B O X S C O R EA Publication of the Indiana High School Basketball Historical Society

IHSBHS was founded in 1994 by A. J. Quigley Jr. (1943-1997) and Harley Sheets for the purpose of documenting and preserving thehistory of Indiana High School Basketball

IHSBHS Officers Publication & Membership NotesPresident Roger Robison Frankfort 1954 Boxscore is published by the Indiana High School Basketball

Historical Society (IHSBHS). This publication is not copyrightedand may be reproduced in part or in full for circulation anywhereIndiana high school basketball is enjoyed. Credit given for anyinformation taken from Boxscore would be appreciated.

IHSBHS is a non-profit organization. No salaries are paid toanyone. All time spent on behalf of IHSBHS or in producingBoxscore is freely donated by individual members.

Dues are $10 per year. They run from Jan. 1 – Dec. 31 andinclude four newsletters. Lifetime memberships are no longeroffered, but those currently in effect continue to be honored.Send dues, address changes, and membership inquiries to

IHSBHS, c/o Rocky Kenworthy,710 E. 800 S., Clayton, IN 46118. E-mail: rock2@tds.net

All proposed articles & stories should be directed toCliff Johnson: cliffjohns36@hotmail.com or 16828 Fairburn

St., Hesperia, CA 92345.

Vice Pres Cliff Johnson Western 1954

Webmaster Jeff Luzadder Dunkirk 1974

Treasurer Rocky Kenworthy Cascade 1974

Editorial StaffEditor Cliff Johnson Western 1954

Syntax Edits Tim Puet Valley, PA 1969

Content Edits Harley Sheets Lebanon 1954

Tech Advisor Juanita Johnson Fillmore, CA 1966

Board Members

Bill Ervin, John Ockomon, Harley Sheets, Leigh Evans, CliffJohnson, Tim Puet, Roger Robison, Jeff Luzadder, RockyKenworthy, Doug Bradley, Curtis Tomak, Kermit Paddack.

2015 SUMMER ISSUE

Front Row: Maurice Lorenz, Madison; Jim Barley, Marion; Joe Sexson,Indianapolis Tech; Cal Grosscup, Auburn; Jim McLaughlin, New Albany.Back Row: Coach Angus Nicoson; Dean Rainbolt, Bloomington; VicMolodet, East Chicago Washington, Danny Thornburg, Muncie Central; JuniorPhipps, Kokomo; Fritz Franz, Lafayette; and Trainer Jim Morris.

EDITORIAL POLICYThe opinions expressed inBoxscore by individual authors donot necessarily reflect the views ofIHSBHS as an organization.

CONTENTS OF THIS ISSUEMembership Notes…………………...11952 Indiana All-Star Team………...1Robert Wylie Obituary……………...2Pre-Class Sectionals Attendance……2John Wooden’s Early Years………...32015 State Tournament Review…...11Tidbits, by Harley Sheets………….13IHSBHS Membership Form………14IHSBHS Member Profile Form…...15Hall Of Fame Membership Form…16

MEMBERSHIP NOTESThe total IHSBHS membership

number continues to rise, in spite of thegrim reaper’s toll on many of itsmembers this past year. New arrivals tothe Society since the first of the year arehereby welcomed. They are as follows:Bruce Babcock, Bloomington, IL; RoyThomas, Gary; Mikel Ropp, Elkhart;Elmer Reynolds, Martinsville; JayMcGill, Martinsville; Eron Smith,Cincinnati, OH; Coach Pete Smith,Noblesville; Kyle Good, Lynn; PhilOwens, Knox; Dr. Robert Cantrell,Schererville; Jay Cunningham, ColoradoSprings, CO; Jack Peckinpaugh,Muncie. We look forward to hearing

from any of you who might have a storyto submit or would simply like to talkwith us.

THE 1952 INDIANA HIGHSCHOOL ALL-STARS

byCliff Johnson, Boxscore Editor

The late 1940s and early ‘50s aregenerally considered to be the dawn ofIndiana Basketball’s “Golden Age.”The 1951-52 season was whollyrepresentative of that period. It was oneof the most exciting seasons thatHoosier high school basketball fans hadyet enjoyed. That newly-created living

room appliance called the “televisionset” was being purchased and installedin the homes of hundreds of thousandsof Indiana families. One of the mainmotivators to buy one was theopportunity to view at home the IHSAAtournament games being televised upand down the state in the early spring of1952. Indianapolis’ Channel 6 WIRE,with Tom Carnegie handling the play-by-play accounts all the way into thestate finals, broadcasted mosttournament games played inIndianapolis, including the final threecontests at Butler Fieldhouse. The finalsdrew an on-site capacity crowd (as

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Dr. Robert Reed Wylie

usual) that exceeded 15,000. Munciewas ultimately crowned as the statechampion, but it had to battle its wayearlier through some tight games,including a home court 62-60 semi-finals squeaker against NCC champ andthe #1 ranked team in the state, theKokomo Wildkats. Then in the finals,the Bearcats narrowly edged out theNew Albany Bulldogs, 68-67, in a hotlycontested afternoon thriller. The GoldenAge of Indiana Basketball was in fullswing.

At the conclusion of the season, a ten-player All-Star team was again selectedby the Indiana sportswriters as had beenthe on-going practice since 1939 exceptfor the WW II years 1943 and 1944. JoeSexson from Indianapolis Tech waschosen as Mr. Basketball for 1952. Thisteam of ten seniors, as always, wasexpected to play against a similarcontingent of All-Stars from Kentuckyin June, once all high school graduationceremonies had been concluded in bothstates. The Indiana boys this year hadtheir hands full disposing of a highlytalented and tall Kentucky squad led by6-5 Jerry Bird, 6-4 Charley Harrison, 6-8 Phil Grawmeyer, 6-4 Bill Bibb, 6-0backcourt ace Phil Rollins, andsharpshooter 5-11 Linville Puckett. TheHoosiers prevailed in an overtime game,86-82, on a brace of last-minute fieldgoals by Morrie Lorenz from theMadison Cubs. He paced the Indianateam, with 25 points. Sexson finishednext with 12. Rollins and Puckett ledthe Kentucky squad in scoring with 28and 17 points, respectively. The teamcoaches were Ed Diddle for Kentuckyand Angus Nicoson for Indiana.Attendance at the game was 9,372.

The result might have been muchdifferent had two top Kentucky All-Starplayers not been absent for this contest.One was a 6-3 hardwood magician andhook shot artist named Charles“Doodle” Floyd, the other was 6-0 highschool All-American selection HowieCrittenden. Both had played just a fewdays earlier in a North vs. South All-Star game. Nevertheless, this was the7th consecutive win for the Indiana All-Stars against their Kentuckycounterparts.

DR. ROBERT WYLIE OBITUARYOct. 24, 1939 – Feb. 27, 2015

Dr. Robert Reed Wylie, 75, longtimeIHSBHS member and resident ofBloomington, Indiana, died Friday,February 27, 2015. He was bornOctober, 24, 1939 in Bloomington,Indiana to the late Dr. Charles & MaryFrances Wylie. He graduated fromUniversity High School in 1957, IndianaUniversity in 1961, and the IU MedicalCenter in 1965. He served his countryas a Captain in the Medical Corp of theUS Army from 1966-68 in Viet Nam atthe 93rd evacuation hospital and also asa battalion surgeon with the 1st InfantryDivision, during his military career heearned the Bronze Star. Dr. Wylie hadhis own Family Practice and was theDirector of the Health & WellnessRehabilitation Facility in Hobart, IN.Later, he maintained a Family Practicein Bloomington, IN and then served asMedical Director of GM Power TrainDivision in Bedford, IN. In addition tohis extensive medical career hereviewed medical malpractice cases forvarious law firms and instructed IUmedical students Bloomington campus.

