Billy Keller

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These are the 10 players who comprised the playoff roster for the Pacers' 1970 championship team and their regular season averages.

Remembering the Pacers' First Championship, 50 Years Later »

Four of the 10 players on the Pacers' 1970 playoff roster have passed away: Roger Brown, Mel Daniels, John Barnhill, and Jay Miller. The remaining members are spread throughout the country:

Art Becker (Tempe, Ariz.): Acquired in a preseason trade with the Carolina Cougars, much to his relief and to the Pacers' benefit. Was an ABA All-Star in the league's first season two years earlier when he averaged 18.8 points for Houston. Was a solid reserve on this team, hitting 52 percent of his field goal attempts and scoring in double figures in six playoff games.

He was traded to Denver the following season but remembers his season-and-a-half with the Pacers as the highlight of his six-season professional career.

"It was just magical for me," he says. "The community was great. People would know who you are everywhere you went."

Becker's favorite memory was getting a press pass for the Indianapolis 500 and watching the race from inside the first turn. "It was just crazy," he says. "I might have taken a couple of pictures."

Has lived in Arizona since retiring in 1973 but stays in touch with his former roommate, Keller, and Netolicky. Also saw Thacker a few years ago when Thacker was passing through the Tempe area, and returns occasionally for reunions.

Oliver Darden (Sunrise, Fla.): A starter on the original Pacers team two years earlier. There's credible evidence he scored the first basket in franchise history. Was traded away the following season and then reacquired during this season — and then released again in training camp the following season.

Fed up with the uncertainty of pro basketball and having options, he retired instead of trying to land a spot with another team and went on to have the most successful career of all the members of this team in financial terms.

He worked for Eli Lilly for a while, then State Farm Insurance for 15 years. He earned a Masters degree from Northwestern in 1982 and eventually accumulated 15 Burger King franchises. He sold those in 2002 and has been retired since.

Played a major role off the bench in one of the first-round victories over Carolina after Daniels got in foul trouble.

Stays in close touch with former Pacers teammate Jerry Harkness and returns to Indianapolis often.

Billy Keller (Bloomington, Ind. in summer, St. Petersburg, Fla. in winter): Considered a novelty by some fans at first, he earned everyone's respect in short order. He was particularly effective in the playoffs after getting a starting opportunity when Lewis became ill before the opener of the second round against Kentucky.

Scored in double figures in 10 consecutive games in the postseason, outplaying Kentucky's All-Star guard Louie Dampier in the second round and then outplaying L.A.'s first-team all-rookie guard Mack Calvin in the first four games of the finals.

Went on to play seven seasons for the Pacers and remains one of the most popular players in Indiana's basketball history. Has rings for a high school state championship, an NCAA runner-up finish, and three ABA titles.

"He earned his opportunity to play," Darden says. "He practiced really hard. He was a hustler who took nothing for granted. He made himself into a very good ballplayer."

Freddie Lewis (Washington, D.C.): Point guard and captain of all three Pacers championship teams. Major contributor who deferred much of his potential scoring to the frontline players.

"Mel and Roger wouldn't have been what they were without Freddie," Becker says.

Averaged 16.4 points during the regular season but raised that to 20.4 in the playoffs. Averaged 26.5 points in the first round against Carolina. The Pacers' only loss in the first two rounds was the one he sat out with the flu.

Spends most of his time today caring for his mother, but remains in contact with several former teammates and attends reunions.

Bob Netolicky (Austin, Texas): The team's best water-skier was also its most consistent player. Averaged 20.6 points during the regular season, 20.3 in the postseason, and 20.3 in the finals against the Stars. Scored in double figures every game and 30 or more three times.

Voted to play in the All-Star Game his first four seasons.

"He could rebound, he could run the floor, he had that 15-18 foot jump shot...he was just a damn good player," coach Bob Leonard says. "But you had to beat it out of him."

Moved to Austin last summer to be with his daughter, son-in-law, and grandkids. Has led an effort to get pension money for ABA players for several years and knows the whereabouts of just about every living ABA player.

Tom Thacker (Cincinnati, Ohio): Only man to have played on NCAA, NBA, and ABA championship teams. Won one in the semi-pro North American Basketball League as well.

Not a shooter but contributed everything else. Biggest playoff moment in this season came in Game 6 against the Stars when he played 33 minutes off the bench and contributed 11 points and 10 assists.

Nicknamed "Dogg" in college after a cartoon character. Carried influence in the locker room as a veteran leader and team psychologist who knew how to motivate.

Has been a regular attendee of Pacers games for several years as well as their annual golf outing. Suffered a stroke last year and is rehabilitating.

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.

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The 1969-70 ABA Champion Pacers

It won more games than any other ABA Pacers team. It played in the franchise's first nationally televised games. It was feted in two parades, not to mention a ham and bean dinner. And then the players all went to Bermuda, where the star player crashed his mini-bike into someone's house.

