2019-20 Hickory Games

indmmontieth

They are like former gladiators now, whiling away the peaceful days of their retirements with the time and perspective to reminisce about their heated battles as often and for as long as they desire.

Gene Keady and Bob Knight coached against one another 41 times in their respective careers at Purdue and Indiana, co-authoring a chapter in the annals of Hoosier Hysteria unlikely to be equaled for its passion, drama, excellence, and temporary insanity. Both coaches won big, ranking first (Knight) and second (Keady) in career Big Ten victories when they finished, and they set off a lot of fireworks in the process.

"It was wild times, wasn't it?" Keady says with a hearty laugh.

They could, if they were so inclined, talk about the donkey or the heaved chair or the shrieking whistles that signaled technical fouls or all the games that so demanded the attention of the state's basketball-loving fanbase when they get together on their phones, Keady from Myrtle Beach, S.C. and Knight from Bloomington. But, no. They don't then and they won't on Saturday when they are honored in the next Hickory Night game at Bankers Life Fieldhouse when the Pacers play New Orleans.

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

What do they talk about, then, when they talk every two or three weeks, usually at Keady's initiative?

"We just talk about stuff," Keady says. "Politics, things like that. He's pretty intelligent, so he's fun to talk to."

Keady and Knight coached against one another for the first time on Feb. 1, 1981 and for the last time on Feb. 29, 2000. Keady's Purdue teams won 21 times, while Knight's IU teams won 20. It was that evenly matched.

Keady's teams won six Big Ten championships during his 25 seasons at Purdue, including three in a row from 1994-96. He was voted the conference's Coach of the Year seven times and is a member of the national college and junior college halls of fame as well as the Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame.

Knight's teams won 11 Big Ten titles in his 29 seasons at IU, not to mention three national championships. He was voted conference Coach of the Year eight times and is a member of the national college and Naismith halls of fame.

Their teams usually played the toughest defense and most disciplined offense in the conference, sometimes making more free throws in a season than other teams attempted because of their shot selection. They rode their players hard in practice and rode the referees hard in games. They were different personalities, certainly, but always seemed to be aiming for the same way to win a game.

No wonder, then, sparks tended to fly when their teams squared off. Here are five of the most notable games in the series.

Their first encounter in Assembly Hall was the wildest of all, setting the mood for the 40 to follow.

Knight was called for a technical foul in the first minute when Purdue led 2-0 because he thought a couple of traveling violations had been missed. Moments later, with the game still less than two minutes old, he stood up and grabbed referee Phil Bova by the belt and yanked him backward to afford himself a better view of the action. Bova nearly lost his footing but did not call a technical foul. That brought an enraged Keady onto the court, screaming a protest — which promptly earned him a technical foul. Two, in fact.

The game, which IU won 69-61, quickly deteriorated into an alley fight that featured 53 called fouls and 62 free throw attempts.

Keady was still steaming when he entered the media room for the postgame press conference.

"You guys don't know me very well yet, but I'm not going to put up with that --------!" he shouted as soon as he hit the doorway in the back of the room.

Keady said he had the highest respect for Knight and that Knight had explained to him at halftime why he grabbed Bova's belt, but that didn't settle Keady's mood.

"I'm not gonna let anybody intimidate me," he said. "I don't care if I'm fighting 100,000 people, I'll fight their --- until the world falls in. Nobody is going to intimidate me or my players and it's not right when an official lets it happen, and that's why I got hot. It is ridiculous that they didn't have enough courage to set (Knight) down. A rule is a rule, whether it's me or him."

Knight, for his part said, "All I was trying to do was to see what was going on. That's probably the 50th time since I've been here that I've grabbed an official and moved him out of the way. Maybe other coaches have better vision than I have."

But the final buzzer couldn't contain the game's controversies. Purdue guard Roosevelt Barnes, who would go on to play in the NFL, had a scar on his face when reporters talked with him outside Purdue's locker room. Asked about it, he responded, "Isiah (Thomas) sucker-punched me."

That set in motion events leading to an even wilder moment.

Although video replays clearly showed Thomas had in fact snuck a swipe at Barnes, Knight vehemently fought back on his weekly television show by showing instances in the game when Thomas was subjected to physical play. Thomas' "sucker-punch," it appears was mere retaliation.

That only amped up emotions for the rematch in West Lafayette the following Saturday, a mere seven days later. It turned out to be calmer than the first, all things considered, but still would be considered outlandish by today's standards of decorum.

Barnes, entering the game in the first half to a loud ovation from the Purdue fans in Mackey Arena, was quickly called for a foul for bodying up Thomas on defense. That inspired a loud protest from Keady, which inspired a technical foul from one of the referees.

Purdue won the game, 68-66, on two free throws by Kevin Stallings with five seconds left. Indiana's attempt to tie the game failed when Thomas was called for a double-dribbling violation while racing upcourt to pass the ball to Ted Kitchel. Knight was so angry he chased referee Verl Sell off the court at the conclusion of the game, screaming in his ear.

Barnes had added more drama in the second half when he was hit with a technical for falling dramatically to the floor after he was charged with his fifth and final foul.

Barnes — who became a sports agent after his NFL career as well as the legal guardian for Purdue star Caleb Swanigan — said afterward he thought the referees had protected Thomas, adding that Thomas had flashed an obscene gesture his way during the game.

