VANISHING HARDWOODS will appeal not only to the basketball fan, but to history buffs who have interests in heartland America. I wish I had time to travel throughout rural country sides to discover for myself some of the vintage gyms that flourished during the golden age of basketball. In the early days on the western prairies, basketball was king. All you needed in a small school was five kids, a floor and two hoops. Today, it's hard to find the same type of enthusiasm as those teams of yesterday. The author captures that spirit; thus, this book must be a definite read. George Karl, Denver Nuggets

Vanishing Hardwoods in Rural America

By Myron Finkbeiner

AuthorHouse

Copyright © 2010 Myron Finkbeiner
All right reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-4490-5099-3

Contents

Foreword............................................................................................viiIntroduction........................................................................................xi1. Some Old High School Gyms Find New Life - Indiana...............................................12. Ahead of its time - Nampa, Idaho................................................................73. John Wooden and the World's Largest High School Gym - Martinsville, Indiana.....................154. Panthers' Pride - Augusta, Kentucky.............................................................215. Home Of a Ghost - Oxford, Kansas................................................................276. Bedlam in a Bandbox - Flagler, Colorado.........................................................317. The Old Barn - Welch, Oklahoma..................................................................378. Welcome to the Old West - Monument, Oregon......................................................439. The Tale of Two Gyms - Wheatland & Forrest, New Mexico..........................................5110. The Little Town That Could - Weskan, Kansas.....................................................5911. A Small Town, a Tiny Gym, and a Hero - Geddes, South Dakota.....................................6512. Hoosiers, It's Not - Brooklyn, Washington.......................................................7113. Improbable Heroes - Bellfountain, Oregon........................................................7914. Hardwood Glory,'60s Style - Wishek, North Dakota................................................8715. Terry Teagle's Landmark - Broaddus, Texas.......................................................9516. A Changing Landscape On the Hi-Line - Chester, Montana..........................................10117. Bearden's Bears Den is Mighty Cozy - Bearden, Oklahoma..........................................10918. Round Ball in a Round Gym - New Providence, Iowa................................................11319. They Played in Dirt Before They Played On Wood - Farwell, Nebraska..............................11920. Big Dreams Are Realized In Small Towns - Alamo, Nevada..........................................12721. Hoosier Madness - Cannelton, Indiana1...........................................................137Acknowledgements....................................................................................143Epilogue............................................................................................145Contributors' Biographies...........................................................................149Notes...............................................................................................153

Chapter One

SOME OLD HIGH SCHOOL GYMS FIND NEW LIFE IN INDIANA

"In my research for this book, a common thread prevailed throughout ... the demise of rural schools and gyms due to consolidation, and their subsequent survival from the wrecking ball which are being provided by proactive communities. Kyle Neddenriep did a piece for the Indystar.com that overviews the decline and survival of these historical gymnasiums in the state of Indiana. The article provides examples of communities that have been hard hit by consolidation and what some concerned citizens are doing to keep the vintage gyms from biting the dust. I placed the article at the beginning of the book as it will serve as a framework and foundation for the remaining chapters."

The high, dusty windows throw light into the darkness of the sleepy Wayne County community of Economy. Outside the white, barnlike structure, a familiar sound cuts through the bitterly cold night: the pounding thud, thud, thud of a basketball against hardwood floor.

Stand there a minute, shoes covered in snow, and imagine what's inside. There would be the student cheer block; farmers in overalls lining the perimeter of the court; young men and women sitting on planks above the bleachers, eating popcorn and hurling insults at referees.

Once the heartbeat of a community, the Economy gym now stands empty except for Wednesday nights like this, when community members do their best to bring it back to life.

Look hard enough and you can still find these old gyms, remnants of a bygone and uniquely Hoosier era. They were home to the Ladoga Canners, the Mecca Arabs, the Pinnell Purple Dragons, the Bridgeton Raccoons, and the Stilesville Tigers. Now they are elementary schools, community centers, fire stations, private businesses, churches, libraries. Some, like the one in Sandusky, are homes. Others, sadly, are embarrassing eyesores.

