December 2004 The Megaphone Page 4
by Jane Ann (Seright) Lemen
Last
month I gave some background to the "Anderson Jinx," a feeling or
belief that Elwood was jinxed and could never beat Anderson in basketball. As we
approached the '56 season, hopes began to soar once again. . . .
Jane Ann
Episode II -- This Is It in '56
I
started high school in the fall of 1955. Elwood had still not won a sectional or
defeated Anderson in basketball. (Incidentally we were pretty good at beating
Anderson in football; in fact, our school scoring record, 77-0, had been set
against the Indians.) The Panthers had come close in the '54 sectional when
they drew Anderson in their first game and lost by only a couple of points.
However, insult was added to injury when Alexandria beat Anderson in the finals
since we had beaten Alex twice in the season. If the Tigers could do it, why
couldn't we?
Well, because we were jinxed. That could be the only explanation. And as long as
we believed it, it was true.
The 1955-56 season opened with high expectations. We had an experienced team
with 8 seniors. We had a tall team. The front line was George Jung at 6'6",
sophomore Darrel McQuitty at 6'5", and Dave Jones at 6'4". On
the bench were other tall players, Jeb Carter, Dick Mitchell, Tom Phillips, Bob
Wardwell, Dallas Heston, as well as Louie Biltz, Steve Ward, Mike Hofer, David
Huntsinger, and Dave Henn. In fact, Elwood was the second tallest team in the
state. And we had a seasoned and experienced coach, Johnny Ward, who had coached
Tipton to the Sweet Sixteen a few years before. This was his 9th year at Elwood
and although he had never won a sectional, he had picked up three Central
Indiana Conference championships.
The old gym at 16th and North A Streets holds a special place in my memories. I
remember going to the ball games as a child with my parents. The gym only held
about 2,300 seats and a drawing was held to determine where your seats would be
located -- in the ideal Section B, or in the corners where you had to poke your
head around support posts. Dad usually wound up in one of those corner
sections.
The drawing for season tickets was actually part of the cultural phenomena of
Elwood in the 50's. Coupons ran in the Call-Leader for a couple of weeks. Then
came the Great Night when over 1,000 people gathered in the gym for the drawing.
A huge drum contained the coupons in plain envelopes. As I remember it, either a
child or one of the cheerleaders drew the coupons out and the name was called
out. The first name called always got a round of applause -- that family had
their pick of the entire adult side of the gym. Section A was the south-west
corner, Section B was the west side, C -- the north-west side, D -- the north
end behind a basket, half of which was reserved for the visiting team, E -- the
northeast including some students and the score keepers, section F -- the
Booster Club (cheer block of 100 girls), the Panther Band, and the E-Men's Club,
G -- the rest of student season ticket holders and some junior high'ers, and H
-- the stage behind the other basket where the press also sat.
Friday and Saturday nights were somewhat magical to me as a child. We always
entered, for some reason, by the southwest entrance, and it was exciting to come
in from the cold, dreary winter into the warmth of the gym. My glasses always
fogged up on entering. I could hear the band playing and the cheering for the
reserve game. And the smell of pop corn! There was a pageantry of basketball in
the 1950's -- the school colors, nicknames, the cheer blocks (sometimes the
visitors brought their blocks too), the Panther band, the majorettes with the
school flags, the cheerleaders. The adults yelled too. On a weekend night when
the Panthers played at home, one out of five people in Elwood would be in the
gym. And that old gym could really rock when everyone was fired up for the
Panthers and stomping their feet on the solid wooden bleachers.
The '55 - '56 season started as expected, with big wins against Plymouth and
Warsaw. By Christmas break, the Panthers were 6-1 and played in an invitational
tourney at Elkhart. The Blue Blazers trounced us pretty good, but we took the
consolation game against Mishawaka. Then came a solid win against Hartford City
and then we whipped New Castle by 19 points. When sectional time came, Elwood
had the best record in the County at 16-4.
There were ten teams in the Anderson sectional that year. Anderson was by far
the biggest with almost 3,000 students. Elwood was the second biggest with
almost 800. Highland, a brand new high school in Anderson, and Alexandria were
next, both around 500 that year. Lapel had around 400 with Pendleton and
Frankton 300, and then the small schools of around 150 -- Summitville,
Markleville, and Anderson St. Mary's.
The sectional drawing back then was held on Wednesday morning the week before
the sectional, and was broadcast over virtually every radio station in Indiana.
Our first period class was interrupted with the intercom -- Elwood would start
on Thursday evening against Summitville. I liked the draw because my cousin was
the student manager at Summitville and I could tease him when we won.
Coupons again ran in the Call-Leader and another drawing was made for tourney
tickets. The old Wigwam seated only 4,500 and with ten schools clamoring for
tickets, there were never enough. Elwood usually received only about 600 tickets
-- with around 2,000 season ticket holders. Anderson would get almost half the
gym with the other schools taking the other half.
There was something magical about the sectional, something that reminds me of
the jousting matches in the Middle Ages with the knights in their colors and
coats of arms on their shields. Every school, except Anderson for some reason,
had a cheer block regardless of size. Our Booster Club that year wore dark blue
blouses and white gloves -- the better to do hand motions during cheers. They
also spelled out "Panthers" and "Team" and the name of the visiting
school. It was important that even if you didn't win the game, you won the cheer block
war!
There had been two games on Wednesday night, and then Elwood easily beat the
Summitville Goblins 86-50 on Thursday night to advance to the semifinals on
Saturday against Alexandria. We beat the Tigers for the 3rd time that year, and
once again were up against Anderson in the championship game Saturday night.
There they sat, on the other side of the floor, the hated Anderson Indians, the
Big School, the school with almost half the seats in the gym, arrayed in their
detested red and green, against the rest of the county. The Indian brave and
maiden in their war paint and regalia stood in the center circle watching their
team warm up. And a dozen teen-age boys from Elwood were going to try to put
four decades of demons to rest with a victory over them. Our cheerleaders led us
in our battle cry, "This is it in '56!"
The game started, and the teams seemed evenly matched with Anderson edging a
little ahead. As usual, the entire county, with the exception of newcomer
Highland, whose students had gone to Anderson the year before, were cheering for
whoever was playing against Anderson which was now us. It looked like an
exciting game, and we were on our feet screaming.
Then sometime in the second quarter, the strangest thing happened. One of the
referees called a foul on Elwood which about half the gym felt should have been
called on Anderson. It was one of those situations where everyone boos and
grumbles, and blames a losing outcome on later. But suddenly a roll of toilet
paper came floating out of the Lapel section, next to Elwood, and rather gently
tapped the "offending" referee on the head. The entire gym hushed in
shock of the spectacle so that a lone voice could be heard shouting, "It'll
take more than that to clean this place up."
The referee was livid, but there didn't seem much he could do as no one knew who
threw the paper roll. Lapel had lost on Wednesday night, and anyone could have
bought into that section. A few plays later, another questionable call on
Elwood, and another roll of toilet paper came floating down. And after that the
referee knew what to do. The game was over. Not officially, but realistically.
Elwood lost by ten points, not able to overcome a 14 point free throw advantage.
Of course it will be debated forever whether the toilet paper incidents caused
the loss and whether it truly affected the ref's game calling. There were
several more throwing episodes during the game and, in spite of police officers
walking through the crowd, the culprit, who had to have a large grocery sack
with him, was never discovered. The Anderson Herald decried the poor
sportsmanship of the Elwood crowd. While people in Elwood were sure they
recognized the ne'er-do-well, and they were sure he was from Anderson and
was trying to throw the game to Anderson. The fact he was actually sitting
in another school's section didn't solve anything.
But the result was -- Elwood had once again lost the sectional and had once
again lost to Anderson. The Indians chanted, "On to the regional!" and
cut down their nets while we shed our tears. Anderson went to the regional the
next Saturday, getting beat by defending (and eventual repeating) state champ
Indianapolis Attucks, while we went home and took down our red and blue
decorations and wearily dreamed our annual dream of "Wait 'till next
year."
Next: Episode III -- The '57 Season
Jane Ann (Seright) Lemen '59