EAST CAPE GIRARDEAU MAYOR JOE ADEN TO RECEIVE BASKETBALL HONOR AT DONGOLA

DONGOLA, Ill. -- Joe Aden will return to Dongola High School gymnasium Saturday night to be honored by the school as the "Athlete of the 20th Century."

A new trophy case will be named after Aden, the East Cape Girardeau mayor for more than 20 years. The 6-foot-2-inch guard, forward and postman when needed scored more than 3,000 points during his prep career at Dongola in the late 1950s. He was third in the nation in scoring average his senior year, with a 36.6 points a game.

Aden is a member of the Illinois Basketball Hall of Fame.

"He will receive a plaque and trophy for his home," said Dr. Richard Reavis, Dongola School District superintendent. "In addition, another plaque, trophy and his old jersey will be placed in the new trophy case."

The ceremony will take place during the half of a junior varsity game to start at 6 p.m. Saturday The Dongola Demons will play Chaffee, Mo., in junior-varsity and varsity action.

"This is a great honor for me," said Aden, who was among a senior class that graduated 25 students in 1958. "I have many fond memories of Dongola and the great people there that make it a special place."

Dongola is not a big school. There were 99 students there when Aden was a senior. "But the students get a good education," he said. "Students there receive many things that larger districts can't offer.

"This ceremony and the new Joe Aden Trophy Case will be special to may family and me," he said.

Aden is a familiar name to basketball fans in Southern Illinois, although his performances came more than four decades ago.

Aden played under three different coaches in high school: Dean Barringer, who later coached at Shawnee High School at Wolf Lake, as a freshman; Tim Hopson during his sophomore and junior years; and Clement Johnson as a senior. Johnson had also coached Aden in junior high school.

Nationally, the only players who bested Aden in the 1957-58 scoring statistics were John Foley of Massachusetts and Lynn Chappel of Pennsylvania.

Aden was the second player in extreme Southern Illinois to be inducted in the Illinois Basketball Hall of Fame. Charlie "Chico" Vaughn of nearby Tamms was the only other.

Aden is still listed as the third-leading career scorer in Illinois. He averaged 28 points a game as a sophomore and 34 as a junior. For a brief time he held the record as the top career score in Illinois.

There was a time when Southern Illinois basketball fans relished games between Dongola and rival Tamms because of the matchup between Aden and Vaughn.

Aden and Vaughn continued their basketball careers in college, Aden with Union University at Jackson, Tenn., and Vaughn with Southern Illinois University at Carbondale.

Aden, who received a degree in health and physical education from Union University, later received a degree from Southeast Missouri State University in administration. He worked in the field of education and recently retired.

Aden has often said if he could change anything about his career he would have "wished to be 2 inches taller and a step faster."