Sports

Friends, Family Mourn 7 Victims of Illinois Plane Crash

Published

10 years ago

April 8, 2015

Investigators work in a thick fog at the site of small plane crash near Bloomington, Ill., Tuesday, April 7, 2015, that has claimed the lives of seven people. The Cessna 414 took off from Indianapolis and crashed just short of the Central Illinois Regional Airport in Bloomington after midnight. The plane was returning from the NCAA Final Four college basketball tournament in Indianapolis. (AP Photo/The Pantagraph, David Proeber)

DAVID MERCER, Associated Press
JASON KEYSER, Associated Press

BLOOMINGTON, Ill. (AP) — As family, friends and colleagues mourned the loss of the seven victims of a small plane crash in central Illinois, authorities were investigating but had no immediate word on the cause.

The aircraft was returning from the NCAA basketball tournament in Indianapolis when it crashed in a field near Bloomington early Tuesday, killing all on board, including Illinois State University’s associate head basketball coach and a deputy athletics director.

“The Redbird family and the Bloomington-Normal community has suffered a terrible loss today,” Illinois State athletics director Larry Lyons said of the deaths of his deputy, Aaron Leetch, and associate coach Torrey Ward.

All seven victims, who were found strapped in their seats, died from blunt force trauma resulting from the crash, McLean County Coroner Kathleen Davis said.

The journey to Monday night’s championship game began with a phone conversation. Scott Bittner, a 42-year-old business owner, got a call from sports bar owner Terry Stralow, 64, asking if he wanted to go to the game.

“He said he had an extra ticket and asked him to go,” said Terry Wertz, who worked alongside Bittner at a meat processing plant. Wertz said that when Bittner hung up the phone he was “really excited.”

They took off for the game in a plane that Bittner used regularly for business trips, owned by his father. It was not clear exactly how they were connected with the others on board, but local broadcasters talked about the group as if many of them were well acquainted with one another.

Bittner and Stralow were two of the seven killed.

Illinois State University President Larry Dietz confirmed in an email to students, faculty and staff that Ward, 36, and Leetch, 37, also were killed in the early morning crash.

“Words cannot fully express the grief that is felt in the wake of such a tragedy,” Dietz wrote, adding that both men were well-respected and much-loved in the athletics department. “We move between shock and profound sadness.”

The Cessna 414 twin-engine aircraft took off from Indianapolis and crashed just short of the Central Illinois Regional Airport in Bloomington after midnight, the Federal Aviation Administration said.

There was no immediate word on the cause of the crash, and the National Transportation Safety Board said its full investigation was expected to take a year to 18 months.

The airport was open and all systems, including its runway lighting, were functioning, though the tower had closed several hours earlier and handed responsibility to an air traffic control facility in Peoria. Radar contact was lost moments before the crash, and a search was launched when the pilot failed to close out his flight plan. It took about three hours to find the wreckage.

News photos from near the scene showed dense fog. NTSB investigator Todd Fox said the plane was cleared to land in fog and rain but appears to have made a turn away from approaching the runway before crashing. It isn’t clear why, he said.

Fox said he didn’t know if the plane was having problems or if the pilot radioed in distress. The plane’s engines caught fire on impact, Fox said.

The pilot had flown about 12,000 hours and held an air transport license, which allows a pilot to fly commercial airliners, Fox said.

The other victims included Jason Jones, 45, a former basketball and baseball player for Illinois Wesleyan University who worked at Wells Fargo Advisors.

“He loved his children and his family more than anything in the world, wonderful man. That’s really all I can say right now,” said his wife, Lyndsey Jones.

The McLean County coroner’s office identified the other victims as Stralow, pilot Thomas Hileman, 51, and Andrew Butler, 40, an employee of Sprint.

Bittner lived with his wife and two children in Towanda, a small village just outside Bloomington, his co-worker Wertz told The Associated Press. He owned a meat processing plant in Eureka, Illinois, carrying on the family’s line of work after his dad established another plant in the small city of Chenoa, where Bittner grew up.

