February 2005                                                          The Megaphone                                                                  Page 4

The Anderson Jinx -- Episode IV

by Jane Ann (Seright) Lemen

As the end of February approached, hope began springing forth once again for Elwood fans. The students had a surge of confidence in their classmates on the team, while most of the adult townsfolk were much more wary, looking at a disappointing second half of the season. Red and blue streamers went up in the high school classrooms and halls, cars were bedecked also in red and blue, and the store windows downtown began festooned with slogans urging the team on to victory.

              
Jane Ann (Seright) Lemen '59

Episode IV -- Our Year
            

The Anderson sectional that year officially began on Wednesday, February 27th, but the "phenomenon" of that sectional actually began with two events the week before.

The first was the drawing for the 1957 State Tournament at the IHSAA headquarters on Monument Circle in Indianapolis. The drawing was made Wednesday morning, February 20th. Drawn in alphabetical order, Anderson was usually the first of the 64 sectionals to be drawn.

The drawing was of special interest that year because the Anderson sectional was going to a different format than the past. For years the county schools had complained of not getting nearly enough tickets for their fans. Anderson, at one time with 3,500 students, had half of the 4,500 seat Wigwam.

The county schools proposed a "split bracket" tournament. The upper bracket would be played Wednesday, the lower bracket Thursday, and the four finalists on Saturday. Only the schools playing on a particular day would receive tickets. Friday was a distribution day for Saturday's tickets. The proposal was originally made for 1956, but Anderson resisted, saying it was too late. M. A. (Mac) Copeland, Elwood's principal, said if it was too late for 1956, then he proposed it for 1957 and if it was too late for 1957, he proposed it for 1958, etc. Anderson backed down then, and the split bracket was approved.

When the proposal was first made, there were ten schools in the sectional. But by 1957, an eleventh school, Madison Heights, had opened. That school along with the opening of Highland the year before would change the dynamics of Anderson High School. Anderson's enrollment was now at 1,500 students. AHS had also gone to a three-year high school, but that was irrelevant for tourney purposes, as 9th grade enrollments were still included in a high school's official enrollment.

More immediate and important, the odd number of schools presented a problem. The upper bracket was simple -- two games during the afternoon, two games that night with the second game being the winners of the afternoon, thus giving two teams for the first game Saturday.

But the lower bracket was a problem because one team would be a "bye." There were two ways to handle it, neither satisfactory. One way was to have two games in the afternoon, with one winner going on to Saturday's semi-finals, and the other winner playing the "bye" team for the right to play Saturday. That meant a team that had already played a game would be going against a very fresh team which didn't seem fair. The other possibility was to give the "bye" team a pass into Saturday with the fourth team being the winner Thursday night of the two winners from Thursday afternoon. That eliminated the "tired vs. fresh" problem, but it also meant that one school would be given a free ride into the "final four" of the sectional whereas two of the other 3 semi-finalists would have to win two games to qualify. It was decided that "tired vs. fresh" was the lesser evil.

The drawings were made Wednesday morning. The results were announced over the PA system at Willkie High as soon as they were phoned into the high school office.

Elwood was the first team drawn. That meant they would be wearing "home white" throughout the sectional. The second team drawn, and Elwood's first opponent, was the Madison Heights Pirates, the brand new school. Next drawn was Alexandria followed by Anderson. Those would be the games on Wednesday afternoon. Wednesday evening saw Highland and Pendleton in the first game followed by the afternoon winners.

The lower bracket was Frankton against Markleville, then Lapel and Summitville. Anderson St. Mary's drew the bye and would play the Frankton/Markleville winner.

The draw was unbelievable. Everyone throughout the state looked at it in disbelief. The split bracket, designed to insure ticket availability for everyone, had managed to put five of the 6 largest schools in the upper bracket. Only Lapel, which was only slightly larger than Pendleton, landed in the lower bracket. That meant the ticket situation would be virtually the same for the upper bracket, while the schools in the lower bracket were overwhelmed with hundreds of tickets. For the first time in memory, fans could walk up to the door on Thursday and buy sectional tickets at the gate.

But there was another aspect to the drawing. Elwood would have to meet either Alexandria or Anderson in order to advance to the semifinals. Both had thoroughly humiliated the Panthers during the season. If there was any "luck of the draw" it was that Elwood would play only one of them. Carl McNulty, the coach, took it philosophically, reminding folks that "we've got a score to settle with both of them."

First up, though, was the remaining season game against Plymouth. In retrospect, it seemed as if this game was the beginning of the 1957 tournament run for Elwood.

