He broadcast major league baseball for 30 years, spending seven seasons as the voice of the Kansas City A’s prior to their departure for Oakland, two with the Milwaukee Braves, followed by three seasons with the Minnesota Twins and then back to Milwaukee to become the voice of the Milwaukee Brewers. Bob Uecker joined Harmon in the Brewer booth and over the next ten years they became one of the hottest broadcast teams in baseball.

Meanwhile, Harmon joined NBC Sports, first as an independent and then exclusively, and handled the Major League Baseball Game of the Week, NFL Football, NCAA Basketball and special assignments for Sportsworld. He was named as one of the anchors for the 1980 Olympic telecasts in Moscow but President Carter banned the U.S. teams from participating.

Harmon was one of the television voices of the Texas Rangers, a post he filled since 1982. He could be heard during 1987-88 season calling various Big 8 Conference basketball games.

He was a member of the ABC-TV sportcasting team for more than ten years handling such assignments as Major League Baseball, NCAA Football, College Football Scoreboard, NBA Basketball and Wide World of Sports. He was also the voice of the New York Jets for nine years and was at the microphone for the Joe Namath led Jets’ upset win over the Baltimore Colts in Super Bowl III.

Harmon’s long list of special assignments include the World Series, the All Star game, the Uberty, Holiday and Bluebonnet Bowl games, the East/West and North/South Shrine games, and co-anchoring the telecasts of the World University Games in Moscow in 1973.

He is one of only two announcers in major league baseball history to call two perfect games. Harmon holds degrees from Graceland College in Iowa and the University of Denver. In 1971, he became the third recipient of the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics’ Outstanding Alumnus Award. Two previous winners were President Richard M. Nixon and Congressional Medal of Honor winner and former American Football League Commissioner Joe Foss.

Harmon is also the recipient of Graceland College’s Distinguished Service Award and The Rockne Club has named him Sportscaster of the Year.

In 1977, he founded and is President of Merle Harmon Fan Fair Corporation, with approximately 100 “Merle Harmon Fan Fair” stores owned and franchised across the United States. The retail stores feature authentic licensed Iogo-bearing apparel worn by pro and college teams.

After finishing the three years at Odin High School, Sebastian came to Salem for his senior year and was the leading scorer for the 1938-39 Salem Wildcats, the first team coached by Hall of Famer, the late Michael E. Lenich. Teamed with Richard Robb, Bill Finks, the late James “Hezzy” West and fellow Odinite Jim Bradley, Sebastian led the team in scoring with 223 points of the 626 scored that year.

The Wildcats had a 15-6 record and finished third in the North Egypt Conference. One memorable game was a 5345 victory over Centralia in Trout Gym, when Sebastian’s two-handed “kiss-shot” netted 28 points. He graduated from SIU in 1947, leading the team in scoring for three years. He has been elected to the SIU Sports Hall of Fame.

His stay at SIU was interrupted by a three-year hitch in the Navy as a physical education instructor. After graduation, he signed with the Chicago Gears of the National Basketball League, a team that also had George Mikan on its roster. He played with the Hammond (Indiana) Buccaneers in 1948 and finished in the top ten in scoring in the NBL.

While appearing with the House of DaVid, the bearded clowns of basketball, he caught the eye of Abe Saperstein, the owner of the world famous Harlem Globe Trotters. Saperstein signed Sebastian to play against the Globe Trotters and demonstrate his shooting prowess and amazing trick shots on Globe Trotter tours. With the Trotters, he made three world tours, two South American tours and one to Europe. It was during the latter, at Olympia Stadium in Berlin, he performed before the largest crowd to ever witness a basketball game-75,OOO people. In 1950, he appeared in several scenes in the movie, “The Harlem Globe Trotters Story.”

After his marriage to Marie Petek, whom he met on a road tour, John abandoned basketball touring and Marie said farewell to a career on the stage and in television, and John began his teaching and coaching career at Decatur. After one year he moved to Maine Township High School where he taught from 1953 until his retirement.

