Happy 50th birthday to former Illini basketball co-captain Glynn Blackwell.
A native of Highland Park, Mich., he lettered three times at Illinois. In those three seasons —1985-86, ’86-87 and ’87-88 — his Illini teams advanced to three consecutive NCAA tournaments and compiled an overall record of 68-28, including a 36-18 mark in Big Ten play. Blackwell was a starter in 57 of the 106 games in which he played, averaging 7.1 points and 2.3 rebounds per contest. He was one of his team’s most accurate shooters, converting 60.5 percent of his field goal attempts and 75.9 percent of his free throws.