CHAMPAIGN — The Manual Rams road to a state championship was completed with a bridge to the program’s glorious past on Saturday.
Sergio McClain and Marcus Griffin were there to pass the torch of their own legacy and will the 2026 Rams to start their own championship story.
They delivered a 60-55 victory over Quincy Notre Dame in the IHSA Class 2A boys state championship game to give Manual its first state title in 29 years, since McClain and Griffin teamed up to lead Manual to a four-peat from 1994-97 and establish a fabled part of Manual High School boys basketball history.
“I made this state championship game twice (as a player), got beat twice, and I know what that feeling is like,” Rams coach Marvin Jordan said, referring to the Manual 2008 and 2010 runnerup teams. “I’ve been there, and I didn’t want that for these guys.
“For me to be here, and have this experience here, it was a chance to get back down here and check that box off. We have five pictures in our gym from those championship teams of the past, five banners hanging up. A lot of our guys are maybe too young to know who they are. But they read the names, they read the years, they read the accolades and then they see those guys walk through the doors, and they are like, ‘That’s him right there, coach.’
“That’s a big deal for us, because it gives them hope they can be names on that wall, too. I haven’t talked to them (McClain and Griffin) yet. I’m scared of those big bear hugs.”
They were both there Saturday at the State Farm Center.
“It’s a possibility that I’m going to storm the floor,” Griffin said, grinning, at halftime. “They have to enjoy this because these moments don’t happen often. We were incredibly lucky to win four in a row, but how many guys get to say they won one at all?”
It hadn’t happened since. The Rams made it to the state title game in 2008 and 2010 and lost both times. That’s it.
McClain roamed the outer concourse at State Farm Center during halftime, dressed in a custom-made leather Manual Rams letterman jacket.
Orange and black still runs deep.
“It’s been a long time coming, it’s been 30 years since we won the state championship,” McClain said. “I wouldn’t miss this for anything. I’m here hoping to see No. 6.
“Today is the start of a new legacy.”
Indeed it was. The gritty Quincy Notre Dame team made a late run to cut the Manual lead down to two points. With the Rams lead at 57-55 with 42 seconds left, QND opted to go for the lead, but 3-point tries by Beau Eftink and Gavin Doellman missed 5 seconds apart and the opportunity was lost.
QND closed up at 32-2. The Rams won it all at 25-9.
“You want to play great teams throughout the course of the season. … I relish the opportunity to play Manual because they got an incredible record and history in IHSA basketball,” QND coach Greg Altmix said. “Knowing that you have the opportunity to play a team with a legacy like that and win a championship. … We were excited about it.”
How two legendary players saw it
Griffin watched intently from a seat behind the basket near the Manual bench. He’s older now, living in Peoria Heights, coaching a Dunlap fourth-grade boys basketball team and working as a sales rep for a plumbing supplies company.
But he had all that history from the four-peat fresh in his head.
“After we won the first one, we went back to the championship the next year and were declared underdogs,” Griffin said. “Then we were underdogs in our third year. Then we went back our fourth year and same thing. Three-time defending state champions, and still an underdog. We 1,000% had a chip on our shoulder.
“I changed my entire schedule for the week so I could be here today. No way I was missing this. I didn’t talk to the kids before the game. I didn’t want to do anything to take them out of their normal preparation.
“I just want them to appreciate what they have done.”
McClain lives in Champaign now and runs his late father’s foundation, the Wayne McClain Pipeline Foundation.
He was mobbed in the outer concourse at State Farm Center, by well-wishers and Illini fans asking to take pictures.
Former Manual coach Derrick Booth – Jordan’s coach on his state title appearance teams – was on hand. So was former Manual guard Ivan Watson, who was part of the Rams’ 1994 and 1995 title teams.
They watched as Manual extended its ongoing state record with its 18th boys state trophy. The program has been to the state finals 25 times and reached the state title game 10 times.
“They got to cherish every moment of this,” McClain said. “Go out there, play hard, play our game because it is unmatched.
“You’re in a position where you can put yourself in the history books.
“And everybody is going to remember you.”
Dave Eminian is the Journal Star sports columnist, and covers Bradley men’s basketball, the Rivermen and Chiefs. He writes the Cleve In The Eve sports column for pjstar.com. He can be reached at 686-3206 or deminian@pjstar.com. Follow him on X.com @icetimecleve.
This article originally appeared on Journal Star: ‘Start of a new legacy’: Manual Rams boys basketball past heroes watch a championship era born
Reporting by Dave Eminian, Peoria Journal Star / Journal Star
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