One of the better football teams in the school’s history, they parlayed quickness and speed with deception to offset their lack of size – the first team average weight was 150 pounds. Usually, their opponents outweighed them on an average of 30-60 pounds per man.

They were an explosive team on offense and stingy on defense, outscoring the opposition 273-60 in a 10-game season. Head coach Kenny Farrar and his assistant, Howard Thurman, stressed physical conditioning, an explosive and deceptive offense, and quickness on defense to offset the lack of size.

Compiling an 8-2 record, the 1945 Wildcats blanked five opponents and allowed only two touchdowns in conference play. One of those probably cost them the championship, losing to eventual champion, Flora, 7-6, in a mud and rain marred game. The other touchdown was in a 38-6 win over Olney.

First team members were ends Keith Stonecipher and Arthur Radcliff, tackles Virgil Snidle and Jim Kendrick, guards John Evers and Ed Estes, center Bob Raver, quarterback George “Bud” Hofstetter, halfbacks Howard “Bud” Wagoner, Bill Pate and full· back Bill Hooks.

Second team members were Lawrence Alderson, Arlin Wade, Delmer Ocobock, Glenn Holler, Harold Middleton, Donald Wooldridge, Edward Brubaker, John McMackin, Jim Glendenning, Carle Blackwell and Gary Thomason. Team manager was David Bollinger.

Wagoner, Hooks and Stonecipher were named for all-conference honors. Wagoner the state’s No.2 scorer, was named to the Chicago Daily News all state second team. Hooks received special mention and Stonecipher, honorable mention.

Many of the players were also outstanding in track as the Wildcats won the North Egypt Conference Championship the following spring in 1946.

White participated in football, basketball and track three years at SCHS. He was a member of the North Egypt Conference football championship teams of 1940 and 1941. Salem was second to Flora in 1942 as the 13-0 Flora victory was Salem’s only conference loss that season. In White’s three years of football, Salem had a 16-1-1 conference record, with only one touchdown scored against them in NEC play in 1941.

In basketball, the key year was 1943 when the team of White, Roy Gatewood, John McDougal, Bob Roddy and Harry Carneal, won the North Egypt Conference championship, the regional and sectional titles and finished third in the state after a heart breaking three point loss to Paris in the semi-finals. Paris, the eventual state champ, had beaten the Wildcats earlier, 50-26, in the second game of the season.

White received All-State honorable mention, Sectional selection and All-Conference selection. He attended Valparaiso University and played basketball a half year before joining the professional ranks.

He played in the old National Basketball League, the forerunner to the NBA, with the Sheboygan Redskins and played basketball while serving with the U.S. Marines. In track, White excelled in the weights division. No North Egypt Conference meets were held in 1942-44 during World War II. He won the discus throw at the Lawrenceville Indian Relays in 1941.

Sterneck participated in basketball and track during his high school years, and participated in basketball and baseball at the University of Illinois. He was a consistent and game-wise player on the basketball court, on the baseball field, and on the track.

He exemplified his “persistent” tag in track. On a particularly rainy, cold day during a North Egypt Conference meet, Sterneck ran “his” race and won the mile run by doggedly staying in his routine. The time wasn’t nearly as good as the effort but he won the race.

Sterneck was a member of the Fighting Illini varsity basketball and baseball teams. In basketball, his sophomore year, he was a teammate of Hall of Famer Jim Bredar, a senior, who was captain that year.

During Sterneck’s senior year at the University of Illinois, there was a runoff election for captain between Ed Makowsky and Sterneck. Makowsky was elected but became scholastically ineligible and left school. Coach Harry Combes appointed Mush as captain.

Sterneck lives in St Louis County and is active in many community pursuits in addition to a variety of business ventures. He was president of the St. Louis Football Cardinal Quarterback Club before the Cardinals moved to Phoenix.

In high school, as president of the Hi-Y Club, he was one of the leaders in the revival of the all-school homecoming that had been dormant for two decades.

Smith consistently won all the events in three years of high school competition. He won the shot put with 42′ 4″ and the hammer throw with 145’3-1/4″ – “a trifle more than the combined distance of the other contestants”. He was also an outstanding baseball player.

When a fire broke out during the 1905 graduation ceremonies, according to the Salem Herald-Advocate newspaper, he was credited with saving several lives by organizing an orderly evacuation.

Benchoff, who is now a trial lawyer in Phoenix, Arizona, is a graduate of Notre Dame and has been honored as a Fellow in the American College of Trial Lawyers.

Benchoff was bracketed with Eddie Murray and Phil “Butch” Newport in the backfield during his junior year before an injury sidelined him for the remainder of the year. As a senior, he was the free safety on the outstanding 1953 team that allowed only 10 touchdowns and recorded three shutouts in their eight victories that included a 19-6 victory over arch rival Centralia.

Benchoff was a starting guard on the Wildcat basketball team during his junior and senior years and was a member of the 1952 North Egypt Conference championship team as a sophomore. During his junior year at SCHS, he won the free throw award and in both his junior and senior years, he led the team in assists. As a senior, he was one of the starters on the team who all scored in double figures.

Specializing in distance runs and the low hurdles in track, Benchoff was the district 880 yard champion in 1952 during his sophomore year and qualified for the state track meet. Salem won the North Egypt Conference track meet that year. In 1953, Benchoff won the 880 yard Conference championship.

In 1954, Benchoff set a school record in 180 yard low hurdles. After suffering an injury in a subsequent meet in the low hurdles that required surgery, he missed most of the season, but returned to qualify for the 880 yard and mile relay teams that qualified for the state meet.

At Notre Dame, he played on the freshman basketball team as a walk-on and earned his numerals. In track, he pursued running the 440 yard dash, but a knee injury forced him to forgo further competition in the sport.