KHS Basketball in the 1950s

Here’s a quote from Wikipedia about “Hoosier Hysteria”. 

Indiana’s passion for basketball was observed and written about by basketball’s inventor, James Naismith. In 1925, Naismith visited an Indiana basketball state finals game along with 15,000 screaming fans and later wrote, that while it was invented in Massachusetts, “basketball really had its origin in Indiana, which remains the center of the sport.” Hoosiers have a traditional love for basketball similar to the love for football in Texas, and Minnesotans’ love for hockey. It truly is one of the State’s most cherished traditions.

The film “Hoosiers” portrayed a small town in Indiana in the mid 1950s whose inhabitants were fanatic about their High School basketball team. While the town described in the film bears little resemblance to Knightstown (K-town was bigger) there is a lot of similarity in the enthusiasm about High School Basketball.  If anything the people of Knightstown were even more obsessed with the sport than the town depicted in the movie.

The Old KHS Gym

For those who might happen on this site from out of the area it’s probably worth noting here that our old gym was chosen as the site for the filming of the home game action in the movie “Hoosiers”.  It was rated by ESPN as the 4th best sports film of all time.

http://www.thehoosiergym.com/hoosiers.htm

Also have a look at my post on the “Blog” page.

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Here’s a link to the “Facebook Fan Page” for the Hoosier Gym

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Here’s a clip from “Hoosiers” which shows our old gym pretty well.

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Our whole social scene seemed to revolve around the Friday night basketball games.  The gym probably held about fifteen hundred people (with standing room) when jammed to capacity, which was always the case for a home game.  With a total population of three thousand a large percentage of the town’s folk were at the games and a lot more would have been there had there been room.   After many home games we would have a “sock hop” in the gym sponsored by one class or another. It was a big night for us teens. It was an “event” for the adults as well. They would congregate in the restaurants (or bars) after the games and rehash every play, referee call and coaching decision for half the night.

 Friday night crowds. 

On Fridays with away games a long caravan of cars would follow the team and the town population would be reduced by a significant percent.  On returning to town the team would be treated to a meal at a local restaurant and half the town would try to get a seat to join the celebration or lament the defeat. Festivities after the game.

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Boys, Basketballs, and Dreams by Larry Lindsay (Basketball and the Class of ’57)

Muncie Central, Crispus Attucks, Tech, and then Milan were some of the hot teams during our high school years. The David versus Goliath struggle that pitted the Indians of tiny Milan High School against the frequent state champion, “mega-school” Muncie Central Bearcats was a history maker that is still well remembered today. That classic struggle inspired the Hollywood version of “Hoosiers” which was filmed in large part in the old Knightstown High School gymnasium which was the site of a big part of our Class of 57 High School experience.

What some people don’t remember is that Marvin Wood of Morristown High School and Butler University fame was the young coach who took little but mighty Milan all the way to the state championship in 1954. Another little known fact is that Herod “Pete” Toon the KHS varsity basketball coach in 1952-53 and 1953-54 played with Marvin Wood and Buckshot O’Brien for the famed Butler Bulldogs coached by Tony Hinkle. (In later years I was privileged to coach with Marvin Wood and was also an Assistant Superintendent where Pete Toon was one of the assistant principals at Ben Davis High School, small world.)

The story gets better. Marvin Wood became the New Castle Trojan basketball coach in 1954-55 and 1955-56. Here is where the story gets a bit more personal for many of us. The 1954-55 version of the Knightstown High School varsity basketball team included a number of sophomore basketball players. Billy John, Ed Knight, Gary Plank, Freddie Reeves, Wayne Stanfield, Don Sylvester, John Taylor, and I were among those in the opening season team photo. Sylvester, Taylor and I made it into nearly every game that season.

The 1954-55 version of the Falcons had somewhat of a miracle season winning 15 games while only losing five.  John Taylor, a sophomore was the leading scorer for the team and Donnie Sylvester and I also made the top seven. This young Falcon team won the final three regular season games and opened the sectional at New Castle with a 56 to 51 victory over Sulphur Springs. This pitted Knightstown against New Castle in the semi-final section game in the old Church Street Gymnasium. Although the young Falcon team coached by Harlan Clark put up a strong battle, the New Castle Trojans coached by Marvin Wood and led by Dwight Tallman who later played for the University of Tennessee once again prevailed over Knightstown. 

