2017-18 Hickory Nights

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The Indiana Pacers will honor the eight Indiana High School Athletic Association 2018 state basketball champions during Tuesday's game against the Charlotte Hornets during the final "Hickory Night" of the season. Continue reading to learn more about each state champion. (Note: All quotes are from The Indianapolis Star)

Four girls state championships were earned on February 24 at Bankers Life Fieldhouse, including one school winning their first state championship in any sport and an unranked team winning their first girls basketball state title.

Class A: Marquette Catholic 38, Vincennes Rivet 31
Top-ranked Marquette Catholic came out on top between the battle of the top two ranked teams in Class A, defeating Vincennes Rivet 38-31. In their victory, Marquette Catholic set a Class A State Championship record for points allowed with 31.

The victory caps off a dominant season for Marquette Catholic, who finished with a record of 27-2. They locked down Vincennes Rivet all game long, only allowing them to shoot 17.4 percent from the field in the game.

Class 2A: Central Noble 46, Winchester Community 42
Central Noble took home their first state championship in any sport by defeating Winchester Community, 46-42. They managed to overcome a six-point halftime deficit to take home the title.

Central Noble, who is coached by Josh Treesh, was able to keep pressure on Winchester Community throughout the game, helping them get 10 steals and 12 points off turnovers.

Class 3A: Northwestern 63, Greensburg 42
Northwestern earned their first girls basketball state title by taking down Greensburg, 63-42. Their dominant championship game caps off a season that featured only one loss.

Kathie Layden, Northwestern's head coach, took home her fourth state title and said that intensity was key to Northwestern's victory.

"We played the way we have all season long," Layden said, "We shared the ball, we were aggressive on defense and we rebounded well."

Class 4A: Warren Central 50, Zionsville 46

Warren Central capped off the girls championship with their first girls basketball state title, defeating Zionsville 50-46. The game was tied at 39 with 6:03 left to play, but Warren Central was able to gain an edge and close out the victory.
They came into the game unranked and trailed by one entering the fourth quarter, but Stacy Mitchell, the team's head coach, said that didn't deter them.

"We stayed poised and kept it together," Mitchell said. "When they made a run, we didn't succumb to the run mentally. This is something they can never take away from them."

On March 24, four schools took home their first boys state basketball titles, including a school that won their first state title in any sport and another that completed a sweep of the boys and girls state championships this season.

Morristown opened the day with a blowout, defeating Southwood 89-60. In total, 10 Class A State Championship records were set in the game, with five of those set by Morristown. Those records include Morristown's record for most points scored with 89.

Morristown dominated the glass in the game, grabbing 51 rebounds to Southwood's 29. They also moved the ball much better than Southwood, dishing out 25 assists to Southwood's 12. Head Coach Scott McClelland said that's just part of the team's identity.

"It's a product of who this team is," McClelland said. "They've shared the ball all year long."

Oak Hill closed out the morning session with their first boys basketball state title, defeating Forest Park 56-44. The game was a defensive struggle throughout, as both teams struggled to score.

Oak Hill was able to get an edge by forcing turnovers, as Forest Park coughed up the rock 20 times. They were able to capitalize on those mistakes by tallying 16 points off turnovers. Fifteen of those turnovers came in the second half and helped Oak Hill put away Forest Park.

Class 3A: Culver Academies 64, Evansville Bosse 49

The evening session opened with Culver Academies winning the first state championship in any sport in school history. They defeated Evansville Bosse, 64-49. The state championship game got off to a scorching start for Culver Academies, as they jumped out to a 30-8 lead early in the second quarter.

They never relinquished that lead, staying in front for over 28 minutes of game time. That lead was maintained because they took advantage of Evansville Bosse's mistakes, forcing 18 turnovers and scoring 26 points off of them.

Culver Academies Head Coach Mark Galloway attributed the win to their defensive effort. "We just locked in and played really good defense," he said.

The day was capped off with its closest game as Warren Central took down Carmel 54-48 to complete their undefeated season at 32-0. The win also meant that Warren Central had captured both the boys and girls state basketball titles.

Their victory didn't come easy, as they trailed by as much as 11 in the third quarter. Warren Central Head Coach Criss Beyers said that the lead never seemed insurmountable to his team.

"It definitely helped that we've been down worse than this," Beyers said. "They've believed all year long that there is no deficit that is too much."

Warren Central finished the season as the number two ranked team in the country, according to USA TODAY high school sports.

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IHSAA Boys and Girls Basketball State Champions to Be Honored During Hickory Night

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Tony Hinkle officiated high school football games on Friday nights.