Dr. Wylie was a member of PhiGamma Delta Fraternity (FIJI), RotaryClub International, belonged to theAmerican Legion Post #18 inBloomington, IN, a member of theIndiana University Hoosier Hundred,

and served as the High School AthleticTeam Physician for Hobart high schooland other schools in Northwest Indiana.He was the recipient of numerous civicand community awards including, theIndiana I.A.A.A. Distinguished ServiceAward, the State Medical AssociationCommission on Sports Medicine TeamPhysician of the Year award, and wasinaugurated into the Hobart High SchoolAthletic Hall of Fame in 2013.

PRE-CLASS SECTIONALTOURNAMENT ATTENDANCE

byDoug Bradley

As General Motors goes, so goes thenation. That was never more trueanywhere than in Anderson at 13th andLincoln streets—where the basketballarena known as the Wigwam is located.

Good GM shop wages paid forhundreds of thousands of AndersonSectional tickets from 1962 until agroup of small school principals pushedfor Indiana to have a third-ratetournament – behind Illinois andKentucky – after 1997. Now that GM isgone, it’s no surprise that only a littlesalt, pepper, and plastic surgery iskeeping the wrecking ball away fromthe Wigwam. (Editor’s note: Thecurrent owners of the Wigwam areBlack & White Investments LLC andPinebrook Properties, owned by anIndianapolis plastic surgeon.)

In its infancy, a sold-out Wigwamcouldn’t sell more sectional tickets thana nearly full Butler Fieldhouse. But bythe time Butler Fieldhouse was re-named Hinkle Fieldhouse and theIHSAA limited sectionals to no morethan eight schools, interest and ticketsales began to wane in Indianapolis.

The Wigwam replaced Hinkle as thetop sectional ticket seller by the mid-1970s. Anderson was No. 1 in sectionalattendance until the third year after theIHSAA had limited sectionals to nomore than six schools, in 1992. Whensectionals were no longer sold out atAnderson or at perennial No.2 NorthSide Gym in Elkhart, Memorial Gym inHuntingburg became the attendanceleader in 1994, 1995, and 1997.

A modified form of the old AP andUPI polls can show the areas where

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interest and support for the IHSAAtournament were at their highest duringthe final sixteen years (1982-1997) ofthe single-class era. The followingattendance ranking is based upon actualnumbers recorded at the sectionaltournaments, but presented in a differentformat. First place in highest sectionalattendance for each year was given 15points, second place given 14 points,etc., etc., down to a single point for 15th

place in the poll. (First-place finishesare shown in parentheses):

1. Anderson (13) 2372. Elkhart 2113. Southridge (3) 1784. Washington 1635. Marion 1426. Evansville 1377. Seymour 978. New Castle 889. Kokomo 76

10. Terre Haute 65Others in the top rankings were:

Muncie 53: Frankfort 49; Lafayette 47:Richmond 37; Carmel/Noblesville 36;Warsaw 35; Boonville, South Bend 33;New Albany 26; Goshen 23; Greensburg21; Huntington North 18; IndplsTech/Lawrence North 17; Bedford-NL14; Gary West 13; South Adams 10;East Noble, Greenwood 9; Madison,Vincennes 8; Martinsville 6; MichiganCity 5; Connersville, Shelbyville 4;North Montgomery 3; Lebanon, Paoli 2;and Logansport 1.

Comments: Anderson, as noted, wasfirst in attendance for 13 of the 16 yearsand second each of the other 3 years.The school in 38th place with a singlepoint, Logansport, finished 15th inattendance just one time during the 16-year period. Anderson, Elkhart,Southridge and Washington were theonly sites in the top 15 of attendance foreach of these final 16 years that thesingle-class state tournament wasconducted.

JOHN WOODEN’S EARLIERYEARS: SETTING THE RECORD

STRAIGHTby

Curtis H. TomakIntroduction

This article is about John Wooden,the famous basketball coach who was

born and raised in Indiana. I have beenresearching his Indiana years, and thisarticle is based upon that research.

My research has focused upon JohnWooden’s Indiana years and his familyhistory because I felt that those topicscould and should be addressed morecompletely and more accurately thanthey had been. The researchemphasized the examination of a widevariety of records which revealed muchnew information, produced interestingdiscoveries, and identified significantdifferences between what was found inthe records and what is contained inprevious accounts of John Wooden’searlier years, including his own books.

One particularly significant discoveryis that the Wooden family lived inMartinsville, Indiana, from 1907 to1914, prior to their later move toMartinsville in 1925. In addition,although John claimed he had been bornat the little village of Hall, Indiana, theresearch produced strong evidence thatJohn, his brother Maurice, and their twosisters were born in Martinsville duringthat initial period of residence, and theresearch also located the house in whichthe Wooden family lived during thattime and in which I believe thosechildren were born. Although Johnstates that his parents lost their farm atCenterton, Indiana, to the bank andmoved to Martinsville in 1925, realestate records show that they sold thefarm to a relative in 1930, five yearsafter they had moved back toMartinsville. Two Martinsville housesin which John Wooden lived duringhigh school have been identified, and itwas found that aspects of his highschool basketball career have beenexaggerated. The research also foundthat John’s claim that he majored inEnglish at Purdue and his assertion thathe and his wife, Nellie, spent their firstweek of marriage apart are incorrect.

The above mentioned inaccuracies inthe long-held standard account ofWooden’s life plus other ones that areknown raise the following question:Why are there numerous inaccuracies(and certain omissions) in JohnWooden’s accounts of his earlier yearsand significant differences between hisaccounts and what was found in the

records? Enough inaccuracies havebeen identified to make one wonder howmany more exist. Different inaccuraciescould be for different reasons, and wemay never know the reason for each ofthem. However, a noticeable result ofthe inaccuracies is that they do make thelong-held standard account of JohnWooden’s earlier years a moreinteresting and more attention-gettingstory than the accurate story.

Setting the Record StraightAn appropriate way to begin is by

briefly introducing John Wooden. JohnRobert Wooden was born in MorganCounty, Indiana, in 1910. He was anAll-State basketball player atMartinsville High School, graduating in1928, and was an All-Americanbasketball player at Purdue University,graduating in 1932. He coached at highschools in Kentucky and Indiana from1932 to 1946, at Indiana State TeachersCollege (now Indiana State University)in Terre Haute from 1946 to 1948, andat UCLA from 1948 until retiring in1975. While at UCLA, Wooden’s teamswon ten NCAA national basketballchampionships in a twelve-year periodfrom 1964 to 1975. He is a member ofvarious halls of fame, both as a playerand as a coach, and is widely regardedas the greatest basketball coach of alltime. He has received a multitude ofhonors and awards; for example, in 2009Sporting News Magazine voted him thegreatest coach of all time, regardless ofthe sport, and in 2003 he was awardedthe Presidential Medal of Freedom, ournation’s highest civilian award. He hasalso been widely recognized for hischaracter, principles, philosophy of life,and teaching. John Wooden passedaway in 2010 at the age of ninety-nine.

Many books and articles have beenwritten about John Wooden, and he hasauthored a number of books about hislife, beliefs, and approach to life. Histwo main autobiographical books areThey Call Me Coach (written with JackTobin), published in 1972 and again in1988, and My Personal Best (with SteveJamison), published in 2004.

The present article provides a newaccount of John Wooden’s earlier yearsand family history, basically from the

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time of his parents’ marriage to thebeginning of his coaching career. Thisis not the usual account of JohnWooden’s life that has been around formany years because this new accountincludes a lot of recently discoveredinformation and differs in significantways from the long-held standardaccount of Wooden’s earlier years.Before presenting the new account, it isimportant to talk about the research thatprovided the evidence.

