He expanded the curriculum accordingly, with college prep courses included. Attucks’ success had unintended consequences. For the first time in the history of the Indianapolis 500 Festival Parade, there will be a planned stop downtown so the '55 Attucks team and its cheerleaders can have the celebration they were denied 60 years ago. All rights reserved. I would not have missed this game for the world. Crowe had been promoted to athletic director when a new principal replaced Lane. There would be no downtown celebration. I had 30 with a bit of time left, but when I saw a little-used senior forward named Willie Burnley open near the basket, I felt it was more important for him to get into the championship game scoring column than it was for me to tie the record. 17. But there were no skinny farm boys on the court that night. Now, sixty years later, the groundbreaking 1955 Attucks team will finally get its downtown celebration. In the semi-state finals, however, we lost 65-52 to tiny Milan High School, which was en route to a 32-30 championship win over perennial powerhouse Muncie Central, thanks to “the shot” by Bobby Plump. Mike Woodson was intense, animated, serious and the nemesis of his opponents. He attended Farmington High School, where he nearly didn't play high school basketball until the school's principal/basketball coach agreed to give him a ride home ... he served as a backup guard behind Oscar Robertson and Bucky Bockhorn, averaging about 20 minutes per game with scoring averages of 7.2, 8.9, and 9.4, respectively. We had a solid, deep squad and another year’s experience playing together. In route to the 1954 state championship, Milan defeated Crispus Attucks High School of Indianapolis which starred future NBA Hall-of-Famer, Oscar Robertson. All-black high schools were built in Gary and Evansville as well. “This is where you belong.”. Indianapolis was hostile territory if you were black. Attucks had been a source of pride for Indianapolis’ black community ever since its doors opened. [3]Robertson attended Even though Robertson could hear the roar of the engines from his neighborhood, and even though it took place not far from Crispus Attucks High School, which he … Coach Sleet also emphasized the importance of defense and taught us how to play a tough, intense man-to-man game. Soon enough, we learned that city officials had called Lane before the finals and informed him that there would be no celebrating downtown. Only three other schools have won more. But the move to segregate us backfired spectacularly at that time. I was naïve about the depths of segregation in Indianapolis and in the world. ), “This is a celebration 60 years in the making - not just for this team, but for our community,” said Bob Bryant, president and CEO of the 500 Festival. He stressed the need to build an early lead and keep it. Once we learned what the city fathers had done to us, I was furious. That would also be a first for the entire country. Athletes were students first and foremost, and enjoyed no special privileges. How Seattle’s Richard Sherman pick in 2011 changed the next 10 years of the NFL Read now We kids being black, poor, and unwelcome outside our own neighborhood, our activities were pretty much limited to school, church, and sports. Accessibility and Closed Caption | Privacy Act, please use the links below to visit each company’s privacy center. In contrast to many other boys who preferred to play baseball, he was drawn to basketball because it was "a poor kids' game." Because his family could not afford a basketball, he learned how to shoot by tossing tennis balls and rags bound with rubber bands into a peach basket behind his family's home. The real life Jimmy Chitwood, Bobby Plump , went on to play college basketball at Butler and then professional basketball in the National Industrial Basketball League. The older players didn’t want to play with us younger kids, so we had to keep challenging them until we were competitive enough to stay on the court. Bill Garrett, a former “Mr. Manage Preferences, Criminal Justice and Law Enforcement Reform, High Energy Highlight: Record Breaking Slam, Fiserv Fastbreak: Giannis Snatches Two Easy Points, Coach Budenholzer ASL Press Conference | 4.24.21, Pat Connaughton Press Conference | 4.24.21, Giannis Antetokounmpo Press Conference | 4.24.21, All-Access: Giannis & P.J. But most Attucks teachers had advanced degrees, and some had doctorates. To this day, I cannot forget the pain of being rejected in my own hometown. He called the roll and talked us through our homework assignments. The tournament’s final rounds were moved from Butler Fieldhouse in 1971 and, since 2000, have been played in Bankers Life Fieldhouse, home of the NBA Indiana Pacers and WNBA Indiana Fever. How an all-black high school team starring Oscar Robertson changed Hoosier Hysteria, How black Utah Jazz players have embraced Salt Lake City, The King is crowned: The true and actual arrival of LeBron James, The Undefeated 44: African Americans who shook up the world, Canada is now one of the world’s