The class of 1957 was well represented in that game and the prospects looked great for the 1955-56 version of the Falcons. With class of 1956 players Perry, Peacock, and Stroup joined by Knight, Plank, Sylvester, Taylor and myself from the class of 1957 it seemed great things were on the horizon for KHS basketball.

The 1955-56 version of the Falcons featured a rotation of six starters including Perry, Peacock, Stroup, Sylvester, Taylor, and the writer. The varsity cheerleaders that year were all class of 1957 members. Dianne Chapman, Mary McCleese, and Patsy Sorrell led the avid KHS followers in cheering on the team.

The 1955-56 varsity basketball team, playing a much stronger schedule started a win streak of eight straight games, finishing with 15 victories and only nine losses, putting them in the sectional final against a very strong Middletown High School team. However, the big news for the classes of 1956 and 1957 was that the Falcons easily defeated New Lisbon 57 to 35 putting us in position to face the Marvin Wood coached Trojans in the second round of the tourney.

This time around the returning players from the previous year were ready for the challenge. The Falcons led most of the game building the lead to 20 points in the final quarter and winning easily 73-58. Taylor scored 19 points, Sylvester 16, and I got 8 in the first Knightstown victory ever over the New Castle Trojans. Knightstown came back to defeat Spiceland 53 to 51 with Taylor scoring 14 points, Sylvester 5 points, and I was able to contribute 12 points. In the sectional championship game Middletown, which had defeated the Falcons earlier in the season 66-49 prevailed once again 56 to 37. It is quite probable that Knightstown could have played Middletown in a best of five series and it would have taken an upset to defeat them. Never-the-less, winning 15 games for the second season in a row and defeating the New Castle Trojans decisively for the first time ever were memory makers and a time of great celebration in Knightstown.

In a special acknowledgement of these two basketball teams years later, Harlan Clark stated that winning 20 games over the two years was a great accomplishment when the fortunes could have been much worse. And given an insiders note it was an honor to play with two outstanding athletes such as John Taylor and Donnie Sylvester. Both had outstanding athleticism. John excelled in baseball and basketball as a sophomore and junior and would have broken all of Knightstown High School basketball records if he had returned for his senior year. John was a natural athlete and had an intuitive knack for rebounding, shooting, and scoring which puts him in the category of all time greats from KHS. Reflecting back upon the five class of 1957 players of Knight, Lindsay, Plank, Sylvester and Taylor who scored against New Castle in 1955 one can only wonder how good the 1956-57 version of the Falcons would have been.

Thanks Larry, it’s really interesting to read the insights of one of our major players. You always gave everything you had for the team..!!!

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The Record

Our teams had a pretty good record throughout the 50s with only one losing year.   Here are the year by year results that I have.    

• 1950 – 51
• 1951 -  52 11W-7L
• 1952 – 53
• 1953 – 54  8W – 5L
• 1954 – 55 14W – 4L
• 1955 – 56 15W – 9L
• 1956 – 57  6W – 12L
• 1957 – 58 13W – 7L
• 1958 – 59 15W - 3L
• 1959 – 60  17w – 5L  

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Here are some team pictures.  (Click on the first picture then the “next” buttons.)

Celebrations

When the 1956 Falcons beat the New Castle Trojans for the first time in living memory there was a great celebration when folks got back to town.  The town fathers got out the fire truck and we had an impromptu parade around the town square.  It was a fun time.   

Again in 1958 there was another opportunity for a huge street party on a cold February night when the team, known as the Panthers by then, actually won the sectional in the State tournament for the first time in history..

 Our Cheerleaders

What would a High School game be without Cheerleaders….??   Like a day without sunshine, that’s what…!!  Here’s a gallery of our 1950s Cheerleaders: 

Game action photos

Here’s my very favorite High School Basketball photo.   It’s of the cruciform Mickey Bell with a block against a Highland player.  I wonder if Mick got a foul called on him for his effort.  My buddy Gary Plank is number 45 ready to fight for the loose ball. 

 

 

Here are some more game action snaps.  Click on the first picture and then use the “next” tabs.