The Pacers team that won the 1970 ABA championship 50 years ago Monday wasn't the best of the franchise's three teams that won titles, but it had the most fun, the wildest ride, and the greatest impact on fans in Indianapolis, where a "major league" team had never won a championship.

The title was clinched with a 111-107 victory over the Los Angeles Stars, in Los Angeles, on May 25 — technically the 26th in Indianapolis because the game didn't begin until 11 p.m. local time. It could have happened in Game 5 in Indianapolis if not for a star player going water-skiing the day before the game, but we'll get to that later.

Point was, the Pacers won it all and the city didn't care how, when, or where. It just wanted something to celebrate, and how it went about doing so revealed the team's impact.

The Pacers flew home via commercial jet the next day. A parade was conducted the day after that, the 27th, carrying the players, coaches, and front office executives from the team office at 638 E. 38th St. west to Meridian and south to the Circle, where 7,500 fans were waiting.

So were Mayor Richard Lugar and Governor Edgar Whitcomb, who jointly declared it to be "Indiana Pacers Day."

"Indianapolis has finally been put on the map," Lugar said. "It's truly a big-league city. For this we will always be grateful to the Indiana Pacers."

Lugar was guilty of some in-the-moment hyperbole. The Indianapolis 500 had done a good job of making the city known to the world long before that. Still, the championship had real-world value. It boosted civic pride, acted as a unifying force, and amplified the brewing argument for a new arena that came to fruition four years later when Market Square Arena was completed.

Later that evening the Pacers were honored again at a ham and beans dinner in the Farmers Building north of the harness racing track at the State Fairgrounds. Hambeens Junction, a local restaurant, helped sponsor the event, which made it possible for fans to buy tickets for $1.25 each. One newspaper article reported about 700 people were turned away.

That idea came from general manager Mike Storen, who had built the Pacers into a championship team and was about to leave to take over the Kentucky Colonels.

"Mike gets all the credit," recalls Bill McGowan, who organized the banquet. "He didn't want a big-shot dinner. He wanted the real fans."

The Pacers' 37-year-old coach, Bob Leonard, and the players returned downtown to mingle with the fans the next day for the annual 500 Festival Parade. They brought up the rear in a line of convertibles containing drivers in the 500-Mile Race, three astronauts, and television celebrities such as Merv Griffin, Edie Adams, Buddy Ebsen, and, most memorably to some of the players, Frank Sutton — better known as Sergeant Carter on "Gomer Pyle."

"The biggest cheers of all were saved for the Indiana Pacers," a story in the Indianapolis News reported. "As they headed up Meridian, dozens of young fans, both girls and boys, flocked to their cars for a handshake or an autograph."

As if all that wasn't enough recognition for one team, Leonard and his wife, Nancy, were included in the pre-race parade laps at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway two days later, waving to fans from another convertible.

"I'd never been on the track before," Nancy recalls. "I didn't realize it was tilted. It was amazing riding around the track. Someone you knew would yell at you and you could actually hear them and see them."

The team that brought on all this commotion played at a turning point in the city's history, and in fact helped create that turning point. Local leaders were diligently working and planning to make Indianapolis a major league city, and winning a championship in a major basketball league that was growing in stature was as good a way as any to project that image.

The Pacers' later ABA championship teams, in 1972 and '73, were more talented than this one but lacked the harmony, raw enthusiasm, and unspoiled demeanor of this one. They didn't win as often or as easily, either.

The 1970 champions' frontline of Roger Brown, Bob Netolicky, and Mel Daniels all had played in the All-Star game at the Fairgrounds Coliseum that season. Point guard Freddie Lewis had played in the All-Star Game two years earlier and would be voted MVP of the game five years later.

Rookie Billy Keller had led Washington High School to the state championship five years earlier and earned Mr. Basketball honors, and had quarterbacked Purdue to the final game of the NCAA tournament the previous season. A late draft choice, he established himself as much more than a local fan favorite in his first season and started throughout the playoffs.

The rest of the 10-man playoff roster included guards John Barnhill and Tom Thacker, both veterans of the NBA, and forwards Art Becker, Oliver Darden, and Jay Miller.

1969-70 Pacers: Stats and Where Are They Now »

Each player accepted his role. Each player was happy to be there.

The Pacers won a league-best 59 games in the 84-game regular season, eight more than any of the 10 other ABA teams. The could have surpassed 60 victories without much trouble, but had gone 5-7 over the final month of the season because Leonard went to a platoon system to save legs for the playoffs.

