The Decatur Central gym was dedicated in February 1942, a decade after the schools of West Newton and Valley Mills combined to form Decatur Central.
This is the ninth of a 10-part series featuring some of Indiana high school basketball's "Lost Gyms."
It has been nearly 70 years, but Don Huffman remembers it like it was yesterday.
Huffman, a 1959 Decatur Central graduate, was sitting on the bench during a Hawks’ home game one night during his junior season when he noticed a man drunkenly hassling basketball coach Marvin “Pete” Armstrong. Everybody noticed. “This guy was dead drunk and had no business being near a gym,” Huffman said.
Bob Moore, assistant coach and principal at West Newton Elementary School, noticed too. Moore walked over to the instigator, grabbed him by the back of the shirt and belt, shoved open the door and tossed him into the cold, snowy night. Problem solved.
“Out the door and tossed him into a snowbank,” Huffman said with a laugh. “It was snowing like mad. He closed the door and came back in, and we continued to play the game. One of the funnier things I can remember here.”
The Decatur Central gym where Huffman played was dedicated in February of 1942, a decade after the schools of West Newton and Valley Mills combined to form Decatur Central. The Decatur Central teams of the late 1930s and early 1940s built momentum toward the building of that new gym, winning five of seven Marion County tournament championships starting in 1935 and the program’s first sectional championship in 1941 under coach Burke Anderson. That group, led by Bill Butler, Bob Lollar and Max Shanklin, reached the regional championship, losing 27-21 to host Anderson.
Decatur Central won another Marion County title at the Motor Armory in 1942 with a victory over rival Southport, but did not win another since. The sectional title drought, which included a heartbreaking two-point loss to Joe Sexson and Tech in the 1952 championship at Hinkle Fieldhouse, finally ended in 1958.
“You couldn’t put another person in here,” Huffman said of the home crowds that season. “There weren’t any fire marshal rules. There were people sitting on the concrete edges and the noise was just deafening in here. Sometimes there would be people sitting on the floor (in front of the bleachers) and you would have to take the ball (in bounds) in between their legs and pass it in.”
Decatur Central was 11-8 going into the sectional. But despite that less-than-impressive record, the Hawks were considered dangerous in the sectional with seniors Kenny Knopf, Larry Rink, Steve Aldridge and Tom Avery leading a balanced group. Two years earlier, Decatur Central was moved to the sectional at Center Grove and its new gym.
“For years, everybody went to Butler Fieldhouse,” Huffman said. “All 16 teams in that sectional played there. If you had a ticket, you got out of school. They ran buses and everybody went downtown. That was the experience. When they moved some Indianapolis schools to the perimeter, we got moved to Center Grove. We figured that was a good deal … a chance for us to move a little further in the tournament.”
Franklin, with high-scoring Steve VanAntwerp and Dick McNew, was considered the favorites. But the Grizzly Cubs were upset by tiny Helmsburg, 41-40, in the semifinal. Decatur Central, after beating Center Grove and Whiteland in the first two rounds, knocked off Trafalgar and Helmsburg, the latter by a score of 55-46 to win the sectional title.
“A month ago, I didn’t dream we could win a sectional tourney,” Armstrong told the Franklin Evening Star.
After a celebration back at the Decatur Central gym, school was called off Monday. The Hawks advanced to the regional at Columbus. Decatur Central easily defeated North Vernon, 60-43, in the regional semifinal but ran into red-hot Buster Briley of Madison in the championship. The then-sophomore, who would go on to score 1,985 points at Madison and star at the University of Evansville, scored 20 points and Decatur Central missed 16 free throws in a 63-58 Madison win.
“Buster Briley stood about where the white line is and threw them in overhead,” Huffman said. “His shot was like an overhead throw.”
The sectional title in 1958 proved to be the last for Decatur Central for 38 years. Huffman graduated from Franklin College and returned to teach at his alma mater in 1964 after a year at Beech Grove. The only thing that had really changed in the gym since Huffman’s playing days was the placement of the teams’ benches on the sideline instead of the ends of the court.
“Everything was in this building,” Huffman said of the old school. “The high school, the junior high. All of the practices were here, physical education classes. This was the gym for the whole district. This was the whole shebang until we built the gym over at the high school.”
The old gym continued to host the high school games until the gym at the new school was completed in January of 1969. Bill Whittle scored 40 points that night and Mike Gillin added 21 as Decatur Central beat Greenwood 95-91 in front of 4,000 fans at the dedication of the new gym, which was completed at the same time as eight new classrooms for the music, band and speech departments and new auditorium at the growing school.
“What a blessing it was to get a new gym,” Huffman said. “We were trying to juggle everything (in the old gym). I coached eighth grade at that point, and we had a lot of really good middle school teams. But you had physical ed classes and band practices and everything else in here, too. Everybody had to really work at it.”
Though the gym served the high school team for less than 30 years, it had its share of highlights. Included in that is one of the highest-scoring performances in state history. On the night of Jan. 8, 1965, Decatur Central guard Ron Moore lit up Brownsburg for 56 points — a school record that still stands — in a 114-62 victory. Moore went to play in junior college and then starred at the University of Montana for two years.
“I was there that night,” Huffman said of Moore’s record game. “I don’t know how anyone will ever beat 56.”
Huffman said the transition from the old gym to the new gym at the high school felt like part of the natural progression. The new school was built in 1961, but the gym did not come along until the end of the decade.
“There was excitement for the new gym,” he said. “That was a lot of nostalgia, but this was the junior high gym. It was like, ‘We’re going up to the high school now.’ It was a new era, turning the page. It was a great experience.”
For many years, Decatur Central students played middle school games in the old gym, had P.E. classes, wrestling meets and youth basketball games. The school building now houses the Decatur Township School for Excellence and Decatur High Ability Academy.
Huffman, 84, coached multiple sports at the school and retired from teaching in 1999. He later served on the school board. But he can walk by his old classroom just outside the gym and remember the good times.
“It was heaven,” he said. “It truly was. I taught biology here in Room 9. I had a wonderful principal, Leo Shively. I loved teaching and loved taking a team and trying to make them better than they thought they could be.”
Huffman said he hopes Decatur Central could play a “heritage game” at the old gym at some point soon.
“I think it would be great for the community,” he said. “I have nothing but unbelievably warm memories coming back in here. It really is nice to know it’s being utilized. I think it’s great. It looks like we could throw it up and go right now.”
Call Star reporter Kyle Neddenriep at (317) 444-6649.Get IndyStar's high school coverage sent directly to your inbox with the High School Sports newsletter.
This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Indiana high school basketball old gyms Decatur Central
Category: General Sports