That's as good a place as any to begin when examining what's nothing less than the most unusual career in the history of American college athletics, a livelihood that spanned three sports and 49 years, and landed him in at least seven halls of fame.

Hinkle, whose legacy at Butler University will be honored by the Pacers at the next Hickory game on Sunday at Bankers Life Fieldhouse, left behind records, memories and stories that will forever go unmatched. Seriously. Who else is going to coach 1,902 games for a university – 303 in football, 952 in basketball and 647 in baseball, and have a winning record in all of them? Who else is going to coach all three sports in the same academic year for 31 of those years? Who else is going to also work as athletic director for his final 39 years?

And, yes, who else would also officiate high school football games on Friday nights, just to help fill the hours?

"Isn't that crazy?" Billy Shepherd said. "He did it for years."

So many aspects of Hinkle's life and coaching career qualify as crazy by today's standards, but he wasn't. While those unfamiliar with his personality might picture him as some manic workaholic who couldn't sleep, sit down or settle into anything, he actually was a calm, collected sort who rarely raised his voice. He accomplished so much for so long by keeping things simple and not taking things too seriously.

Hinkle's took the same approach to his role as athletic director. He was said to be a "three-drawer man," who kept the budget in one drawer, schedules in another drawer and contracts in another.

Granted, Hinkle was fortunate to coach at a university that maintained an emphasis on academics and in an era – eras, really – when the public was less neurotic about outcomes. Hinkle had his down seasons, as coaches tend to do over 49 years. He had three consecutive losing seasons twice in his basketball coaching career and lost plenty of games to teams with lesser talent. But his successes overshadowed everything.

Hinkle inherited a strong program from Harlan "Pat" Page, who had coached him at the University of Chicago, and kept it rolling. His teams were a combined 112-29 over his first seven seasons and was awarded a declared national championship in 1929 after it finished 17-2 and knocked off the likes of Pittsburgh, Purdue, North Carolina, Missouri and Notre Dame. It was an honor bestowed by the Veteran Athletes of Philadelphia, but the Bulldogs were as legitimate a choice as any. The Helms Foundation voted the same recognition to Montana State.

As other conferences evolved and larger universities built facilities to compete with Butler's spacious fieldhouse, which was an attraction in itself after construction was completed in 1928, it became more difficult for Hinkle's teams to compete on a national scale. Although playing in small-school conferences, or at times no conference at all, Hinkle always scheduled home and road series with Big Ten Conference schools and other major programs. In his final decade of coaching, his teams defeated Wisconsin, Illinois, Michigan State and Purdue, as well as third-ranked Michigan in the 1965-66 season.

Butler played in the NIT in 1958, a big enough deal that the team received a send-off from a band and hundreds of well-wishers. It lost in the first round to St. John's at Madison Square Garden. The Bulldogs qualified for the NCAA tournament in 1962 when it consisted of a 25-team field. They defeated an eighth-ranked Bowling Green team led by future Naismith Hall of Famer Nate Thurmond in the opening round to reach the Sweet Sixteen. They lost to Kentucky, then followed by defeating Western Kentucky in a regional consolation game.

Hinkle's accomplishments came despite a sane, somewhat passive recruiting approach. He recruited just two Indiana Mr. Basketballs, Bobby Plump and Shepherd, and got them without fuss.

One of his pitches to Shepherd came after officiating a high school game at Carmel. Shepherd, a 5-foot-10 guard with exceptional shooting and passing skills, had offers from the likes of Indiana, Purdue, UCLA, North Carolina and Florida heading into his senior season, but also was considering Butler. His father, Bill, had played for Hinkle 20 years earlier, and staying close to home appealed to him.

Shepherd's father took him to meet Hinkle in the officials' locker room after the game.

"By the way, kid, what size shoe do you wear?" Hinkle asked at one point.

Shepherd, thinking he might be getting a free pair of shoes, answered: "Nine-and-a-half, Mr. Hinkle."

"Well, we've got that size at Butler," Hinkle said.

Shepherd chose Butler the following Spring, over Indiana.

Plump got his pitch via mail after leading Milan to its historic state championship in 1954. The letter Hinkle wrote can be viewed in a display case at The Fieldhouse today. Plump had offers from more than 30 colleges, including Purdue, Indiana, Michigan State, Cincinnati and Tennessee. Rather than putting on a fullcourt press, Hinkle asked him to call to set up an appointment to meet. Plump did and arrived at Hinkle's office one May afternoon at the scheduled time.