The highlight of the regular season came in a 177-135 victory over Pittsburgh at the Coliseum on Sunday, April 12. It was a 2 p.m. game, the third in less than 48 hours, and the third-to-last of the regular season. It might be panned as a mockery today, but was accepted gleefully then. Pittsburgh was a poor team, winning just 29 games that season, and the Pacers were fouling quickly at the end to get the ball back so they could break the record of 172 points they had set the previous year.

Still, 177 points don't come easily under any circumstance and none of the Pacers went longer than 31 minutes, so it wasn't a total farce. It remains the most points scored by an ABA or NBA team in a non-overtime game. Only two Pacers failed to reach double figures, but they contributed in other ways. Daniels, who took just 11 shots, grabbed 17 rebounds. Thacker, who took just five, had nine rebounds and 11 assists.

If any one game could reflect a team's balance and depth, that was it.

"We are ready for the playoffs," Leonard told reporters afterward.

The Pacers were the obvious favorite to win the championship. Barnhill even predicted late in the season they would not lose more than three games in the playoffs and he turned out to be right. They swept Carolina in four games in the first round and then eliminated Kentucky in five games in the second.

Keller was called into the starting lineup in the first game against Kentucky in the second round because Lewis came down with the flu and he kept that spot the rest of the way. When Lewis was healthy enough to play again, Barnhill went to the bench. Keller made his greatest postseason contribution in that series, when he clearly outplayed Kentucky's All-Star guard, Louie Dampier.

Freddie Lewis (left), Bob Netolicky (middle), and Billy Keller (right) filled out the Pacers' starting lineup in the 1970 ABA Finals. (Photo Credit: Pacers Sports & Entertainment)

That left the championship series against the Stars, who had put on a late rush to win 43 games and barely qualify for the playoffs. Bill Sharman, who by then had been inducted into the Naismith Hall of Fame as a player and would be let in again 34 years later as a coach, directed the Stars to an upset of the Western Division's best regular season team, Denver, in the second round.

The Pacers easily won Game 1 on a Friday evening in Indianapolis, 109-93, as Brown, Netolicky, Daniels, and Lewis each scored between 18 and 22 points.

Game 2, on Sunday afternoon, made history as the first ABA game to be televised nationally other than an All-Star game. Don Criqui and Pat Summerall handled the broadcast for CBS. Summerall was a prominent football announcer for the network, but who else was it going to get when it hadn't been carrying basketball games?

The Pacers wore their navy blue road uniforms in Game 2 because their home whites didn't contrast well enough with the Stars' powder blue road uniforms. It made for an odd sight in an era when the home team always wore white, but it was a small sacrifice to make for the opportunity for unprecedented exposure. The broadcast was blacked out locally but was a point of pride for fans who craved national recognition.

The Pacers won that game less easily than the first, 114-111. Netolicky led the scoring with 32 points, hitting 14-of-22 shots, including 10 in a row in the second half. He also grabbed the game's biggest rebound with six seconds left, drawing a foul and hitting two free throws to complete the scoring.

"I played that way for my man Johnny Rutherford," said Netolicky, a rabid race fan. "He inspired me yesterday when he almost got the pole for the 500-mile race."

Mel Daniels added 31 points and 27 rebounds and permitted Stars center Craig Raymond just eight points.

"I thought we played terrible," Daniels said. "But Los Angeles played a terrific game, especially that second unit."

The ABA schedules were notoriously illogical and unforgiving in those days, even in the playoffs. After Game 2, both teams headed for the airport and boarded the same flight to Anaheim, where Games 3 and 4 would be played the following two nights. Netolicky remembers migrating to the first-class section where he got a look at Conrad Hilton Sr., the 82-year old founder of the hotel chain.

The Pacers lost Game 3, 109-105, after squandering a 21-point at the end of the first quarter but came back the following night to take a 3-1 series lead with a 142-120 victory.

And here is where Roger Brown began cementing his legend.

Brown scored 53 points, still a franchise playoff scoring record, while hitting 18-of-29 shots and 14-of-16 free throws. He also grabbed 13 rebounds and passed out six assists, both team highs.

Brown was just a few days short of his 28th birthday and at his physical and emotional peak. His body hadn't begun breaking down and he hadn't yet been softened by success or his poor health habits. He was virtually unstoppable offensively, living up to the "Man of a Thousand Moves" nickname some newspaper reporters had attached to him, and he played with the regal bearing that made his more common nickname, The Rajah, a perfect fit.

Brown cited two factors in his 53-point outburst: news shoes and miniature golf.

He wore navy blue adidas "Superstars," a recently released leather model accented with three stripes that was about to take over the national marketplace for basketball shoes from the Converse Chuck Taylors. He said they made him quicker. Keller, for one, thought it strange a player would wear a new pair of shoes in a game without breaking them in first, but this was a break from canvas shoes of old.

