Mike McCracken, John Mason and John Tierney have at least two things in common.

They’re all basketball lifers, and they’re each among the 2011 class of inductees into the Illinois Basketball Coaches Association Hall of Fame. The formal induction ceremony will be Saturday, April 30 at Illinois State University in Normal.

McCracken, who will be inducted as a career coach, has become synonymous with Amboy basketball, as he’s coached the sport there for 40 years. He was varsity boys coach from 1986-98, and again from 2003-07, with a record of 235-196. He’s coached the varsity girls squad to a 60-52 record the past four seasons.

With eight seasons (1971-79) at the junior high level, seven (1979-86) at the sophomore level and five more (1998-2003) as a varsity assistant, McCracken’s career record is 505-347 at Amboy.

“It’s really an honor,” McCracken, 62, said last week. “A person that hasn’t been to state and hasn’t gotten the press that some people do – I guess longevity is something good here. Forty years is something worthwhile, and I have outlasted most people that way. I am proud of it.”

McCracken’s top teams at Amboy were in the mid-1990s, when his son Jaron was a star guard. The Clippers won 68 games and two regionals in a three-year span, but were unable to piece together a deep run into the postseason.

The 1995 squad upset Mendota in the regional final, then lost a close game to Princeton in the sectional.

The next year, Jaron McCracken contracted mononucleosis just before the regional. He played, but Amboy lost a close regional title game to Mendota. (His illness wasn’t confirmed until the following week.)

The 1997 squad won a regional, then was unable to hold off Hall in the sectional despite leading by seven points entering the final quarter. A charging foul on Jaron McCracken, instead of a block on Hall All-Stater Shawn Jeppson, negated a potential three-point play early in the fourth quarter, sent McCracken to the bench with four fouls and fueled the Red Devils’ surge.

“It’s always something, but what coach can’t say that,” Coach McCracken said. “There’s a lot of coaches that can say would’ve, could’ve, should’ve. We didn’t get it done, but can certainly look back at some great years.”

Small is big for Mason

Mason has coached basketball for 47 years, with stops at Hinckley (1964-80), Dwight (1980-82), Sandwich (1982-94), Malta (1994-97), Aurora Central Catholic (1997-03), Ohio (2003-06), Paw Paw (2006-08) and Hinckley (2008-present) again.

He’s coached mostly varsity girls basketball, though his first coaching experience, at Hinckley, was with junior high boys for 16 seasons. He coached grades 5-8 at the same time for 10 of those years.

At Ohio, Mason said there were 55 students in the high school. Twenty-five of them were girls and 15 played basketball.

“It’s probably the most fun I’ve had in basketball,” he said of those seasons. “There’s just a passion for basketball there. I was fortunate enough to coach the north team in the 2004 IBCA All-Star game, and most of the girls were lucky to have five people there supporting them. One of my players, Ashli Piper, played for me and there were 70 people from Ohio there to watch her play. That’s just the way it is in Ohio.”

Mason, who will turn 70 on induction day (April 30), lives in Hinckley and coaches the freshman boys team. He often has his teams scrimmage against the varsity girls, and it seems to be working – the Hinckley-Big Rock Royals won back-to-back girls Class 1A state titles in 2009 and 2010.

“That’s something I started doing when I was at Aurora Central Catholic,” Mason said. “We had good varsity girls basketball teams there, and I learned going against a good freshman boys team can be very good for each other.”

Basketball has been a lifelong passion for Mason. A Morrison native, he attended his first Mustangs game when he was 6 months old and has continued going to various Morrison sporting events his entire life.

“That’s where it all began for me,” he said.

Tierney’s journey

For Tierney, his basketball journey began in Britt, Iowa, where was the boys coach in 1961-62. He moved on to Aurora Marmion for two seasons, then to Rock Falls for 11. He was an assistant coach for five seasons, then head coach from 1969-1975.

Tierney’s best years with the Rockets were in 1973 and 1974, when he led teams that each won 25 games. They also went 21-1 in the NCIC over that span.

“We were always fighting LaSalle-Peru or Ottawa to win our league,” said Tierney, 76, who now resides in Homewood. “The 1973 team, we went 10-1 in the conference, and we lost a close game at LaSalle-Peru. There was a real controversial call against Sam Harris – I remember it like it was yesterday. The next year, L-P had to come to our place and we beat them pretty handily.”

In 1975, Tierney went to Hillcrest in Country Club Hills, and was the head coach for five seasons. He then was transferred within the school district to Oak Forest, where he taught and coached for five seasons before returning to Hillcrest in 1986.

He coached three of his sons, all of whom played Division I basketball: Steve, class of 1983 (Sam Houston State); Scott, class of 1987 (North Carolina-Wilmington); and Marc, class of 1990 (Oral Roberts).

John Tierney’s last year teaching was in 1999 at Hillcrest. He was an assistant coach for a powerful Hawks team that featured three All-State juniors: Reo Logan, Monwell Randle and Odartey Blankson. Each went on to play college basketball at Miami, Southwest Missouri State and Marquette.

That powerful trio led Hillcrest to state in 1999, but they lost 49-46 in the quarterfinals to a Chicago King team led by Leon Smith and Imari Sawyer.

“The athletes in the game were incredible,” Tierney said.