Sebastian has appeared on numerous television shows with his ball-handling and shooting wizardry and is in the Guiness Book of World Records making 63 consecutive free throws while blindfolded.

He has performed as “Mr. Two-Hands” as a clown act with his basketball tricks, ball handling and shooting. He has since retired his clown outfit.

Sebastian and his wife, Marie, who also works with him in his basketball act, live in Park Ridge.

A 1946 graduate of SCHS, Wagoner was the key running back on the Salem team that posted an 8-2 record, outscoring their opponents 273-60. Salem, conference champions in 1943 and 1944, missed a third straight NEC title by only a 7-6 loss to Flora.

Wagoner’s team leading 171 points in 1945 was the second highest total in the State. He scored 25 touchdowns and converted 21 extra points from placement. He also threw six touchdown passes. He carried the ball 196 times, netting 1569 yards for an eight yard average. As a team, the Wildcats gained 3152 yards.

His most outstanding game was against Mt. Carmel, scoring five touchdowns and four extra points and rushing for 341 yards on 21 carries for an astounding average of 16.2 yards per carry. He also threw two touchdown passes and intercepted two Mt Carmel passes in the 40-0 victory.

Wagoner was also a star on defense with his hard, crisp tackles and six intercepted passes, playing defensive halfback. In 1944, on a team that had an 8-1 record, he was paired at running back with Hall of Famer Jim Finks and was the receiver on several of Finks’ passes. In 1943 on a conference championship team with an overall 6-0-1 record, with Hall of Famer Don Wile the main runner, Wagoner shared in the scoring in the 188-0 win over Fairfield with four touchdowns.

In his senior year, while amassing his amazing total, Wagoner was selected to the all North Egypt Conference first team and was named to the Chicago Daily News All-State second team.

Bud married the former Anne Armstrong an SCHS graduate and a former cheerleader.

The 1947-48 Wildcats ranked from No.2 to No.4 in the State all season ran up a record of 27-3. They captured the North Egypt Conference championship with an 11-1 mark, repeating the championship they won the year before when they were a predominately junior team. Members of the team, selected as the tournament squad, were Carle Blackwell, Darrell Brame, Jim Bredar, Kenny Burchett, Bill Chance, Bob Frala, Bob Hayden, Glenn Holler, Mark Johnson, Richard Laney, John McMackin, Bob Warden, and their coaches, the late Michael E. Lenich and Steve Lenich.

There were a lot of thrills during the season, a lot of anticipation, and one big heartache when they were upset in the Regional finals. That 58-50 loss to Centralia in the title game of the Sandoval Regional denied the Wildcats of becoming only the third team in Salem history to advance to the State Tournament.

The 1947-48 Wildcats outscored their opponents 1752-1136, an average of 58.4 to 37.8 points per game. They maintained that consistency in conference play with a 59-38 per game scoring edge. Johnson was the team’s scoring leader with 429 points, but the Wildcats had a balanced attack with six players scoring over 100 points. Following Johnson’s top total were McMackin, 372; Warden, 266; Laney, 217; Holler, 204; and Burchett, 118.

Of particular interest during the season were the home-and-home series with Lawrenceville and Centralia. Salem split the games with Lawrenceville, winning here, 47-43, and losing at Lawrenceville, 55-54. The interest was particularly high for the second game. Anticipating an overflow crowd as was experienced with the earlier match, here, the late Brad Brinkerhoff and Guy Morgan arranged for a special telephone hookup with the late H.B. Davis broadcasting the game back to several hundred fans in the Salem Gymnasium-the old gymnasium, now the Salem Activities Center.