Brown also found a way to calm his nerves. Admittedly putting pressure on himself earlier in the series, he had played miniature golf with a few teammates that afternoon near the team hotel, which was across the street from Disneyland.

"I thought walking around the course would relax me," he said.

The Pacers had a chance to wrap up the championship four days later, on a Saturday afternoon, back at the Coliseum in another game broadcast by CBS — with "color cameras" the Indianapolis Star pointed out. Champagne was on ice in the locker room and the city was braced to celebrate on its own turf.

Pat Vidan, the longtime starter for the "500," met the team at the airport and waved a white flag, signifying one lap to go. The headline in the Indianapolis News read, "Pacers Are Near Own Victory Lane." A standing room only crowd of more than 10,000 fans turned out to see it unfold.

The players, however, succumbed to the moment. They admitted later they were emotionally uptight. And one was physically tight.

Netolicky had gone water skiing the previous day on Morse Reservoir with his attorney, Mike Quinn. Capable of slaloming on one ski, he put a strain on arm and shoulder muscles that he hadn't used in basketball. It's no wonder, then, he hit just 7-of-22 shots and fired a few air balls in the next day's game, a 117-113 loss in overtime.

"I missed about 10 easy shots," he recalls. "If I hadn't gone water skiing, we would have won it at home."

He says he waited about four years before admitting his misadventure to Leonard.

"The jerk," Leonard says today, not angrily.

Netolicky wasn't the only Pacer missing shots, though. Lewis hit 6-of-21 attempts and Brown's 10-footer at the buzzer that could have won the game in regulation rimmed out. Brown, however, owed no apologies.  He finished with 39 points, 13 rebounds, and eight assists.

The players have acknowledged they failed to handle the moment, then and now.

"We were all nervous," Lewis says. "That's why we blew the game. We were like, 'Oh, boy, we're going to win this thing at home before our fans!' But they fought us to the wire."

Leonard, though, promised the championship would come.

"We will see what they (the Stars) do Monday night, and if we don't win Monday, we'll win Tuesday," he said. "The Indiana Pacers will win the ABA title; you can be sure of that."

So, the two teams headed back to California for Game 6, this time to Los Angeles instead of Anaheim. The downtown Sports Arena, where the NBA Lakers had played before The Forum opened in 1967, was available for this one, unlike in Games 3 and 4. A crowd of 8,233, a record for the Stars in L.A., showed up, including Lakers stars Jerry West and Elgin Baylor, comedian Bill Cosby, and movie star Mickey Rooney. Keller isn't sure, but he believes noted actress Debbie Reynolds was on hand as well.

More than likely they had come to see Brown, who was making headlines in the Los Angeles newspapers. So maybe it wasn't such a bad thing Netolicky had gone water skiing, after all. It gave Brown an extra opportunity to put on a show, and in the world's entertainment capital.

If he was anxious, he didn't let on. Nancy Leonard recalls standing to the side of aisle leading from the locker room to the court, anxiety threatening to get the best of her.

"Roger came by and took one look at me and said, 'My god, you look like you're about to go to the death chamber,'" she remembers. "He didn't seem nervous at all."

Brown went on to score 45 points, 21 of them coming on seven 3-pointers — a franchise record at the time — to lead a 111-107 victory that clinched the championship. Lewis hit the game's biggest shot, a 16-footer with 16 seconds left, and added a free throw nine seconds later. Brown, fittingly, scored the Pacers' final points with two free throws with two seconds remaining.

The Pacers got a break when L.A. center Craig Raymond sprained his ankle and had to sit out the last 19 minutes, but the Stars fought to the end without him. Literally, on one occasion. Netolicky, who finished with 14 points and 13 rebounds, exchanged blows with George Stone in the fourth quarter and needed eight stitches to close a cut above his left eye. Neither player was kicked out, which is how things tended to go in the ABA.

Brown let down his guard when the final buzzer sounded, rushing to the sideline to hug Leonard. He had just put on a postseason tour de force never to be forgotten in Pacers lore by averaging 28.5 points, 10.1 rebounds, and 5.6 assists over the three postseason rounds and 45.7 points on 71 percent shooting over the final three games against the Stars. He had played every second in those three except for part of the final minute in the Game 4 blowout when he scored 53 points.

The locker room champagne celebration that had eluded the Pacers in the previous game in Indianapolis came off this time. But once things calmed down and the players began to shower and dress, Daniels — who had grabbed 27 rebounds in the game and blocked a shot late in the game — experienced what he claimed years later to be his career highlight: Brown walked across the room, kissed him on the forehead and said, "Can you believe we just won this championship?"

Brown created a lot of lasting memories that night.

"You have to have a Roger Brown in order to win a championship," Darden says. "The Stars knew they had to stop him to have a chance and they couldn't do it. He put on a show. And I had the best seat in the house."

