62 |
| Illinois Benedictine College |
W |
78-57 |
| Augustana College (Ill.) |
L |
79-82 |
| Lewis University |
L |
75-78 |
| Valparaiso University |
W |
87-78 |
| Carthage College |
W |
72-64 |
| Northern Michigan University |
L |
71-73 |
| Carthage College^ |
W |
86-59 |
| Wheaton College (Ill.)^ |
W |
77-51 |
| Carroll College (Wis.)^ |
W |
79-73 |
| Buena Vista College* |
W |
78-65 |
| Central College (Iowa)* |
W |
82-79 |
| University of Minnesota-Morris* |
W |
100-82 |
| Knoxville College* |
W |
84-74 |
| Elizabethtown College* |
W |
83-71 |
Home games in bold
^ = CMC Tournament
* = NCAA Division III Tournament