The two regular season meetings between Salem and Centralia were noteworthy in that the Wildcats were the dominate team. Salem won at home, 59·25, starting with a 19-5 first quarter edge and finishing with a 21·7 fourth quarter effort. In the second meeting In Trout Gym, the Wildcats trailed, 19-12, after the first quarter, but forged in front at halftime, 29·26, and maintained that margin, 44-41, after three quarters. They finished off the 61-47 victory with a 17-6, effort in the final period.

With a wealth of talent – there were nine seniors returning from the previous year’s 23-10 club Lenich stuck with a starting five that was considered tall for 40 years ago. The “twin·towers,” Mark Johnson 6’5″, and Bob Warden, 6’4″, were braced with Glenn Holler, 6’1″, Richard Laney, 6’0″, and Johnny Bill McMackin, 5’11″.

Lenich may have had misgivings, so stating once after particularly outstanding performances by Burchett and Blackwell. In the second game of the season against Sandoval, the starters of McMackin,
Laney, Holler, Johnson and Warden struggled to an 8·5 first quarter lead. Lenich inserted a new five of
Chance, Burchett, Blackwell, Dale Morris and Bob Hayden for the second quarter and they weren’t any
more prolific, Salem leading at halftime, 15-12. The starters returned in the second half and, after a 31-
20 third quarter lead, outscored Sandoval 21-4 in the first four minutes of the final quarter, with the second five coming into finish off a 58-30 victory.

The 20th win of the season came, 61-41, over Olney. The final game of the season brought their regular season record to 25-2 as they clubbed Mt. Carmel, 79-37. The third loss that year was to Freeport in the Centralia Holiday Tournament, 55-53, as Cliff Stout hit a long shot at the buzzer. Reportedly, Stout entered the hospital the next day for an emergency appendectomy.

The junior varsity team that year finished their season with a 23-0 record.

Six players were given all conference honors-McMackin, Johnson and Laney to the first team, and
Warden, Holler and Burchett, honorable mention. Johnson was named first team center on the Champaign News Gazette All-State Team and on the Chicago Daily-News All State Team.

Some of the team members were also outstanding as football players, also winning the NEC title. The team, coached by Hall of Famer Kenny Farrar, had only one close call in conference play. Winning 14-13 over Fairfield to clinch the crown, Salem scored one touchdown on a pass from McMackin to Brame and another on a two-yard plunge by Blackwell, but missed on both extra point attempts. The clincher, with Salem trailing 13-12 late in the game, came when Burchett tackled a Fairfield runner in the end zone for a safety and the margin of victory.

All-Conference football players that year were Burchett, Chance, Holler and Blackwell, first team; J.
Roy Fogle and Derald Spratt, second team.

Johnson was a member of the 1947-48 basketball team that compiled a 27-3 season mark, the best in Salem’s history. With Johnson leading the way, Salem was North Egypt Conference champion with an 11-1 record. That team was also inducted into the Hall of Fame. Johnson, at 6’5″ was the tallest of the Wildcats that year, leading the team in scoring with 429 points. When he was a junior, the Wildcats also won the North Egypt title, also with an 11-1 record. In high school, in addition to basketball, Johnson also participated in football and track.

After graduating from high school, Johnson attended the University of Illinois and Southern Illinois University, graduating in 1953, and he played basketball there. He served in the Air Force from February, 1954, to February, 1956, and in August of 1956 was hired to teach in the Salem Grade School system at Oak Park and Central. At the same time he was junior varsity basketball coach at SCHS, a position he held until 1975. He also served as assistant football coach at SCHS.

In 1957, he moved to Salem Junior High School as a teacher and continued as junior varsity basketball coach at the high school. He was hired to teach in the high school in 1960, and was appointed Assistant Principal in 1985. With his retirement in 1988, he completed 32 years in the Salem school system.

Johnson was selected to the North Egypt Conference All-Star Team in 1948 and was named as first team center on the All-State Teams selected by the Champaign News Gazette and the Chicago Daily News.

He and his wife, Imogene, have one daughter, Janelle Edwards, and two grandchildren.