Sharman had seen plenty of great individual performances in his playing and coaching career, but never one like this.

"In my 20 years in pro basketball, I've never seen a player come up with such consistently superb performances in playoff games," Sharman said. "Roger just dominated, and that's tough for a forward to do."

West, one of the greatest guards ever to play the game, was equally impressed.

"I have no doubts he could start on any team in my league," West told the Los Angeles Times. "I bet we could even find a spot for him on the Lakers."

The celebrations didn't end with the parades.

In June, the Pacers' ownership paid for the players and their spouses to vacation in Bermuda. Becker had to miss it to attend his sister's wedding and Leonard stayed behind to be with his college coach at Indiana University, Branch McCracken, who was near death in an Indianapolis hospital. Everyone else, however, had a typically fun time.

Darden and Keller recall Brown, of all people, losing control of his motorized mini-bike and riding over a mound and into a house. Daniels' wife, Cecelia, ran her bike across the road into a cluster of bushes.

"After that happened, I think everybody became a lot more careful," Darden says.

Rings later were distributed. Leonard, who had held onto his job with Herff Jones as a graduation supplies representative, designed them. Each one included the motto he had adopted during the regular season: Pride, Poise and Perfection.

Most of the surviving players have stored them away, either in lock boxes at home or in bank safety deposit boxes. Darden gave his to the second of his three sons. Brown's is with his oldest son, Roger Jr.

Championships aren't about rings, though. They are about the lasting memories of accomplishment, and this team produced them in abundance — not only for themselves but for a fan base that finally got a taste of what it was like to live in a big-league city.

Even if that taste bore a faint resemblance to ham and beans.

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Remembering the Pacers' First Championship, 50 Years Later

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2019 Jr. Pacers Hoops Tour: Pacers Athletic Center

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The tournament seeped into their DNA early, a shimmering light and joyful noise that at once seemed an unreachable mirage and close enough to touch. It beckoned them forward, inspiring the first steps of a journey that became their profession.

Bill Keller and George McGinnis had parallel basketball careers in many respects. They led their Washington High School teams to the state championship in their respective senior seasons. They were voted Mr. Basketball, symbolic of being the best player in the state, and the passing years would confirm that opinion. They had standout college careers at Purdue and Indiana respectively, earning individual national recognition, and then joined forces on Pacers teams that won ABA championships.

They're also in lockstep in the opinion that winning the state high school tournament was a highlight never to be exceeded. Keller did it in 1965, leading the Continentals to a 29-2 record. McGinnis did it in 1969, leading one of the greatest high school teams in the state's history to a 31-0 record. Now that sufficient time has passed to bring their basketball careers into perspective, the light and noise have not dimmed.

Keller and McGinnis will headline the next Hickory Night celebration at Bankers Life Fieldhouse on Friday when the Pacers play Sacramento and Washington's championship teams are honored. Several of their teammates will be on hand as well, players who were essential to the championships, many of whom had distinguished careers of their own.

Keller was joined in the starting lineup by Ralph Taylor, who also played at Purdue; Marvin Winkler, who played 20 games for the Pacers in the 1971-72 season; Trester Award winner Eddie Bopp; and Bill Rogers, who went on to play for Vincennes University. McGinnis' teammates included Steve Downing, who became an All-American center at IU and a first-round draft pick of the Celtics in '73; Wayne Pack, who played 21 games for the Pacers in the 1974-75 season; Louie Day, who attended IU on a football scholarship, and Jim Arnold, who also played collegiately.

Keller will fly up from his winter home in Florida and McGinnis will drive in from his home in Indianapolis, but they would go to just about any length to relive the memories with their teammates.

"There was nothing like it," McGinnis said. "There was an innocence to it. It was something I grew up with that was ingrained in all of us. It was something we dreamed about, being able to play on TV one day. That was the biggest thing in the world at that time."

Keller would agree. For both, the high school championship represented the culmination of a childhood dream.

Keller grew up watching the tournament on television, and then, around fifth grade, began attending it with his father back when the finals were a one-day event that filled Butler's fieldhouse.

"He dangled that carrot in front of me, and it was something I wanted to be involved in," Keller said. "I dreamed about it. I'd often go out and play by myself, and I'd put myself at the free throw line with a chance to win the state tournament. And whether you made the shot or missed, you'd laugh about it. You'd do that over and over.

"There wasn't a day that went by as a kid that I didn't put myself in the state finals. Especially at the free throw line. I had put myself in a situation to play in the state finals and maybe win the state finals with a free throw."

As a sophomore and junior, Keller was one of the varsity letter winners from city schools entrusted with working the final four games as an usher. One of the duties was to hold the ropes after the game to keep fans from running onto the court and join the celebration. That required sitting on the edge of the court halfway through the final quarter, to be in position when the game ended. From there, his dream played out in front of him in living color, just a few yards away.

