Two men whose history with the Indiana Pacers goes back to the beginning of the franchise passed away recently – one who specialized in words and the other in numbers.
Dick Denny, who covered the Pacers' first five seasons for the Indianapolis News, died on Dec. 29. Gene Hemelgarn, an original member of their stat crew, died on Dec. 23.
Denny was a Richmond, Ind. native who attended Duke and was a catcher on the university's baseball team that reached the College World Series in 1952. He played in the Army as well, and on semi-pro teams afterward.
He joined the News in 1962 after working in Muncie, Fort Wayne and Chicago, and was assigned to the Pacers when they began play in 1967. He covered the team throughout most of their first five seasons. In the early days, he composed his story on a typewriter and then took it to a Western Union office to file to the newspaper office. He initially roomed with the team's radio announcer, Jerry Baker, but the late-night clacking of his typewriter kept Baker awake and forced a change in room assignments.
"He covered every sport there was, and it was always a story you wanted to read," said a fellow former News staff member, Dick Mittman. "He was a great member of our sports department. You couldn't find a better guy than Dick."
The News was an afternoon paper, so Denny focused on feature angles, and was adept at gaining the confidence of the people he covered. He was the first to tell the story of Roger Brown's banishment from the NCAA and NBA, in a two-part feature that ran on March 21 and 22 in 1968. It turned out to be the only time Brown truly opened up to a reporter about his experience.
Hemelgarn, an Indianapolis native, was a Korean War veteran (Navy) who worked for 40 years as an accountant for Coca-Cola. He worked on the stat crews for the Pacers and Colts and at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway for many years before retiring.
The calling for him at the mortuary on Thursday attracted several people associated with the franchise, including Bob and Nancy Leonard, former assistant coach Jerry Oliver and former stat crew chief Bill York, who came up from Tennessee.
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