"I don't know why," Barnes said afterward. "I like the guy, really."

The aftershocks of the incidents between Barnes and Thomas spilled over into the next month. Knight's blunt protests of the physical play against Thomas incensed Purdue fans when he called it an example of "Purdue mentality," giving birth to a catchphrase that continues today. That set off a war of words with Purdue officials, climaxing when Knight taped his weekly television show for March 8, the day after IU clinched the Big Ten championship.

Knight told host Chuck Marlowe he had invited Purdue athletic director George King to give his side of the dispute, and that King had declined. So, Knight said, he found another university spokesman — at which point the cameras panned to show a donkey standing in the studio wearing a Purdue hat. Knight had named the donkey Jack.

Another legend was born. T-shirts and hats were printed bearing Jack's likeness and sold to IU fans throughout the state. King, meanwhile, filed a protest with the Big Ten office but the issue gradually faded into history with nothing more than reprimands.

Keady insists today he was never angry at Knight over the stunt.

"George King and those people at Purdue hated Knight, but I always liked him because I knew him (when Keady was an assistant coach) at Arkansas," Keady says. "He was full of piss and vinegar."

Indiana went on to win the NCAA championship in 1981, but the rivalry only intensified as Keady built his program. Purdue shared the Big Ten title with Illinois in 1984, splitting with IU in the process, and then defeated IU twice in the 1984-85 season.

The second game will live forever in college basketball lore, the ultimate example of Knight's P and V. Five minutes into the game a loose ball resulted in a foul call on IU's Marty Simmons. Knight thought a jump ball should have been the ruling and protested loudly enough to earn a technical foul. Moments later, with Purdue guard Steve Reid standing alone at the foul line preparing to shoot the technical free throws, Knight calmly picked up his red plastic chair and flung it across the court in front of Reid to the opposite corner.

Knight was hit with two more technicals and ejected from the game. Purdue went on to win, 72-63, within an increasingly ugly atmosphere at Assembly Hall. One fan threw a coin that ricocheted and hit Keady's wife, Pat, in an eye. She left the building wearing a black patch over it.

Keady didn't comment on Knight's ejection afterward, simply reminding reporters that the story of the day was that Purdue had won the game. Knight issued a formal apology the next day and was later suspended for one game and given two years' probation.

He got a lot of mileage out of the chair toss, though, joking that he had seen an elderly lady across the court who needed a seat and was simply trying to accommodate her.

If one were forced to pick one game as the standout of the rivalry between the schools while Keady and Knight were both coaching, this probably would be it. Never again would both teams be ranked so high at the same time. Never again would they be so evenly matched. Never again would they be so balanced.

The game would be cleanly played, too. Not a flying chair or hatted donkey in sight, not even a technical foul.

Purdue was ranked sixth in the nation and IU third when they met at Mackey Arena. IU had won by 11 points in the earlier meeting in Bloomington as a flu-ridden Steve Alford scored 31 points. With Purdue trailing IU by 1 1/2 games in the conference standings, emotions were sure to run high.

A Lafayette radio station tried to get into the act by urging Purdue fans to wear a black and gold sweater to the game and to roll it up over their stomachs, as Knight was in the habit of doing with his red sweater at the time.

Purdue forward Todd Mitchell declared the winner of the game would win the Big Ten. IU center Dean Garrett went a step further — a step too far, perhaps — by declaring Purdue didn't want the game as badly as IU did.

A printout of that quote was blown up and tacked to the bulletin board in Purdue's locker room, but the players likely didn't need added hype. The national rankings and Big Ten standings provided everyone all the incentive they could want.

All 10 starters in the game were averaging 10 points or more, a remarkable display of balance for programs that emphasized defense and shot selection — and in the dawning era of the 3-point shot, when teams shot them far less frequently than today.

There was more than balance, though. There was abundant talent. Four of Purdue's starters — Doug Lee, Todd Mitchell, Mel McCants, and Everette Stephens — would go on to play briefly in the NBA. The fifth, Troy Lewis, was a former Indiana Mr. Basketball and two-time first-team all-Big Ten selection who played in the Continental Basketball Association. Four of IU's starters also got at least a whiff of an NBA career: Dean Garrett, Steve Alford, Ricky Calloway, and Keith Smart. The fifth, Daryl Thomas, played 13 professional seasons overseas.

They were two outstanding teams, for sure, and the result that followed seemed appropriate and nearly inevitable. Purdue, wearing its "big game" gold uniforms, won by 11 points, the perfect bookend to the season's series given IU's 11-point win in Bloomington a few weeks earlier.

They also wound up with identical records at season's end, 24-4 overall and 15-3 in the conference. What wasn't identical was their NCAA tournament fate. Indiana was seeded first, began tournament play in Indianapolis and went on to win the national championship. Purdue, which lost at Michigan by 36 points in its final conference game to drop back into the tie with IU, was stuck with a three seed and sent to Syracuse, where it lost to Florida in the second round.

Nobody knew it at the time, but this turned out to be the last game Knight coached in Assembly Hall. It was appropriate, then, that it came against Keady's team.