He watched Muncie Central and its future Mr. Basketball, Rick Jones, win in 1963, then watched Lafayette Jeff and its future Mr. Basketball, Denny Brady, win in '64. From those experiences, along with the childhood fantasies he had conjured in his solitary hours with a ball and basket, it all felt familiar when he got his chance to play in the game '65.

"The first time I went to the line in the state finals, I had been there many, many times – in my mind," he said. "I wasn't really nervous going to the free throw line, because I had been there."

Keller led all scorers with 25 points in the championship game, but the singular moment that remains clearest in his mind today is, of all things, a missed foul shot. He had hit all 31 of his free throws during the tournament, beginning with the sectional, and had a chance to extend the streak when he was fouled with 11 seconds remaining. Washington's victory was assured, his teammates had vacated their places along the foul lane to defend Fort Wayne North's basket, and celebrations were breaking out all around him. Distracted by all the commotion, he missed the first foul shot, breaking his streak. He hit the second to finish 32-of-33 from the foul line for the tournament.

"I wasn't focused and I missed it," he said. "When you ask me today what memory comes to mind, that's the first thing. That's a memory that lingers. It could have been 33 out of 33."

Keller went on to play at Purdue, where he was a three-year starter and point guard for the 1969 team that reached the championship game of the NCAA tournament. The Boilermakers, in fact, defeated North Carolina in a semifinal game of the Final Four on the same Saturday that McGinnis and the rest of the Continentals won the state championship. Keller also was the inaugural winner of the Frances Pomeroy Naismith award, given to the nation's best player 6-foot or shorter.

Keller then played seven seasons for the Pacers, becoming one of four players to be part of all three championship teams, in 1970, '72 and '73. McGinnis joined the team for the 1971-72 season after earning third-team All-American honors as a sophomore at IU. He was a starter by the end of his rookie season, and a star the following season, when he was voted the '73 ABA finals MVP after starring in the Game 7 victory over Kentucky in Louisville. He would go on to be voted co-MVP of the ABA with Julius Erving in 1975 and become a three-time NBA All-Star.

Like Keller, however, nothing surpassed the thrill of his high school championship. His Washington team was one for the ages, an undefeated team that dominated nearly every game it played. Only one opponent came within single-digits of the Continentals during the regular season. Shortridge did it twice, but lost by 22 points in the championship game of the city tournament.

Also like Keller, McGinnis was primed for his first championship by all he saw and heard while growing up in Indianapolis. His first impression came from being five years old and watching the Oscar Robertson-led Attucks team win the title in 1956 with his father.

Attucks' overachieving 1959 championship team excited him even more, because he was old enough to understand better, and the feeling never left him. When he was a freshman at Washington, he rode up with a few sophomores with driver's licenses just to marvel at the "Home of Rick Mount" sign near the exit to Lebanon. The next two years, in a scene fit for "Hoosiers," he and teammates Steve Downing and Jim Arnold sat in a car outside the fieldhouse during final four games and listened to them on the radio, imagining themselves playing in the game and helping with the broadcaster's call of the game. When the action heated up, they could hear the muffled noise seeping through the fieldhouse bricks, an invitation to their future.

"It was so cool," McGinnis recalled, "listening to that game and hearing that roar."

Washington was favored by many to win the title McGinnis' junior year. Downing had grown from a 5-10 freshman to a 6-9 junior, and was finding his legs. McGinnis, even as an underclassman, was the best player in the state. The Continentals, though, lost by 12 points in the championship game of the Regional to city rival Shortridge, which advanced to the final game before losing to Gary Roosevelt.

Bill Green took over as head coach for McGinnis' senior season, replacing Jerry Oliver, who left to take an assistant coaching position at IU – and begin working to lure McGinnis and Downing there. Green was famous for his matchup zone defense, but he was a savvy motivator, too, according to McGinnis.

"At the beginning of the season he said, 'Look, guys, we're going to win them all. And I want you to think about this. Every game we win, Friday night and Saturday night, I'm taking you to White Castle and you're getting 10 hamburgers apiece."

Green kept his promise. At the time, for a bunch of high school kids from blue collar families, it was a highlight never to be forgotten.

Green also saw something in a kid who had been cut three times by Oliver. Wayne Pack excelled on the local playgrounds, but Oliver considered him too undisciplined. Green, though, kept him. Pack was so excited about getting his first pair of Converse All-Stars that he took them home, put them on his dresser and stayed up all night staring at them.

He was more excited to become an integral part of Washington's team. He became a starter shortly after the season began, and scored 13 points in the championship game victory.

"Wayne Pack was, by far, the most interesting story on our team," McGinnis said. "I tell kids all the time, take advantage of playing basketball, don't let basketball take advantage of you."