“He always told me that he wasn’t my boss, that I didn’t work for him, I worked with him,” said Wertz, who has worked at Bittner’s Meat Co. for 15 years.

“If I needed anything, he’d do anything for you,” Wertz said through tears.

The aircraft was registered to Make it Happen Aviation LLC of Towanda, Illinois.

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WNBA’s Golden State Valkyries Kick Off Season with Community Programs in Oakland

“The Golden State Valkyries are more than a team—they’re a movement,” said Oakland Interim-Mayor Kevin Jenkins. “Their touchdown in Oakland marks a new era of opportunity, inspiration, and equity in sports. This partnership reflects our city’s deep commitment to uplifting women, investing in youth, and building a community where every dream has a place to grow. We’re proud to welcome the Valkyries to The Town.”

Published

2 months ago

May 18, 2025

Oakland Post

The Valkyries came to Oakland City Hall with a “Hoopbus.” Present were (from left to right): City Councilmembers Noel Gallo, Rebecca Kaplan, Zac Unger and Rowena Brown; Oakland Mayor-elect Barbara Lee, Valkyries President Jess Smith, a Valkyries team representative and Deputy Mayor LaNiece Jones. Photo courtesy Rebecca Kaplan’s office.

Team installs new nets at playgrounds, holds flag-raisings at City Halls in Oakland and S.F.

Special to The Post

The Golden State Valkyries brought the excitement of their inaugural season to every corner of the Bay Area with a full slate of community celebrations leading up to their historic home-opener against the Los Angeles Sparks at the Chase Center in San Francisco on Friday.

The week featured flag-raising ceremonies at city halls in Oakland and San Francisco, three “Violet Net” installation days at Oakland parks to encourage basketball play, fun “Hoopbus” takeovers at multiple schools presented by Kaiser Permanente, and player appearances.

In total, 90 violet nets were installed on 45 basketball courts across 34 public parks throughout Oakland this week. A list of the parks receiving violet nets can be found at Valkyries.com.

About the Golden State Valkyries

The Golden State Valkyries, the WNBA affiliate of the seven-time NBA Champion Golden State Warriors, were announced as the 13th WNBA franchise on Oct. 5, 2023. According to Norse mythology, Valkyries are a host of warrior women who are fearless and unwavering – flying through air and sea alike.

This brand is Golden State’s modern interpretation of Valkyries: strong, bold, and fierce. Tipping off during the 2025 WNBA season, the team is headquartered in Oakland and will play home games at Chase Center in San Francisco. For Golden State Valkyries’ assets, including team logos, visit valkyries.com.

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Activism

McClymonds High Names School Gym for Star Graduate, Basketball Legend Bill Russell

William “Bill” Felton Russell was born on Feb. 12, 1934, and died on July 31, 2022. He achieved fame as a U.S. professional basketball player who played center for the Boston Celtics of the National Basketball Association (NBA) from 1956 to 1969. He was the centerpiece of the Celtics dynasty that won 11 NBA championships during his 13-year career.

Published

5 months ago

February 18, 2025

Oakland Post

Bill Russell and Brian McGhee in McClymonds High School Gym, 2011. Photo courtesy of Brian McGhee.

By Ken Epstein

West Oakland’s McClymonds High School, “the School of Champions,” this week named the school’s gymnasium in honor of one of its most famous graduates, basketball legend Bill Russell (class of ’52).

Russell is widely known as one of the greatest basketball players of all time. In 2011, he received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the country’s highest civil honor, from President Barack Obama for Russell’s contributions to basketball and the Civil Rights Movement.

The McClymonds’ naming ceremony was held on Wednesday, the same day as Russell’s birthday. Oakland leader Bill Patterson, a longtime friend of Russell’s, was scheduled to cut the ribbon at the reopening of the gym, which had been closed for several months for renovation. Russell’s daughter Karen was scheduled to attend the ribbon cutting.

Russell’s name and signature are now printed on the gymnasium floor.