Plymouth had a very respectable team, 9-9 coming into the game and was tied with Elwood for 3rd place in the CIC. The Pilgrims had high hopes for the evening themselves as they brought a cheer block with them, a considerable distance for cheer blocks to travel for an away game.

The evening began as all others at the 16th Street gym in the 50's. As soon as the reserve game was over, the varsity cheerleaders rolled the big paper-mache panther onto the floor while the reserve cheerleaders led the Booster Club in "Oh where, oh where, oh where is the team? Down in the dressing room picking up steam!" The cheer block continued with "We want the Panthers!" (to which the visitors always replied "You can have them!") while the varsity cheerleaders waited at the southwest entrance for the team. Also there was the band flag corp with flags of the colors of all of Elwood's opponents and the Wendell L. Willkie High School flag. Suddenly the flags would snap to attention, the cheerleaders and the team would come through the tunnel of flags, and the Panther Band would strike up the Loyalty.

When the team took the floor that night, fans noticed two things. First the team was dressed in new warm-up uniforms, courtesy of downtown merchants. Second, the last Panther to take the floor looked very, vey short. He was a kindergartner, and he too was dressed in a matching uniform and dribbling a ball. He stood at center court near the panther mascot bouncing the ball during the warm-ups. When the team went back to the dressing room, fans started calling for him to shoot. He worked up enough courage, took a shot, and made it! The crowd went wild. His name was Dennis Huntsinger. He had two older brothers on the team, and years later was also to play varsity basketball for the Panthers.

The game started tense and close. At 5:56 left in the first quarter, Plymouth tied at 5-5, but Tom Phillips made two free throws to give Elwood the lead. Tom apparently decided that scoring was lots of fun because he made 5 of 6 shots from the field and 5 of 5 free throws -- and that was just in the first quarter! At the first stop, Elwood, shooting.750, led 31-16. Tom then cooled down some, but Rich Mitchell took over hitting 5 of 7 from the field and 3 of 4 free throws for the second quarter. Elwood kept pouring in the baskets and soon the cheer block was yelling "We want 5." and then the incredible "We want 60" -- still in the first half. They didn't make 60 but did make 58. Plymouth had 40 points, which normally is fairly respectable -- even for a complete game, let alone a half-time score. Elwood had shot .750 in the first quarter and .590 for the half.

But the Panthers weren't done. Mitchell, Phillips, Darrell McQuitty, David Henn, Ron Beasley, and Dave Huntsinger all joined in the attack, and at the end of the third quarter Elwood led 82-57, just 8 points from the school record of 90. Mitchell and Phil Morgan each scored free throws, and another fielder by Mitchell put Elwood within two of the record at 88-57. With 5:32 left in the game, McQuitty's basket tied the record, making the lead 90-57. At 4:42 to go, Dick Mitchell hit a free throw to break the old record and from then on it was a new school record every time the Panthers scored. Two minutes later, at 2:42, sub Charlie Drake hit two free throws to hit the 100 mark. A basket apiece Drake and Jerry Fouts plus two charity tosses by Henn rounded out the scoring and the game mercifully ended. The scoreboard read "Home 6, Visitor 66" -- the old scoreboard didn't go to three digits and thus couldn't record the actual score of 106-66.

It had been an incredible exhibition. The latent potential of the team had suddenly burst forth into reality. Now it was on to the sectional.

Back in the 50's, the sectional was as much a cultural event as an athletic one. The school was always decorated in red and blue. The downtown stores invited the Pep Committee to decorate their store windows with slogans and school colors. They also set red and blue flags along the sidewalks. A huge banner was hung across the front of the school reading "This Is Our Year." Red and blue spotlights shone on the cupola of the newly refurbished City Building. Cars were decorated with crepe paper streamers. The school paper, the Megaphone, came out with a banner headline "This Is the Year" and featured a drawing of an Elwood player, appropriately number 57, holding a basketball under his arm with one foot atop a crumbling Anderson High School.

A word should also be said about the importance of the four girls who were cheerleaders that year. They were the best. They kept on top of the game as it was played, knew what cheers were appropriate, were leaders, and knew how to jump. (Anyone who went to high school after, say 1970, will have to ask an older person what "jump" really meant then. Most cheerleaders today merely hop.) And they knew how to work with the Booster Club. Anna Mae “Mazie" Rudig, was the head cheerleader and the only senior. She was joined by Suzie Hennegan, Sara Kiefer, and Suzie Werline, all juniors.

