In the 53-year history of boys basketball at Columbus North High School, the Bull Dogs have made it to state one time.
That came in 1975, the third year after Columbus High School split into Columbus East and North. Coached by the legendary Bill Stearman, the Bull Dogs went 23-5 and advanced to the state semifinals before falling to Loogootee.
Earlier this month, that 1974-75 team was honored at North’s game against Greensburg.
“We all played together and had chemistry,” said Randy Goins, who led the Bull Dogs with 16.7 points a game that season. “Everybody had a lot of talent. It just worked out really well.”
North had the makings of putting together a big season in 1974-75. The Bull Dogs had gone 19-5 the previous year and returned five senior letterwinners, all of which stood at least 6-foot-2. With 6-7 Dave Welmer, the 6-6 Goins and John Patchett, 6-4 Steve Krakoski and 6-2 Dan Miles, they had perhaps the tallest starting lineup in Stearman’s 44 years as head coach.
Dave Horn, who had played for Stearman at Columbus High School, went to North Decatur as head coach, leading the Chargers to a sectional title in 1970. When North and East split, Horn came back to North as JV coach in 1972-73 and led the JV team to a 16-3 record.
“They were an exceptional bunch of young men at that time, and we thought maybe what happened was going to happen,” Horn said. “We had a lot of talent. It was just a combination of some good players, and we had some size to go along with it. They were good players and good people.”
Horn had most of the seniors on the 1974-75 team on his JV team as sophomores in 1972-73, except Welmer, who was on the varsity. Goins, Patchett, Krakoski and Miles joined Welmer on the varsity for the 1973-74 season that ended with a loss to Martinsville — led by future Purdue and Boston Celtics star Jerry Sichting — in the regional.
“We had a good junior year,” Welmer said. “We lost a bunch of guards and had a couple guards move in, Maurice Jordan from East and Craig Thayer from Whiteland, so we solidified our team.”
That was in the days before open enrollment, and Jordan lived in the East school district. So he moved with his family to Candlelight Village for six months so he could play for North.
“It really wasn’t that big of a deal,” Jordan said. “I had played against these guys and with these guys all the way through middle school.”
Welmer remembered the varsity teams playing against a group of former Bull Dog players during the summers when he was in high school.
“Stearman says, ‘Hey, we want you to come over to Northside and play ball in the summertime,’” Welmer said. “So we go over there, and we think we’re pretty good. As I recall, we play against these older guys, play to 10 baskets, and our team, we might score two or three points. We got waxed, and this happened all the time in the summertime growing up. We never beat those older guys. Our junior year, we might have four or five baskets against them. Our senior year, at the end of the summer, we beat those guys one or two games, so we feel pretty good about ourselves at that point.”
North opened the season by scoring 67 points in the first half of a 103-58 win against Shawe Memorial. The Bull Dogs hit the century mark again in their second game, a 104-70 win against Bloomington South.
A 75-73 double-overtime win at Indianapolis Manual — regarded as the best team in Indianapolis at the time — gave North a 6-0 record before it lost to Martinsville 61-59 in overtime. The Bull Dogs also lost games at Franklin, Rushville and Warren Central and finished the regular season 16-4, including 6-3 in the South Central Conference.
North beat East 59-40, Brown County 72-66 and Hauser 84-50 to win its own sectional. That set up a regional battle in Memorial Gym with nemesis Martinsville, and the Bull Dogs gained revenge with a 61-55 victory. North then beat Center Grove 55-48 that night in the regional final.
“We win the sectional, and here we are underdogs in the regional,” Welmer said. “We beat Sichting the first game of the regional, then we beat Center Grove in the final game of the regional. Center Grove had a 6-foot-10 kid (John Richards), and I’ll never forget Patchett and Goins shut him down. He averaged 19 a game, and we held him to two. I got on foul trouble, so I was on the bench, but those guys took the ball and ran with it.”
“My biggest highlight was when we beat Martinsville in the regional,” Krakoski added. “They had beaten us three times in a row. Jerry Sichting was a big-time ball player. They had our number.”
The Bull Dogs finished unbeaten in Memorial Gym that 1974-75 season.
“One of the finest memories that I have of playing in regional was when we came out (of the locker room) and we’d see on the south side of the gym, it was all red,” Welmer said. “Martinsville is red, Center Grove is red. Then, as we were circling around, on the stage is all blue, the north side of the gym is all blue, the Maple Street side is all blue, and the stands from the floor to the rafters was packed. Very seldom in my career did I play at North when the gym that was packed. It was such an exhilarating experience to be a part of that.”
In the semistate at Hinkle Fieldhouse, North pulled out a 52-48 overtime win against Indianapolis Washington in the morning semifinals.
“Another phenomenal place to play is Hinkle Fieldhouse,” Welmer said. “We loved playing at Hinkle. We beat Indianapolis Washington the first game in overtime, then I remember Stearman had us go to Indianapolis Motor Speedway and have lunch. So we have lunch and go through the track. Then he says, you guys go back to your rooms. We’re either going to play Muncie North or Rushville in the final game. Muncie North is ranked No. 1 in the state, so here we are watching the game on television, and all of a sudden, our managers come in, and said, ‘Hey, Rushville just beat Muncie North.’ I said, ‘Hey, we’re watching it on television. How do you know that?’ It was tape delayed. We had never seen tape delayed before.”
The Bull Dogs, who had fallen to Rushville in the regular season, rolled this time to a 62-43 win in the evening finals to advance to the state finals, which for the first time, would be played at Market Square Arena.
North, which had not scored below 50 points all season, ran into a Loogootee team that once it got a lead, played a deliberate style of basketball. The Lions beat the Bull Dogs 50-27 before falling to Marion 58-46 in the state title game.
“Loogootee had a great year, and they were great at holding the ball,” Welmer said. “They came out and hit their shots, and we just missed ours.”
Welmer, who averaged 15.9 points and 14.6 rebounds a game, was named All-Conference, second team All-State by United Press International and honorable mention All-State by the Associated Press. Goins was an honorable mention selection by both UPI and AP.
Miles also averaged in double figures with 12.1 points, and Krakoski was close with 9.3 a game. Patchett added 6.3 points.
Along with top subs Thayer and Jordan, other members of the varsity were junior Rob Dell and seniors Randy Goin and Rick Grimes. Sophomores Richard Garrett and Bob Pollert and junior Chris Boyd saw a little varsity action while playing mostly JV.
Stearman, who coached the Bull Dogs from 1952-96, died in 2003. Welmer, who scored 795 career points in 62 games over three seasons, went on to play at Ball State before returning to his hometown.
“What a great time and experience with all these guys,” Welmer said. “It was a great time in our lives to be a part of that Columbus North basketball.”
Kaylie Harmon