Pack did that, becoming the first member of his family to go to college. He played at Tennessee Tech, sat out a year after his college career ended, then caught on with the Pacers for 21 games. He was the fourth guard among four, but had a couple of double-figure games when he got playing time in blowouts. He was nicknamed Six-Pack, and given jersey No. 6 to go with it.

If not for his persistence and Green's faith in him, he likely would have wound up working in a factory or joining the military. College simply wasn't an option given his parents' blue-collar salaries without a scholarship of some sort. After Pack's playing career ended, armed with a college degree and local status as a former Pacers player, he began a path toward a career as an executive in Human Resources.

As McGinnis likes to point out, for many years Pack was the only person in the history of Indiana high school basketball who never lost a game and won a state championship. His one and only season had been perfect.

The two Washington championship teams were just four years apart and most of the players lived within walking distance of the school, so there's some crossover between the two groups. Taylor from the '65 team, for example, lived just down the street from McGinnis, who remembers watching him walking home after school with a backpack full of books.

Combined, these two teams account not only for two Mr. Basketballs and two popular Pacers, but for two other players with brief Pacer careers, a future first-round draft pick of the Boston Celtics, a future Pacers' assistant coach (Oliver), and the coach with more state tournament championships than any in the state's history (Green, who won five more at Marion).

All of them would agree, nothing they went on to do in life surpassed those state titles at Butler. That's true even for Keller, who won three with the Pacers, and nearly another with Purdue.

"The high school state championship was the most memorable for me, because it was the first," he said. "It was the one you dreamed about, the one you worked towards. My work for the high school championships started when I was in the fourth grade.

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For Keller and McGinnis, Memories of Winning State Never Faded

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INDIANAPOLIS – Indiana's all-time leading boys high school basketball scorer, Indiana's first Miss Basketball, champion high school basketball teams from the past and present and the writer and director from the movie Hoosiers highlight the Indiana Pacers' second season of Hickory Night honorees for 2016-17, the team announced today.

The Pacers will again wear the NBA Pride Hickory uniforms and Bankers Life Fieldhouse will be transformed to reflect the elements that helped make Hoosiers one of the most popular sports movies of all time.

The Hickory Nights, opponents and those to be honored are:

"Through our partnership with MGM, we are again delighted use the Hickory Nights as a platform to celebrate and honor some of those who have made Indiana synonymous with the game of basketball," said Todd Taylor, senior vice president and chief sales and marketing officer of Pacers Sports & Entertainment. "The Hickory nights last season really resonated with our fans. In conjunction with our 50th Season Decade Nights, this promises to be a very special season."

Last year's Hickory Nights saluted Crawfordsville as the birthplace of Indiana basketball, Loogootee's Jack Butcher as Indiana's all-time winningest high school coach, George Crowe of Franklin as Indiana's first Mister Basketball, the 1955, '56 and '59 Crispus Attucks state champions, the 1954 Milan state champions who served as the inspiration for Hoosiers, and the eight 2016 boys and girls IHSAA state basketball championship teams.

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Hoosiers Screenwriter, Director Lead 2016-17 Hickory Night Honorees

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2016 Summer Hoops Tour - YMCA at CityWay

The greatest enforcer the Pacers have ever had, the guy who seemed to get into more fights during the late Sixties and early Seventies on basketball courts than Muhammad Ali had in boxing rings, is sitting in the corner booth of a restaurant and reading poetry to me.

They are gentle, heartfelt poems on a wide variety of subjects. Living in a senior community ... a retired athlete reflecting on his glory days ... a young athlete trying to please his father ... the love between a father and daughter ... athletes and their money ... older women.

It seems incongruous, this 6-foot-9 Hall of Famer with the vice-grip handshake reflecting on such tender topics with such sincerity. That is, unless you get to know him. And then it makes perfect sense that this bare-fisted brawler has written, by his estimation, at least 20,000 poems.

Daniels' dual nature comes naturally. His father, Maceo, worked at an auto parts manufacturing plant and lived the traditional blue collar worker's life. He had no interest in sports, and didn't even want Mel wasting his time with them. Mel's mother, Bernice Lynette, was a gentler soul. She read poetry to him during his childhood. She also was the one who attended his junior varsity games after he had gone out for basketball for the first time as a sophomore, cheering on the awkward beginner who played like a newborn colt.

Macho poet? Sensitive scrapper? Take your pick. Daniels has shown plenty of both sides throughout his life, although today, at 71, he's far more likely to sit down and scratch out a poem than raise his fists in anger.

Daniels considers his poetry a form of doodling, something to do to pass the time and relax the mind when he's not busy tending to the horses on his ranch in Sheridan. He's been writing them since he was eight or nine years old, long before he was an All-American center at New Mexico or the two-time Most Valuable Player in the American Basketball Association who helped lead the Pacers to three titles.

