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Art McCaskill was CTHS football standout.
The Veterans Category of the Centralia Sports Hall of Fame is a means of recognizing outstanding athletes of years gone by who created memorable moments on the field or in the gym.
One of those names to remember is the late Art McCaskill, the Veterans Category inductee in the Class of 2023.
A 1961 graduate of Centralia Township High School and a standout in football and track, he received All-State honors as a running back for the Orphans in 1960 and went on to letter at the University of Illinois in football.
As a junior, the 5-foot-10, 172 pound McCaskill, who was labeled a "spinner" back in coach Jim Evers' single-wing offense, scored a touchdown and averaged nearly four yards per carry on 20 rushes in a season-opening win over Stephen Decatur.
He also scored twice in the Shrine Bowl victory against Salem and scored the winning TD with just over a minute remaining and then picked off a pass to clinch Centralia's victory over Mount Vernon to win the South 7 Conference.
In the season wraup, he also had the deciding touchdown in a win over West Frankfort that concluded an 8-1 campaign for the Orphans.
The following spring, he played a key role for the Centralia track squad in teaming with Doug Guerin, Wendell Meeks and Paulrice Downey to win the mile relay, the final event of the South 7 Conference meet in 3:34.4 and get the Orphans the team title by one-point over Mount Vernon. He was second in the 440-yard dash.
The foursome then qualified for state with a second-place finish in the District meet at East St. Louis.
That set the stage for his senior season and McCaskill's performance in the preseason Red and White scrimmage were a preview of things to come as he scored two touchdowns.
He had three TDs in the season opener, a 38-19 Shrine game victory over Salem and a week later, had one of the best single games ever by an Orphan running back.
His efforts in the 26-14 win at Mattoon were best described in the story on the game, written by then-Centralia Sentinel sports editor Bill Niepoetter, which included this paragraph:
"Seldon in a team victory does an individual dominate the contest in the way McCaskill did. Unofficially he carried the ball 26 times from scirmmage, racked up 258 of CTHS' 373 net yards, scored three touchdowns, eight times made the necessary yardarge for first downs (CTHS made 14), picked up 35 more yards on punt and kickoff returns, intercepted a pass and tied Bob Spears for most tackles in the game, seven."
The following week, in a 65-6 lambasting of Herrin, the senior again led the way.
In just six carries with the ball, he scored touchdowns on three of the runs which included runs of 58 and 93 yards. With 197 yards rushing, McCaskill accounted for over a third of the Orphans' team total of 514 yards.
An injury kept him out of the lineup in Centralia's lone loss of the season, that coming at East St. Louis, but he returned to score a TD in a 35-6 victory at Harrisburg.
McCaskill scored two touchdowns and one in wins over Marion and Benton and had both Centralia TDs in a 13-13 tie with Mount Vernon, the second coming in the final quarter to earn the Orphans a tie.
An injury kept him out of the conference wrap-up with West Frankfort and in the season finale versus Eldorado, he was re-injured early in the game and was unable to play.
But in just seven games that season, he rushed for 976 yards, averaging 11 yards a carry, and totaled 1,131 on offense, figuring in pass receptions and returns. He had 15 touchdowns on the season.
That earned him All-State honors from the Champaign-Urbana News-Gazette and from there, McCaskill was on the roster of the University of Illinois football team for the 1962, 1963 and 1964 season including the Rose Bowl winners in 1964. He received an Illini letter in 1964, and in later years, lived in Indianapolis.
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