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Indianapolis Star
10 hours ago
- Sport
- Indianapolis Star
LOST GYMS: After 100 years, Sharpsville gym 'still a place to get together with the neighborhood'
This is the second of a 10-part series featuring some of Indiana high school basketball 's "Lost Gyms." SHARPSVILLE, Ind. – Leon Baird's introduction to following high school basketball came at the perfect time. In 1955 and '56, a player named Oscar Robertson was capturing the imagination of basketball fans, setting a standard that has arguably never been reached again. 'At my house, it was church and work,' Baird said. 'But I got interested in basketball and some of the history and started following in 1955 and '56 when Crispus Attucks won the state.' That is when basketball started nudging its way into the conversation with church and work for Baird, who was always more interested in playing the game than watching. Growing up in the Tipton County community of Sharpsville, there were plenty of fans — including the cheer block known as the Bulldog Barkers — ready to root on their high school team. Need a break? Play the USA TODAY Daily Crossword Puzzle. 'The years I played, in my mind, the gym was always full,' said Baird, who graduated in 1963. The Sharpsville gym, celebrating its 100 th anniversary this year, remains a beautiful reminder to the high school teams that once played here and remains a vibrant part of the community of 550 residents, hosting reunions, youth sports and community celebrations. The community park directly east of the gym sits on the grounds of the old Sharpsville school, which was torn down in 1987. Prior to the construction of the gymnasium that was named O.H. Hughes Memorial Gymnasium after the school's first superintendent, Sharpsville played home basketball games above the J.G. Romack hardware store. One of the Sharpsville teams to play in the new gym, in 1926-27, won the first sectional championship in the school's history and proceeded to upset Noblesville and Tech to win the Anderson Regional in front of 5,000 fans, most of them cheering for the underdogs. 'When the news of Sharpsville's victory in the afternoon (over Noblesville) reached Tipton County, the little town of 700 inhabitants closed up shop and moved to Anderson,' the Anderson Herald reported. With the win over Tech, Sharpsville advanced to the 1927 state finals, which was then a 16-team tournament played at the Exposition Center at the state fairgrounds. The Bulldogs battled, but lost to powerful Muncie Central, which went on to fall to John Wooden and Martinsville in the championship. The following year, in February of 1928, Sharpsville nearly lost its $15,000 gymnasium. A fire that started in the basement of the school destroyed the structure built in 1908. The Tipton Daily Tribune reported firemen from Tipton, Kokomo, Sharpsville and Kempton saved the gym 'after a stubborn battle.' The night before the fire, Sharpsville defeated visiting Frankton, 37-33. Sharpsville won the sectional again in 1928, then waited 20 years before winning another. Jerry Fernung grew up in Kokomo in the 1950s, attending games at the massive Memorial Gymnasium built in 1949. But he also tagged along with his father, Andrew Fernung, the principal at Sharpsville to school. 'Anytime I had a break from school, I would come out with him,' Fernung said. 'When they were in class, I was in here shooting baskets.' Fernung ended up coming to Sharpsville for high school. He joked it made him nervous at first to go to school with 'hick farmers.' 'The first day of school when I walked into school, they were so friendly and so nice,' he said. 'The just took me under their wing. I felt like I belonged. … I grew up coming out here to ballgames, so it was kind of like a homecoming. The student body just brought me in like I was one of them.' The brick gym featured eight rows of wood bleachers on both sides of the floor and a stage on the south end. Long vertical windows on the north end allowed the sun to shine on to the wood floor during afternoon pickup games. 'When you took the floor before a game, a lot of times people were just standing around (the court),' Fernung said. 'They put chairs up on the stage. It was a full house with a lot of excitement.' Gerald Manahan was the coach at Sharpsville starting in 1956. He stayed for eight years, compiling a record of 113-54, and doing it with a level of discipline Baird came to appreciate later in life. In his first season, when one of the Sharpsville standout players refused to run 100 laps for breaking a team rule, Manahan removed him from the team. 