top sources of elite prep basketball recruits, Russell A. More importantly, he showed us how to become good citizens, and gave us self-confidence, a winning attitude and the encouragement to believe that we could succeed on the court and in other facets of life. But it seemed that its days of basketball dominance would remain a distant memory. Despite his 179-20 record over seven years, and three consecutive trips to the state finals, Coach Crowe was never named Indiana Coach of the Year. On that evening in Butler Fieldhouse, however, all we were thinking about was winning a state championship. Attucks’ visually exciting style of play coincided with the emergence of television, and tournament games were now shown live statewide on TV. And where I was quiet and reserved, keeping my true feelings internalized, he was always vocal in speaking up for himself, which often put him at odds with his coach. If you make a request through the WarnerMedia Privacy Center, Stars Hallie Bryant and Willie Gardner had graduated along with my brother, and we were considered an unknown quantity for 1953-54. Triple Double, Ozzie) Position: Point Guard Shoots: Right 6-5, 205lb (196cm, 92kg) . In 1956 he received an athletic scholarship to the University of Cincinnati and became the first African American to play basketball there. Until 1997, all Indiana high schools, whether they had 100 students or 2,500, were in one single class and competed for the same title. We had changed the game. That’s when it hit me. This site is operated jointly by NBA and WarnerMedia. Oscar Robertson. His mantra was, “The first 10 points are for the refs … the rest are for us.”. The latest and best from The Undefeated — straight to your inbox. Robertson attended Crispus Attucks High School, an all-black school that had no gym and one that white schools refused to play until Robertson arrived. But Robertson leapt to his feet just the … Crispus Attucks, returning to the Indiana state … I was naturally shy and did not raise my hand to volunteer answers, but I was ready if called upon. The first high school player to go directly to the professional ranks, Malone was a two-time Parade and Scholastic Coach All-American while leading Petersburg to a pair of Virginia state championships. The same thing happened the following year when Attucks went undefeated and won its second consecutive state title, capping a 45-game win streak. For the first time, two all-black schools were meeting for the state championship. In the first afternoon game of the finals, New Albany put up a good fight, but we pulled away at the end and won 79-67. Merchants and city officials were concerned that if our “colored” fans were permitted to celebrate at Monument Circle, they would riot, loot and destroy businesses, shoot out the streetlights, and engage in all other sorts of unspeakable mischief. All rights reserved. I was assigned to play forward and, sometimes the pivot as well. As future professional teammate, Wayne Embry, told Terry Pluto in Tall Tales,"When Oscar Robertson walked into the ninth grade, he was a great player—not just for junior high, but for anywhere. And he emphasized that whatever the fans, your opponents, or the officials threw at you, you were to maintain your poise and composure. Even though the team lost in the semifinals and would not make it to the Final Four again for four years, this win was a turning point for Attucks basketball. Born: November 24, 1938 in Charlotte, Tennessee us College: Cincinnati High School: Crispus Attucks in Indianapolis, Indiana Draft: Cincinnati Royals, 1st round (1st pick, 1st overall), 1960 NBA Draft (territorial selection) Copyright © 2021 NBA Media Ventures, LLC. According to legend, the Klan marched past our school in a victory parade when the school opened. O’Neal had graduated, but Merriweather and Mitchell were back from their injuries. Lane also emphasized cultural pride, discipline and respect. The money went right back into improving conditions at our school. Basically, we were running what is now known as the triangle offense in the seventh grade. Crowe was totally on board with the Attucks philosophy of academic excellence above all else. Because Indianapolis officials did not want to honor a black team in such fashion -- their excuse was that they feared rioting would break out – the 1955 Attucks champions were driven once around Monument Circle and then hustled out to the black neighborhood for a bonfire and pep rally. ‘I love being the underdog’: Knicks rookie Immanuel Quickley thriving in New York Read now He led his team to claim the state championship twice, first in his junior year and second in his senior year where they recorded 45 successive victories. Oscar is a fantastic shooter (see: nice shot form in photo above) and will be continuing to develop an ability to drive at the senior level entering his year 12 year. As we climbed aboard a fire truck for the traditional ride downtown, followed by a caravan of our fans cheering for their “bad, bad Tigers,” we had a strange feeling about the trip. We