The stories they could tell. Built mostly from the 1920s to the 1950s, before the antiseptic, multipurpose "athletic facilities" of today, each had its own unique feature, such as the crow's-nest scorer's table in Bloomfield, the out-of-bounds walls in Mecca (it wasn't long enough for end lines) and the wrap-around balcony in Harrisburg.

Most had this in common: They were packed for every game.

"That's why these gyms mean so much to people," said Phyllis Beers, a 1954 graduate of Green Fork High School, where the gym is now used to park fire trucks. "Going to basketball games was the thing to do. People have a fondness for those days."

Look hard enough and you can still find these hidden gems. But don't wait too long.

It has been 50 years since the School Corporation Reorganization Act caused sweeping consolidation of school districts across the state. In 1959, there were 724 basketball-playing high schools. This year, there are 402.

Once the students left, there was no more reason to keep many of the gyms. Others were razed in the name of progress, or finances. More are on the chopping block. The Rush County towns of Arlington, whose gym dates to 1939, and Milroy (1928) are building new elementary schools, and the current schools and adjoining gyms could be demolished.

"It's sad," said Prescilla Winkler, a 1955 Arlington graduate. "But it would be difficult to keep the gym financially."

Some have survived because it would have cost too much to tear them down and build new ones. New Market kept its gym, built in 1957, after the high school consolidated into Southmont in 1971. A new elementary school was built around it.

Many other gyms, in places such as Amo, Covington, Fillmore and Pine Village, have avoided the wrecking ball the same way.

Still others have been used as community centers, sometimes made available for rental. Such is the case at Indiana's most famous former high school gym in Knightstown. The home court of the fictional Hickory Huskers in "Hoosiers," the 1922-built gym likely would have been torn down if not for the movie. Now it draws 10,000 to 15,000 visitors a year.

In Fountain County, the former home of the Veedersburg Green Devils is owned by a nonprofit group of local residents who have raised more than $100,000 to refurbish the gym and school, known as the "Hub Civic Center."

"We didn't want this place to become dilapidated," said Jim Robinson, who saw that happen at his alma mater, Richmond Township.

Jim Dickey and John Glancy of the tiny Blackford County village of Roll know the feeling. Sixteen years ago, they bought the Roll gym, which was built in 1938 as part of the Works Progress Administration projects of the 1930s and '40s.

The men, who played on the Roll Red Roller teams of the early 1950s, hold on to the gym like an old friend. Though it's rented out occasionally, there is no money to be made. There is only the satisfaction of knowing that it's still there.

"When they took the school away, the town died," Dickey said. "That gym is about all that's left."

Dickey estimates that of the 30 or so gyms he played in as a high school student, only three or four remain. Some that still stand, do so barely.

The old Dover school, a few hundred yards from Western Boone High School, is a mess. Windows are busted out, and the roof is leaking.

The Alamo gym, built in 1941 and once a source of pride in the Montgomery County town, is for sale by a private owner. Charlie Bowerman, a 1957 graduate and member of the Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame, remembers it fondly.

"You hate to see the way it looks now," said Bowerman, who lives in Oklahoma. "We had some great memories in that place."

For other gyms, survival has come in myriad forms. Newport's 1925 jewel is part of a public library. Pay $1, and you can use it for an hour. In Kingman, the 1936 gym is part of the Community Christian Church Center.

Josh Reitzel has operated his rental company out of the 1938 Stilesville gym for five years. The 1953 Coal Creek Central gym is a warehouse. Classic gyms in Lebanon (1931) and Crawfordsville (1941) were remade as part of a health club. The 1923 Noblesville gym is used by the Boys & Girls Club.

All had their imperfections. There were dead spots on the court; cramped seating; and poor ventilation. The Economy floor is 61 feet long, 23 feet short of high school regulation.

The warts only made them more revered.

"We played in gyms so small you couldn't even shoot a high-arcing shot," said Bill Townsend, who coached at Fountain City in the 1950s. "Those places were great."

"It was entertainment in those little towns back then. You didn't have to be a parent or grandparent to go to the games. You could have put on a catfight instead of a basketball game, and the same people would have come to watch."