Purdue entered with a 12-3 Big Ten record and riding an eight-game winning streak, while IU was 9-5. But the Hoosiers dominated from the start, jumping to an 11-0 lead and leading by as many as 20 points in the first half before ultimately winning by 14.

The Indianapolis Star's coverage of the game included no quotes from Knight, who was mired in controversies that contributed to his dismissal the following September. He apparently didn't speak with the media afterward, capping off an evening that provided an anticlimactic ending to his matchups with Keady.

The game didn't matter much in the long run, anyway. Purdue recovered to win three games in the NCAA tournament before losing by four points in its Elite Eight matchup with Wisconsin. Indiana, which lost its final regular season game at Wisconsin, later lost to Pepperdine by 20 points in the first round of the NCAA tournament.

The era of their coaching rivalry, then, had come in like a lion and gone out like a lamb.

Keady doesn't hold many specific memories of his two decades spent coaching against Knight, which included one meeting outside the regular season — a Purdue victory in the Big Ten tournament in 1998. Looking back on it, 20 years after their final confrontation, he wonders what all the hoopla was about. The best thing about beating Indiana, he says, was that it made the Purdue alums he met in the offseason golf outings happy. But these days, whenever someone asks him who his toughest opponent had been, he has a stock answer: "Whoever we played next."

They didn't always play Indiana next, of course. Knight, though, was never far from his thoughts.

"He made me a better coach," Keady says. "You had to have your team well-prepared and execute or you would get your butts kicked. And sometimes you did get your butts kicked."

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 on the formation and groundbreaking seasons of the Pacers, "Reborn: The Pacers and the Return of Pro Basketball to Indianapolis," is available in bookstores throughout Indiana and on Amazon.com.

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.

keady-knight-unite-for-hickory-appearance

Keady, Knight Unite for Hickory Appearance

admin

The fourth annual Basketball Day Indiana will be hosted by Kokomo, Ind., at historic Memorial Gymnasium, it was announced today. Basketball Day Indiana 2020 is set for Saturday, Feb. 8.

Basketball Day Indiana is a full day of games and television coverage celebrating Indiana's game. It is produced by FOX Sports Indiana, the Indiana Pacers, Indiana Fever and IHSAA. It is presented by Ascension St. Vincent.

"We're thrilled to bring Basketball Day Indiana to Kokomo alongside our partners the Pacers, Fever, IHSAA and Ascension St. Vincent," said FOX Sports Indiana senior vice president and general manager Jack Donovan. "We want to showcase the state's iconic gyms and communities each year as part of Basketball Day. The tremendous history of Memorial Gymnasium and enthusiasm of the Kokomo community make it an ideal setting."

Plans for Basketball Day Indiana 2020 include:

Kokomo's Memorial Gym to host Basketball Day Invitational
Four marquee high school boys games will be played at historic Memorial Gymnasium in Kokomo. All four games – one featuring the Kokomo Wildkats -- will be televised live on FOX Sports Indiana. The full slate of games will be announced later this month. Memorial Gymnasium was built in 1949 and added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2005.

Pacers home games bookend 24+ hours of Basketball Day programming
The celebration begins Friday, Feb. 7, with the Pacers' home game vs. Toronto. Basketball Day TV programming will continue throughout the night. Live coverage from Kokomo will start Saturday morning. Basketball Day concludes with the Pacers' Saturday home game vs. New Orleans.

Special recognition at the Pacers Hickory Night
This also will be a Pacers Hickory Night during which Indiana University and Purdue University coaching legends Bob Knight and Gene Keady will be recognized in a special halftime ceremony.

Every IHSAA varsity game statewide to be part of Basketball Day
Every high school hosting a home game that weekend will receive a Basketball Day flag. The schools will join the celebration by posting photos to social media with the hashtag #BasketballDayIndiana.

Coverage of IHSAA girls playoffs
FOX Sports Indiana will provide reports throughout the day on IHSAA girls sectional games.

"As we continue our theme of 'We Grow Basketball Here', few things exemplify that effort more than the role of the Pacers and Fever in Basketball Day Indiana," said Rick Fuson, president and COO of Pacers Sports & Entertainment. "We are delighted to once more join our partners at FOX Sports Indiana and the IHSAA in showcasing our Indiana game in this special Indiana way."

"Once again we are excited to partner with our friends at FOX Sports Indiana, the Indiana Pacers, and Indiana Fever to celebrate basketball in the Hoosier State," said IHSAA commissioner Bobby Cox.  "Basketball Day Indiana has become a highly anticipated event within the IHSAA membership and we are excited to have the City of Kokomo as this year's host. Historic Memorial Gymnasium is a great venue to showcase the rich tradition of basketball in our state. Our sincere thanks are extended to FOX Sports Indiana and the City of Kokomo along with the Pacers and Fever for their tremendous support of high school basketball in our state."

"It is an honor and a thrill for the City of Kokomo to play host to Basketball Day Indiana 2020," said Kokomo Mayor Tyler Moore. "Our community is rich with basketball tradition, and I can't think of a better place in the state of Indiana to watch a game than Kokomo High School's storied Memorial Gymnasium. We look forward to the chance to share our love of the game with basketball fans from across the state on February 8!"