'He said when you run the laps, you can play,' Baird said. 'He never did. Manahan set the tone. You have to go with the rules, which is a good lesson.' Baird and Fernung played on one of Sharpsville's best teams as seniors in 1962-63. After graduating standout Dave Moon from the previous season, the team went 19-1 in the regular season in their final year as the Sharpsville Bulldogs. Fernung and Baird were two of the three leading scorers, along with Jim Pyke. 'The class in front of us only had two seniors who played and the class ahead of that only had one,' Baird said. 'So, you gotta be ready to play.' Consolidation was soon coming for Sharpsville, as it was for many smaller schools after the School Reorganization Act of 1959. After the 1963 school year, Sharpsville and neighboring Prairie Heights combined to become the Sharpsville-Prairie Spartans. In 1970, the schools at Sharpsville-Prairie and Windfall closed and a new school, Tri-Central, opened as a consolidation of the three. Each of the three communities continued to have its own elementary school until Tri-Central Elementary was built in 1983. A few years later, the school in Sharpsville was torn down. But through money raised by the Sharpsville Park Committee and a grant from the Tipton County Foundation, a community park was put in its place. And the gym continues to serve a purpose. 'I think it's wonderful,' said Fernung, who went on to coach at Tri-Central. 'I think it was a good thing they kept it.' In Fernung's playing days, Tipton was the big school that the smaller county schools wanted to defeat. Prairie Heights and Windfall, the schools that later joined with Sharpsville, were rivals. But when Fernung was coaching at Tri-Central, he saw those different groups come together. 'Everybody likes their identity,' he said. 'If you asked kids in the hallway, they'd say, 'I'm from Windfall,' or 'I'm from Sharpsville,' or 'I'm from Prairie.' But it wasn't long before you would ask them that question later and they would say, 'I live in Windfall,' or 'I live in Prairie,' or 'I live in Sharpsville.' They are from Tri-Central. It took a couple years to get that done.' It takes people like Lester Rood to put time and love and work into keeping the gym a source of pride 100 years after it was built. Rood, 78, graduated from high school here and is the resident handyman when the gym needs work done. A brick addition to the front of the gym houses team photos and other community mementos. 'I'm really proud of Lester and the other people here in town,' Baird said. 'It took someone with loyalty to the town to keep (the gym). … it pleases me. They have a nice park here and it's still a place to get together with the neighborhood.' Here is to the next 100 years for the Sharpsville gym.
Indianapolis Star
28-04-2025
- Sport
- Indianapolis Star
'He's a winner.' Attucks' Mr. Basketball finalist Dezmon Briscoe makes college choice
Dezmon Briscoe is leaded to Kent State. Briscoe, the 6-9 Crispus Attucks star and IndyStar Mr. Basketball finalist, was previously committed to Iowa before former coach Fran McCaffery was let go. Briscoe took official visits to Kent State and College of Charleston earlier this month. Briscoe averaged 15.8 points, 9.4 rebounds and 5.1 blocked shots in 19 games as a senior for Crispus Attucks after returning from an ankle injury. He helped the Tigers to a 22-7 record and Class 3A state finals appearance. The two-time City Player of the Year finished fourth on Attucks' all-time scoring list with 1,181 points and had 953 rebounds, 375 blocked shots, 158 assists and 61 steals over his four-year career with the Tigers. Briscoe led Attucks to two City tournament championships. 'Dezmon has had considerable growth this year,' Attucks coach Chris Hawkins said. 'He missed double-digit games but became a coach on the bench in order to help us get through those games. His passing, shooting, defense and talking gave us a big lift in the second half of the season and throughout the state tournament. He's a winner and does it the right way and has been a great ambassador for our school and program. It will be hard to replace him.' Kent State, coached by one-time Indiana assistant Rob Senderoff, is coming off a 24-12 season and National Invitational Tournament semifinal appearance. The Flashes made NCAA tournament appearances under Senderoff in 2017 and 2023.
