Dribble, pass, shoot! In Indiana, basketball season is gearing up and will keep us entertained (and cussing) during the long gray winter months ahead. For Prime Timers who can’t escape to Florida, there’s always the Indiana Hoosiers, the Purdue Boilermakers and local high school basketball games to help make winter tolerable.
I’m not sure what made Indiana basketball crazy, though an Indianapolis Star article from 2014 “History of our Hysteria: How Indiana Fell in Love with Basketball,” by Zak Keefer mentions that football didn’t catch on early in Indiana due to the state being agricultural in nature, with few industrial centers. Farms were spread out and there were lots of small rural schools, helping basketball become a better match than football for Hoosier kids. Basketball season didn’t conflict with the fall’s harvest chores, and unlike football — where you needed a buddy to throw with — kids could shoot baskets for hours on their own. Before the advent of television, basketball games in small, Indiana towns were major social gatherings.
The first basketball games I remember attending were in the mid-1950s, in Washington, Indiana, my mother’s hometown. The Washington High School team, the Hatchets, still play in a gym known fondly as the Hatchet House. Back in the 1950s and ‘60s, the Hatchet House was filled to the rafters for every basketball game, and tickets were hard to get. It was the same back then in every Hoosier town.
After my family moved to Bloomington in 1960, I was introduced to Hoosier basketball hysteria – college style. Branch McCracken was still coaching at IU then. One time, a middle-school friend invited me to attend an IU game in person with her family. We got to see the Van Arsdale twins play, but we had more fun flipping popcorn into the hood of a guy’s sweatshirt sitting in front of us. I mean we were seventh graders, after all!
My love of basketball grew during IU Coach Bobby Knight’s era. In March of 1975, I was employed in downtown Indianapolis and had to work the Saturday undefeated IU played Kentucky as part of the “Elite Eight” in the NCAA tournament. As I waited for my bus home outside the L.S. Ayres store, most of us at the bus stop had transistor radios clamped to our ears, listening to the game. A collective groan went up when IU lost to the Wildcats 90-92. Of course, IU made up for it the following year. I was living in Bloomington in 1976, when my fiancé, Mike, and I heard the roar of the downtown crowd from blocks away when IU crowned their perfect season; beating Michigan to win the men’s NCAA Championship.
Back then it was all about the boys. But Title Nine in 1972 finally began to open sports to girls and women. If you haven’t had a chance to see the IU Women’s Varsity Basketball team play, you’re missing a wonderful opportunity. They are superb athletes. My husband, Mike, and I accompanied our granddaughter Lilly and her basketball team from Southside Elementary to an IU women’s game this month. The girls were thrilled to get players’ signatures after the game, and they got to meet one of the IU coaches, Ali Patberg, who was a star basketball player in Columbus and played college ball at IU.
My granddaughters look puzzled when I tell them things like, “Girls didn’t play sports when I was growing up,” or “In my era, few women had careers in law or engineering.” I’m glad girls are growing up with more opportunities today.
So let’s get ready to rumble! Basketball season is here, and Hoosiers are ready to play ball!
Sharon Mangas is a Columbus resident and can be reached at [email protected]. Send comments to [email protected].