Hinkle was nowhere to be found, however. Underwhelmed and a bit confused, Plump was rescued in the hallway by Butler's sports publicist, Jack Shackelford, who led him to the baseball diamond. There, Hinkle was picking dandelions out of the infield and stuffing them into his pocket.

"Hey, kid, I'll be with you in a little bit," Hinkle said.

Although they could have gone to major programs and competed for national championships, or to schools that would have rewarded them generously under the table, neither Plump nor Shepherd regret their decisions. The experience of playing for Hinkle was reward enough, although Shepherd only got to play in Hinkle's final season.

Story: 10 Things to Know About Coach Hinkle »

They recall intense but enjoyable practices that focused on their own fundamentals rather than the opponent's tendencies, competitive games against major conference opponents and an experience that didn't make college basketball feel like a life or death proposition.

Hinkle wasn't a screamer or profane, but had ways of getting points across without berating or embarrassing a player. The strongest term he ever used was a certain synonym for a male donkey, but had to be really angry to dig that deep into his vocabulary.

Plump's coach at Milan, Marvin Wood, had played for Hinkle – as did so many of Indiana's high school coaches -  and utilized Hinkle's famed five-way system that emphasized passing and cutting. Wood often told the story of how one day in practice Wood had missed an open cutter and shot the ball.

"Woods! I know a blind man who would like to have those eyes!" Hinkle shouted.

"Marvin said he never missed a cutter after that," Plump recalled.

Plump, who finished his career as Butler's all-time leading scorer, got a gentler admonishment after a game at Indiana State. He had roomed with Arley Andrews during the annual two-game all-star series with Kentucky after their high school careers, and become friends. When Andrews fouled out of the game, Plump offered a handshake. When he reached the locker room after the game, Hinkle had written – or had someone else write – "It is not necessary to shake an opponent's hand during the game."

Shepherd, who still holds Butler's record for single-season (27.8) and career (26.3) scoring averages, got Hinkle's points in red ink. The morning after every game, Hinkle taped the box score with various stats circled in red ink – the ones Hinkle thought needed improvement – to a board.

Shepherd, the team's best shooter, never got a red circle for his field goal attempts no matter how many he took, while another player - a poor shooter - might get one for taking five shots. Shepherd did get circles for his turnovers, though. As one of the primary ballhandlers and a skilled passer who occasionally attempted behind-the-back or needle-threading darts, he amassed his share of them.

Shepherd also earned possession of a less-than-coveted trophy that Hinkle distributed after every game to the player with the most turnovers, early in his sophomore season. That point got across, too, and he played more carefully.

Hinkle utilized practical jokes, too. Shepherd recalls a freshman game at Wabash – first-year players couldn't play for the varsity at the time – when he unintentionally threw a pass off the dribble that hit an unsuspecting defender in the face.  The official called a technical foul on Shepherd, who reacted emotionally.

The next day, Shepherd was in the training room at The Fieldhouse getting his ankles taped when trainer Jim Morris gave him a slip of paper with a telephone number on it.

It turned out to be a direct line to Indiana High School Athletic Association commissioner Phil Eskew, a towering figure on the state's athletic scene.

"I understand you were trying to officiate basketball games without a license," Eskew told Shepherd.

Hinkle and his assistant coach, Bob Dietz, then walked into the office to complete the point.

Hinkle also was notoriously cheap. Even in his final season as coach, his team bused to most road games, and did so on the day of the game whenever possible. Their "meal" for the ride home was a pre-wrapped ham or turkey sandwich and a warm can of 7-Up. Hinkle got the drinks for free because of his relationship with a woman connected to a local 7-Up distributor. For some games, if it was convenient, they might have splurge and stop at a McDonald's on the way home for a sandwich – but still had to settle for the warm can of 7-Up.

Hinkle was more generous when Butler played in the NIT in New York City during Plump's senior season. After its seven-point loss to St. John's, Hinkle gathered the players back at the hotel

"Fellas, I want you to have a great time in New York," Hinkle said. "It might be the first time you've been here, so you ought to see the sights. Mr. Dietz will give you some money as you leave the room."

"He didn't want us to have too good of a time, though," Plump said. "Each player got $5."

And that was adjusted for inflation. Dietz, who had been an All-American player for Hinkle in the early Forties, told Plump the per diem had been $2 per player on their trips to New York.

A college education and good memories are priceless, however. Plump, Shepherd and virtually all the hundreds of athletes who played for Hinkle would tell you they were compensated fairly by the mere experience of playing for him.

Have a question for Mark? Want it to be on Pacers.com? Email him at askmontieth@gmail.com and you could be featured in his next mailbag.