Yahoo
05-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
On This Day, March 5: Winston Churchill gives 'Iron Curtain' speech
March 5 (UPI) -- On this date in history: In 1770, British troops killed five colonials in the so-called Boston Massacre, one of the events that led to the American Revolution. Crispus Attucks, who had escaped slavery, died in the incident and became hailed as the first martyr of the American cause. History buffs relived the event 232 years later with a re-enactment in downtown Boston. In 1917, President Woodrow Wilson was publicly inaugurated for his second term. He had a private, official inauguration a day earlier. In 1933, in German elections, Adolf Hitler's Nazi Party won nearly half the seats in the Reichstag (the Parliament). In 1946, Winston Churchill, in a famous speech in Fulton, Mo., stated that a Soviet Union "Iron Curtain" had "descended across" Europe. In 1953, the Soviet Union announced that dictator Joseph Stalin had died at age 73. Stalin had been in a coma after having a massive stroke four days earlier. In 1963, Wham-O patented the Hula Hoop, which then became a fad across the country. The company's co-founders, Richard Knerr and Arthur "Spud" Melin died in 2008 and 2002, respectively. In 1993, Canada's Ben Johnson, once called the world's fastest human, tested positive for performance-enhancing drugs and was banned for life from track competition. In 2011, archaeologists renovating the Rio de Janeiro harbor for the 2016 Olympics reported uncovering the remains of a 19th-century port where thousands of people arrived from Africa and were sold into slavery. In 2013, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez died at age 58 and Vice President Nicolas Maduro ascended to the presidency. In 2018, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un met with South Korean officials for the first time since becoming leader. The special envoys of South Korean President Moon Jae-in were on a mission to broker denuclearization talks between North Korea and the United States. In 2021, Pope Francis arrived in Iraq for the first-ever papal visit to the Middle Eastern nation. In 2022, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky asked the United States to stop buying Russian oil during a Zoom meeting with members of the U.S. Congress.
Yahoo
18-02-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Whether Trump gets it or not, there's no American history without Black history
You can't erase Black History for the same reason you can't erase air; because air simply exists whether you want it to or not. It's not multiple choice. Stop breathing and you will find out. It's science, and it's also fact. These are two things the current occupant of the White House and his merry band of MAGA parrots cannot understand, and therefore cannot tolerate. It's a mentality that says, 'We don't get it, so we're not going to allow it.' Yeah. OK. Sure. Except that it's not up to you. Black History is American History, and it happened. President Donald Trump's executive orders have forced various federal agencies to curtail diversity programming, including observances of Black History Month. Any attempt to extricate black threads from the American tapestry will result in the entire fabric becoming undone. Just to make it plain; there is no American history without Black history. That's because there is a strong likelihood that America never would have evolved into the economic powerhouse that it became – and might not have evolved much at all – without Black Americans. As the kids used to say, not brag, just fact. We can begin with slavery, since that's where it began for enslaved people in America in 1619, when the first enslaved African set foot on these shores more than 100 years before this country became the United States of America in 1776. During those early years when America was a toddler, cotton was king. That's because the cotton industry was the nation's largest and most profitable export, creating the economic foundation upon which the United States became a world power. The free labor provided by those enslaved African people who picked that cotton was the reason why the cotton industry exploded like it did. Stealing African people from their homeland to work for free in the cotton fields for over 200 years was the only way the cotton industry in America could have become so profitable – and the only way America was able to become so dominant. Like I said; no Black history? No American history. But there's more. Actually, there's so much more that I don't have space to include it all, but I can give several relevant highlights. Like the fact that the first man to die in the American Revolution was a Black man named Crispus Attucks. From the National Park Service: 'Crispus Attucks, a sailor of mixed African and Indigenous ancestry, died in Boston on March 5, 1770, after British soldiers fired two musket balls into his chest. His death and that of four other men at the hands of the 29th Regiment became known as the Boston Massacre. Death instantly transformed Attucks from an anonymous sailor into a martyr for a burgeoning revolutionary cause.' Then there was Benjamin Banneker, who helped design not only the White House, but Washington D.C. From the Benjamin Banneker High School website: 'Banneker's major reputation stems from his service as a surveyor on the six-man team which helped design the blueprints for Washington, DC. President Washington had appointed Banneker, making him the first Black presidential appointee in the United States. Banneker helped in selecting the sites for the U.S. Capitol building, the U.S. Treasury building, the White House and other Federal buildings. When the chairman of the civil engineering team, Major L'Enfant, abruptly resigned and returned to France with the plans, Banneker's photographic memory enabled him to reproduce them in their entirety. Washington, DC, with its grand avenues and buildings, was completed and stands today as a monument to Banneker's genius.' Oh, and enslaved people played a major role in construction of the White House. And let's not even get started on the history of American popular music, nearly all of which originated with the blues, which was created by… Yep. Keith A. Owens is a local writer and co-founder of Detroit Stories Quarterly and the We Are Speaking Substack newsletter and podcast. Submit a letter to the editor at and we may publish it online and in print. This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Trump doesn't get it. Black history is American history | Opinion