I have been seriously researchingJohn Wooden and his family historysince 2010. Why would I research JohnWooden, especially since he has beenwritten about so much? To start with,he is a famous, accomplished, andinteresting person who is from MorganCounty, and I and my two co-workerson this project, Joanne Stuttgen andNorma Tomak, are also Morgan Countypeople. In addition, however, I had readand heard numerous accounts of his lifeand observed that they frequentlycontain a noticeable amount ofunsubstantiated, inconsistent, andinaccurate information. Also, theygenerally seemed to be the same storiesover and over, and we wondered if therewas something new and interesting thatcould be found to add to the JohnWooden story.

Those kinds of things prompted moreresearch to try to find out the “realstory,” especially in regard to his life inIndiana. Researching his Indiana yearsis something that we were in a positionto do since we live in Martinsville; haveaccess to pertinent records, information,and individuals; and have a backgroundin historical research.

Research methodology is alwaysimportant, but, especially when dealingwith someone of the status of JohnWooden, the researcher needs to be surethat people know that the research issound and that the results are accurateand based upon good evidence. This iseven more the case since in a number ofinstances the results of my researchdiffer with what John Wooden saidabout his life.

Goals of the research were todetermine what was correct and whatwas incorrect, to discover newinformation, to provide an accurate

chronological account of Wooden’searlier years (regardless of what thestory turned out to be), to base thataccount upon documented evidence, andto reference our sources of informationso that anybody could go to thosesources and check it out for themselves.Refer to the closing paragraphs of thisarticle for information pertaining towhere specific sources documenting theresearch can be found.

Two general sources of informationwere available to me: people anddocuments. In regard to people, whocould I interview? I could not interviewWooden. He passed away in 2010 notlong after I started my research. Thekind of information I wanted could notbe obtained from people such as coachesand players. At the late date of 2010there were not many people left whocould provide relevant information orleads pertaining to the teens, 1920s, or1930s. Nevertheless, personalinterviews were included in theresearch, and fortunately I was able tolocate some people who providedrelevant information.

But, regardless of the amount ofinformation that I received throughinterviews, I wanted to use documentresearch as a primary source ofinformation and to do it in a way that, toour knowledge, nobody else had done inregard to John Wooden. My plan was toconduct the research by emphasizing theuse of a wide variety of written recordsand, hopefully, to be able to base eachof my statements and conclusions uponmore than one source. I would makeextensive use of the records to find newinformation, to check what hadpreviously been written about Wooden,and to check information obtained bypersonal interview.

By researching many kinds of writtenrecords pertaining to John Wooden andhis family, I discovered much newinformation and a surprising number ofsignificant differences between what isin the records and what is in previousaccounts of his earlier years, includinghis own books. Among the records thatI used are birth, death, marriage, school,church, fraternal organization, realestate, court, tax, census, military, andSocial Security records. Other sources

include family histories, obituaries,wills, city and county directories,telephone directories, books, articles,postcards, photographs, and newspapers.

The old newspapers are veryinteresting and extremely useful. Theycontain a lot of local information andsocial items that are not found in today’snewspapers. This information oftenoccurs as little items or blurbs which arescattered throughout the paper or arefound in columns devoted to particulartowns or communities besidesMartinsville; for example, Monrovia,Centerton, and Hall, and even verysmall communities such as High Rock,Lippitt, and many others.

Those little items tell such things aswhere people lived, moved, and worked;who they visited; who was sick, had aparty, took a vacation, or bought a newcar; who got a new puppy; and manyother things. Examples will be providedas we go through the story.

The following narrative is a newaccount of John Wooden’s earlier years,and it is important to emphasize thatpractically all of the informationpresented is new information. The focusis on instances where the results of myresearch differ from the acceptedstandard stories about John Wooden,including stories given in his ownbooks. All of those instances deserveexamination because they involvemeaningful episodes or parts ofWooden’s life. They are stories that heplaces emphasis or importance on, andthey have a prominent place in accountsof his life. However, they are storiesthat evidently did not happen the way heand others said they did.

An appropriate place to begin thepresent account is with John Wooden’sparents, Joshua Hugh Wooden (1882-1950) and Roxie Anna Wooden (1887-1959). Hugh, as he was usually called,grew up on a farm near the little villageof Hall in Morgan County. His father,Robert, was a farmer and is reported tohave taught school for a number ofyears.

Roxie grew up on a farm just outsidethe little town of Centerton in MorganCounty. Her father, John Rothrock, wasa farmer and a businessman and becamewell-off.

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According to marriage records andnewspaper accounts, Hugh and Roxiewere married at her parents’ home atCenterton on April 19, 1905. Duringtheir forty-five-year marriage, they hadfour sons (Maurice, John, Daniel, andWilliam) and two daughters (HarriettCordelia and an unnamed daughter whodied at birth).

After their marriage in 1905, Hughand Roxie lived at or near Hall untilthey moved to Martinsville in 1907.This is documented by the following setof informative little items fromMartinsville newspapers, items whichalso specify where the Woodens lived inMartinsville. As we will see, their moveto Martinsville in 1907 and remainingthere until 1914 is significant to the JohnWooden story, in particular to thequestion of where John Wooden wasborn.

The first newspaper item of the set isdated November 13, 1905, and reportsthat Mr. and Mrs. Hugh Wooden ofHall, who have been living at the homeof his parents since their marriageseveral months ago, were in Martinsvilletoday buying furniture for their ownhome “in which they are expecting to goto housekeeping this week.”

An item for December 7, 1906, statesthat Mr. and Mrs. Hugh Wooden, east ofHall, were in Martinsville today“assisting Santa Claus in Christmaspurchases.”

A newspaper for June 20, 1907, statesthat Mr. and Mrs. Hugh Wooden havemoved to Martinsville from Hall andthat they will live in the cottage at 204North Wayne Street.

And lastly, an item for October 28,1907, informs us that “Mr. and Mrs.Hugh Wooden are improving theirresidence property on North Jeffersonstreet by the addition of a front porch.”

So, by October 1907, the Woodenswere living in a house on NorthJefferson Street in Martinsville. Thefollowing month Hugh and Roxie’sfirstborn child, Maurice, arrived, and abirth announcement for him in aMartinsville newspaper pinpoints theWoodens’ address as 460 NorthJefferson Street. According to realestate records, the house was owned byRoxie’s father.

After the Woodens moved toMartinsville in 1907, they lived thereuntil 1914, as documented by manyrecords. For example, Hugh was amember of the Knights of Pythias, andtheir records give his address in 1909 asMartinsville. The 1910 directory of theFirst Christian Church of Martinsvillegives Hugh and Roxie’s address as 460North Jefferson Street, as does the 1910federal census. Numerous newspaperitems also document that the Woodenslived in Martinsville from 1907 to 1914.For example, an obituary for Hugh’sfather in September 1913 mentions thatHugh lives on North Jefferson Street,and an August 1914 item states thatHugh Wooden and family ofMartinsville visited his stepmother nearHall.

The standard story has been that theWoodens did not live in Martinsvilleuntil 1925 when they moved there fromtheir farm at Centerton. However, asdocumented above and furtherdocumented below, we now know thatthey had previously lived in Martinsvillefrom 1907 to 1914. This is an importantdiscovery, and, as far as I know, it hasnot been mentioned in any of JohnWooden’s books and had not beenreported by anyone else.

Records show that John Wooden wasborn on Friday, October 14, 1910, andthat the family was living on NorthJefferson Street in Martinsville at thattime. The discovery that the Woodenswere living in Martinsville when Johnwas born is significant because thestandard story has been that John wasborn at the village of Hall. However,despite a diligent search, no item hasbeen found in any newspaper or otherrecord that stated or even suggested thatJohn or any of the Wooden childrenwere born at Hall. In the early 1900s,Morgan County births were not alwaysofficially recorded, and no birthcertificate or other official record ofJohn’s birth has been located. However,there are other relevant documentsrelating to his birth that are available.