Mark Montieth's book, "Reborn: The Pacers and the Return of Pro Basketball to Indianapolis," covers the formation and early seasons of the franchise. It is available at retail outlets throughout Indiana and online at sources such as Amazon and Barnes & Noble.

Note: The contents of this page have not been reviewed or endorsed by the Indiana Pacers. All opinions expressed by Mark Montieth are solely his own and do not reflect the opinions of the Indiana Pacers, their partners, or sponsors.

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Hinkle and His Career Were One of a Kind

With the Pacers honoring the legendary Butler coach Tony Hinkle during Sunday's Hickory Night against the New York Knicks, here are 10 things to know about Hinkle's life and legacy.

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10 Things to Know About Tony Hinkle

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In 1989, Chris Denari — who is now known for being FOX Sports Indiana's play-by-play voice of the Pacers — took a job with Butler University as the school's first-ever Sports Marketing Director. Working in the athletic department, Denari often crossed paths with the legendary coach Tony Hinkle, who had been retired since 1970 but still had an office and was around the program frequently.

Hinkle joined Butler in 1921, working as a teacher, athletic administrator, and a coach. But unlike most coaches of today, Hinkle oversaw multiple sports, leading the basketball, baseball, and football teams to success. Hinkle's impact on Butler was so profound, the legendary fieldhouse was re-named the Hinkle Fieldhouse in 1966. Four years later, Hinkle retired from coaching, having led the basketball team for 41 seasons.

Hickory Central: Head to Pacers.com/Hickory »

Coach Hinkle passed away in 1992. For Denari, getting a chance to observe Hinkle and get to know him during their three years of overlap at Butler left an impactful impression.

What was your day-to-day interaction with Hinkle like? What impression did he make on you?

Denari: He would come in every day with a coat and tie on, he looked like he was coming in ready for work. He was older when I as there in the late 1980s and early '90s, but I had a chance to talk to him. You were sort of in awe of being in the building that was named after him and you know how much he had accomplished in his career. I mean he was the basketball coach, he was the baseball coach, he was the athletic director. He was the do-it-all man of Butler. You knew that you were sort of there to carry on and build on the tradition that he had built, and you took pride in that.

It seems like Butler is always punching above its weight on the national stage. Do you consider that part of Hinkle's legacy?

I do think that was important. If you look at what they've instituted now, The Butler Way, (Athletic Director) Barry Collier sort of brought it back to the forefront when he became the basketball coach and he's the Athletic Director now but you're right. That really started in the days of Tony Hinkle, getting athletes to play above their grade if you will. To compete at the highest level, because if you go back to the 1920s and '30s and the '40s, here's Butler, this small private school back in the day playing Notre Dame, Purdue, and Indiana, and other various institutions around the country and they were not like those other schools. So you have to think that was kind of born in those early years and carried to fruition with coach Hinkle.

Do you think it's possible that there will ever be a modern version of Coach Hinkle, who coaches multiple Division I teams?

Probably not, I just don't think that can exist anymore, especially at the Division I level because everything is so specialized now and there is so much focus on each individual sports that I think it would very difficult for somebody to do what Tony Hinkle did all those years ago. If you think about what he did it almost borders on impossible, but he was somebody that could take on the challenge and be very successful with the challenge.

When you were at Butler, would coaches and players come by his office to pick his brain?

It was funny because he parked right by the side door that is looking over the Butler Bowl and he would walk right into his office. And he would drive in every day and there were people that would stop by his office. He called everybody "kid." Didn't matter how old you were, and there were so many people. Bill Sylvester was the longtime Athletic Director at Butler, he was there when I started, and he had a great history with coach Hinkle because he had been there as an athlete back in the day when Tony Hinkle was the coach. There were a lot of people when I had first gotten there to work that had had great relationships with him, because they had been there as coaches with him and they had been there as players or student athletes with him.

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Q&A: Chris Denari on Crossing Paths with Tony Hinkle

Wheat Hotchkiss

The Pacers will honor the great John Wooden at Monday's Hickory Night game. Wooden was an Indiana native and enjoyed a tremendous playing career at Martinsville, Purdue, and with one of Indianapolis' first professional teams, but is best known for his legendary coaching career at UCLA, where he won 10 national championships in a 12-year span.

While Wooden did not coach any eventual Pacers players while at UCLA, a number of current and former Pacers players came through the UCLA program and were influenced by Wooden.

