CHAMPAIGN — Jerry Hester’s final year of professional basketball came as Illinois was making a run to the national championship game.
When Hester hung up his sneakers after playing six years overseas — mostly in Poland — Stephen Bardo was stepping back from the microphone as the full-time radio analyst for Illini basketball.
Hester leaped at the chance to replace Bardo. He did color commentary for some Illinois women’s basketball games when he was injured during the 1996-97 season. Doing so again for the Illini men’s team was an opportunity he couldn’t turn down when he replaced Bardo for the 2005-06 season.