In his book They Call Me Coach,John states: “I was born in a little placecalled Hall where my father worked as atenant farmer. . . .” By this, John is notonly saying that he was born at Hall but

is also indicating that the family wasliving at Hall when he was born.Interestingly, however, the informationon a birth announcement postcardshown in the preface of John’s book MyPersonal Best provides contraryinformation. It states that the familywas living at Martinsville when Johnwas born and, therefore, suggests thepossibility that his birthplace is actuallyMartinsville. (See Fig. 1)

Two other birth announcementpostcards are known. Those cardssupport a Martinsville birthplace sincethey were postmarked at Martinsville at8:30 a.m. on the day after John wasborn, were written by his father, and oneof the cards was sent to Hugh’s parentsat Hall. On the card sent to Hall, Hughasks his parents to come down soon andsays that all are doing fine so far, whichimplies that Hugh and his family are inMartinsville.

Additional evidence for a Martinsvillebirthplace is furnished by a birthannouncement in a 1910 Martinsvillenewspaper on the day of John’s birth:“Born to Mr. and Mrs. Hugh Wooden,North Jefferson street, a son – JohnRobert.” That newspaper item tells usthat the Woodens were living inMartinsville in 1910 when John wasborn, and it does not mention anythingabout Hall.

If John had been born at Hall,considering all of the miscellaneoustidbits of information that appeared inMartinsville newspapers of the time, itwould probably have been mentioned,especially since Martinsville newspapersregularly contained news from othertowns and communities, including Hall.Moreover, since those little news itemsroutinely reported ordinary visits andtrips that people made, one would thinkthat, if John had been born at Hall, thenewspaper would have mentioned thathis mother was away from her home atMartinsville and was at Hall when hewas born.

In addition to the foregoing evidencefor a Martinsville birthplace, significantdocuments exist that actually state thatJohn Wooden’s birthplace isMartinsville. Among them are earlyschool enumeration records, John’s1932 marriage application, his 1941

IHSBHS 2015 SUMMER ISSUE Page 6

Social Security application, and hisWorld War II military records.Martinsville is listed as his birthplace onall of those documents.

The above mentioned schoolenumeration records deserve somediscussion. Each year in each townshipof the county, an enumerator, similar toa census taker, interviewed the parentsof school-aged children in order toobtain information about those children.The requested information includedplace of birth. Birthplace is variouslygiven in the enumeration records ascounty, township, town, or community.The Morgan County enumerationrecords that list John Wooden are for theyears 1916-1924, and in no case dothose records give Hall, the township inwhich Hall is located, or the adjacenttownship where Hugh’s parents livednear Hall as the birthplace for John. IfJohn had been born at Hall, one wouldthink that his parents would havementioned it to the enumerators.

In conclusion, since there was nohospital at Martinsville at the time ofJohn’s birth and it was customary forchildren to be born at home in 1910, theevidence indicates that John was born inthe house at 460 North Jefferson Streetin Martinsville. In view of all of thedocumentation supporting a Martinsville

birthplace and the lack of evidence forHall, I am not sure why John Woodensaid in his books that he was born inHall. (See Fig. 2)

Researching records for the period1907-1914 also provided informationabout the kinds of work John’s fatherwas doing during that time. Records ofthe Knights of Pythias for 1909 statethat Hugh was a laborer. The federalcensus for 1910 reports that he was abutter-maker at a creamery. An October1910 newspaper item states that Hughhad just become a clerk at Martinsville’sHill-Sadler grocery; another item inFebruary 1911 relates that he was takingorders for manure spreaders; andnewspapers for May and July 1912indicate that he was installing lightningrods.

1913 was a bad year for Hugh andRoxie Wooden. Among the unfortunatethings that happened was the tragic lossof both of their daughters. Johnmentions their deaths in his books, but,by researching newspapers, I was able toadd to the story, as follows.

In early January 1913, the Woodensmade a holiday visit to the home ofHugh’s father and stepmother near Hall.While there, the children came downwith diphtheria. Maurice and Johnrecovered, but, on January 5, three-year-

old Harriett Cordelia passed away. Shewas buried at Centerton Cemetery, buther parents could not attend her burialbecause they were quarantined at hergrandparents’ house. Just three monthslater, in April, Hugh and Roxie’snewborn daughter died at birth. Shewas never given a name and within aday was buried alongside HarriettCordelia at Centerton.

For whatever their reasons, theWoodens left Martinsville and moved toHall in September 1914, as documentedin newspapers. John has stated that hisfather worked there as a tenant farmer.

A year later, in September 1915, theWoodens moved about five miles to thesmall town of Monrovia in MorganCounty to a location whose currentaddress is 15 East Main Street,according to newspaper items and realestate records. An obituary for HughWooden states that he had been a mailcarrier at Monrovia, and John writes thatat Monrovia his dad also worked a smallfarm.

Roxie’s father passed away in January1917. My research of real estaterecords, her father’s will, and courtdocuments, shows that Roxie inheritedthree properties: the house at 460 NorthJefferson Street in Martinsville whereshe and Hugh had lived from 1907 to1914, a town lot in Centerton in MorganCounty, and a fifty-eight-acre farm withhouse at Centerton. According tonewspapers, the Woodens moved fromMonrovia to the farm at Centerton inearly March 1917. (See Fig. 3)

They lived on the farm from 1917until 1925, and during that time, whenJohn was nine years old, somethingalmost happened that could haveradically changed John Wooden’s lifeand basketball history. (See Fig. 4)

While I was researching oldMartinsville newspapers, I discoveredthe following interesting advertisementdated September 5, 1919, stating thatHugh Wooden was having an auctionthat month: “As we have decided toquit farming and move to Florida, thisfall, we will offer for Sale at PublicAuction, on the Hugh Wooden Farm…SEPT. 18, 1919…All Our PersonalProperty.” Listed property includedfarm animals, farm equipment, crops,

Fig. 1 Birth Announcement: Postcard announcing John Wooden's birth, mailedOctober 15, 1910. (Courtesy of Fred Hawkins)

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and “Other articles too numerous tomention.” However, two months later,the newspaper for November 7, 1919,states: “Mr. and Mrs. Hugh Woodenand family have given up their trip toFlorida on account of recent ill health ofMrs. Wooden.” So, they did not go.

But, what if they had gone to Floridaand stayed? John’s career most likelywould not have been in basketball, andit is unlikely that John would havebecome acquainted with Nellie Riley,his future Martinsville girlfriend whobecame his wife and who was soinstrumental in his life and career.

The Woodens not only stayed on thefarm but real estate records show thatthe Woodens increased the size of theirfarm to about eighty-three acres bypurchasing nearly twenty-five acres

from Roxie’s brother in 1922. Theirfarmhouse was essentially a four-roomstructure without a front porch anddiffered from the remodeled house thatis pictured in books about John Wooden.This is the farm that is prominent innarratives about John’s boyhood. Hisstrong affection for it is well expressedin his book My Personal Best: “For mybrothers and me, growing up on thatlittle farm in Centerton was almostperfect.”

Maurice and John graduated from theeighth grade at Centerton, Maurice in1921 and John in 1924. In those days,graduating from the eighth grade was aformal event and involved passingexaminations in about ten subjects. Byresearching township trustee records, Ifound that both Maurice and John didwell on those examinations. Maurice’soverall average was 90. John’s overallaverage was 93, with a high score of 96in music and low scores of 91 in writingand in U.S. history.

