Mike Benchoff was a three sport star while in high school. He was a key defensive back on the 1953 SCHS football team that compiled an 8-1 record and outscored their opponents 348-65. The team capped their season with a 55-13 win over South Seven Conference champion, Mt Vernon.

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.
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A three-letter winner in three high school sports, Keith Stonecipher, now of Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania, was a 1946 SCHS graduate.

He earned letters in football, basketball and track while at Salem and was an ALL-North Egypt Conference selection in football his senior year. In track he participated in the 440-yard dash, the long jump, discus, and on the 440-yard relay team.
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Bill Spratt, a triple threat halfback, amassed 3733 yards from scrimmage over a three-year period for SCHS. During that span from 1949 to 1951, the Wildcats had a combined record of 20-6-1.

The 1952 graduate, whose rushing and passing yardage totaled 1682 in his junior year, keyed Salem’s 8-1 record in 1950. Spratt scored 127 points that year. As a sophomore in 1949, when Salem tied for the North Egypt Conference title, the Wildcats had a 7- 1-1 record, Spratt rushed for 700 yards and scored 48 points.

In his three-year high school career, he rushed for 2455 yards and passed for 1278. Spratt also handled the punting chores and during his senior year, he caught four passes for an additional 43 yards. In three seasons, he scored 240 points.
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From a two-hand set-shot artist to a trick shot artist, a one-year basketball star at Salem High School and a four-year star at Southern Illinois University, John “Junior” Sebastian was inducted into the Salem High School Sports Hall of Fame in 1988.

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.

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The Salem Wildcat Basketball team that is recognized as one of the best in the school’s history, a team that holds the best won-lost record of any Salem basketball team, was inducted into the Salem High School Sports Hall of Fame in 1988.

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.

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A life-long Salem resident and one of the first outstanding “big men” in Salem basketball, Mark Johnson, was inducted into the Salem High School Sports Hall of Fame in 1988.

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.

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