In fact, the current Pacers roster features three former Bruins, more UCLA players than any other NBA roster. Veteran point guard Darren Collison starred at UCLA from 2005-09, helping lead the Bruins to three straight Final Four appearances. Rookie big men TJ Leaf and Ike Anigbogu both were a part of the UCLA team that reached the Sweet Sixteen last spring as freshmen.

HICKORY CENTRAL: Learn More at Pacers.com/Hickory »

Of course, the Pacers' connection to the UCLA program dates back much further than that. In 1987, the franchise took a skinny shooting guard out of UCLA named Reggie Miller with the 11th overall pick in the NBA Draft. Miller, of course, would spend his entire 18-year Hall of Fame career with the Pacers, setting numerous franchise records and leading the team to six Eastern Conference Finals and one NBA Finals appearance.

Other players who played both for UCLA and the Pacers include Pooh Richardson (played with the Pacers from 1992-94), Earl Watson (2009-10), and Tyus Edney (2000-01), who hit an iconic buzzer-beating shot against Missouri in the 1995 NCAA Tournament during the Bruins' run to their lone national title since Wooden's retirement.

While Wooden did not coach any of those players, he made a lasting impact on all of their careers. Wooden retired from coaching in 1975, but remained involved with the program until his death at the age of 99 in 2010. Almost every player who has come through UCLA speaks glowingly of the atmosphere Wooden created around the program, a foundation that has lasted through the decades, even after his retirement.

"It's one big family," Miller told the New York Times. "It's a brotherhood."

PHOTO GALLERY: John Wooden's Life of Basketball »

Collison was a part of some of the last UCLA teams that Wooden saw play and was fortunate enough to meet him on several occasions. Wooden would watch UCLA practices and always attended the Wooden Classic, an annual college basketball doubleheader in Anaheim that almost always featured the Bruins.

"He still was intelligent, even at his age," Collison remembered. "He got a chance to talk to the group. He said some pretty interesting things...The thing that I remember about him was all the wisdom that he had when he was talking."

Even though Wooden was not around when Leaf and Anigbogu attended UCLA, they still felt his impact during their time on campus. Leaf, whose coach at UCLA was another Indiana high school and college star in Steve Alford, had the chance to talk with several UCLA alums who either played for or met Wooden.

"Being at UCLA, something you didn't realize going in was how big of an impact he had with his players off the court," Leaf said. "...He turned so many players into great people, great men. A lot of the stories that I heard from his past players, that's what they talked about the most."

One of Wooden's greatest legacies is his "Pyramid of Success," a chart of the attributes most important to achieving greatness. The pyramid, which Wooden created while coaching at Indiana State and then implemented throughout his time at UCLA, is still used as a helpful guide to success in both the sports and business worlds.

"It's not just the basketball team, the whole UCLA athletic program uses the Pyramid of Success every day," Leaf said. "Everyone talks about it and it's a really big part of UCLA athletics."

When you think about it, it's kind of a remarkable story. A former Indiana basketball star moves to the West Coast and becomes a legendary coach, building a program that will later send a number of its biggest stars back to his home state to play in the NBA. Even today, John Wooden's impact is still being felt across the basketball world, both at UCLA and with the Pacers.

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Pacers Connections with UCLA, Wooden Run Deep

John Wooden has been adequately recognized for his high school and college playing careers, and lavishly praised for his college coaching career. He's a legend in Indiana for the former, and a legend across America for the latter.

There's another segment of Wooden's basketball life, however, that is unknown to most fans and underappreciated by many of the remaining ones, yet it's one that is no less indicative of his talent and love for the game. He was a standout professional player, too, making it that much more appropriate that he'll be recognized when the Pacers play Milwaukee in the next Hickory Night game at Bankers Life Fieldhouse on Jan. 8.

Wooden, in fact, was Indiana's first professional basketball star, the centerpiece of the first pro team that lasted a significant length of time within the state. He was a part-time player performing a part-time job, but he was the primary reason the compensated version of the game took hold in a state that had caught on early to the hysteria it could inflict.

Wooden was the best high school player in Indiana at Martinsville, which played for the state championship all three of his varsity seasons and won it his junior year in 1927. He went on to become the first player to be named a first team consensus All-America all three of his varsity seasons at Purdue, where he set the Big Ten Conference's career scoring record and led the Boilermakers to a consensus voted-upon national championship as a senior in 1932.

The challenge of appreciating Wooden's playing career is posed by the lack of visual evidence. Purdue has a scrap of film that shows him dribbling the ball toward the camera in a non-game setting, but there's nothing of him actually playing. Newspaper articles, statistics and awards are all we have to reveal his talent.

