Wilmette senior hooper nets gold at National Senior Games

Wilmette’s Jeff Danielsen is one of the best basketball players age 50-plus in the United States, and he has a gold medal to prove it.

Danielsen, who will turn 57 on Dec. 6, was a member of the undefeated Slow and Steady team that dethroned the two-time defending champion Arkansas Big Dogs in the 50-54 competition at the National Senior Games in Des Moines that wrapped up earlier this month.

(National rules stipulate that older players can compete in a younger bracket but younger players cannot move up and play against their elders.)

The title in the prestigious 3-on-3 tournament climaxed a successful comeback for the 1987 New Trier High School graduate who recently was sidelined for seven months following surgery on his left foot last fall.

After high school Danielsen played college basketball at Luther College in Decorah, Iowa. The power forward returned to the North Shore following his college career and has continued to compete on Chicagoland hardcourts in leagues and pickup games ever since.

He has played in leagues at many locations, including Wilmette Junior High and the Winnetka Community House, and one of his favorite pickup venues is the St. Francis Xavier grammar school gymnasium in Wilmette.

Danielsen imparted some advice to high school age players in a story that appeared in the Evanston RoundTable when he returned from a 2022 national tournament in Fort Lauderdale where he was a member of the silver medal team: “This is not about making a high school team. … This is about spending decades out there playing, developing friendships and having fun and being healthy.”

According to Danielsen, a classic example of basketball’s long-term impact is his relationship with Tyrone Bell. When he was at New Trier he played against Bell, who was at Evanston, but they didn’t meet off the court until they were teammates on the Slow and Steady bronze medal team that played in the 2023 National Senior Games in Pittsburgh.

Rob Bady, a member the Levy Center Foundation’s board of directors in Evanston, is the organizer of the Slow and Steady teams and the Hoops for the Ages Tournament in Evanston during the spring.

Bady had a stellar college basketball career at North Park after excelling in high school in Chicago at Taft.

For the 2024 National Senior Games he put together a high-profile ensemble. He and Danielsen were joined by former Harvard star Arne Duncan, the U.S. Secretary of Education during Barack Obama’s presidency; Loyola University Athletic Director Steve Watson, who starred at Bowling Green; Cedric McCullough, a Proviso East All-State player who became a college standout at Northern Iowa; Eric Sykes, who had an outstanding college career at South Carolina; and Steve Cline, a fixture on North Shore courts.

“Although Steve never played organized basketball in high school or college, he’s one of the best senior players in this area,” Bady pointed out.

At Des Moines in the National Senior Games, Bady and Danielsen joined with Cline to form the three-man Chicago Warriors team that earned a bronze medal in 55-59 competition the week before the 50-54 tournament.

Danielsen, who makes his living as a commercial banker for the Bank of Montreal’s Chicago branch, will curtail his basketball pursuits a bit this fall.

“Our son, Nicholas, is a (right) tackle on New Trier’s football team, and I don’t want to miss his games,” the gold medalist explained.

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