Elwood was known then for adapting commercial jingles to cheers. For example, "What'll you have? Pabst Blue Ribbon,” a beer commercial, became "What do you say, get 'em Panthers." Another beer commercial, "I'm from Milwaukee and I oughtta know, it's draft-brewed Blatz beer wherever you go" became "I'm from Indiana and I oughtta know, it's the Elwood Panthers wherever you go." The cheerleaders had come up with new words to a Disney song from Snow White -- "Hi ho, hi ho, to the sectional we go. We're out to win so let's begin, hi ho, hi ho, etc" But somewhere in the middle of the Plymouth game, the words were changed to "We're gonna win, so let's begin."

Once again coupons were run in the Call-Leader and another drawing was held for Wednesday tickets. And as usual, my folks were not so lucky as to get tickets. But my mother did agree to drive my friends and me down to the game and to pick us up that night. Dad was furious about it: "You mean I've got to go pick up a bunch of bawling girls after that Anderson game?!"

Wednesday morning classes concluded with a big pep session at 11 0"clock and then school was dismissed for the day. We gathered back at the school on East Main at noon to form a caravan to take the team to Anderson. The county sheriff that year, Joe Brogdon, was from Elwood. He decided the team wouldn't go down in buses, but in sheriff's cars -- with the sirens on. He radioed ahead to hold all opposing traffic back so the caravan had right of way clear to the Wigwam. It was a great thrill rolling into Anderson and seeing Anderson residents running out of their homes when they heard all the sirens and horn-blowing-- only to be greeted by a mile of cars decorated in red and blue.

Sheriff Brogdon wasn't the only one going out of his way to back the team. A local florist, I don't remember who, had donated red and blue corsages for the cheerleaders, and 100 red carnations with blue "E's" on them for the Booster Club.

Emotions were at a fever pitch going into the gym. As Mom let us out of the car, I saw a throng of Elwood kids coming from the parking lot and, to my mother's dismay, yelled out, "Who's going to win?" A mighty shout came back, "Elwood!" and then the chant "Elwood Panthers, gonna win the sectional!" I remember as we walked past the ticket-taker, we were chanting, "We want the Panthers!" -- and the lights in the gym hadn't been turned on yet. I asked the ticket-taker, who I presume was a teacher at Anderson High, if I could have the stub back "for my scrapbook." He chuckled but gave it to me. I still have it.

Of the eleven teams in the sectional, Elwood had the best record at 14-6, followed by Frankton and Summitville at 13-7. Lapel was 10-9 and Alex 10-10. Anderson had finished 7-13, but against much tougher competition in the North Central Conference.

The Madison Heights game was a formality, something to be endured before the real games started. Elwood had no emotion towards the brand-new school. We did notice MHHS had a cheer block, 100 girls in black with a red "P" for Pirate in the middle. Madison Heights, with no seniors in the high school, had carved out a 5-14 record against more seasoned teams. To Elwood, the game was a non-event, something to do to get to the evening session. The Panthers were not impressive but did win 65-60.

Then everyone settled in for the Alexandria/Anderson game. Normally the county schools cheered for whoever was playing Anderson, but the Elwood crowd was somewhat subdued. Alex, who was almost as clever as Elwood in creating new cheers, had a cute one for the Indians in addition to "Heap big smoke but no fire," -- "Not big brave but little papoose." I think I was typical of the Elwood crowd that afternoon. Part of me wanted to cheer for Alex, but deep down I think we all knew that winning the sectional without beating Anderson just wasn't going to be enough. We had to beat the Indians to get the Jinx monkey off our back. And the Indians guaranteed that we would have that opportunity, trouncing the Tigers 60-41. In the last quarter we once again heard, "Heap big smoke and look at that score."

Part of the experience of the tourney was going to the Paramount Theater in downtown Anderson between games. Sometimes we watched the movie, but mostly it became a big pep session for county schools. The theater would be dark and silent except for the movie when someone would holler, "Yeah rah Lapel!", for example. There would be cheers. Then "Yeah rah Markleville!" More cheers. And the rounds would be made of the county schools until finally an exasperated but loyal usher would yell, "Yea rah Anderson" and everyone would boo. After the "movie" and a quick supper, we all headed back to the Wigwam.

We watched the first game, between the Highland Scots, 7-12, and the Pendleton Irish, 8-12, with detachment. Highland won 53-34. Then came the big game.

Back at home, my Dad, still angry over having to drive to Anderson that night, gathered up the paper, some magazines, and his cigarettes and announced to Mom that he would be in the bathroom and to call him at halftime. (They had already decided they could leave at the half and get to the gym at about the end of the game). Mom asked if he wasn't going to listen to the game on the radio. He said no, he liked these boys too well and didn't 'want to listen to them get beat again." Throughout Elwood people gathered in homes, bars, lodges, etc., to listen to the game on WHBU, Anderson.

