For over 120 years, the people of Aurora, Illinois, have gathered together to watch East Aurora and West Aurora High Schools square off in what is now Illinois' longest-running football rivalry. Since first taking to the gridiron in 1893, the schools have laid claim to mythical state championships, represented Illinois in intra-sectional games and pioneered night football. Alumni from these storied rivals include college all-Americans, Hall of Fame coaches, decorated war heroes, an Olympic medalist, a charter member of the NFL, numerous successful high school coaches, outstanding businessmen and civic leaders, including former mayors of Santa Monica, California, and Des Moines, Iowa. Author Steve Solarz pored over the records of more than two thousand games to produce a work that is both an encyclopedic resource and a passionate account of a celebrated tradition.

In urban and rural high schools throughout Illinois, basketball is a Friday night ritual. Local games are often the biggest thing happening all week, and the Thanksgiving, Christmas, and state tournaments attract fanatical fans by the thousands. Far from the jaded professionals, the stories in Taylor Bell's Sweet Charlie, Dike, Cazzie, and Bobby Joe are of hungry young men playing their hearts out, where high-tops and high hopes inspire "hoop dreams" from Peoria to Pinckneyville, and Champaign to Chicago. Bell, a life-long fan and authority on high school basketball in Illinois, brings together for the first time the stories of the great players, teams, and coaches from the 1940s through the 1990s. The book is titled for four players who reflect the unique quality of high school basketball, and whose first names are enough to trigger memories in fans who love the sport -- Sweet Charlie Brown, Dike Eddleman, Cazzie Russell, and Bobby Joe Mason. Bell offers exciting accounts of their exploits, told with a journalistic flair. Beyond a lifetime spent covering the sport, Bell's research includes three hundred and fifty personal interviews with coaches, administrators, family members, and fans. He has attended the Elite Eight finals of every boys' state basketball tournament since 1958, and met and written about many of the most outstanding teams, coaches, and players who helped to make Illinois one of the most exciting arenas for high school basketball in the United States. Sixty photographs add depth to the accounts. By a fan, for the fans, Sweet Charlie, Dike, Cazzie, and Bobby Joe is the authoritative book on high school basketball in Illinois, and will elate anyone who has thrilled to the poignant highs and shattering lows of high school sports.

Covered wagons brought a wave of migration to northern Illinois in the mid-1830s. On April 1, 1834, the first permanent white settlers, Joseph McCarthy and two assistants, paddled up the Fox River. The vicinity was known as Waubonsies Village at that time. They built a log cabin, a dam across the Fox, and eventually a sawmill. The village had about 400 Native Americans who bartered fish for bread and tobacco. For almost 175 years now, growth has been steady and sure, and the city of Aurora is the second-largest metropolitan area in Illinois. Aurora is home to honorable civic institutions, excellent education, and a multicultural and energetic population.

This book has been in the making for over a decade, perhaps a lifetime. My reasons for writing about our family history are: to learn more about my ancestors, their beliefs, values, struggles, and accomplishments: and to learn about the resilience carried through the generations. I believe that I am the member of the family to do this. I also want a healing process to occur. And finally, I want this as a gift for my children and grandchildren and their descendants. The themes of my book relate to the perseverance and resilience in our family members. I have learned that darkness and light can often coexist closely, even in the same person, and I believe that staying in for the journey has resulted in many transformative experiences in my own life. I also believe that these have come as a result of my relationship with God.

The emphasis of this vol. is the city of Rockford.