"Kokomo School Corporation is proud to be chosen as the first Indiana high school to host Basketball Day Indiana, at historic Memorial Gymnasium," said Dr. Jeff Hauswald, Superintendent, Kokomo School Corporation. "Memorial Gym is an integral part of the thread of our Kokomo community and a very special place for the thousands of athletes who have played in this storied hall. In addition to the basketball traditions we celebrate in this historic gymnasium, I would be remiss to not celebrate the role basketball, athletics, and all extra- and co-curricular activities play in public education. Research continues to prove that students who are involved in such activities; on the average, have higher attendance at school and achieve higher academic grades. I wish to say thank you to the IHSAA, and the many organizations, which have sponsored programs and events such as this one over the years; as well as the communities who have supported their athletic teams and their athletes during the last century!"

For more information on Basketball Day Indiana, visit FOXSportsIndiana.com, Pacers.com and IHSAA.org, and check #BasketballDayIndiana.

About Basketball Day IndianaBasketball Day Indiana is an annual celebration of the state's unmatched connection to the sport. It showcases basketball at all levels with events and a full day of television programming that includes live games, interviews and features chronicling the impact of the sport in the state. Basketball Day Indiana is produced by FOX Sports Indiana, the Indiana Pacers, Indiana Fever and IHSAA.

kokomo-to-host-basketball-day-indiana-2020-at-historic-memorial-gymnasium

Kokomo to Host Basketball Day Indiana 2020 at Historic Memorial Gymnasium

The Pacers have played important games in Anderson, thanks to the availability of the Wigwam when they needed a place to call home.

As strange as it might sound today for a professional team to play on a high school court, the Pacers turned to Anderson's gymnasium frequently in their early ABA seasons when the Fairgrounds Coliseum had been previously booked for an event such as the circus or the Boat Sport and Travel Show.

The Pacers are believed to have played four playoff games in the Wigwam and won them all. They defeated Miami twice in the first two games of the second round (of three) in 1969, beat Utah in Game 5 of the second round in 1971 and beat Utah again in Game 3 of the second round in 1972.

The wins over Utah were particularly important. The one in 1971 came in an elimination game after the Pacers had fallen behind 3-1 in the series. It drew a near-capacity crowd of 8,279 to the Wigwam.

"You could close your eyes and imagine the Indians were playing a close one in the old days with Muncie's Bearcats or Attucks' Tigers," Indianapolis News sports editor Wayne Fuson wrote.

The Pacers had announced the signing of George McGinnis earlier in the day. McGinnis, who left Indiana University after his sophomore season to turn pro to help support his widowed mother, watched the game from the front row.

The Pacers won Game 6 in Utah, but lost the series back in Game 7 at the Coliseum.

The Pacers returned to the Wigwam in 1972 after falling behind 2-0 to Utah. Their 116-111 victory reversed the momentum of the series and they went on to win the championship.

To say the least, the players weren't pleased to have games on a smaller high school court, particularly the visiting players.

RELATED: Anderson Has Special Place in Indiana's Basketball Tradition »

"I kinda get claustrophobic," Utah forward Willie Wise said. "I like wide open space."

"You can't communicate with your team," he said. "The players hear the crowd, not the coach's voice. You can't give a foul or call a timeout."

A story in the Indianapolis News before the game said the Pacers took an 8-1 record in the Wigwam into the game, with the only loss a regular season game in the 1969-70 season.

Anderson once had its own NBA team. The Packers, named after the meat-packing plant owned by brothers Ike and John Duffey, played in the National Basketball League from 1946-49. When that league merged with the Basketball Association of American to form the NBA for the 1949-50 season, the Packers were one of the new league's 17 teams. They finished second to the Indianapolis Olympians in the Western Division.

They were dropped from the NBA when it consolidated to 11 teams the following season.

pacers-found-a-happy-home-in-anderson

Pacers Found a Happy Home in Anderson

Of all the towns and smallish cities that have embraced Indiana high school basketball all these years, who has a superior claim to the hysterical element of it than Anderson?

Muncie, maybe. Marion, perhaps. Their teams have won more state championships. But Anderson holds a status all its own in the state's basketball lore, not only for its history of great players and great teams but for its iconic gymnasium and traditions.

That history will be recognized at halftime of the Pacers' Hickory Night celebration on Monday, when the Pacers play Toronto at Bankers Life Fieldhouse. Former Mr. Basketballs Ray Tolbert (1977) and Kojak Fuller (1993) will be on hand, along with relatives of Mr. Basketballs Johnny Wilson (1946) and Troy Lewis (1984). The city also produced a fifth Mr. Basketball, Roy Taylor (1974).

Dozens of other notable players have flowed from the once-thriving city fueled by General Motors factories, including 30 members of the boys' all-star teams for the annual series with Kentucky and 16 inductees of the Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame, including coaches. All those players occasionally made for some great teams, such as the three that won state championships (1935, '37, '46) and the seven that were runners-up.

What separated Anderson from other state hotbeds was its rare blend of size, friction, camaraderie, and focal point. Muncie was a larger city with a major university (Ball State) and more high schools to dilute the basketball focus. Marion had just one huge public high school that had no competition within the city limits and rarely any from county schools.