After graduating from the eighthgrade and while living at Centerton,Maurice and John commuted byinterurban train to Martinsville HighSchool. However, it would not be longbefore the commutes and Centertonfarm life ended. John’s books indicatethat the family stopped farming at

Centerton in 1924 or 1925. In his bookThey Call Me Coach, John says thatthings were not going well, there was amortgage on the farm, his dad could notrepay a loan, and that they lost the farmand moved into Martinsville in 1925. Inhis book My Personal Best, John states:“The end came suddenly . . . and thebank took the farm.”

However, the farm does not appear tohave been lost or taken by the bank.Although the Woodens left the farm in

1925 and moved back to Martinsville,real estate records show that they stillowned the farm five years after they hadmoved back to Martinsville and then, inNovember 1930, sold the farm toRoxie’s nephew Roy Rothrock and hiswife for $7,500. In addition, theRothrocks assumed the Woodens’mortgage on the property. Also, itseems likely that the Woodens receivedsome income from the farm by renting itout during the period 1925 to 1930because newspaper items identifyfamilies who were occupying theWoodens’ farmhouse in 1925, 1926, and1928.

John Wooden’s story about his dadlosing the farm is a good place to pauseand say something about his feelings forhis father and about the purpose of someof John’s stories.

Fig. 3 Centerton House: Recentphotograph of the Centerton farm-house where the Woodens livedfrom 1917 to 1925. (Courtesy ofElmer Reynolds)

Fig. 2 460 N. Jefferson St. Photo,2010: Photograph taken in 2010 of thehouse at 460 North Jefferson Street inMartinsville where the Woodens livedfrom 1907 to 1914. The evidenceindicates that this is where JohnWooden was born. (Photo by CurtisTomak, with permission)

Fig. 4 Hugh Wooden Family: The Wooden family, ca. 1918. Left to Right:Hugh, Daniel, Maurice, John, and Roxie. (Courtesy of Mildred Swisher)

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John Wooden idolized his father andincludes much about his dad in hisbooks. John thought that his father wasincredibly wise, the best man he everknew, and that his father was essentiallyresponsible for the kind of person Johnbecame. John was a kid who listened tohis dad and internalized what his dadsaid and did. His father pervaded hislife, and the way the relationship isportrayed brings to mind that of masterand disciple.

Not all of John Wooden’s stories arestories merely to relate things thathappened during his life. He thought ofhimself foremost as a teacher, and heused stories that are based upon his lifeto make a point or to teach a lesson.The farm story is used that way, and hisbooks provide the following example.When John was a senior in high school,Martinsville lost the state championshipgame on a very odd play at the end ofthe game. His teammates were upset,crying, and taking it hard. But Johnapproached it differently, practicingwhat his father taught, which is to beprepared and do your best and derivesatisfaction from having done that. Johnfelt that he had prepared, done his best,and that no one could ask for more, andhe responded to the painful anddisappointing experience by followingthe example set by his father. John saysthat he could not cry or complain aboutlosing the basketball game since his dadhad not cried or complained when helost the farm to the bank. However, aswe have just seen, the farm story did nothappen the way John said it did. Hisdad did not lose the farm.

John was just starting his sophomoreyear in high school when the Woodensmoved back to Martinsville in 1925, andit is of interest to know where they livedduring John’s remaining high schoolyears.

Some people have proposed that Johnlived at 159 South Jefferson Streetduring high school. However, that is notthe correct location because recordsshow that the Woodens did not movethere until at least seven years after Johnhad graduated from high school.However, by utilizing several kinds ofrecords, I was able to determine wherehe did live in Martinsville during high

school.Based upon Maurice Wooden’s

records at Franklin College, real estaterecords, and newspaper accounts, theWoodens moved during the first weekof September 1925 from the Centertonfarm to a house in Martinsville whoseaddress at the time was 410 East PikeStreet. The large, two-story, brick houseat that address was the first of twoMartinsville houses in which JohnWooden lived during high school, and itwas quite a change from the Woodens’small and quite modest Centertonfarmhouse. (See Fig. 5)

The Woodens lived at the Pike Streethouse until March 1927 when theymoved to 165 West Washington Street,living there from 1927 to 1930, asevidenced by a newspaper item, realestate records, church documents, the1929 city directory, and the 1930 federalcensus. Since John Wooden graduatedfrom high school in 1928, theWashington Street house was the secondof two Martinsville houses in which helived during high school.

The Wooden family’s move to WestWashington Street in March 1927occurred right around the time that Johnand his teammates were playing in the

state high school basketball tournament.John was a junior that year, and he wasone of the stars of the team.Martinsville won the 1927 statechampionship by defeating Muncie.Martinsville had been runner-up in 1926and would be runner-up again in 1928.(See Fig. 6)

John Wooden was a great high schoolbasketball player, but often hisachievements and status have beenoverstated. The standard story has beenthat he led the team to the state finals hissophomore (1926), junior (1927), andsenior (1928) years and that he was an

All-State basketball player those threeyears. That is another incorrect JohnWooden story that is often repeated.Based on game accounts, All-State lists,related basketball items in newspapers,and high school yearbooks, Woodenwas not the team leader for three years,nor was he All-State in each of thosethree years. He was not a star or thebest player on the team every year hewas on the team.

John was on the reserve team hisfreshman year. He was a varsitysubstitute his sophomore year, and Ihave found no evidence that he was ateam leader, star, or an All-State player

Fig. 5 410 East Pike St. Photo, 2010: Photograph taken in 2010 of the house at410 East Pike Street in Martinsville to which the Woodens moved from theirCenterton farm in 1925. They lived at the Pike Street house until 1927. (Photo byCurtis Tomak, with permission)

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as a sophomore. In fact, he did not playin about thirteen of the games that year.John blossomed as a junior, became astarter, All-State, and one of the stars ofMartinsville’s team along with LesterReynolds who was the captain of theteam and a senior that year. LesterReynolds was the established star, atwo-year team captain, and a three-yearAll-State pick. John became teamcaptain and was the team leader and All-State his senior year. (See Fig. 7)

Both John and his teammate LesterReynolds were great players in highschool, and they both are in the IndianaBasketball Hall of Fame. It isinteresting that Lester Reynold’s Hall ofFame biography states that Reynolds is“called by many veteran observers thegreatest basketball player inMartinsville’s history.” Lester went onto have a fine basketball career atIndiana State Teachers College (nowIndiana State University), graduating in

1931. It is too bad that Lester haslargely been forgotten.

John Wooden’s high school girlfriendand future wife was Nellie Riley (1911-1985). According to Greene County,Indiana, birth records, Nellie was bornat Bloomfield on June 26, 1911, and wasthe daughter of John and ChristineRiley. Based upon newspaper items andother records, the Rileys moved toMartinsville from Bloomfield inSeptember 1919. (See Fig. 8)

In 1921, according to real estaterecords, the Rileys purchased a house at90 South Wayne Street. Their housewas just east of the home of GlennCurtis, John’s high school basketballcoach, and that is where the Rileys livedwhen John and Nellie were in highschool. Nellie was a junior atMartinsville High School when Johnwas a senior, and she graduated in 1929.

Both the Woodens and the Rileyswere members of the First ChristianChurch of Martinsville. Church recordsstate that Hugh and Roxie becamemembers in January 1910 and thatNellie’s parents joined in March 1920.John states in one or two of his booksthat he and Nellie were baptizedtogether in 1927. However, churchrecords state that Nellie was baptized inDecember 1923 and that John Woodenand his brother Maurice were baptizedtogether in April 1927.

After John graduated from highschool in 1928, he enrolled that fall atPurdue where he was very successful inboth academics and athletics. However,his stellar, All-American, basketballcareer was not without difficulty.According to his book They Call MeCoach, he was hospitalized aroundChristmas every year he was at Purdue:scarlet fever his freshman year; leginjury his sophomore year; injury inpractice his junior year; and tonsiloperation his senior year.

