Back to the Illinois Fighting Illini Newsfeed

Wheeled wonders: 1969-70 wheelchair-basketball champs reminisce about team

CHAMPAIGN — Kim Pollock was excited when he enrolled at Illinois in 1966, and with good reason.

After all, he was set to join the Illinois football program as a manager, just like he had done in high school. He couldn't actually play sports, he was always told, after his legs were damaged because of the polio he contracted as a child.

But this was the next best thing.

Then, when he was out for a walk by the outdoor basketball courts on the west end of campus just after he arrived in Champaign, his life changed.