From domed ceilings to legendary alumni, a new book explores the most unique high school basketball gyms in Illinois through stunning photography.
Photo courtesy Vincent D. Johnson
The view of Lewistown H.S. Gym on February 24, 2023 for Vincent Johnson's book Illustrious: The Best High School Basketball Gyms in Illinois.
by Clark Brooks The Sentinel
CHICAGO - On a quiet Saturday afternoon in January 2012, at the Oak Park-River Forest field house, a simple thought refused to leave Vincent Johnson alone. Covering a girls basketball game for the Oak Leaves, Johnson found himself looking beyond the box score and into the bones of the building itself. The space was overwhelming in the best way. Big. Empty. Striking. The field house - massive, architectural, overwhelming in character - was alive with echoes. The gym itself demanded his attention. And as the sounds of voices, squeaking shoots and pound of the ball against the floor faded, so did an idea that would take more than a decade to fully come to life. A book. Not about players or championships, but about the gyms themselves. "It would be cool to do a high school gyms book," he remembers thinking.
From Idea to Reality
The concept first emerged in the early 2000s when Johnson was running IHSFW.com, a website dedicate to high school football coverage around the state, and working on a project to photograph interesting high school football fields and stadiums. But he figured someone must have already done a basketball gyms book. In December 2021, with high school sports returning to full capacity after the pandemic, Johnson found himself at Brother Rice covering a game. He started photographing their unique gym, and the old idea came roaring back. This time, he was determined to make it happen. It was game on. His goal? Find and photograh the most unique basketball venues in Illinois but only the ones that pass his test to separate the wheat from the chaff. "They had to look good empty," Johnson said. "If you can't walk into a gym when nobody else is there and aren't taken aback just a little, it probably didn't deserve to be in the book." The road to publication proved rocky. Johnson signed with a publisher he considered the perfect fit, but creative differences ended the partnership before they got past the cover. Suddenly, funding became a major hurdle — he'd gone from paying for travel around the state to footing the entire bill for each copy. "I thought I was dead in the water for a while about this time last year," Johnson said. He decided on an ambitious page count and quality level anyway, determined to create something he was proud of. Pre-orders poured in, including bulk orders from schools. Family and friends offered zero-interest loans to cover the shortfall.
Photo courtesy Vincent D. Johnson
Ottawa High School’s Kingman Gym, during a boys basketball game between Morris and the Pirates, on Wednesday, January 19, 2022.
"From all the pre-orders by people who just trusted that some guy on the internet (me) was going to deliver on this book, to the people who knew me and that I was about to make a once-in-a-generation keepsake, I'm extremely touched," he said.
The Selection Process
Johnson keeps meticulous records. More than 800 schools have rows in a massive spreadsheet, each with at least eight different columns. Every school included in or considered for the book has a separate sheet with even more information, plus a 360-page Word document with stories on all the gyms. As for hours spent shooting and editing? He can't even guess. "I'd have needed an intern to follow me and track my time and miles," Johnson said. "It's a lot!" While aesthetics drove most selections, logistics played a role too. Gyms with similar design styles sometimes came down to scheduling. Kankakee and Boylan Catholic made the cut because they had home games on nights Johnson was free. Bradley-Bourbonnais and Rockford East easily could have been chosen instead if the schedules had aligned differently. The finished product is a sturdy, 264-page hardcover book with a striking dust jacket. Inside are more than 450 full-color photos of the 124 most interesting high school gyms in the state. Johnson highlights the year each facility was built, its seating capacity, and notable names such as Hugh Hefner, Glen “Doc” Rivers and Arthur “Buz” Sievers. The book is full of tidbits and Illinois basketball trivia. Which gym was the home court for 10 NBA players? Do you know which gym legendary actor Harrison Ford did radio broadcasts from before making it to the silver screen? And which four gyms in Illinois were built with circular domes? Can't get enough? Johnson's blog about his publishing journey has even more information like which seven gyms in Illinois have been hit by tornados.
Photo courtesy Vincent D. Johnson
The Flames of Lycée Français de Chicago take on the Knights of Providence-St. Mel on February 19, 2022.
A Photographer's Journey
Johnson's interest in photography began his sophomore year of high school - a story he saves for the book's author introduction. But the moment he realized photography could be a career came during a high school football game in his hometown of Joliet. Taking a photography elective at Joliet Junior College as a credit-hour filler before transferring to Columbia College, Johnson bumped into Scott Lewis, a staff photographer for the Joliet Herald News. "When he told me that he was working as a photographer and made a decent living working at the paper, I was absolutely shocked," Johnson said. "It never occurred to me that doing photography was a career." His first published photo appeared in the Joliet Herald News' west edition, which served the Morris and Minooka areas. He photographed two women who had opened a crafts store in Mazon. These days, Johnson jokes that the pay doesn't always make photography feel like a career, but he loves what he does. "My office is different every day," he said. "It's hard to be bored when you're literally out there capturing the news that someone will be asking if you heard about the next day."Overwhelming Response
The feedback has stunned him. People tell him they're reading about a different gym each night and can't put the book down. One woman said it's the first time in more than 20 years she can remember her husband trying to get his Christmas present early. "It's a humbling experience," Johnson said. Random people from across the state have asked to call him and talk about gyms and basketball. "It's been great just to hear other stories."
Photo courtesy Vincent D. Johnson
The dust jack cover from Johnson's first book Illustrious: The Best High School Basketball Gyms in Illinois.
The book is available mainly at illustriousgyms.com. Reaching out to bookstores, even independent ones, hasn't been easy. Johnson is listing places where people can buy in person on the website, and he's doing book signings at high school gyms around the state. A calendar on the site lists dates and locations. Johnson is most active on Twitter, Instagram and recently TikTok under the handle VincentDJohnson. He also runs an all-sports Instagram account at VDJsports. His advice to aspiring photographers is simple: "If you see something interesting, take a photo. That moment is never going to be around again."