The leg injury that hospitalized himduring his sophomore year is ofparticular interest. According tonewspapers, it resulted from being hit bya Minardo Brothers’ fruit truck in WestLafayette and caused John to miss theButler game (which Purdue lost). Theincident was serious enough for Johnand his father to file a lawsuit against

Fig. 6 1927 Starting Members: The starting members of Martinsville's 1927 state

championship team. (From the 1927 Martinsville High School yearbook)

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Minardo Brothers for $1,500 indamages, as reported in a Lafayettenewspaper in April 1930. So far, I havefound no record of the outcome of thecase. As far as I know, this lawsuit hasnot been mentioned in any of JohnWooden’s books and has not beenreported by anyone else.

John Wooden graduated from Purduein June 1932. He has stated many timesin his books and elsewhere that hemajored in English at Purdue, and thathas become the standard story.However, I noticed an item in a June1932 Martinsville newspaper that listedpeople from Morgan County who hadjust graduated from Purdue. JohnWooden was listed with a bachelor’sdegree in physical education. I checkedthe 1932 Purdue yearbook, and he isshown there as a senior in the physicaleducation section of the yearbook. Iwas not sure what the situation was, so Iwrote to the Registrar’s Office atPurdue. They wrote back saying that,according to their records, John’s onlymajor was physical education and thathe had graduated with a bachelor’s

degree in physical education.Soon after John’s graduation, he and

Nellie were married. Marriage recordsand newspapers show that they weremarried in a small ceremony onMonday, August 8, 1932, by ReverendJ. Ambrose Dunkel, pastor of theIndianapolis Tabernacle PresbyterianChurch, at Dunkel’s Indianapolis home,and not in a church on a Sunday asreported in books about John Wooden.

Accounts given in John’s books TheyCall Me Coach and My Personal Beststate that he and Nellie spent theirwedding night in Indianapolis and thatthey had to get up early the very nextmorning to return to Martinsville whereJohn’s basketball coach at Purdue, WardLambert, was meeting John to take himto Vincennes to participate in a week-long basketball clinic which started thatmorning. According to those accounts,this resulted in John and Nellie havingto spend their first week of marriageapart. In his book They Call Me Coach,John goes on to add: “We wereprobably one of very few couples tohave spent their first week of marriageapart.”

It seemed odd that John and Nelliewould get married the day before Johnwas going to be away from Nellie for aweek at a basketball clinic. However,newspapers clarify the situation bydocumenting that their first week ofmarriage did not happen the way Johnsaid it did. It appears that John’saccount of their first week of marriage isan instance in which the actual story hasbeen embellished to make a moreinteresting story.

John did participate in the basketballclinic at Vincennes, but John was not atthe clinic during their first week ofmarriage because the clinic did not takeplace that week (August 8-14). Theclinic was conducted the following week(August 15-20), as documented inVincennes newspapers. In addition, atrail of little items in Martinsvillenewspapers provides information aboutJohn and Nellie’s activities during theirfirst week of marriage and shows thatthey were not apart that week.

On Monday, August 8, 1932, Johnand Nellie obtained their marriagelicense in Martinsville and were married

in Indianapolis.Two days later on Wednesday,

August 10, they returned to Martinsvilleafter visiting Nellie’s brother inIndianapolis, and then on the followingday, Thursday, August 11, John andNellie went to Bloomfield to visit.

On Sunday, August 14, the last day ofthe first week of their marriage, Johnplayed in an afternoon baseball game atMartinsville.

The following week, August 15 toAugust 20, is when John was away atVincennes participating in the basketballclinic, according to Vincennesnewspapers. Later that month John andNellie went to Dayton, Kentucky, whereJohn began his coaching career.

After moving back to Martinsville in1925, John’s parents remained there therest of their lives. During that time,Hugh Wooden worked as a bathattendant at Home Lawn, a mineralwater sanitarium, and that may havebeen his only employment afterreturning to Martinsville. Roxiereportedly worked at two ofMartinsville’s mineral water sanitariumsand at Petro’s dress shop in Martinsville.Hugh passed away in 1950 from cancer,and Roxie passed away from heartproblems in 1959. They are buriedalongside their daughters at CentertonCemetery.

John Wooden spent most of his life inCalifornia. After graduating fromPurdue, his career as a teacher andcoach began at Dayton High School inDayton, Kentucky, in 1932. He thenwent to South Bend Central HighSchool in Indiana in 1934 and was thereuntil 1946, which includes serving in theNavy from 1943 to 1945. He coachedbasketball at Indiana State TeachersCollege (now Indiana State University)in Terre Haute from 1946 to 1948.While at Indiana State, according toschool records, he earned a master’sdegree in education. His master’s thesisis interestingly titled “A Study of theEffect of the Abolition of the CenterJump on the Height of OutstandingCollege Basketball Players.” Woodenthen went to UCLA in 1948 andcoached there until he retired in 1975.He won ten NCAA national basketballchampionships at UCLA, and that is

Fig. 7 John Wooden 1928: JohnWooden as a high school senior.(From the 1928 Martinsville HighSchool yearbook)

IHSBHS 2015 SUMMER ISSUE Page 11

what underlies the fame he has beenaccorded.

Obviously, John Wooden has a greatcoaching record, but in regard to hisrecord, it is appropriate to correctanother common John Wooden story.The standard story has been thatWooden had only one losing season as abasketball coach which happened atDayton High School in his very firstseason of coaching during the 1932-1933 school year. However, myresearch of his high school coachingcareer shows that he also had a losingrecord at South Bend Central HighSchool in the 1936-1937 season, whichwas his first year as head coach at SouthBend. John Wooden had a fabulousfinish but a mediocre start to hiscoaching career. Two of the first threeseasons that he coached were losingseasons.

For The Rest Of The Story--The research findings that have been

presented in this article and a lot ofother new information are published inan article titled “John Wooden: ARevised Beginning.” I am the principalauthor and researcher for that article.My co-authors are Joanne RaetzStuttgen and Norma J. Tomak. Thearticle was published in two parts by theIndiana Historical Society inIndianapolis in 2012. It is in two issuesof their journal named Connections,

with Part 1 in the 2012 spring/summerissue and Part 2 in the 2012 fall/winter

issue. The article is an account of JohnWooden’s earlier years and familyhistory. It not only contains much newinformation, but it is estimated thatabout 65% of what is in the article hadnot been published by anyone else.

Copies of that article can bepurchased at the Indiana HistoricalSociety in Indianapolis. The article isalso available on the Society’s websitewith Part 1 and Part 2 appearing asseparate entries. A modified version ofthe article is on the MartinsvilleChamber of Commerce website as oneentry, and it includes some illustrationsthat are not in the original article. Go toGoogle and search by entering Tomak,John Wooden. Both versions shouldappear at the top of the page.

This Boxscore article is based uponour 2012 published article, but bynecessity I had to leave out a great manythings, including a lot of the newinformation, from the present account.The complete account, documentation,and references can be found by readingthe 2012 article.

2015 STATE TOURNAMENTIN REVIEW

byTim Puet

This year’s State Finals had aninteresting storyline for every game:

Would Barr-Reeve erase the stigma ofbeing a four-time championship gameloser? Would Park Tudor be able tostake a claim as Indiana’s greatest high-school basketball dynasty? WouldEvansville Reitz, averaging 92.2 pointsper game, score 90 or more? Andperhaps most intriguing, would Griffithbe able to “stick it” to the IHSAA?

The answer to all those questionsexcept the last one was “Yes.” In thecase of Reitz, it was “Yes” with anasterisk – the Panthers did score 90, butit took overtime to do it, and theiropponent, Homestead, wound up with91.