Those people are now the same ones hoping to preserve history in places that haven't seen a high school game in 50 years.

"I'd cry my eyeballs out if they ever tore this place down," said Bud Tutterrow, a 1960 Economy graduate. "I'd buy it myself and give it to the township if it ever came to that."

Less than two weeks ago, Anderson voted to keep its huge "Wigwam" gym despite evidence that it was no longer financially viable.

"The gyms will always have that connection to the community," said Jon Detweiler, who helped lead a recent restoration of the 1953 Williamsburg gym. "People don't want them to go."

Chapter Two

AHEAD OF ITS TIME

"My first chapter had to be Central gym in my home town of Nampa, Idaho. I played on this hallowed hardwood all through my growing-up years. Of all the gyms I researched for this book, Central Gym had the qualities you would look for in a complete facility. Gyms of the future could learn from the architects and builders of Central Assembly."

The Idaho State Championship was on the line. The Nampa Bulldogs were up by five at halftime. In addition to winning the coveted crown, the Bulldogs were also attempting to go for a record no previous team had ever accomplished.... an undefeated season. We had 28 wins in a row and one half of a game to go to make it 29.

One problem, the captain and leading scorer, an All-American schoolboy player, Wayne Blickenstaff, was saddled with four fouls. In the lockerroom, previous to the opening of the second stanza, Coach Babe Brown gave substitute Finkbeiner a nod and asked, "Myron, are you ready to take Wayne's place in the starting lineup and help this team win State?"

Stunned and for a loss of words, I contemplated the question for a moment when my mind went back a year to when I and two teammates transferred to Nampa High School from a small private school. Comments from my peers at the new school were not complimentary. "Fink, you're stupid to transfer ... you'll never make the team!" Those comments stuck in my craw and served as a powerful force to succeed at this higher level. Remembering those words, I answered the call from the coach with an enthusiastic, "Yes, I can do it!"

I grew up in a small rural community in southwest Idaho. The city of Nampa began as a small railroad town in 1880, and today it's still a major hub for Union Pacific Railroad. An early day citizen was Colonel William Dewey, a man who made a fortune mining gold in Silver City. To get the ore rich in silver and high in the Owyhee Mountains, Dewey built his own railroad that made its way down the steepest of slopes, across miles of sagebrush plains to eventually find its way to a tiny community named after an early day notorious Indian, Chief Nampuh. Today, Nampa is often referred to as the industrial and agricultural center of Idaho and as the state's "Friendliest" city.

It is appropriate for the opening chapter to describe the gym most familiar to me. Nampa's Central Assembly Auditorium in Nampa was the venue where I began and ended my active playing career.

My earliest recollection of playing at Central was in an eighth grade tournament. Our grammar school, part of Northwest Nazarene College, was too small to field a team from one grade, so the remaining teammates came from the 6th and 7th grades.

Northwest Nazarene College had a high school on its campus, which served as a training ground for its students intending to enter the teaching field. The academy, as it was called, had a long tradition in winning basketball games. Very few teams in the area scheduled the small private school for fear of losing to the Trojans. The academy played as an independent team and often played in Central as a preliminary game to Northwest Nazarene.

In 1949, after my junior year at the academy, I and teammates, Jay and Mickey Dean transferred to the larger and more prominent, Nampa High School. It was a good move, as the Bulldog team with three new players and led by legendary coach, Babe Brown, became the most successful team in Idaho School Boy history. The Central gym, with the capacity 1,800, was sold out for nearly every Bulldog game.

Following high school graduation, Northwest Nazarene College recruited me as a student-athlete. The short trip across town again took me and my playing abilities to Central Assembly Gymnasium. For sixteen straight years I played on Central's hardwood, scoring over 1,200 points in 105 games, while recording 72 wins. Now that Central is no longer used by the College or Nampa High, the playing records at Central should never be broken. "I'm indebted to the experiences gained while playing in that fabled gymnasium."