Daniels doesn't claim to be anybody's poet laureate, and hasn't tried to get his work published, although others have talked of that possibility. It's just a hobby, and one he's mostly kept to himself.

Growing up in a tough, ethnically diverse neighborhood in Detroit, he didn't dare tell his classmates about it. He didn't take a poetry class in college at New Mexico. It certainly never came up for discussion with his teammates during his seven seasons with the Pacers, either. He was the backbone of the Pacers' on-court machismo and had a reputation to uphold. He played in a rowdy era when a player could throw punches without being labeled a thug, or even be kicked out of the game, and he took full advantage of the opportunities to take a stand. He is easily the franchise's all-time record-holder for fights started and/or ended during games, and more than anyone other than coach Slick Leonard established an intimidating tone for those teams.

His poetry, therefore, was not a topic of conversation around his teammates.

"Oh, no," Daniels says, laughing. "Could you imagine Neto (Bob Netolicky) and Roger (Brown)? No, that wouldn't have worked.

Billy Keller, who like Daniels played on all three of the Pacers' championship teams, says he had no idea Daniels dabbled in such a gentle pastime until Brown died in 1997, and he saw or heard a poem Daniels had written for the occasion.

Daniels' hobby wasn't an absolute secret, though. I recall him reading a poem he had written about Albuquerque, New Mexico, where he attended college, on the radio in a pre-recorded interview with former Pacers play-by-play broadcaster Jerry Baker at halftime of a game during his playing career. For some reason I remember the opening lines – "You take a little sand, and you call that Albuquerque ..." He doesn't recall writing it or reading it, and it's among his lost efforts.

Many of Daniels' early poems were destroyed in a barn fire on his property several years ago. He still has thousands of them stashed in boxes and briefcases at home, though. The ones he read to me in the restaurant, representing more recent efforts, were neatly reprinted on white paper in a spiral-bound notebook.

Daniels' favorite poem is The Bells, said to be the last work of his favorite poet, Edgar Allan Poe. He's drawn to Poe for his writing style, although he's intrigued by his troubled personal life, too. That's typical. Daniels has always maintained a soft spot for someone's everyday struggles. He had his teammates' back on the court, but also acted as the locker room den mother, the player most likely to stand up for a teammate's emotional needs.

Just a couple of weeks into his first season with the Pacers (1968-69), Daniels publicly took a stand for Jimmy Rayl, who was hearing boos from some of the home fans, saying he was "hurt" by it.

"I wish they'd boo me instead of the other players," Daniels told The Indianapolis News. "I feel I can take it better than they can, though I know I can't, really."

A year later, the Pacers lost a game to Dallas in Moody Coliseum on the Southern Methodist University campus. Daniels and Keller, a rookie at the time, walked back to the team hotel together afterward and had a meaningful conversation along the way. Keller still remembers the moment, recalling how it helped him feel an important part of the team for the first time.

"That was the first time I ever really talked with him or had much of a conversation with him," Keller says. "I realized he really was a good person."

A season or two after that, Daniels walked out of practice in support of Rick Mount, who had come under a verbal harangue from Leonard. Years later, Mount, who played two unhappy seasons with the team, recalled Daniels fondly as the heart and soul of the Pacers' title teams, "and a really nice guy."

"Mel didn't want anybody to be embarrassed," Freddie Lewis, the Pacers captain throughout Daniels' seasons with the team, summarized. "He was pleasant, he was caring and he looked out for his teammates."

Further proof of Daniels' sensitive side is that he considers the highlight of his playing career not to be any of his individual honors, but the memory of Brown, who rarely showed emotion, letting down his guard enough to kiss him on the forehead in the locker room after the Pacers won their first title in Los Angeles in 1970.

All that, from the man who got into a fight in his first professional game with the Minnesota Muskies in 1967, and on many more occasions with the Pacers.

Daniels has written poems for several people over the years, but doesn't usually show or read his work to them. Donnie Walsh, Slick Leonard, Roger Brown, Reggie Miller, Jeff Foster and Mark Jackson are among his subjects.

One of his best and perhaps most influential poems helped convince Miller to stay retired when Miller was thinking of signing with the Boston Celtics a few years after leaving the Pacers:

Once the decision is finally made, and you're comfortable with the thought
There's no turning back now, my man, your body has just shut off

And no matter how you make the statement on that final day
Clean your locker and your mind, and quietly walk away

And for the next few months, and especially in the fall
That old urge will come over you and you'll still think you can play basketball

You'll analyze the game and how it's being played
And say to yourself, 'If it was me, that shot I'd have easily made.'

But the sad reality of it all, and it has a lot to do with the truth
The game has passed you by, let's leave it to the youth