At the Wigwam, the Elwood crowd went wild when the team took the floor. The Anderson radio announcer commented on how fired up Elwood fans were and said, "I wonder if they ever stopped to think that not only did this Anderson team beat them by 16 points in the holiday tourney, but this afternoon beat an Alexandria team by 19 points that had beaten Elwood on its own floor." If the fans in the stands had heard him, they wouldn't have cared. They were too busy yelling, "You can do it, big team, you can do it."

Elwood took the opening tip-off, with Darrell McQuitty tapping it to Tom Phillips who scored. Dick Mitchell stole the in-bounds pass and scored. Anderson promptly called time out with ten seconds gone in the game and Elwood ahead 4-0. The Elwood section went wild. Everyone was on their feet screaming, hugging each other, and crying for joy -- with 31 minutes and 50 seconds yet to go.

Mom went to the bathroom door and tapped on it. "What?" "With ten seconds gone, Elwood's ahead 4-0." She heard the sound of water flushing, and soon Dad joined her in the kitchen, pacing the floor and chain smoking.

The teams traded baskets and then Ron Beasley stole the ball, scored, and was fouled. His free throw gave Elwood an 11-4 lead. McQuitty also hit a free throw, Anderson scored, then Elwood hit two baskets and the Panthers were ahead by ten 16-6. Anderson hit two more baskets to make the quarter break score 16-10.

During that first quarter something had happened to the Elwood team. As they set up their defense, they seemed to find themselves anticipating what Anderson was going to do on offense. It was uncanny how easily they found themselves responding to Anderson's patterns. Granted, they had played against the Indians at Christmas, but this was different, almost as if playing against Anderson's offense was a daily occurrence.

And indeed it was a daily occurrence. For unknown to anyone else and especially the players, Coach Carl McNulty and assistant coach John Wilson had taught the Anderson offensive patterns to the B-team. The B-team didn't have the finesse and skills of the Anderson varsity in executing them, of course, but they knew enough to teach the varsity how to respond defensively. And as it gradually dawned on each varsity player that they knew what Anderson was going to do, their confidence began to soar.

Anderson scored first in the 2nd quarter to narrow the lead to 16-12, but two baskets by McQuitty and one by Mitchell regained the ten point lead at 22-12. With 3:04 in the half, Elwood bumped the lead to 28-16. At the half we led 34-24.

The crowd was exhausted but determined to keep the pressure going. Many of us had been crying for joy during the first half. My face became streaked with first tears and then purple tears as I brushed the tears away with my red and blue pompom. The entire Elwood crowd had stood the entire time, as did much of the rest of the gym.

During the half break, the "Two bits, four bits" yells began. Every school did that yell. Most schools just stood and screamed at the end, but Elwood did "Yea rah Elwood" instead. Elwood was out yelling (out screaming would be more accurate) the still twice-as-large Anderson High School. In frustration the Indian cheerleaders went over to the Madison Heights and Highland sections who stood and cheered the "two bits, four bits" for their former high school, Anderson. As soon as they did this, the cheerleaders from Alexandria and Pendleton invited our girls to lead their sections in yelling for Elwood.

Something else strange was going on although we couldn't figure it out at the time. Elwood was out-yelling Anderson. By far. And even when Highland and Madison Heights joined Indian fans, Elwood, Alexandria, and Pendleton were out-yelling Anderson. Later we figured out that the Pendleton section made the difference -- they were sitting behind the scorer's bench with its microphones and their cheers were going over the PA system.

Anderson had appeared rattled throughout much of the first half, probably due to Elwood's outstanding defensive play. They made a run at Elwood at the start of the third quarter and drew to within 5 with 6 minutes left. Their fans came to their feet also, not only because of the rally, but also word was going through their section that Elwood had never beaten them before, and they didn't want to be the first to lose to the Panthers. But the Panthers rallied, and drew away 49-36 at the third stop. As my folks drove to Anderson and listened to the car radio, Dad was pounding the steering wheel with each Elwood score, "Atta boy, Darrell! Atta boy, Mitch!"

Anderson scored six quick points to start the fourth, drawing to 49-42 when Dick Mitchell went back to work, scoring a fielder and four straight free throws to put Elwood up to 55-42. Anderson tried everything. They started fouling Elwood, hoping to stop the Panther juggernaut. Elwood responded by making EVERY free throw. They tried to press; Elwood whipped the ball past them in virtually error-free play. Anderson hopes were raised when Dick Mitchell fouled out only to be dampened when Dave Huntsinger came in and played the game of his life. The AHS cheerleaders rolled out their two favorite cheers -- "Scalp em red, scalp 'em green, scalp 'em good Indian team"; Elwood responded with with "Yea red, yea blue, yea team, we're for you." Anderson did, "Oo sa sa, oo sa sa, hit 'em in the head with an oo sa sa, yeah rah Indians." (By the way, does anyone know what an "oo sa sa" is?) Elwood responded with "They're our Panthers, YES SIR!"