It doesn't help that he played virtually all of his career in an era when a jump ball was conducted at center court after every made basket, limiting the scoring opportunities of the best players, and lessening the impact of their athleticism. Seasons were shorter, too, and a shot clock and 3-point line weren't yet a figment of anyone's imagination. He scored just 351 points in his three varsity seasons at Purdue, including a record 154 as a senior.

Still, Wooden is widely regarded as one of the greatest guards in the first half of the 20th Century. He was a member of the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame's second induction class in 1960 as a player, four years before he won his first NCAA championship as UCLA's coach and 13 years before a second induction into the Hall as a coach. But while his playing reputation was based almost entirely on his collegiate career, he didn't stop playing upon graduation from Purdue. He was back in uniform the following winter as a member of the Indianapolis Kautskys.

Frank Kautsky, proprietor of a grocery store on South Madison Ave, owned and managed the team. He had begun sponsoring an amateur team the year before, which surprisingly to him won a state tournament at the end of the season, which left him flushed with enthusiasm for taking on bigger challenges in the fledgling world of professional basketball.

While at Purdue, Wooden set the Big Ten's career scoring record (Photo: Pacers)

His decision likely was based at least in part on his ability to woo Wooden. He had competition, however, as one would expect given Wooden's national status as a college player. Wooden led a team of former Purdue players in exhibition games against George Halas' Chicago Bruins professional basketball team in the Spring of his senior year at Purdue, and there was talk of playing for the Bruins the following season for $100 per game. The New York Celtics also offered him $5,000 per year to join their elite barnstorming team, at a time when some school teachers were earning less than $1,000 per year.

Wooden was tempted, but had been an honor student at Purdue, ranking 19th in his class of nearly 5,000 students. He had studied to become a teacher, and wanted to coach as well. His coach at Purdue, Ward Lambert, convinced him to follow up on those plans, rather than selling out for an uncertain pro basketball career that wouldn't allow him to utilize his education. He ultimately accepted a job at a high school in Dayton, Ky., for a starting salary of $1,500 per year.

That allowed him to play for the Kautskys on weekends, and when he was able to make the 115-mile drive to Indianapolis. His payment of $50 per game was more than he made per week at his day job, where he was athletic director, assistant football coach, head basketball, baseball and track coach, supervisor of the physical education department for grades 1-12 and, oh yeah, an English teacher.

Wooden had lost his life savings - $909.05 – when the banks collapsed under the weight of the Depression, so he was starting his financial life from scratch after he married his high school sweetheart, Nell in the summer of '32. He didn't have a car when he began his teaching career, so at first he caught a ride to the Kautskys' games with a friend, and paid him for his trouble. Wooden recalled receiving travel expenses on top of his per-game payment, and working on lesson plans in the car.

Every dollar he got from Kautsky was vital.

"We could really use that $50," he said in later years.

The Kautskys, who were members of the nearly-formed National Basketball League, played their first game on Thursday, Nov. 24, Thanksgiving evening, against the 66ers in Kokomo. The Kautskys won, 37-18. Wooden scored seven points and, according to Indianapolis newspaper accounts "played a good floor game." Kokomo was led by future Indiana University coach Branch McCracken with six.

The Kautskys didn't make their home debut until Sunday, Dec. 11. About 1,000 fans showed up at what was then called the National Guard Armory at 711 N. Pennsylvania, filling it to roughly one-third capacity to watch them defeat the Fort Wayne Firemen, 31-17. Seats sold for 40 cents on the portable bleachers and 25 cents in the balcony, although children under 10 were admitted for free. It was a humble return to action in his native state for Wooden, who probably found the competition less challenging than at Purdue. He scored 15 points, the only player to reach double figures, and "showed spectacular form in dribbling and scoring," according to one newspaper account.

Wooden took a teaching job at South Bend Central High School for the 1934-35 season, lured by a salary of $2,400. The drives to Indianapolis stretched to 150 miles, but the income was still meaningful, and he still enjoyed playing. It wasn't as fun or as organized as college basketball had been, but he was playing against some of the best players in the country, particularly when the Kautskys took on the touring "Negro" teams, such as the New York Rens and the Savoy Big Five out of Chicago.

It's difficult to compare Wooden's performance to others of the era because statistical averages were not kept in most of the seasons in which he played. Leagues came and went, and there were no all-star games or all-league teams to identify the elite players. The only evidence of his talent are box scores and minimal newspaper accounts of some of the games.