were comfortable playing at Butler Fieldhouse, where we played many of our “home” games anyway. He went on to star at Indiana Central University, setting an Indiana collegiate scoring record that stood for many years. Going into the 1954-55 season, our expectations were high. By this point, I was assuming more of a leadership role, and coach moved me to guard so I could bring the ball up and create more movement on offense. Education St. Vincent-St. Mary High School Place of Birth … It seemed like it was OK for us to win for the city, and bring pride to the general population, but we were still considered second-class citizens. Oscar Robertson, at age 78, does not. https://www.sunsigns.org/famousbirthdays/d/profile/oscar-robertson Post was not sent - check your email addresses! Our school was known as much for its academic excellence as its athletic achievements. (Its coaches, Ray Crowe and Albert Spurlock, are deceased. Attucks featured a supremely talented sophomore, Oscar Robertson. In this well-researched and skillfully written account, Hoose discusses the high school career of Robertson and how his all-black high school overcame tremendous odds in winning the state championship in 1955 and 1956. Basketball,” had 32 points and set a three-game tournament scoring record. Oscar Robertson’s high school team in Indianapolis was the first all-black basketball team in the nation to win a state title. The traditional fire truck ride downtown was discontinued more than 45 years ago, when the state finals were moved from Butler Fieldhouse to Indiana University’s Assembly Hall. No portion of NBA.com may be duplicated, redistributed or manipulated in any form. Led by Hall of Famer Oscar Robertson, the Indianapolis high school won Indiana state basketball championships in 1955 and ’56, and added a third in … In 2006 it became a high school once again, a medical magnet school serving the hospital. By Oscar Robertson. Elsa/Getty Images Curry shouldn't be a … By the time Robertson entered junior high school, his skills as a basketball player were already evident. They had been further schooled by Sleet and Albert Spurlock, who taught industrial arts and coached track, cross-country and junior varsity basketball. To opt out of the sale of your personal information as permitted by the California Consumer I’m proud to say that the “bad, bad Tigers” are back. Starting in 1951, Crowe’s teams were burned by bad calls in the state tournament three years in a row. At one point, an estimated 25 percent of all white men in Indiana were members. Between the afternoon and evening games, neither Attucks nor Roosevelt teams were permitted to rest in Butler University’s dorms during the break, although white teams had always done so during previous tournament weekends. Before 1955, teams from smaller cities and towns, some so small they were barely on the map, routinely won the state title. Later that year, Emmett Till was brutally murdered in Mississippi, and his killers were never brought to justice. He died much too young, in 1996. WarnerMedia Privacy Center | Powered by WordPress VIP. They were also reminded that any time they stepped on a court or an athletic field, they were representing not just Attucks, but the entire black community. Attucks teams brought a new flair to the game, which horrified basketball purists. Members of the 1955 Attucks team riding in the IPL 500 Festival Parade include Lavern Benson, James Enoch, John Gipson, Bill Hampton, Albert Maxey, Willie Merriweather, Shedrick Mitchell, Henry Robertson and Oscar Robertson. The day was interrupted by a second roll call at midday. And when we got to Monument Circle, we didn’t stop and get off and join our fans in celebration. We could not be more proud to deliver a world-class celebration for the team.”. GREAT EYE APPEAL!!!!. Earlier in 1955, Marian Anderson – denied the right to sing in Washington’s Constitution Hall 16 years previously – had become the first black artist to sing at the Metropolitan Opera. I started developing a side-step, fadeaway jump shot, releasing it above my head so it wouldn’t be blocked by taller players. You had to be in great shape to play for Crowe. Our parents, our teachers and our community had taught us pride in ourselves, inner dignity and resilience in the face of adversity. Having played pickup games at the Dust Bowl for years, they could play “positionless basketball” long before that term was in vogue. The other rookies to accomplish the feat were Michael Jordan and Oscar Robertson. Tucker Return To The Lineup. Stanford Patton is unable to attend. Oscar Robertson and the Basketball Team That Awakened A City” written by Phillip Hoose, is a young adult nonfiction/sports book that describes an all-black high school basketball team who fought through Indiana’s segregation. Not only might Indianapolis have its first state champion – Indiana would have its first all-black state champion. No matter how poorly a school might have fared during the regular season, it got a second chance when the four rounds of the state tournament began. