The Real Hoosiers

 The Real Hoosiers, Crispus Attucks High School, Oscar Robertson, and the Hidden History of Hoops, by Jack McCallum, was just released in March 2004. I don’t remember being more excited about getting to read a book, not just a sports book, but one that covered the all Black high school in Indianapolis, the first such school to win the Indiana State High School Basketball Championship in 1954 and 1955, but also their star, “The Big O,” Oscar Robertson. In addition to being about those high school teams and the legendary player, it was also about the rampant racism that existed in Indiana during that era. It makes sense to me, having grown up in Fort Wayne during this era, that Indiana always has had trouble defining itself “as either the most northern state in the South or the most southern state in the North.” Having been born in 1950, I don’t have memories of the Attucks teams, but I was very aware of their story. Furthermore, I was exposed to the racism which Mr. McCallum describes, and there is no reason to find any level of exaggeration in his descriptions. While attending medical school in Indianapolis in the 1970s, it seems to me that the state’s Imperial Wizard of the KKK was quoted on a weekly basis in the city’s primary newspaper, The Indianapolis Star.

 

Much of the story takes place in Indianapolis and particularly at Crispus Attucks and Butler University’s field house. McCallum accurately describes the neo-Nazi like Indiana High School Athletic Association. My school, Fort Wayne North, was mentioned several times as a basketball power in the state, but one that lost to Oscar’s team each time they played one another. At the time, the state tournament was a single draw event, meaning that the biggest schools also played the smallest schools, thus the legend of the 1953 Milan High School team was immortalized in the movie Hoosiers. My primary criticism of that movie was that it failed to capture the intensity of what Indiana high school basketball was really like. The state was crazed with the sport. Just like we make picks today for the NCAA tournament, so did we did that with the high school tournament. Literally everyone filled out their brackets and posted it on their refrigerators. I don’t recall walking into anyone’s house during the 60’s who did not post their picks, aiming to see what “Cinderella team” would go the farthest toward the state tournament.

 

McCallum is a great sports writer, but as usual, he captures so much more than just the sports side of things. He wrote about coaches, principals, education boards, families, and more. I’ve been flooded with intense emotions over these events. It must have been in about 1964 that I got to see Oscar play in a preseason NBA game at the Fort Wayne Coliseum – he was always the ultimate professional. In 1965, my high school made it to the final game of the state tournament. In those days, four teams played for the championship on a Saturday. In the early game, our star player, Dave Moser, was injured in the closing minutes and he was not in great form for the final that night. But, my memory of the Butler Field House was amazing. So loud, so intense – 15,000 people on wooden bleaches - screaming, stomping their feet, the bleachers swaying.

 

Jack McCallum, you’ve written a great book. Thanks for the memories, which of course also include the pain of the flagrant racism that I witnessed.