Wooden, for example, scored 19 points in a 62-40 victory in Toledo one night. The newspaper  account mentioned that his "speedy play bewildered the home team." He once scored 18 points in a 44-43 victory over the Big Five in a benefit game in Martinsville. Another time, he scored 14 of his team's 30 points against a team from Dayton.

Kautsky eventually paid him $100 per game, and once awarded him a bonus of $100 for hitting 100 consecutive free throws over the course of two seasons early in his career with the team. The streak, which ended at 134, reached 100 in a game in Indianapolis. According to Wooden's memory, Kautsky stopped the game and presented him with a $100 bill at midcourt. The newspaper accounts didn't record it, but Wooden was definite in his memory of it and Kautsky's children recalled it, too.

"It was in my hands for about one second before Nell took it from me," Wooden joked in later years. No wonder. That bonus exceeded two weeks of his salary.

Wooden barely got to experience a major change that would have enhanced his scoring ability. The jump ball rule was eliminated for the 1937-38 season, meaning the ball was taken out of bounds after made field goals and awarded to the other team, drastically increasing the pace of play. He switched teams that season, joining the Whiting Ciesars, a northern Indiana team named after owner Eddie Ciesar, an auto dealer. The long drives to play for the Kautskys were taking a toll on his body and work schedule, so he opted for convenience.

He led the Ciesars with 14 points in a victory over the Kautskys in December that season and went on to lead his new team to a 12-3 record by averaging 11 points, second in the league. He averaged 16.5 points in two playoff games, best in the league.

He didn't last long with the Ciesars, though. During semester break the following season, Wooden and teammate Bill Perigo drove through a snowstorm to get to a game in Pittsburgh that was to be the first of a three-game road trip. The travel conditions prevented them from arriving until halftime. The two led a comeback victory, but after the game Ciesar insisted on paying them only half of their game salary. Wooden held out, saying he and Perigo had risked life and limb to get to the game and wouldn't play in the next two unless they were paid the full amount, including travel expenses. Ciesar relented, but after returning to South Bend, Wooden quit the Ciesars and rejoined the Kautskys, who by now had dubbed themselves the "All-Americans."

Only briefly, however. He scored 13 points in a 44-33 victory over the Ciesars on Christmas Day in 1938, and followed the next night with 10 points in a 68-48 victory over the barnstorming New York Celtics before an estimated crowd of 4,000 at Butler Fieldhouse. He then scored 13 points in a 52-38 win over Sheboygan before 3,500 fans at Butler on Jan. 2, a game which propelled the team into first place in the re-formed NBL. He suffered a pulled muscle in the game, however. His name appeared in just two more box scores, scoring a free throw in one and a field goal in the other, and then disappeared.

Without fanfare, without even a mention in the newspapers, his professional playing career had ended. He was 28 years old at the time, and immersed in his teaching and coaching position in South Bend. The miles – on his legs and cars – were adding up, and were becoming a questionable sacrifice to make for a part-time gig. Two years earlier, Kautsky, in a newspaper column, had quoted Wooden as saying, "If I had known pro basketball is as tough as it is, Frank, I'd never have come into the game."

A new life in basketball was just beginning, however. He left his job in South Bend to join the Navy in 1943, then took a coaching and teaching position at Indiana State in 1946. Two years later he became the coach at UCLA, where he would win 10 national championships, including seven in a row, before retiring in 1975.

All in all, he was the best high school player of his era, the best college player of his era, and the best professional within the state boundaries. He also was a highly successful high school and college coach in Indiana before moving to California.

If Hickory has a face, it surely resembles Wooden.

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Wooden Was City's First Professional Star

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John Wooden's Life of Basketball

Talk to any basketball player, no matter how far their careers took them, and they'll likely tell you their fondest memories are from high school.

That's when they were the most dominant, the pressure to perform wasn't as great, and the possibility of being traded or cut hadn't even entered their minds. School spirit ran high, media scrutiny ran low and fans weren't likely to be complaining about the crucial free throw they missed, or the fact they were outplayed by a future Naismith Hall of Famer.

The Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame in New Castle, which will be honored during halftime of the Pacers' Hickory Night celebration on Friday, is the depository for those more innocent moments, for fans and players alike. It's both a storage unit and a chapel, a place to house memorabilia and memories as well as a place to worship the great players, teams and games of a sport that for many is a religion in Indiana.

That's why it remains a special place and honor for George McGinnis, who received the ultimate basketball recognition in September for his induction into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, Mass. That's a worldwide honor, reserved for the elites of the sport, but the New Castle Hall remains just as great an honor for McGinnis because of his memories of leading Washington High School to an undefeated season and state championship in 1969.

