Vermilion County has history in its many sports venues, especially in Danville.
Danville Stadium has a lot of baseball history since it was opened in 1946. There have been 12 teams that range from the minor leagues to the collegiate action of the Prospect League. Also, Danville High School, Schlarman Academy, Post 210 and Danville Area Community College have played or are still playing there. The history is included with many players from the area and beyond appearing showing up to play.
One of the people that came from outside the area was Tim Bunton. The former Danville Area Community College baseball coach and athletics director coached for the Danville Dans in 1993 and fell in love at first sight.
“It is such a wonderful place. You don’t have places like this anymore with the history and the structure,” Bunton said. “I heard about them playing in an old minor-league park, but when you pull up to it and you see it, it is a real cool place. Walking in the gate from the first time, you can feel the history. I grew up in St. Louis and there is nothing like this, a building that was built in the 1940s and it is very rare an unique and it is a special place.”
It is a special place for Jeanie Cooke as well. The co-owner of the Danville Dans went there when her father played.
“My dad played baseball in Danville and there was a league here many years ago called the Twilight League,” Cooke said. “He was a Dodger fan but he passed away unfortunately when I was 11. I had always watched his games and I started getting involved in Little League with my husband for a while and I knew (fellow Dans owner Rick Kurth) through his son playing baseball. When I started studying the stadium and the year it was built, I found out my father was a Dodger fan. So that got me really into it and I continued to go forward and here I am today.”
The stadium has also brought in generations of players as well. Along with Bunton, who saw his sons play at the Stadium, there is also former major leaguer Darrin Fletcher, whose grandfather, Glen, and father, Tom, played before him and his son Casey played after him.
“They have had four generations of players and I remember showing a photo to Darrin of his grandfather in his uniform,” Cooke said. “So the Fletcher family history started from the beginning of Danville Stadium.”
For Bunton, he was able to coach his son, Andy, at DACC. But Bunton treated him like all the other players, especially ones from the area.
“As a little guy, he was well aware of it. It was cool to see them play in high school and Andy for me at DACC,” Bunton said. “But, Andy was like a lot of young players. They dream of playing there and it is pretty good for the local kids to grow up and play there.
“What I saw in recruiting at DACC is when it is in your backyard, sometimes you don’t know how special it is. The kids that we recruited saw the history of it with the Dodgers and Brewers and the Dans that would go on to the majors. I think it is a special place for all kids come in. If you love baseball, you have to enjoy watching a game there.”
The history of the two older golf courses in Danville have a combined history.
The Danville Country Club was first organized in 1904 and was moved to various areas from 1910-1926, when it started play on its permanent course on Denmark Road.
The Club’s former area when they moved for good would be bought out by then Commercial-News Editor John Harrison and it would become Harrison Park.
For a golfer and coach like current Danville Area Community College coach Terry French, who is also the former Bismarck-Henning/Rossville-Alvin boys coach, the courses are different, but they bring a lot of experience.
“I have a soft spot for Harrison Park since that was the place where I started to play golf and when I coached Bismarck, that was our home course,” French said. “I thought we had a competitive advantage with the smaller greens.
“The home course right now for DACC is the Danville Country Club. It is a beautiful place and you learn where to hit the ball and place the ball and it is a fantastic place to play.”
French has been involved with golf in the area for over 50 years and have played in all of the courses.
“I have belonged to every country club at one point or another. I belonged to Vermilion Hills (later Wolf Creek Golf Course) and went out there to take lessons off a pro called Ed Biehl, and there was nothing wrong with it, it just that there was not may people I could play with, so I went back to Harrison and I also went to the Elks Country Club which would became Turtle Run Golf Course.”
For years, Danville summers outside had the sounds of not only a bouncing basketball, but an whole area.
Carver Park was the first home of the Dustbowl basketball tournament when it started in 1973 and it was because of Dwight Lucas, who was raised there when they had apartment houses around the park.
“I lived in Carver Park from age 8-9 until I left for the service when I was 18,” Lucas said. “Coming up, I played basketball in courts on the north side of Williams street and it was before the courts on the south side were built. We played from sun up to sun down, so I was always connected by Carver Park as a youngster playing basketball.”
It was also a time where Carver not only brought in the best for basketball, but also entertainment and fellowship.
“Carver Park, for those who lived in the eastside of Danville between Jackson Street and Bowman and Anderson, was where the largest part of African-Americans lived in Danville,” Lucas said. “Carver was the place where we played basketball, we showed movies at night and we had local musicians play on the court on Friday. Carver Park was the recreational hub for us along with Laura Lee Fellowship House. We had our social and recreational activities. People from the north end would converge to that area over the weekend. That was our source of recreation with some of the young folks and older folks.”
Lucas recently hosted a Carver Park reunion cookout and hopes for more success with that event next year.
“We had a Carver Park cookout that we held at Douglas Park because someone was using Carver Park and we had easily 200-300 people there,” Lucas said. “We had people come in from Atlanta, Texas and all over come in for that week. It was so successful that we will be working on plans for next year’s event starting in February.”