State Champions: 1912, 1917, 1918
Semi-State Champions: 1942-1943, 1974-75
Regional Champions: 1931-32, 1933-34, 1942-43, 1960-61, 1965-66, 1972-73, 1973-74, 1974-75, 1982-83, 1983-84, 1989-90
Sectional Champions: 1922-23, 1923-24, 1928-29, 1930-31, 1931-32, 1932-33, 1933-34, 1934-35, 1935-36, 1936-37, 1937-38, 1938-39, 1939-40, 1940-41, 1941-42, 1942-43, 1947-1948, 1950-51, 1953-54, 1960-61, 1963-64, 1965-66, 1967-68, 1969-70, 1970-71, 1972-73, 1973-74, 1974-75, 1975-76, 1976-77, 1977-78, 1982-83, 1984-85, 1986-87, 1988-89, 1989-90, 1991-92, 1997-98, 1998-99, 2000-01, 2001-02
All-time Career Scorers
4. Rick Mount- 2,595 15. Rich Mount- 2,139
Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame Inductees
Coaches
Alva Staggs(Click here), Jim Rosenstihl(Click here)
Players
John Richard Porter(Click here), Donald White(Click here), Pete Mount(Click here), Rick Mount(Click here), James Fisher(Click here)
INDIANA ALL-STARS
1943-Dave Laflin, 1944-Pete Mount, 1966-Rick Mount, 1975-Steve Walker, 1976-Brian Walker, 1983-David Wright, 1989-Rich Mount
The Cradle of Basketball
by Jason Crowe
It was in 1891 when James A. Naismith invented the game of basketball for his physical education class at a YMCA in Springfield, Mass. They played with a pair of peach baskets and an old soccer ball. It was just a year later when Rev. Nicholas McKay brought the game to Indiana. McKay was taking charge of the Crawfordsville YMCA. He felt this new game of basketball might help keep Hoosier athletes active in the winter months. McKay hired a local blacksmith to forge two hoops. He attached old coffee sacks to catch the ball. And an Indiana tradition was born.
Teams from Thorntown, Lebanon and Lafayette Jefferson dominated the sport in the early years. And through the 1920s and 1930s basketball spread throughout the state, earning converts in schools from Evansville to Gary. And the state tournament grew as well.
In 1925, James Naismith himself visited Indiana, to see what enthusiasm his game had inspired among Hoosiers. He watched the state finals among 15,000 screaming fans of Hoosier Hysteria. Later he wrote, "Basketball really had its origin in Indiana, which remains the center of the sport."
Each year, hundreds of thousands of fans and players in gymnasiums around the state offer their own testimony to the truth of Dr. Naismith's observations. Because, since the first game was played in Crawfordsville a hundred years ago, basketball has remained Indiana's sport.
WELCOME TO THE CRADLE:
The previous is a script for the "Cradle of Indiana Basketball" display at the Hall of Fame Museum in New Castle. It is noteworthy that the first eight state champions came from a three-county, 30-mile radius: Crawfordsville, 1911; Lebanon, 1912, 1917, 1918; Wingate, 1913, 1914; Thorntown, l915, and Lafayette Jefferson, 1916.
Recently, I took a trip to the cradle and the towns that the aforementioned schools call or called home.
I thought I had an idea of what to expect from each of the communities and how they celebrate, honor, remember these champions:
Crawfordsville: The birthplace of basketball. I knew the YMCA no longer was standing, but I expected a historic marker standing in its place. Also, a sign on one of the roads entering town proclaiming the town of the birthplace of basketball and the home of the great state's first-ever basketball champions.
Lebanon: A result of the three state champions was a new gymnasium, built not too long after the 1918 title.
Wingate: I had seen pictures of the billboard and the gymnasium.
Thorntown: I had absolutely no idea what to expect.
Lafayette Jefferson: I expected very little if anything. The Bronchos had won state championships since then, been to a couple state finals recently and it is a college town, home to a major university.
Lebanon played in the first two state championship games, winning in 1912. Then they came back to win back-to-back titles in 1917 and 1918. To honor the great teams, the city built a new gymnasium. It, along with the old school, is being renovated and turned into "Memory Hall", a senior apartment building.
But, just the same, it isn't three state crowns for which Lebanon is remembered. It is "Rick the Rocket". The high school player of the year in 1966, Rick Mount wore the black and gold of Lebanon and brought the pride enjoyed by the town in the 'teens back in the '60s. And, driving around the courthouse square that was a site for the Sports Illustrated photo shoot for the cover story on Feb. 14, 1966, brings a sense of history. The place almost looks the same.
THE CRADLE'S LEGACY:
There really is no explanation for why the Cradle became so. Other towns have enjoyed more success since then (Muncie, Marion and East Chicago), other towns have had their own individual heroes (Fuzzy Vandivier, Oscar Robertson, Scott Skiles and Damon Bailey).
But basketball got its start in towns like Crawfordsville, Wingate and Thorntown, enjoyed early success in towns like Lebanon and established long-standing traditions in towns like Lafayette.
It's the Wingates and Thorntowns that gave Indiana basketball its identity, the Lebanons that captured the state's imagination, the Lafayettes that everyone loved to hate.
Rick Mount, winner of the coveted Mr. Basketball Award in Indiana in 1966, was the first high school athlete to appear on the cover of Sports Illustrated. He earned all-state and all-America honors three times and scored 2,595 points during his high school career at Lebanon (Indiana) High School. Mount went to Purdue University where he was an all-American, and then played professional basketball in the American Basketball Association.
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