"It was just as special as going in (the Naismith Hall)," McGinnis said of his high school hall induction in 1995. "It was really special.

"Winning the state championships was one of the greatest things that ever happened to me as a basketball player. I never thought about becoming a hall of famer for the Naismith Hall of Fame, even when I was playing (professionally). It just wasn't something that crossed my mind. But winning the state championship in high school, I was obsessed with it."

The Pacers, naturally, are well-represented in the Hall of Fame in New Castle. Any player good enough to play professionally was likely an outstanding high school player, and virtually every Indiana high school star who played for the Pacers and is eligible for the Hall has been inducted. The lone semi-exception is Wayne Pack, who played 21 games for the Pacers in the 1975-76 season, but got in as a member of Washington High School's undefeated 1969 state championship team, which was inducted en masse.

In all, 17 men who either played or coached for the Pacers are in the Hall. They range alphabetically from Tom Abernethy, who played 29 games for the Pacers in the 1980-81 season, to Randy Wittman, who played four seasons for the Pacers and then became an assistant coach, launching his career as an NBA head coach.

The group includes three members who went on to achieve Naismith recognition: McGinnis, Larry Bird and Bob "Slick" Leonard.

Leonard was a latecomer to the Naismith honor, finally receiving induction in 2014. He was asked repeatedly if he was bothered by his omission from that hall of fame despite having coached the Pacers to three ABA championships, and always responded with the same thought: I'm a member of the Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame, and that's the one that means the most.

Billy Keller led Washington High School to the state championship in 1965, and earned Mr. Basketball honors from The Indianapolis Star as a result. He also quarterbacked Purdue into the championship game of the NCAA tournament in 1969, and was voted the first recipient of the Naismith Award, which goes to the best player in the country under 6-foot tall. He played seven seasons for the Pacers, and is one of just four players to have been a member of all three of their ABA championship teams.

Being in the high school hall was never a goal, but now that he's there, it keeps him connected to the game and the state's basketball tradition.

"The goal was to be the best you can be, to win, and to be doing what you love to do," said Keller, who was inducted in 1992. "And when it's all over, that's the time something like the hall of fame becomes more important.

"I think it means more to players the older you get. "You're finished playing, you're finished with all your athletics, and all you have now is your memories. Being in the hall of fame is the result of being a student of the game, loving the game, being coachable, having great fans around me, and having a supportive family … all of that.

"It means more to me now that it's over than when it happened."

1. The Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame was co-founded by legendary Indianapolis sportscaster Tom Carnegie in 1962, along with a prominent Lions Club official, Ray Johnson. It began as a feature of the Downtown Lions Club, then achieved standalone status in 1965. It moved to its current location in New Castle in 1990.

2. Although technically a hall of fame for people with direct links to Indiana high school basketball, its membership includes some exceptions who were inducted as recipients of the Silver Medal Award. Those include former Indiana Fever star Tamika Catchings, former Purdue University and Fever coach Lin Dunn, former Purdue coach Gene Keady and former Indiana University coach Bob Knight. Jerry Baker, the former radio and television voice of the Pacers who is now the public address announcer, also is a member.

3. Some of the New Castle hall of fame members achieved greater recognition for other endeavors. Lee Hamilton was an all-state player at Evansville Central High School, starred at DePauw, and went on to become a member of the United State Congress. Edwin Hubble coached New Albany to an undefeated season in 1913-14 and was a noteworthy player, and went on to become an even more noteworthy astronomer. The Hubble Telescope is named after him. Actor James Dean, while not a member of the hall of fame, played high school basketball for Fairmount High School.

4. More than 300,000 visitors have visited the hall in its 27 years in New Castle. Admission is $5 for adults, $4 for senior citizens and $3 for children 5-12. The pricing is meant to align with the cost of attending a high school basketball game. Those funds don't cover the hall's expenses, so it raises money from the doubleheader played each year in New Castle, an annual golf outing in the summer and personal and corporate contributions.

5. Permanent exhibits have been established for the hall's three most famous members. John Wooden, Oscar Robertson and Larry Bird, as well as for the 1954 Milan High School team.

6. Visitors can view a new film called "Only in Indiana" at the beginning of the tour. The 17-minute feature includes the likes of Bird, Robertson, McGinnis, Steve Alford, Damon Bailey, Bobby Plump, Judi Warren, Katie Douglas and Stephanie White telling their personal stories. The hall also includes an exhibit of 96 photographs of high school gymnasiums throughout Indiana, taken by Michael Keating and Chris Smith.

2017‑18 Hickory Nights