The College’s first basketball team was organized in 1940, coming together as a result of an advertisement for interested basketball players to come out for the new Centralia Township Junior College, now Kaskaskia College.
Coach Bruce Grant and team members chose the moniker “Blue Devils” which continues as the name for the men's athletic teams at Kaskaskia College. Their schedule included games against Blackburn College, Joliet Junior College, Springfield Junior College, Elgin Junior College, Shurtleff College, and McKendree College. Playing some four-year colleges and junior colleges, Centralia Township Junior College finished their first season with four wins and six losses.
Team members include: Herman Joseph Johnson, Robert Oral Smith, Robert Louis Cover, Frank Gene McCarrey, John Leland Adams, Richard Charles Lake, Francis Lynn Kirkland, Stanley Warren Russell, John Paul Ahlers, Lawrence A. Schwartz, Charles A. Garritson (team manager) and Coach Bruce Grant.
