Together We Win: Eureka Celebrates 25th Anniversary of National Title

The only team from Eureka College to ever win the gold is celebrating its silver anniversary Friday. Hall of Fame head coach Dave Darnall and his 1993-94 Red Devils won the NAIA Division II men's basketball national title on this date 25 years ago -- March 15, 1994.

Eureka basketball fans will never forget where they were on that day. That was the day the Red Devils traveled to a small city in southwest Idaho and won Eureka's first -- and to this day, only -- national championship.

It was arguably the finest season ever put together by a team at Eureka College. The NAIA Division II National Player of the Year. Two separate nine-game win streaks.  A perfect 12-0 record in the old Reagan Center. The list went on and on for the Red Devils, who won a school-record 27 games on their way to claiming a 98-95 overtime victory over Northern State (S.D.) at Montgomery Fieldhouse in Nampa, Idaho for the national title.

Eureka led by as many as 19 points in the first half of the title game, but ultimately had to overcome a five-point deficit in the final three minutes overtime. Chris Peterson's free throw with 1:08 left in the extra period proved to be the winning point. Peterson scored 36 points and went 14-for-14 at the free throw line, including 10 makes in the last six minutes of the game.

The path to the crown was not an easy one. The Red Devils defeated defending national champion Willamette (Ore.) in the second round of the national tournament to advance to the Final Four. Once there, the Red Devils were forced to play Northwest Nazarene (Idaho) in the national semifinals on its home floor. Eureka responded accordingly, coasting to a 16-point win.

"We beat the defending national champion, then we beat the host school, and then we beat the defending runner up," Darnall told Scott Heiberger of the Journal Star in Peoria. "My God, how can you imagine that? Don't ask me how or why, but I believe some things are just meant to be."

Eureka crushed its opposition during the season, scoring 100 points or more on six different occasions. The Red Devils outscored their opponents by an average of 22.7 points per game. 

Darnall, who would end his 20-year run as head coach after the championship season as Eureka's all-time winningest coach with 383 career victories, was chosen as the NAIA Division II National Coach of the Year. He also earned Coach of the Year honors from NAIA College Sports Magazine and the Illinois Basketball Coaches Association.

Senior Troy Tyler scored 610 points during the season to become the school's all-time leading scorer with 2,119 points, a mark that still stands today. Senior Chris Eaton grabbed a single-season school-record 363 rebounds to pass EC Hall of Famer Craig Gerdes as the school's all-time leading rebounder with 925 boards, a mark that still stands today. Eaton was eventually chosen as the national player of the year, while Peterson earned the national tournament's most valuable player award. Peterson joined Tyler and Eaton as 600-point scorers during the season, as his 653 points scored was a single-season school record for 23 years.

During the season, the Red Devils embraced Darnall's longtime mantra, "Together We Win".  Twenty-five years later, the 1993-94 Eureka College men's basketball team remains the most decorated team in school history.