But, man, Anderson...it had, in its heyday, three major high schools: The original namesake, Madison Heights, and Highland, all of whom butted heads in the regular season and in the sectional. The city was small enough, however, for the players from all three to consolidate temporarily in the summers and get together for pickup games and occasionally hit the road to take on players from other cities.

There was no other place like in the state.

"Anderson is a big town, but the people are very close and they are very loyal to their schools, churches, and families — like a small town," Madison Heights coach Phil Buck told Bob Williams of The Indianapolis Star early in the 1980s.

"Our kids live extremely close together; they go to church together and attend the same dances. They live across the street from each other in some cases and yet they go to different high schools."

Tolbert, who played for Buck at Madison Heights before going on to earn all-Big Ten honors while starting at center for Indiana's 1981 national championship team and play five NBA seasons, was one of those kids.

He attended Madison Heights but knew all the players from Anderson's school district and played with them often.

"We had fair competition, honest competition, but everybody was still friends," Tolbert said. "Everybody knew each other and respected each other. We would get together in the summers and sometimes go to other cities to find pickup games. We would play in the Dustbowl tournament in Indianapolis and dominate, until four or five Pacers would get together and form a team. That was the only way they could beat us."

Anderson's early success in the state high school tournament planted the seeds for future success. Kids grew up hearing of the exploits of a Jumpin' Johnny Wilson or other high school star from back in the day and often got to see those players around town. Lewis, for example, saw Wilson many times because Wilson's parents lived across the street from Lewis' grandparents. He kept hearing the stories, and eventually he was old enough to understand.

Lewis also heard stories of how his father had made the first basket in the Wigwam when it opened in 1961, on a long hook shot. But what really injected basketball into his bones was attending a game and seeing all its pageantry. You could hear the adults talking about the team and you could listen to games on the radio, but nothing beat the experience of being there.

Lewis, who became a two-time first-team all-Big Ten guard at Purdue in 1987 and '88, vividly recalls being seven years old and attending a game against Marion. He had been hearing the name Roy Taylor over and over again, on the radio and in conversations he overheard among adults. He knew Taylor wore No. 43, so he made a point of searching him out at the next game.

The game was in progress when he arrived with his mother and brothers, and then it ended much earlier than he expected. He wasn't particularly impressed with how No. 43 played, either.

"I'm going like, 'Is that it?'" Lewis recalls.

It turned out Lewis had just watched the end of the junior varsity game, with another player wearing No. 43. But before he knew it the bleachers filled up, the lights dimmed, a spotlight focused on students dressed as a squaw and an Indian, the fans started clapping and chanting a war chant to the beat of tom-tom drums and the accompaniment of the pep band and then...finally...the varsity team burst through a paper-covered hoop and onto the court.

"Right then I said I wanted to be an Anderson Indian," Lewis says.

Anderson's Troy Lewis with Purdue coach Gene Keady (Photo Credit: Mark Montieth)

He became one, and got to experience the Wigwam's iconic pregame tradition many times. The players could hear what was going on out on the court while gathered in the locker room, waiting to burst through that hoop.

"You would get goosebumps," Lewis says. "It's so hard to tell people how it really was.

"I know other teams would watch it. We'd be in the locker room and Coach (Norm) Held would say, 'They're out there watching the pregame. We've already got them.'"

Maybe some players were intimidated, but not all of them. Not an elite one like Tolbert, whose goosebumps rivaled those of any of the Anderson players when he heard the pounding drums.

RELATED: Pacers Found a Happy Home in Anderson »

"I thought it was hilarious," Tolbert says, laughing at the memory. "What they didn't know was that it got me fired up. If they were looking to be entertaining, I thought, I'll give them a little entertainment. It gave me a jump-start."

Just imagine all these elements coming together in the sectional, played of course at the Wigwam. Schools from outlying communities such as Frankton, Lapel, and Alexandria were part of it, but the three Madison County schools dominated. Interest was such that a lottery was held at the Wigwam on the Monday before the sectional began to determine which Anderson High fans got the privilege of purchasing tickets. Imagine the tension among the 6,300 season ticket holders toward the end of Lewis' senior season in 1984 when only about 1,000 sectional tickets were available for the school's fans. Sometimes schools from other counties had unused tickets that could be purchased, but most of the fans — even season ticket holders — had to rely on the luck of the draw.

"People would run down from the bleachers and go crazy if their number was called," Lewis says.

Lewis understood. He had experienced some crazy emotions over the Indians himself while growing up. After his introduction to the madness as a seven-year-old, when he learned there was a JV and varsity game, he became a devoted and informed fan the following year. Anderson had a great season, with Lewis' idol Roy Taylor sharing Mr. Basketball honors, but lost to eventual state champion Fort Wayne Northrop in the semistate final, one step from the final four.

Lewis' older brothers got to go to the game, but he stayed home with his father and listened on the radio.

"I cried," Lewis recalls. "After that game, I cried.

"These kids will never understand what it's like to grow up and hear the games on the radio," Lewis added. "You would sit there and listen to the game and then you listened to the postgame show and listened to Norm Held talk. You just sat there and listened. It was a big deal."

Later, as a junior at Anderson, Lewis gave the city much to talk about by setting a final four scoring record with 76 points in two games while leading the Indians to a runner-up finish in the state tournament.

