Rockford Public Schools will celebrate the eighth annual Champions Ball and Athletic Hall of Fame.The event is a fundraiser for the Rockford Sports Coalition and a way to recognize Rockford’s history and athletic accomplishments.

Mark Sibley was a three-year starter for West High School’s basketball team. Sibley was a sophomore on the 1966-1967 team that went 28-2 and finished fourth in the IHSA state tournament. He was named to the first all-conference team in 1967-1968 and 1968-1969 when West had a combined 39-11 record.

While Sibley also found success in football and baseball, he went on to play basketball at Northwestern University, scoring 1,113 points and grabbing 364 rebounds in 71 games from 1970 through 1973.

The Chicago Bulls drafted Sibley in the fourth round of the 1973 NBA draft. While Sibley didn’t make the Bulls, he did play with the Portland Trailblazers for 28 games in the 1973-1974 season. He was the last RPS 205 player to play in the NBA until Auburn graduate Fred VanVleet.