Gary Novak LA SALLE-PERU Accomplishments • A 1970 La Salle-Peru graduate, Novak was a twotime AP All-State selection who averaged 24.0 points and 14.7 rebounds per game at L-P • Named First Team All-State by the Chicago Daily News, Chicago Today, Rockford Morning Star, Champaign News-Gazette and was an Honorary Captain of Prep Sports Special • Three-year starter at Notre Dame, Novak played in 85 straight games and was a member of the 1974 team that ended UCLA’s 88-game winning streak • Drafted in the fifth round of the 1974 NBA Draft by the Cleveland Cavaliers
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By Bobby Narang
R
ight before the start of his junior season at La Salle-Peru High School, Dr. Gary Novak’s life underwent a dramatic change. Novak, a 1970 L-P graduate, remains a well-known name around the state. He set many records in an illustrious basketball career at L-P and the University of Notre Dame. But Novak showed little signs of becoming a breakout player early in his high school career. “At that time, I was not that good of a basketball player for the first couple of years (of high school),” Novak said. “I was on the sophomore ‘B’ team. But then, I grew almost six or seven inches in a short timespan. Late in my sophomore year is when I hit that growth spurt. Suddenly, everything took off.” At 6-foot-7, Novak had the height to become a game-changing player. He could score inside or outside, and dominated smaller opponents in the post. Novak, who’s among the inductees into the NewsTribune’s Illinois Valley Sports Hall of Fame, went on to a storied career in basketball. Novak, a two-time Associated Press
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See Novak Page 42 A NewsTribune Publication | Illinois Valley Sports Hall of Fame | September 29, 2021 41