Barr-Reeve beat Michigan CityMarquette 65-50 in a rematch of the2014 1A championship game, taking a16-9 lead after one period and neverbeing seriously threatened the rest of theway, holding Marquette to 20 pointsunder its season average. The resultmirrored a meeting of the same twoteams in December, with Barr-Reevewinning that one 70-58.

The key to the game was Marquette’sbeing able to limit Providence recruitRyan Fazekas to 18 points. Fazekas hadburned the Vikings in the 2014championship game with 34 points,including a class record seven 3-pointers, and 10 rebounds. Barr-Reevealso made its free throws this time,going 26-for-36 from the line for classrecords in both categories.

I had predicted in my 2014tournament review that this game mightbe a rematch because the two teams hadmost of their starters back, and it wasone of my rare correct predictions. Italso was only the fourth title-gamerematch in tournament history. Theothers were Muncie Central-Martinsvilleat the first title game at HinkleFieldhouse in 1928, and MuncieCentral-Lawrence North (4A) andForest Park-Harding (2A) in 2006.

This was Barr-Reeve’s third title-game appearance in six years. With theVikings finally winning the crown, thedubious distinction of being the schoolwith the most championship gameappearances without winning a titlepasses to Winchester, which is 0-3 in the2A final (2000, 2007, and 2008).Brownstown, Concord, Elkhart Central,

Fig. 8 Nellie 1929: Nellie Riley as a high school senior. (From the 1929Martinsville High School yearbook)

IHSBHS 2015 SUMMER ISSUE Page 12

Greencastle, and Terre Haute Garfieldare 0-2.

As I mentioned last year, schools inDaviess and Martin counties have beenon a remarkable run in the tournamentsince 2002, and Barr-Reeve added tothat. The Vikings, Washington, andLoogootee have now combined for sixstate championships and 11 State Finalsappearances since in 13 years.

Barr-Reeve’s Ethan Duncheon wonthe Trester Award, making him thefourth member of his family – and thethird consecutive – to receive the honorfor Class 1A basketball. His cousinHannah Bullock won the same award inthe girls tournament one month earlier,in which Barr-Reeve lost thechampionship game. Another cousin,Micah Bullock, was the 2014 boysrecipient, and Duncheon’s brother,Christian, was the honoree in 2010.

Park Tudor beat Frankton 73-46 in2A, with its 27-point margin of victorymatching the class record it set theprevious year in routing Westview 84-57. Park Tudor’s Bryce Moore, who’sheading for Western Michigan, finishedwith 31 points and was nearly asdominant as the Panthers’ TrevonBluiett had been when scoring 38 pointsin the 2014 title game.

Moore was scoreless in the firstquarter, but had 16 in the second as ParkTudor put the game away by halftime.He was 10-14 from the field and 9-for-11 from the line. Park Tudor’s 26-for-45performance from the field for 57.8percent bested the class record of 56.3percent the Panthers had set the previousyear, while Frankton was just 12-for-49for 24.5 percent.

Thanks mainly to Yogi Ferrell andBlueitt, both of whom were on hand forthe game, Park Tudor has won four 2Atitles in five years, a string unmatchedby any Indiana school in either the one-class or multiclass era, and one whichcertainly puts Park Tudor in the same“dynasty” conversation as the Franklin,Marion, and Lawrence North teams thatwon three straight championships. I’mno fan of the Panthers because of theadvantages they possess, but one can’thelp but admire any team that continuesto be that strong year after year as itwears the bull’s-eye of success on its

back.Park Tudor moves up to 3A next year

because of the success factor, which wasinstituted in large part to prevent thekind of dominance shown in recentyears by the Vikings and BowmanAcademy. The success factor also willmove Barr-Reeve, Marquette, andGuerin up one class next year. I thoughtBowman was going to wind up in 4Abefore long, but I see the Eagles had adown year this season and Marvin Realost his job as coach for what seem likepretty murky reasons – meaning heprobably offended the wrong people –so they’ll be back in 2A next year.

As in 1A, the Trester scenario was a“family affair.” In this case, twinsCameron and Connor Bates of Franktonwere joint winners, duplicating the featof Tom and Dick VanArsdale of IndyManual in 1961 and Jon and DonMcGlocklin of Franklin in 1974.Incidentally, three of this year’s fourTrester winners were from the winningfinalist. Remember when it waspractically a given that the Trester wasseen as a consolation prize for the losingschool in the finals?

The 3A game between Guerin andGriffith was the most anticipated of thenight, mainly because of the IHSAA’shard-nosed attitude toward Griffith inthe wake of a fight at a Hammond-Griffith game in February. Theassociation kicked both schools out ofthe state tournament – a punishment thatseemed unduly harsh compared to thesanctions it issued in similar incidents inthe past.

I saw the fight on video and agree thatthe punishment was too harsh. Thewhole thing took less than a minute, andcooler heads quickly prevailed. I saw alot worse on more than one occasion inthe late 1960s and early ’70s at my ownhigh school in Pennsylvania, where Iwas the basketball student manager andthen the broadcaster for its games in theearly days of local cable TV. A one-game suspension, or at the worst, aforfeit of the rest of the regular season,allowing Hammond and Griffith toreturn for the playoffs, would have beenquite sufficient punishment for them.

You all know what happened. Griffithwent to court and won, embarrassing the

IHSAA greatly, and the associationappealed the decision. As the AndersonHerald Bulletin (which had no rootinginterest for either team) put it in aneditorial on the day of the State Finals,“A dark cloud will be shadowing oneprogram throughout its finalsappearance, win or lose. And thatcloud’s name is the Indiana High SchoolAthletic Association.”

I’m sure the higher-ups in the IHSAAwere privately cheering for Guerin. Itwould have been quite a moment ifBobby Cox or someone else from theassociation had ended up giving the 3Achampionship trophy to officials of aschool that’s suing the organization.Ironically, the association may haveended up doing Griffith a favor bygiving that school’s set of Panthers(Park Tudor and Reitz, plus manyothers, share the nickname) a month’srest from playing games.

As for the game itself, to everyone’scredit, there didn’t appear to be anyproblems. Harley Sheets and I wereseated next to the Guerin sections anddidn’t sense any animosity, and that heldtrue throughout the fieldhouse. Fansconcentrated on the game at hand, whichwas a good one as Guerin, trailing mostof the way, went on a 9-3 run in the final2:30 for a 62-56 victory and its secondstate title in four years. Guerin’s Lehigh-bound Matt Holba, a transfer fromChesterton (a lot closer to Griffith thanGuerin is), had 29 points, includingGuerin’s last five, plus 14 rebounds andfour blocked shots.

I first saw the State Finals in personin 1978 because of the delay whichresulted from the energy crisis of thatyear, and have been on hand at theHoosier/RCA Dome and the fieldhousefor the final day of play in most yearssince 1990, taking off a few years foreconomic or family reasons. I’d rankthis year’s 4A final as one of the bestchampionship games I’ve seen, theothers being Muncie Central-TerreHaute in 1978, South Bend Clay-Valpoin 1994 (both also overtime affairs), andBedford-North Lawrence-Concord in1990.

It was apparent early on that Reitzwouldn’t be the scoring machine it wasthroughout the season, but the Panthers

IHSBHS 2015 SUMMER ISSUE Page 13

were in control most of the way andappeared to be on the way to their firsttitle, leading 71-63 with 1:56 left.Harley and I might have left earlier ifthey had gotten the lead to 10, but thatnever happened, Homestead went on a10-2 run the rest of the way, scoring thelast six points to tie the game at 73, withTahj Curry scored the last twoHomestead baskets of regulation timeoff steals.