Things have changed, of course. High school basketball isn't what it was thanks to the multi-class tournament system and the technological distractions available to kids today. The city of Anderson isn't the same, either. The factories that once supported a population of about 70,000 have mostly died. The population is about 55,000 now, and there's only one high school, called Anderson. It operates out of the former Madison Heights school.

The Wigwam still stands, though wobbly and uncertain after closing as a basketball facility in 2011. It was no longer practical to maintain given the rising costs and dwindling attendance at games, so the school board voted 6-1 to close it. The Jane Pauley Community Health Center occupies part of it, and plans are underway to make it suitable for other ventures.

"Anderson right now is on fumes," says Tolbert, who lives in Indianapolis. "Hopefully they can figure it out and somebody can put some development together and revive Anderson."

Regardless, the memories will never fade.

1934-35: The Indians, with nine losses in the regular season, beat unbeaten Jeffersonville in the final game, 23-17.

1936-37: The Indians won their second title in three years in rather routine fashion, defeating a Cinderella hopeful, the Huntingburg Happy Hunters in the final game, 33-23.

1945-46: Soon-to-be-named Mr. Basketball Jumpin' Johnny Wilson became the first player in tournament history to score 30 points in the championship game as Anderson dominated Fort Wayne Central, 67-53.

Johnny Wilson, Anderson, 1946
Roy Taylor (co), Anderson, 1974
Ray Tolbert, Madison Heights, 1977
Troy Lewis (co), Anderson, 1984
Kojak Fuller, Anderson, 1993

anderson-has-special-place-in-indianas-basketball-tradition

Anderson Has Special Place in Indiana's Basketball Tradition

He was a Mr. Basketball from Crispus Attucks High School, then a starter at Indiana University and later a Harlem Globetrotter.

That should be enough to fill the resume of any basketball player from any era but it's an incomplete curriculum vitae for Hallie Bryant, whose popularity and influence has ranged far beyond playgrounds and hardwood courts.

Bryant, who will be honored at the Pacers' game at Bankers Life Fieldhouse on Saturday in the first Hickory Night celebration of the season, stands alone in the history of Hoosier Hysteria for the unique combination of his experiences. Several high school players have been voted Mr. Basketball since the award's inception in 1939. Many have played collegiately in the state. A few have played for the Globetrotters.

Bryant alone, however, claims that particular trifecta. Tack on the career he's built away from playing the game as a lecturer, motivational speaker, and author — an "edutainer," as he puts it — and his singular status is secure for the ages.

Singular, but universal as well. He can relate to virtually everyone. Maybe that's because he's seemingly met nearly everyone. When he glides into poetry and philosophy in his conversations, it comes across as naturally as breathing.

"I see myself in any living person," he says. "Somewhere along the way, I've been there."

Bryant's path goes back a long way, to a distant place. He's a byproduct of the "great migration" in which an estimated 6 million African-Americans fled the Jim Crow era of the South to seek a better life in northern cities. He isn't alone among those who had a substantial impact on Indiana's basketball heritage. Oscar Robertson was born in Tennessee. George McGinnis was born in Alabama. Their fathers moved their families to Indianapolis just as Bryant's did from Calhoun, S.C. when Hallie was eight years old.

Life there had been good for Hallie, filled with fishing and hunting and roaming the countryside while his father and grandfather worked the farm owned by his namesake grandfather. But his mother had passed away when he was five and his father decided to move his five children to Indianapolis, where his second wife's sister lived, and take a job at Riley Hospital as a custodian.

The Bryants' first residence in the city was on Hiawatha Street in an area since been bulldozed to clear space for the IU medical center north of the IUPUI campus. Theirs was a shotgun house typical of that era, consisting of two bedrooms, a living room with a sofa that doubled as a bedroom and a kitchen. It was heated by a potbelly stove, fueled by coal. It didn't have running water at first, but the backyard contained the other necessities: an outhouse and a water pump.

They got by. Got by just fine, in fact, because Bryant's father, Calvin, made sure of it. As a child, Hallie didn't know what he was missing. As an adult, he appreciates what he had.

"To me, it wasn't a house, it was a home," he says. "You can be in a mansion and it wouldn't be like being in a home full of love and care and guidance. It's a mental thing as far as I was concerned."

Bryant now lives in a modern, custom-built home on the near north side of Indianapolis, no more than five miles to the east from where he first lived in the city. But the roundabout road from one house to another — one home to another — was a long one.

Hallie knew nothing of basketball in South Carolina, but quickly made its acquaintance in Indianapolis. Sitting inside his grade school classroom at School 24 on the near west side, he could stare right onto the weathered outdoor court at Lockefield Gardens, popularly known as the "Dust Bowl" because its original surface was dirt. It played a siren song for him.

"You heard kids having fun there," he recalls.

Bryant wanted in on it. He started by throwing tennis balls through the iron hoops. As he grew taller, he began shooting basketballs or "anything that was round." He had to practice at odd hours when the older guys weren't playing games, which often meant taking the court late on summer nights under the illumination of moonlight. On the occasions he couldn't see the rim, the swish of the net provided all the necessary feedback.

He went to bed at night looking forward to every sunrise so he could get up early and shoot some more. James "Bruiser" Gaines, a local police officer for whom a park on Tibbs Ave. is named, would have a ball waiting for him by 7:30. Gaines also patrolled the area and made sure the park was a safe haven for kids in the neighborhood.

