A 1971 graduate of Salem Community High School, James Willhite had a highly prolific athletic career.

Willhite participated in four sports during his high school career with football and track the site of his
biggest success.

In football Willhite put up the best numbers ever for a Salem tight end and some of the best yardage numbers ever for Wildcats receivers.

A three-year starter. Willhite caught 23 passes for 513 yards as a junior in the 1969 season. During his senior season Willhite hauled in 25 catches for 421 yards and two touchdowns.
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Over the years, Salem Community High School has developed a reputation for producing great distance runners. A lot of that tradition began with 1973 graduate Mark Daniels.

Daniels set a lot of distance standards for Wildcats track and cross country, some of which still stands.

Daniels still holds the school track record in both 1600 meter at 4:16.6 and the 3200 meters at 9:21.6.

He was a state qualifier in both of those events. During his junior season, Daniels was fifth at the state meet in the 3200 meters when he set his school record time of 9:21.6. As a senior, Daniels finished eighth at the state meet in the 1600 meters with a time of 4:23.
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Only two Salem High School boys have ever placed in the Illinois state track meet and both occurred under the old one-class system.

The first came when Ross Smith placed second in the hammer throw in 1905.

The other was Louis Middleton, who placed in the state meet on two occasions.
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Ten years after his father went into the Salem Sports Hall of Fame, Howard Thurman Jr. now joins him in this elite group.

The son of former Salem coaching great Howard Thurman Sr.,Thurman Jr. was a strong athlete in basketball, track and football during his days as a Wildcat.

A 1952 graduate, Thurman Jr. set school records in both basketball and track at Salem. He set a single game scoring record of 34 points during a game in the 1951-52 season.

During that same year he broke the North Egypt Conference track record in the 180 yard low hurdles with a time of 22.9.
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A better-than-average athlete in high school, David Meador did not let a tragic auto accident deter him from excelling in life and in his favorite sport. Meador lost his sight when a police car, in which he was riding on a trip home from completing his shift as a radio-dispatcher for the police department, gave a pursuit to a fleeing violator and crashed.

Meador, overcame his disability to become a successful businessman and one of the top golfers in the nation. He won the National Championship of the United States Blind Golfers Association (USBGA) at the Firestone Country Club at Akron, Ohio, in 1977 and has finished second seven times.
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Rod Wells, a three-sport star at Salem Community High School, rushed for 1119 yards in two years with the varsity Wildcats, averaged nearly 11 points per game his senior year in basketball, and was outstanding in the low hurdles in track.

A 1960 graduate of SCHS, he received an appointment to the United States Air Force Academy at Colorado Springs and was sixth in his graduating class in 1964. While at the Air Force Academy, he played freshman football and ended his football activity in his sophomore year after a broken collar bone and two separated shoulders.

In football his senior year in high school, he carried the ball 121 times for 742 yards, having exceptional games against Flora with 113 yards in a 40-12 victory, against Olney with 179 yards in a 25-19 win; and against Bridgeport with 92 yards in a 39-13 victory.
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