Editor's note: Flying Illini basketball players Stephen Bardo '90 LAS, Kenny Battle '89 LAS and Kendall Gill '93 LAS were much in the public eye during their days at Illinois. Now, Leslie Howard Bardo '90 COM — college sweetheart and wife of Stephen — offers a private glimpse of team members who have remained close more than a decade later.
Fifteen years may feel like a lifetime for some University of Illinois alumni — a lifetime of chasing and realizing dreams, a lifetime of raising a family, a lifetime of climbing the proverbial corporate ladder or forging one's own professional path.
From left, former Illini basketball players Stephen Bardo, Kendall Gill and Kenny Battle, plus former team manager Ryan Baker, remain friends long after their college days.
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But for members of the Illinois men's basketball team who leaped their way to the Final Four in 1989, 15 years have come and gone in the blink of an eye. It seems like only yesterday that this exceptional group of players — affectionately referred to as the "Flying Illini" for their amazing camaraderie, athleticism and charisma — reveled in the success of the storybook season with the lousy ending.
And since then they have reveled in much more than their heyday on the college basketball court.
They have also celebrated the lifelong friendships that began during practice on the hardwood in Huff Hall.
Take team captain Kenny Battle and starters Kendall Gill and Stephen Bardo, for example. Each has maintained close ties with one another since first signing with Illinois under coach Lou Henson. Today, Battle is the head men's basketball coach at Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago; Gill is a Chicago-area real estate investor and 15-year veteran of the NBA, currently with the Chicago Bulls; and Bardo is a sports reporter for CBS 2 Chicago, a radio commentator for UI men's basketball and a television commentator for ESPN college basketball. Their collective journey from star college players to notable members of the Chicago sports community is a story of accomplishment, determination and love for the game.
That story begins with their Flying Illini days, which Battle, Bardo and Gill reflect on with pride and humility.
"Everyone on the team came to Illinois with high accolades," said Battle. "But we knew that if we were going to succeed as a team, we had to put our egos on the shelf and form a family that was very unique in college basketball. And that's exactly what we did."
Battle, Bardo and Gill define their college team not only by those who dominated the backcourt or fearlessly went baseline against some of the nation's toughest players. To them the Flying Illini family, led by coach Henson, was made up of everyone affiliated with the team — players, coaches, trainers, managers and even water boys. Ryan Baker '91 COM was one member of the team who didn't wear an Illini jersey and baggy, knee-length shorts, but as basketball manager played an integral role in the team's success.
"Ryan wasn't a player, but he was one of the most important parts of our team," said Gill. "He kept everybody loose; he kept everybody laughing. He led us in prayer. Seriously, if Ryan was a player, he probably would have been the leader of the team."
Baker, whose broadcasting career began 13 years ago when he landed a job right after graduation as a photographer for WICD Channel 15 in Champaign, has climbed the ranks at television stations in San Diego and Orlando. Today he is the No. 2 sports anchor for NBC 5 Chicago and continues to pay serious homage to all things Illini, as indicated by the Orange and Blue memorabilia — from signed basketball jerseys to a collection of Fighting Illini baseball caps — adorning the walls of his home office.
Baker and Bardo have been friends since sharing a Hopkins Hall dorm room in 1988 and later, with fellow Flying Illini member and three-point specialist P.J. Bowman '90 LAS (now a psychiatrist with a private practice in Beverly Hills, Calif.), an apartment across from the Illini Orange snack shop. A defining moment in their friendship took place when Kansas and Oklahoma vied for the 1987 NCAA championship. Baker bet Bardo that if Oklahoma lost, Baker would run from Forbes Hall to the Orange wearing nothing but a smile.
When Kansas won with a last-second shot, a benevolent Bardo told his friend he didn't have to honor the bet. But Baker, true to his word, insisted. Surrounded by cheering friends from Hopkins, Baker raced down the sidewalk wearing nothing but shoes and that smile. Passers-by were left speechless.
To this day, Bardo can't stop grinning when he tells the story. "I'll never forget that night," he said, "because I learned two important things about Ryan: One, he is probably the craziest person I know, and two, he is a man who keeps his word."