The overtime was as high-scoring asthe regulation game had been expectedto be, with the teams combining for 35points in four minutes. Homestead ledby four with 9.2 seconds left, but JaelanSanford of Reitz hit a 3-pointer to cutthe final margin to one.

Caleb Swanigan, one of two 6-9starters for Homestead, was named Mr.Basketball after the tournament, Hestarted out slow, but got better as thegame went on and ended up with 20points and 14 rebounds. The 181 pointstied the record for any championshipgame, set in that Clay-Valpo game in1994. Reitz lost despite going 20-for-22from the line, a class record 82.6percent. Homestead at 18-for-24 alsowasn’t too shabby from the stripe.

Now for some general observations:Last year, I wrote about Ohio’s adoptionof a “competitive balance” plan whosegoal is similar to the IHSAA successfactor, but is a lot more complicated.There has been almost no talk about itthis year, at least not in the publicationsI read, so there’s nothing for me to addon that subject. That could change oncethe plan goes into effect in 2015-16.

Attendance for the two State Finalssessions was a record low, totaling22,595, with 12,862 at the eveningsession and less than 10,000 in themorning. It’s become common that theearlier session has plenty of empty seats,and this year’s big-school games didn’tfeature a big enough attraction to lureenough people to the fieldhouse fromtheir armchairs, where they could seeplenty of NCAA action, includingKentucky’s quest for an unbeatenseason, plus the high-school games.

For what it’s worth, the numbers areworse in Ohio. Attendance for our statetournament was 112,070 in 12 sessionsat Ohio State – an average of 9,339, and

a drop of 17,000 just from the previousyear. The biggest crowd was 10,664 forthe big-school title game. Why thedecline? See the end of the previousparagraph for at least some reasons.

Speaking of the NCAAs, the scene atBankers Life Fieldhouse at the end ofthe 4A game was most interesting. Somefolks left, but it seemed like most stayedto watch the end of the Kentucky-NotreDame game on the concourse TVs.Notre Dame was up by five late, but,like Reitz, couldn’t get that one morebasket it needed, and lost in overtime.Kentucky then lost to Wisconsin thefollowing week in the Final Four asDuke, almost forgotten because ofKentucky’s being unbeaten, ended upwinning Coach K’s fifth NCAA title.

Former Fort Wayne Journal-Gazettecolumnist Ben Smith wrote an excellentcolumn concerning the decline in high-school attendance in a column in thatpaper’s March 25 issue. The headlineread “Hoosier Hysteria dead, but gameis bone-deep.” To quote part of it:“Hoosier Hysteria is as dead as disco.Let’s get that out there straightaway.“What that means, what it’s alwaysmeant, is that Hoosier Hysteria was acertain specific brand, carrying with itcertain legacies that could not betransferred. … Whatever came afterwould be something else. On the otherhand, Indiana is still Indiana. And whatthat means, and what it always willmean, is that if you put up a basket inMarch in Indiana and let kids shoot at it,people will show up to watch.”

Smith went on to write about the fullhouse at Huntington North for its 3Aand 4A semi-states. Thanks to themarvel of YouTube, I was able to “see”those games (mostly I just heard theaudio at work, writing for the CatholicTimes in Columbus), as well as theSouthport semi-states, which filled thatarena. Crowds also looked good at thesemi-states in Lafayette and Seymour.Then there was the regular-season Reitz-Southport matchup at Southport’s biggym, which drew a full house for a 1-vs.-2 late-season matchup.

So the interest is still there. It is adifferent format, but put on the rightmatchup and people will come. I’m sureeven Harley will admit we’re not going

back to the old days, but what Indianahas now is still unmatched anywhereelse, at least from what I can see.

Speaking of Harley, I would beremiss if I didn’t publicly express mythanks to him for putting up with me asa house guest for the tournament theselast four years. It’s always a pleasureand a learning experience to see himevery year on the fourth weekend inMarch. We’ve known each other for 24years, since being introduced by aformer IHSBHS member at the Dome in1991 after I expressed admiration forHarley’s “Where in the World” epic.How can it be that long ago already?

And one more thing. If you haven’talready, go to www.indystar.com, or justGoogle “indy metro high schoolbasketball champions” for a great three-part series on the underdog Metro teamthat won the 1A title in 2011. As youmight expect, being part of that teamlifted up some of its members, butwasn’t enough to keep others fromgoing back to old ways, with one ofthem dying less than six months aftercutting down the championship net. It’sa story that’s uplifting and sobering atthe same time.

TIDBITSby Harley Sheets

My alma mater, Lebanon, is one ofonly 13 Indiana high schools to havewon 50 plus sectionals. Until recently,its sectional futility had spanned 6 years.But in 2015 the Tigers (7-16) finallybroke a frustrating 12-year drought byclaiming their 51st crown in a fairlyweak sectional at Frankfort. Only NorthMontgomery of the 5 teams entered hada winning record. The total won-lost tabfor all teams was 46-66. Somethingregistered with me that the 5 entrantswhen combined brought prestige to thetournament some years back. Whynot?! After all, all five teams reside inthe “Cradle of Indiana high schoolbasketball.” Eleven titles were won asfollows: Frankfort (1925-29-35-39);Lebanon (1912-17-18); N. Montgomery(Wingate 1913-14); Western Boone(Thorntown 1915): and Crawfordsville(1911). Has there ever been anothersectional where ALL entrants held statechampionships? If so, I’d like to know.

IHSBHS 2015 SUMMER ISSUE Page 14

BECOME AN IHSBHS MEMBER

(Indiana High School Basketball Historical Society)

Join a statewide group of sports-minded individuals who have a

common interest in the history of high school basketball, Indiana’s

favorite sport. Membership dues are currently just $10 per year.

Established in 1994, and loosely associated with the Hall of Fame in

New Castle, IHSBHS (pronounced “ish-bish”) publishes four seasonal

newsletters for its members, each issue usually 12 to 16 pages in

content, known as Boxscore. This newsletter contains diverse items,

including short stories that recount tales of former Hoosier ballplayers

and their schools’ teams. Members are invited, but not required, to

submit their own personal stories for inclusion in Boxscore.

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Mail to: IHSBHS Treasurer Rocky Kenworthy, 710 E. 800 S., Clayton, IN 46118

Board of Directors: Roger Robison (Frankfort ’54), Harley Sheets (Lebanon ’54), Cliff Johnson

(Western ’54), Rocky Kenworthy (Cascade ’74), Tim Puet (Valley, PA ’69), Bill Ervin (Terre Haute

Wiley ’57), Leigh Evans (Castle ’86), John Ockomon (Pendleton ’66), Doug Bradley (Columbus

East ‘77), Jeff Luzadder (Dunkirk ‘74), Curtis Tomak (Linton '59), Kermit Paddack (Sheridan (’02).

IHSBHS 2015 SUMMER ISSUE Page 15

IHSBHS MEMBER PROFILE FORM(Tell us about yourself)

Complete this form and mail to: Rocky Kenworthy, IHSBHS, 710 E, 800 S, Clayton, IN 46118. Profiles mayappear in Boxscore from time to time.

Today’s Date _______________________________

Member’s Name __________________________________________ Phone No._________________________

Email __________________ Address ___________________________________________________________

Occupation/Profession _______________________________________ Retired? ________________________

Major Interests/Hobbies ______________________________________________________________________

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Past Sports Activities ________________________________________________________________________

Where Born? ___________________________ Year Born __________________________________________

High School __________________________________ H.S. graduation year ___________________________

College or Univ._____________________________________________________________________________

Area of Study ______________________________ Degree(s)/Year __________________________________

Additional Comments You’d Like To Share: ____________________________________________________

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IHSBHS 2015 SUMMER ISSUE Page 16