The milestone is a landmark in a sportscasting career that has spanned five decades and flirted with a move to the major college and professional ranks. But the Reddick native has stayed in Kankakee and earned several honors, including membership into the media wing of the Illinois Basketball Coaches Hall of Fame. He announced everything from bowling to Little League baseball, but he's become the voice of local high school football and basketball.

Last week, Schrock sat down with The Daily Journal Sports Editor Caleb Benoit to discuss broadcasting, basketball and the best he's seen.

On sports broadcasting:

"It's always what I've wanted to do since I was a kid. I would have these table games, some of which I created myself. I'd create a schedule. I'd announce the White Sox, do the pregame, do the play-by-play, throw the dice -- "Nellie Fox got a base hit" -- and it was the same with basketball and football. And I still do that.

My sportscasting influences:

"Jim Durham ... to me, he's the best basketball announcer I've ever heard. Milo Hamilton I thought was great. Vin Scully. Jack Quinlan ... I was a Sox fan, but I would listen to Cubs games because Quinlan was so good. He was fabulous. Al McCoy, the (Phoenix) Suns' announcer. Those guys are my models.''

My first radio gig:

"First Friday in December, 1962, Pontiac at Bradley, on what was then WKAK 99.9 FM. It was the first FM station in town. A guy by the name of Chuck Henderson, they got him to do the play-by-play. So, on inspiration, I just asked if I could go along and keep score. The boss got back to me and said 'Yeah, we need someone.' And then Chuck said, 'Well, you might as well talk.' And then because of his job, he had to be gone and I'd do the play-by-play. Then I moved to WKAN in '65 and I've been there ever since, with five different partners.''

The best high school coaches I've seen:

"I remember the Denny Lehnus years at Westview. He never had the talent, but what he had, he sure used. Ed Hayes, wonderful guy. Rich Zinanni. Craig Bundy is an excellent football coach. I'm glad to see Cornell Middlebrook ... he's obviously done something right. Vern Sloan. I've always liked Ed Sennett. Ron Oloffson. I can't think of a coach who is better than him. I feel sorry for Alex Renchen ... he takes it so seriously and works so hard. Tom Cirks was a good basketball coach.''

On high school basketball moving to four classes:

"Let's go back to one class. Two is all right. I can handle that. Four classes is ridiculous. It's just so watered down. I've talked to people from Indiana. When they went from one-class to four-class basketball ... in one-class basketball, you couldn't buy a ticket to these games, and they have the biggest gyms in the country. It just destroyed basketball in Indiana.''

The most memorable games:

"Herscher (basketball) should have won state (in 1983). The game at Streator in the sectional, in overtime, when Jeff Scott lost his shoe and scored the winning basket for Eastridge. St. Anne winning the state championship. The two Bradley teams in '91 and '92, coached by Vern Sloan, going to the Elite Eight.

The McNamara (football) state championships were exciting. I can remember the old McNamara-Herscher rivalry. All the local teams used to play in the Kankakee Valley Conference, and for the KVC basketball tournament that year at McNamara, there were people standing in line at 5:30 p.m. who couldn't get in. When they played in Herscher, the place was packed. For football, they would have 4,000 fans. I remember the year that Herscher's stands, at McNamara, caved in because there were so many people. McNamara people who go out and paint on the barns in Herscher, and Herscher people would paint on the walls at Mac. It was a tremendous rivalry.''

The best local basketball players I've seen play:

"(St. Anne's) Jack Sikma. (Herscher's) Scott Meents. I'm going to leave someone out. (Eastridge's) Jeff Scott. Then there's a whole bunch in the next category. Scott almost made it to the Major Leagues but threw his arm out in Triple-A. Meents and Sikma both played in the NBA. Sikma was an all-star. Those are the three that stick in my mind.''

Looking back at my career:

"I've had a great time. I look forward to it now as much as I did 25, 30 years ago. Fooling with the equipment, I don't enjoy that. There's only one person who knows less about technology that I do, and that's (broadcast partner) Denny Lehnus. I mean, we have trouble with cell phones. We don't even own them."