Local athletes from back when

A historical review of the best athletes who ever lived in Fairbury yields four names.

These four men include Thomas "Don" Karnes (1902-1982), Richard Alfonse "Dick" McAllister (1879-1967), Nelse Wesley "Wes" Hanson (1889-1961), and George A. Decker (1869-1909).

Don Karnes was born in Fairbury in 1902. He grew up on South Third Street, just a few houses north of the fairgrounds. He attended Fairbury schools. Don was a star athlete at Fairbury Township High School. He lettered on the undefeated football team of 1917 and captained the 1919 team. The 1918 season was canceled because of the influenza epidemic during World War I. After high school graduation, he worked one year on the railroad to earn money for college. Karnes enrolled at the University of Illinois at Urbana in the fall of 1921 and graduated in June 1925.

Red Grange, born in 1903, was just one year younger than Don Karnes. Red Grange was arguably the best football player to ever play for the University of Illinois football team. In his biggest college game, he scored five touchdowns against the arch-rival Michigan team. Red went on to play for the Chicago Bears and helped start the National Football League. Don Karnes played on the same football team with Red Grange at the University of Illinois. Don suffered a knee injury, which ended his football career.

Don Karnes made the University of Illinois varsity basketball team as a sophomore for the 1922-23 season. He played the forward position. Don continued to play basketball for the University of Illinois and lettered in basketball.

After graduating from the University of Illinois and lettering in basketball, Don Karnes accepted the head football coach job at Illinois State Normal University in Normal, Illinois. He was the youngest man to act as a head coach for a major college. He served as the head football coach for two seasons, from 1925 to 1926. Karnes was also the head basketball coach at Illinois State from 1925 to 1927.

Don worked most of his career in the insurance industry. After retirement, Karnes continued to be interested in athletics. He traveled to every Olympic Games after World War II, except the 1980 games in Russia, which were boycotted. Don was a tireless spectator at Fairbury High School sports events. He helped several Fairbury students get into college. He also had a basketball court built at one of his Fairbury homes south of the Fairbury Hospital, so the local kids had a place to play basketball.

Upon his death in 1982, Karnes established a scholarship fund for Fairbury High School students. Each year, scholarships are awarded to local students. Karnes is remembered as one of Fairbury's sports celebrities who was also very generous to his hometown students.

Dick McAllister was born in Scotland in 1879. His parents moved the family from Scotland to Fairbury around 1881. John McAllister, the father of Dick McAllister, first took a job making bricks in Fairbury for Jeff Donahue. He then worked as a coal miner at three coal mines in Fairbury.

In 1886, John McAllister joined with a group of other coal miners and founded a new coal mine in Fairbury. It was the Cooperative Coal Company, and it was opened in 1886. It operated until 1941 and was located near the entrance to the Timber Ridge Subdivision in Fairbury.

Dick McAllister was only six years old when his mother died. He completed grades one through seven in the Fairbury schools. When Dick was age thirteen in l892, he started working in the Fairbury coal mines with his father. Dick McAllister grew to become a very physically large man in adulthood.

Because of his physical stature, R. A. McAllister became an outstanding football player. Between about 1900 and 1910, he played the position of tackle on several football-for-pay teams. He played football weekend games in Peru, Chicago, and Peoria. In this era, he was considered one of the best tackles in the State of Illinois.

Dick McAllister died at age eighty-seven in 1967 in Fairbury. The Editor of the Blade noted that McAllister was a long-time colorful and sometimes controversial figure in Fairbury history. During his lifetime, he started working in the coal mines at age thirteen, played professional football before there was a National Football League, became a Fairbury Alderman, ran for state political office, was appointed Fairbury Postmaster, served as Secretary for the United Mine Workers and was a coal mine inspector. He accomplished many things with only a seventh-grade education.

When his family moved to Fairbury, Wes Hanson was ten years old. He attended local schools through the eighth grade. Wes Hanson was a naturally gifted athlete. As a youth, he enjoyed skating, baseball, basketball, and swimming. Starting around 1910, Wes played on men's basketball teams, including the Bon Ton Limits from Fairbury.

In 1914, Wes Hanson and Carl Goudy opened an Excelsior motorcycle dealership in Fairbury. Wes and Carl were good friends, and they played basketball together on the Bon Ton Limits team. The Bon Ton was a drugstore located west of the Langstaff Clinic on Locust Street. This drugstore sponsored a men's basketball team and named it after the drugstore. The team played their games in the Locust Street Opera House, which Steidinger Meats now occupies.

In 1916, Wes purchased a garage from Herman Lies. In 1919, Wes was awarded a Chevrolet dealership. Wes named his company the Fairbury Auto Company. After being awarded the Chevrolet dealership, Wes hired 13-year-old Spud Schlipf as a "gopher." A gopher meant the person would go for parts and things for the dealership. Spud eventually purchased the dealership in 1967. Spud is considered the "father" of Fairbury auto racing because he started the midget car races in 1946.

Wes Hanson was an exceptionally talented golfer. He was a charter member of the Indian Creek Golf Course when it was established in 1926. Wes was the annual champion at the Fairbury golf course for many years. Wes Hanson won the Bloomington City Championship in 1944. He captured the top title at the Pontiac Country Club every year from 1937 through 1945. Wes continued to participate in senior golf championships later in life.

George Decker attended Fairbury schools. His father was a store clerk and bookkeeper. The Deckers lived in a house on Oak Street. George A. Decker eventually grew to six feet, one inch, and 180 pounds. In 1888, at age 19, he started playing minor-league baseball. He played with various minor-league teams for four seasons.

In the latter part of the 1892 season, Cap Anson recruited George A. Decker to join his Chicago Colts professional baseball team. George's best position was first base, but he played every other position on the team except pitcher and catcher. In 1906, the Chicago baseball team's nickname was changed from the Colts to the Cubs.

In 1892, George A. Decker made it to the big leagues in baseball and married Luella May Stafford from Fairbury. They were both 23 years old.

The Chicago Colts played an exhibition game in September 1895 in George's hometown of Fairbury. Over 2,000 fans attended this game. Three Fairbury men were on the home team, and the rest of the players came from neighboring towns. They played seven innings, with the Chicago Colts winning the game 27 to 4. 

George A. Decker died in 1909 at the age of forty in Compton, California. George A. Decker was at the peak of his life in 1893 when he was twenty-four years old. At that point in his life, George had just made the big league in baseball, had just gotten married, and had a new infant son. Little did he know that his life would disintegrate during his remaining sixteen years. He lost his infant son, lost his young wife, had a baseball career that only lasted seven years, and would spend the last few years of his life in a California insane asylum.

All four of these men were exceptional athletes, and their stories are an important part of Fairbury's early history.

Dale Maley's local history feature is sponsored each Monday on Fairbury News by Dr. Charlene Aaron and Antiques & Uniques of Fairbury.