Patterson was working at DeFremery Park when he met Russell. “I befriended him as a boy and during his years at University of San Francisco” said Patterson. “We stayed friends for the rest of his life.”

Said McClymonds Principal Darielle Davis, herself a McClymonds graduate, “We are excited to honor Bill Russell for his sports accolades and because he broke color barriers. He is part of our legacy, and legacy is really important at McClymonds.”

Brian McGhee, community schools manager at McClymonds and former football player at UC Berkeley, said that Russell meant a lot to him and others at the school. “He was a beacon of light and hope for West Oakland,” he said. “He did a lot for sports and for civil rights.”

Starting in 2018, Ben “Coach” Tapscott worked with Patterson and other McClymonds grads, community members, and former coaches to encourage the Oakland Board of Education to endorse the naming of the school gym, which finally happened recently.

“We worked hard to make this happen,” said Tapscott. “He’s an important part of McClymond’s history, along with a lot of other famous graduates,” he said.

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OPINION: Politics, Football and Identity in Trump’s America

If you haven’t noticed, all Americans are engaged in an even bigger game that means so much more than the Super Bowl. Our democracy is falling apart.

Published

5 months ago

February 17, 2025

Oakland Post

iStock.

By Emil Guillermo

Two Filipino American stories made headlines recently.

First, Nikko Remigio, the Filipino and African American kick returner for the Kansas City Chiefs, did not win Super Bowl LIX.

The other, Alameda’s Rob Bonta said no to running for governor. I don’t blame him. It’s not like a mass of people wanted him to run.

But I did.

Whenever there is a Filipino American in a place you don’t expect, I’m rooting for that person.

As California’s Attorney General, Bonta is probably the most active defender among Blue States pushing back against Trump’s Extreme-Right agenda.

I’d like to Bonta run for California’s top job, but he’s better off waiting in line. The Democrats need a spot for Kamala Harris, and Bonta not running obliges the hierarchy.

History can wait. Bonta’s just 52.

Harris has held off speculation of her next move, saying she just moved back to the state. But it seems governor is the path for her.

For now, Bonta needs to continue taking the fight to Trump in the courts.

Football and Identity Politics

My dad, whose birthday would have been Super Bowl weekend, came to the US in 1928 as a colonized Filipino, an “American National,” where he couldn’t be a citizen, vote, own property or even marry the person he wanted.

Not if they were White.

Still, he believed in America. He never gave up.

Sort of like Nikko Remigio.

My dad would have loved Nikko.

If you haven’t noticed, all Americans are engaged in an even bigger game that means so much more than the Super Bowl. Our democracy is falling apart.

You want to get passionate about Eagles and Chiefs?

Let’s be passionate about our Founding Fathers, too.

Nikko didn’t change the game. He touched it three times and provided more yards than all of KC’s running backs.

That’s all I needed to see.

He’s our Filipino guy.

Detractors may call it “identity politics.”

People don’t seem to understand the fight for visibility. To be recognized. To be seen. It’s all wrapped up in the big idea of Civil Rights.

I was nowhere near as good as Nikko when I played. But when you are blessed to play football, you play your hardest.

For me, that was when I was 12 and 13 playing Pop Warner football in San Francisco. I was MVP for my team as a running back.

But I was ashamed of my dad. He wasn’t like the other dads. And I remember going to the team banquet to retrieve my trophy alone.

I didn’t realize it probably meant more to him than I thought.

I wish I had shared my MVP moment with him like Nikko shared his joy with his dad, Mark, born in Seattle to two Filipino immigrants, and his mom, whose mixture of Black and White made Nikko the picture of diversity.

Filipino American and Black and White at the Super Bowl.

But don’t forget, there is one game bigger.

The Super Bowl for Democracy. We’re battling for it every day Trump pushes a cockamamie idea that shakes the foundation of our Democracy.

About the Author

Emil Guillermo is an award-winning journalist and commentator. Watch his micro-talk show “Emil Amok’s Takeout/What Does an Asian American Think?” on www.YouTube.com/emilamok1 Or join him on http://www.patreon.com/emilamok