Bryant began getting into the Dust Bowl games as he approached high school age, and it wasn't long before he was dominating them. By the time he was a senior he was showing the ropes to an eager, talented freshman kid, Robertson. The two spent many late-night hours shooting or going one-on-one, with the older Bryant knocking the future legend around a bit to give him an idea of what was coming. The residents in the apartment buildings nearby offered mild complaints about the noise of the bouncing ball but maintained perspective.

"They wanted to go to bed, but they could see we were good kids and not causing any trouble," Bryant says. "They knew we were better off being there than out in the streets."

The time Bryant put into basketball was reflected by his career at Attucks. He had grown up listening to state tournament games on the radio, before the family could afford a television, with announcer Luke Walton painting a picture with words amid screaming fans. It instilled dreams in boys all over Indiana, none more than Bryant.

He started for Attucks as a sophomore, scoring 10 points in an afternoon semifinal game of the state tournament when the Tigers lost to Evansville Reitz. He didn't get back to the finals as a junior or senior but put fresh chapters in the records book for single-game, season, and career scoring along the way. He scored 43 points in his final regular season game, 36 in the final game of the sectional, and 37 in the final game of the regional.

Attucks was eliminated by Shelbyville, 46-44, in the semistate in Bryant's senior season. He scored just seven points in a slowdown game against a defense designed to contain him, a stunning and inappropriate end to his high school career. That blemish, though, wasn't nearly enough to prevent him from being voted Mr. Basketball for the annual All-Star game with Kentucky by a runaway voting margin.

Bryant scored 21 points to lead Indiana to a 71-66 victory on a 93-degree day before more than 10,000 fans at Butler Fieldhouse, earning the "Star of Stars" award as the Most Valuable Player. The wife of The Indianapolis Star publisher Eugene Pulliam presented him with a watch on the court after the game.

Bryant was a good student who had received an award for perfect attendance at Attucks and was said to be a favorite of coach Ray Crowe for his earnest and positive demeanor. But he was painfully shy, too, and had little to say to strangers.

A paragraph in the Star's coverage of the game speaks volumes, both about Bryant and the racial climate of the time.

"The modest, quiet Negro athlete who has reflected great credit on his race while cracking almost every Indianapolis high school scoring record received the award modestly."

Bill Shover, the director of the All-Star game from 1952-62, recalls Bryant's reluctance to even speak into the public address microphone upon accepting the award.

"He was supposed to say something, but he barely stammered out a thank you," said Stover, who at 91 lives in Phoenix and still talks with Bryant a couple of times per month. "With all the adulation he got, he was very quiet and showed no ego. Just a very good young man."

Bryant's standout performance is practically a footnote to the game now, however, because of the typed threat he received at team headquarters at 5 p.m. the day before the game. It warned that either he or a member of his family would be injured if he played in the game — but added he would receive $500 via mail if he sat out.

In the context of its time, the threat was taken more seriously than it might have been otherwise. Just a couple of months earlier the Indianapolis Olympians, the city's first NBA franchise, had gone out of business because their star players, Alex Groza and Ralph Beard, had been banned for taking money from gamblers while playing at the University of Kentucky. Sports gambling was rampant at the time — one lower-level corner seating area at Butler Fieldhouse was well-known as the gathering place for bettors — so it wasn't considered unrealistic that a threat would be made against a high school player.

The Star certainly didn't take it lightly. Immediately underneath the banner headline ROSENBURG SPIES EXECUTED, it ran another all-caps banner header: HALLIE BRYANT THREATENED.

Bryant shrugged off the threat without much concern, but the team was moved from the Central YMCA to the Claypool Hotel for safety purposes and added police officers were assigned to the game to protect Bryant and his family members.

All these years later, the matter is a safe source of comedy. Shover often teases Bryant for writing the note so the team could be moved to a better hotel.

Bryant was likely the most heavily-recruited high school player in the state's history to that point. He had received countless offers, including one from UCLA's young coach, John Wooden, but confined his serious interest to Indiana, Michigan State, Michigan, and Purdue before choosing IU. There was immense pressure on Bryant to stay close to home and the Hoosiers had won the NCAA tournament that year, so it seemed logical.

Whatever his decision was going to be it qualified as big news, as evidenced by the story in the Star two days after the All-Star game.

"Hallie Bryant, Indianapolis' fabulous 'Mr. Everything' in the high school basketball line, has decided to drag his gear down to Indiana University for perhaps another direct onslaught on whatever unused records happen to be lying around," Bob Collins wrote.

Collins later added, "No youngster around these parts ever stomped on the record books in quite the fashion Hallie did," and made the point Bryant "could rattle off 20 points with a rapidity and ease that never failed to startle even the folks who had watched him do it time and again."

Bryant's career in Bloomington didn't work out as hoped. He played mostly off the bench as a sophomore and was shuttled back and forth between guard and forward. He averaged 14.4 points as a junior, a solid number in that era, but dropped to 11.1 as a senior. He did set a school record for free throw accuracy, and the Hoosiers tied for the Big Ten title with Michigan State his final season. Only one school from each conference could go to the NCAA tournament in that era, though, and IU lost out because it had competed in it more recently than the Spartans.