With four minutes to go in the game, Elwood had built up their lead to 61-44 and went into a stall. The crowd was wild. The stall was what I call a "moving stall" where the ball was never held, but constantly being moved. Several times Elwood drove under the basket only to drive back out on the other side without taking the shot. They ran the Indians ragged.

Back in Elwood, one of the people listening to the game at the Masonic Lodge at Anderson and South A noticed a car had stopped at the intersection. There was no traffic out at all at that time, and the driver piled some cardboard and newspapers in the middle of the intersection and then sat back in his car and waited.

The countdown had begun. Sometimes the old ways are the best, and I have always detested the modern clocks that run off the last minute in tenths of seconds. They destroyed the great tradition of counting off the last ten seconds of the game. 10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1-

Elwood fans exploded in a frenzy as the final gun went off. Standing on the next to top row of the gym, I watched, screaming and crying, as Coach McNulty ran on the floor and embraced his players. The cheerleaders also ran out, and team and cheerleaders formed a circular crowd in the middle of the Wigwam floor, jumping up and down. Strangely that circle kept growing and growing until it filled the entire floor as Elwood fans emptied out of the bleachers and poured onto the floor to join the team. A cheer went up as Coach McNulty was hoisted to the shoulders of joyous fans. A boy climbed onto the shoulders of friends and tied red and blue crepe paper to the Wigwam nets. (Amazingly the nets were not cut down) Everyone hugged and cried and shouted "We did it!" I saw my best friend, Nancy Mraz, a member of the Booster club, and for some reason I was afraid Nancy hadn't heard the news. I grabbed her and said, "We did it! We beat Anderson!" And Nancy replied, as calm as could be, "I know. Isn't it wonderful?"

We weren't the only ones excited at the end of the game. At the gun, the WHBU announcer had shouted, "And Elwood wins its first sectional!" -- which probably left the other 6 teams still alive somewhat surprised. He quickly corrected himself.

Back in Elwood, the man in the car at Anderson and South A walked over to his pile of papers and calmly set them on fire. Pretty soon a fire truck rolled up and put the fire out -- just before the street filled with cars blowing their horns. Another bonfire set near the gym was also extinguished. Downtown, which had been deserted moments earlier, suddenly became filled with cars, blowing their horns, joyful fans waving to everyone.

In the Wigwam the celebration continued, totally spontaneous. And yet another strange thing -- probably half of the Anderson crowd stayed and watched Elwood celebrate. Disappointment in the Indians' loss was tempered with genuine joy that Elwood had finally won.

Mom and Dad made their way through the parking lot to the gym and easily spotted us. A co-worker of Dad's from Delco-Remy (and from Anderson), spotted him and hollered, "Hey, Vic, you look mighty happy." Dad replied, "I am!" Mom spotted a girl wearing red and green waiting for her ride, and asked, "Is the game over?” The girl sadly nodded her head. "Oh, who won?" The girl could barely get the word "Elwood" out. "Oh, was it a good game?" At this point Dad took Mom by the elbow and led her away.

Dad did change his mind about one thing -- he had told me very strictly that since he had to drive the carpool to work at Anderson on Thursday, I would have to take the decorations off the car that night. But on the way home, he said, "Oh, I think I'll leave them on for awhile."

Finally the crowd moved out to the parking lot and horns began sounding there. The hooting and hollering followed the cars as they headed to Meridian Street and State Road 9 north to Alexandria and then back to Elwood. When they arrived at the outskirts of Elwood, they were met by a fire truck, and the team was taken on a victory lap through the downtown before going back to the gym on 16th street.

The next day the Anderson Herald's front page banner headline ran, "Elwood Ends Net Famine by Drubbing Anderson Five." The Call-Leader's headline proclaimed "41-Year Anderson Jinx Broken by Power Packed Elwood Team." Indianapolis papers also carried reports of the game with one proclaiming "Elwood Finally Gets a Scalp at Anderson."

The dream had come true. The impossible had happened. No longer would we hear the "any five boys" myth. David had toppled Goliath. St. George had slain the dragon. Elwood had beaten Anderson. It would never be the same again.

The final score was Elwood 67, Anderson 53.

        Next -- On to the Regionals 

Jane Ann (Seright) Lemen '59