CARLINVILLE – A special high school basketball event in honor of a beloved area broadcaster returns to the place where it all began this year.
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The sixth annual T. Todt Shootout vs. Cancer event will be held Saturday, Dec. 14 at Carlinville High School, and will feature five boys’ and three girls’ games.
Carlinville was also the site of the first-ever T. Todt Shootout, on Dec. 8, 2018. Tickets are good all day and are $5 for adults, with $2 for children.
The annual event celebrates the life of Terry Todt, the longtime sports director at WSMI Radio, who died on May 23, 2019 after a long battle with a debilitating form of appendix-based cancer. He was survived by his wife of 39 years, Brenda, and their two children.
Immensely popular with coaches, players, and fans, Todt was familiar to many with his enthusiastic love of high school sports and fervent support of area youth, particularly in his hometown of Raymond.
Todt was a member of several Halls of Fame, including the Illinois Basketball Coaches Association and the Illinois Softball Coaches Association.
A proud graduate of Lincolnwood High School, Todt was also a recipient of the Panhandle Education Foundation’s Distinguished Alumni Award. In honor of his tireless dedication to volunteerism with youth sports, a soccer field in Raymond was named for him in October 2018.
The shootout is organized by Tim Mize, one of Todt’s co-workers at WSMI. All eight games will be broadcast on WSMI 106.1-FM.
All proceeds from the event will benefit the Montgomery County Cancer Association, an organization that supports cancer victims and their families, and was of great importance to Todt.
“The T. Todt Shootout is so special for all of us,” said Mize. “It celebrates Terry’s love for high school basketball. But it’s also a way to celebrate what Terry meant to all of us.”
Since its inception at Carlinville in 2018, the event has rotated among area high schools, including Lincolnwood (2019), Nokomis (2021), Hillsboro (2022), and Litchfield (2023). Next year, the event goes back to Lincolnwood, followed by Staunton in 2026.
This year’s shootout begins at 9:30 a.m. with a girls’ game between Litchfield and Lincolnwood. Nokomis teams will play in the next two games, starting with a girls’ matchup against Hillsboro at 11 a.m. and a boys’ game with Madison at 12:30 p.m.
Staunton and Rochester will battle in a boys’ game at 2 p.m. That will be followed by another boys game, with Hillsboro taking on Benton, at 3:30 p.m.
Benton, the southernmost team to ever play in the T. Todt Shootout, is coming off a 33-4 season and second-place finish in the IHSA Class 2A state tournament.
The Rangers are a program with a longstanding basketball tradition. Rich Herrin, the head coach at SIU-Carbondale from 1985-98, took the Salukis’ head job after 25 years at Benton, where he went 521-192 with three undefeated regular-season teams.
At 5 p.m., the Carlinville girls will play Triad, followed by a boys’ game with Litchfield and Lincolnwood at 6:30 p.m. The final game of the day starts at 8 p.m., and features the Carlinville boys against Metro East Lutheran.
Shot clocks will be used in the shootout, and team T-shirts will be available for sale. Raffles with special prizes will be held throughout the day.
For more information on the event or to make a donation, call Mize at 217-324-5921.
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