Hall of Honor
It was his meteoric rise from water boy for Dolph Stanley’s Taylorville High School Illinois state basketball champion team to high-scoring guard on four Midwest Conference titlists at Beloit that earned Fran Stahr recognition from teammates and fans. He played high-school ball his senior year on the 1944 team that was the first to win the Illinois state championship with an undefeated record and is a member of the Taylorville Athletic Hall of Honor. He served in the army before rejoining Stanley at Beloit, where he was a starter his junior and senior years achieving 859 career points. His final game was a record breaker in Chicago Stadium versus DePaul University – Beloit won 94-60. Next came some semi-pro ball for the Beloit-Illini team and the Fond du Lac Rockets. An avid golfer in later years who attained a handicap of 7, Fran retired in 1990 after 35 years of operating a packaging distribution business. He died in December 1995 at the age of 68.