Baker is indeed a man of his word. He made a promise to himself when he came to Illinois in 1987 that he would one day be a successful broadcaster. Not only has he made good on that promise, his resolve has had a positive influence on his colleagues, particularly Bardo, who made the shift from professional basketball player to sports broadcaster almost five years ago. Having lived a somewhat nomadic existence as a pro basketball player with a number of stops on Continental Basketball Association (CBA) teams and a few coffee breaks in the NBA, Bardo also bounced back and forth overseas playing in Italy, Spain, France and Japan with a wife (me) and two young sons in tow.
"I knew I couldn't play forever, and I set my sights on broadcasting years before I decided to hang up my basketball shoes," said Bardo. "As I transitioned from playing to broadcasting, Ryan had an incredible impact on my career. He is an outstanding sportscaster who has given me a lot of sound advice. He has helped shorten my learning curve tremendously."
Bardo joined CBS 2 Chicago as a sports reporter in spring 2003. That summer Baker landed the coveted position as sports anchor for NBC 5 Chicago. Around the same time, Gill signed with the Chicago Bulls, and Battle was hired as the head coach at IIT.
"To have Stephen at Channel 2, I'm at Channel 5, to have Kendall with the Bulls and Kenny at IIT is an incredible feeling because we're family," said Baker. "I feel a great deal of pride, and I am just as happy, if not more, for Stephen, Kendall and Kenny's accomplishments than I am for my own."
Adding to the feeling of an extended family is the presence of Jimmy Collins, father figure to many of the Flying Illini players and assistant coach under Henson from 1983 to 1996. Collins is beginning his ninth season as the head men's basketball coach at the University of Illinois at Chicago.
"Even at the first UIC practice, I went to coach Collins and said, 'Whatever you need to help you get settled here in Chicago, let me know,'" Baker said. "So it's not just a business situation. This is literally family."
Battle, Gill, Bardo and Baker still can't believe their good fortune in having their professional lives converge after being friends for so long. For Bardo and Baker, this means comparing notes as they cover the Chicago-area sports beat or competing for sound bites from sports greats like baseball star Sammy Sosa. For Gill, who often takes time for in-depth interviews with Baker and Bardo, it means feeling comfortable enough to let down his guard for those two reporters.
However, the balance between friend and journalist is often a challenge. Baker notes, "Kendall and I are almost too comfortable on the air together, but the viewers really appreciate that kind of rapport. It's tough because as a member of the media, it's my responsibility to be fair and to tell the truth.
"Kendall knows that if he tells me something in confidence, it won't end up on the 5 o'clock news. On the flip side, I have to do my job, but I'd never throw someone under the bus to get a story."
Because of the mutual trust and respect that have grown over the years, the friends have never feared that details of their personal lives will become public.
"When adversity strikes, like when my cousin was killed during my second year at U of I," Battle said, "or when [team member Nick Anderson's '90] mother was in a car accident, no one stepped away. Everyone stepped forward, and we were all there for one another from start to finish."
Fast forward to life after college, and countless examples of this continuous sense of friendship and loyalty abound. When Bardo was released from the Detroit Pistons in 1995, days before his contract was to be guaranteed, Baker was there. That same year, Gill and Bardo stood up for Baker as groomsmen in his wedding but were also there to help him pick up the pieces when his marriage collapsed. They were also there when Gill's brief marriage to his college sweetheart ended.
Seeing these guys together today, one can't help but notice their commanding presence and undeniable love for each other. Recently, Bardo and Baker hosted an intimate party at an upscale Chicago restaurant attended by fellow teammates, alumni and close friends. Many of the players — a few of whom hadn't seen each other in many years å embraced warmly, laughed about old times and shared memories. Though the mood was festive, they also spoke quietly and with a sense of sadness about the few team members who haven't been able to find their way, ending up on the wrong side of the law and landing in prison.
But most of the evening centered on happier topics. At one point, Battle recalled the banter they experienced with coach Henson.
"Coach was always on Stephen, telling him he was the worst defensive player ever to come through Illinois," Battle said, "and then Stephen would win [the title of] Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year. [Henson would] tell Kendall that he was too soft and that he'd been babied all his life. And [Coach] never failed to give Ryan a hard time, questioning why he hung around with the team despite his non-player status.
"We all have funny stories about each other," Battle said.
"Some we can't say in public, but our memories and our friendship will last a lifetime."