We tend to believe basketball arenas, as pictured on university campuses, have been around for eons. Not so! Gyms in the early days had fixed bleachers, better to crowd more fans into smaller spaces. There were exceptions ... one being McArthur court on the University of Oregon campus. Still in use today by the Ducks, this storied old arena, built in 1925, is the forerunner to today's basketball palaces. In 2001, SPORTING NEWS magazine named it the best gym in America for its history, character and atmosphere. Don't tell that to the visiting teams playing there today, as they call "The Pit" an absolutely horrible facility for play. Duck fans wouldn't change a thing, for they know their beloved team has a huge home court advantage.

Another exception was my home town gym. In 1935 the Nampa School District designed a basketball facility that would be more than a playing court, including theater seating in a horseshoe configuration, with a seating capacity of 1800. For cultural events, throw in 750 folding chairs on the floor and you have seating for 2,550 people. Even the name, Central Auditorium, spoke to its diversity. Over the years it was the site for political rallies, church services, commencement programs, concerts and drama productions. Athletically, it played host to a variety of events. The two Idaho universities played their annual game there. As the largest school facility, state tournaments were conducted frequently. I remember standing in long lines to watch high school boxing matches. The internationally famous Harlem Globetrotters and the House of David annually came to Nampa. Those were the days of Goose Tatum, Meadowlark Lemon and Marques Haynes. To see them in Nampa, Idaho was a real treat.

Few high schools in America during the 30's and 40's had gyms with theater-type seating. Most had bleachers on one side with the players sitting in folding chairs on the opposite side. As basketball popularity increased in the 40's, the courts took on a new look. This look included permanent bleachers on both sides and elevated 6 to 10 feet above the playing service-the purposes being to keep spectators off the floor, to protect the shiny playing surfaces, and to avoid confrontations between fans and players. Next, roll-a-way bleachers came, as schools continued looking for innovative multi-purpose uses for their gymnasiums. Rolling the bleachers against the wall provided more floor space and opportunities to convert gyms into auditorium settings.

Today, 85 years later, Central gym, other than having the stage enclosed, remains the same. The rectangle wood backboards still hang in place. It does not rock like it once did, with a noisy crowd and a pep band blaring out the Bulldog fight song. Today it's quieter and home to a middle school crowd and a less than active recreation basketball leagues. I'm sure the local participants today are unaware of the long, rich history the old gym has provided Nampa natives.

To borrow a phrase from a popular TV program, if the floor could talk, we would hear stories emanating from the gym. One would be about a successful basketball coach, J.A. "Babe" Brown. The legendary mentor guided teams at Nampa High from 1947-1957. Fifty years later, Nampans still talk about the 1950 undefeated team that went 29-0, and marched its way to a State Championship, never having a close game. Many of the players went on to successful college careers, some even became All-Americans. Somewhere in a school's trophy case is a tie under glass, that reads, "The tie that never saw defeat." It was worn by Babe at each of the 29 games.

Northwest Nazarene College was forced to use Central as its venue for home games, as visiting teams hesitated to come to Nampa to play the Crusaders in their ancient cracker box. On one occasion, Western Montana journeyed to Nampa to play on a Friday night on campus and was soundly defeated by 25 points. The following night the two teams squared off at Central where Montana turned the tables by outscoring the hosts by 32 points. A turnaround of 57 points! To bring it into perspective, it would be like playing one night in a hayloft, followed the next night with a game in the "Fabulous Forum."

A game during my sophomore year will go down in history as being the most bizarre basketball game ever played in Central. Cross-county rival, the College of Idaho, came to town led by a pair of African-Americans, not commonly seen during those days in Idaho. R.C. and Elgin came to the Caldwell College to play football, but quickly learned that basketball was their sport.

The game between the rivals was played before a packed house, with the Crusaders as a decided underdog. The evening got off to an unfriendly start. As the Coyotes paraded on to the floor, R.C. placed a phonograph player on the stage, which burst forth with, "Sweet Georgia Brown." NNC's big center, Carlyle Dean, took offense to the incident, as this was his home floor, and angrily yanked the cord from the wall. Coach Monty Lee stepped between Carlyle and R.C. before a scuffle became apparent.

(Continues...)

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