Bryant holds firm to a positive outlook in his daily life and doesn't like to dwell on negative events. He earned a degree and has been inducted into Indiana's Athletics Hall of Fame, and is satisfied to leave it at that.

"I respect (coach) Branch McCracken and his family," he says. "I won't go there. My experience with Branch as far as basketball was OK. I let sleeping dogs lie."

Bryant was not drafted by an NBA team, but had a tryout with St. Louis. Hawks coach Alex Hannum praised him in a newspaper article for his performance in practice and he scored 14 points and hit the winning shot with a long one-hander in a low-scoring intrasquad game. He didn't survive the final cut, however.

It might have been the simple fact the Hawks were an outstanding team that would go on to win the championship that season and had precious few job openings. The NBA consisted of only eight teams at the time and rosters were limited to 10 players after December 1. First-round pick Win Wilfong was the only draftee retained.

It also might have had something to do with race. The Hawks had no black players on their roster the previous season when they won the Western Division title. They kept just one, Worthy Patterson, who was three years out of college and just recently out of the Army, at the start of the 1957-58 season, but he lasted just four games before being let go.

Doesn't matter now. Getting released turned out to be the best thing that could have happened to Bryant.

Hawks management recommended him to Globetrotters owner Abe Saperstein. Bryant's high school teammate, Willie Gardner, had played for the team and provided another connection. After a two-year hitch in the Army, one of which was spent in Korea, he signed on for what would become a perfect marriage. Hallie had been a dreamer as a kid. He let his imagination run wild amid the cadence of the late-night swish of the net on the Dust Bowl court, or while watching airplanes fly overhead or watching Hollywood stars in movies. There was a world out there he wanted to explore, and the Globetrotters provided the vehicle.

As great an accomplishment as playing in the NBA would have been, this was better. Rather than Detroit or Syracuse, road trips took him to 88 countries. He didn't have to worry about getting cut and injuries were rarely a factor. Best of all, he got to interact with people in far-flung places, some of whom had never seen a black person.

He recalls kids in some countries rubbing his skin to see if the blackness came off. One evening when he was walking the streets of a Communist country, he heard footsteps behind him. He thought about picking up his pace but decided to hold back. It turned out to be an older couple. They barely spoke English, but the three managed a pleasant conversation.

Over time, experiences such as those transposed his personality, dissolving the barriers of his introversion and remaking him as a communicator and entertainer with a worldly outlook.

"We don't know enough to be a pessimist," he says.

Bryant's specialty with the Trotters was as a long-shot specialist and participant in the Magic Circle, the pre-game ritual in which six players performed ballhandling and passing wizardry to the soundtrack of the Brother Bones version of Sweet Georgia Brown. It was a position of honor, one that enhanced his job security and became his calling card.

He played 13 seasons with the Trotters, then worked for 14 more in public relations. In the offseasons and in retirement he took a one-man ballhandling and passing act to television studios, corporate gatherings, charity functions, senior citizen centers, shopping malls, and camps. He was an institution at the Taylor University basketball camp in Upland for more than 50 years, "edutaining" the kids.

He considered his act a passport of sorts, a way to introduce the Trotters or himself to strangers and interact with them in a lighthearted, positive manner. He always made it a point to involve others as well, regardless of age or status. One time in Phoenix Shover watched him bounce a ball off the posterior of Ethyl Kennedy, widow of former Presidential candidate Robert Kennedy, at a fundraising event. She loved it.

As performing became more difficult with age and parts replacement surgeries, Bryant turned to public speaking. Letters thanking him for his appearances from groups such as the NCAA and Cook Incorporated hang on the office wall in his basement. Lining the walls in the hallway and his man cave are photos of him with the likes of Robertson, Gardner, Wilt Chamberlain, Meadowlark Lemon, Ed McMahon, and various business leaders as well as framed newspaper clippings.

He's written a book, "Hallie's Comet: Breaking the Code" — Code being an acronym for coordination, organization, direction, and energy. In conversation he'll slip into poetry and drop pearls of wisdom or a joke at any given moment.

It's important, he says, to quiet the "static in the attic," to remember we're always prone to sending and receiving negative signals in our brain, not unlike a radio station. "Don't deny it, don't identify with it, get past it," he advises.

He learns best, he says, by TSL: "Tell me, show me, let me."

Crowe, his coach at Attucks, was a more polished version of his father, a man who personified "The Four F's" because he was firm, fair, flexible, and frank.

Indiana's basketball heritage laid down quite a path for the farm boy from South Carolina. It fueled journeys that took him around the world and a few miles across town, both reflecting a life he barely could have imagined on those moonlit nights when he made the Dust Bowl nets hum. And one that will forever remain unique in the annals of Hoosier Hysteria.

2019‑20 Hickory Games

Keady, Knight Unite for Hickory Appearance

Kokomo to Host Basketball Day Indiana 2020 at Historic Memorial Gymnasium

Pacers Found a Happy Home in Anderson

Anderson Has Special Place in Indiana's Basketball Tradition

Bryant Built a Legacy Like No Other

Knight, Keady, Bryant, City of Anderson Named Pacers' Hickory Night Honorees