OTTAWA — They ambled slowly, one by one, across the same Bader Gymnasium floor on which they’d once run in pursuit of basketball glory, dominating opponents and setting records. One could cut the nostalgia with a knife.

Before a large crowd on Friday night, Marquette Academy held its annual John Pocivasek Hall of Fame induction ceremony, honoring Gary Woods, the 1972-73 all-state point guard for the 28-2 sectional-champion Crusaders, and the record-setting 1969-70 MA team that behind all-stater Bob Guyette claimed the first postseason title in school history.

Woods was the all-state point guard and team captain that led the 1972-73 Marquette team to a 28-2 record, a school mark for wins in a season that stood alone until last year’s 28-3 Crusaders tied it. In Class A in the two-class system that started with 1970-71 season, MA won regional and sectional titles before falling to Kaneland 37-35 at the DeKalb Supersectional.

Along the way, Woods set the Marquette record for assists in a season with 208. For his outstanding play at both ends of the court, he was not only named that MA club’s MVP, but also to the Illinois All-State Team.

“I was very privileged to be a part of such a great era of basketball at Marquette,” said Woods, who went on to play at Illinois Benedictine College, was a teacher and coach at Wallace Grade School for many years and is now retired and living in Phoenix, Ariz. “When I got the call, it was a complete surprise. I had no idea, but I’m truly honored.

“One of the things I remember most about my time at Marquette is my teammates, because they were just fabulous players and fabulous teammates, and playing team basketball was all we wanted to do. They’re all lifelong friends. …

"The coach had the program all set up, and all we had to do was go out there and play. It was a great team … and there’s no question, practicing every day with that 1969-70 team impacted us on the court, but it also gave us something to shoot for, something to look up to. They inspired us more than you could put into words.”

With a 26-6 record, that 1969-70 club certainly set the bar high for Woods’ teams and Marquette basketball in general.

The Crusaders, coached by Bob Strickland and assistant Richard Medlar, included Tim Anderson, Bob Carretto, Erv Fullerton, Jim Garland, Bob Guyette, Bruce Loebach, Dan McDonnell, Pat Mooney, Rod Miller, Rich Perez, Dick Schwarzbach, Marty Serena, Chris Sipula, Pat Whalen and Joe Wisniewski. The managers were John Nelson, Paul Halm, Jerry Boisso, Ron Harmon and Walter Briephol.

That team was paced by all-stater Guyette, who still holds the top two spots on the IHSA list for most rebounds in a season (636 in 1969-70, 649 in 1970-71) and is fifth in that category for a career (1,510). He went on to play for legendary coaches Adolph Rupp and Joe B. Hall at the University of Kentucky and in his senior year, scored 16 points and had seven rebounds in the NCAA Tournament championship game, a 92-85 loss to UCLA and another bench legend, John Wooden, who retired after that season. Guyette also played professionally in Spain.

“We had a lot of seniors on that team, guys like Timmy Anderson, Bob Carretto, Chris Sipula and Pat Whalen, and they taught us a lot,” said Guyette. “We played hard, we played together, and we played for each other. It was just a joy.

"They were all tough kids who were lucky enough to have a guy like Bob Strickland, who pushed us and respected us. It was very much a situation where it could have very much been a juniors vs. seniors kind of thing, but they accepted us, and we had a great year.”

The success the MA club enjoyed that season did not come without some bumps in the road, but mostly at the expense of much larger schools. It lost to Ottawa 63-55 in the second game of the season and, a few weeks later at Morris Holiday Tournament, fell to powerful Joliet Central and all-stater and future Illinois State University star Roger Powell 68-57.

It actually suffered back-to-back defeats to St. Bede, 88-87 and LaSalle-Peru 100-57 and also to Streator on their home floor in the last game of the season. That last loss was a “wake-up call,” said Whalen, and the Cru brought their “A” game throughout the postseason.

Because of a drop in enrollment, Marquette was forced to play through the small-school district level to get to the regional finals at Streator, but that was no problem as they blasted Serena 92-48, Earlville 37-26 and Seneca 79-61 for the district title to get there.

At Streator, MA bested Yorkville 76-65 before avenging that early-season loss to Ottawa 65-56. They then topped the host Bulldogs 58-57 for the first postseason championship in school history.

“It was just a great season for us,” said Carretto. “The only team that beat us that was our size was St. Bede at their place by one on a basket as time ran out. Otherwise, we would have won that one, too. But we played L-P, Streator, Ottawa, Joliet Central, which had a bunch of kids that eventually played Division I. It was all good."

The Cru moved on to the L-P Sectional and beat Pontiac 61-59 before falling to the AP’s fifth-ranked Cavaliers and all-stater Gary Novak in the final, 82-60. L-P went on to the quarterfinals, where it lost to Danville.

“What stands out in my mind is that we had a good team and a great coach in Bob Strickland, who forced us to up our game and be the best that we could be, to be all that we were capable of being,” said Whalen. “He wanted us to believe in ourselves, and that was a major part of what we accomplished that year. We believed that we could do anything, that we could beat anybody.

“It was exciting, it was a great group of people to be around, and it really set the bar high for basketball here at Marquette.”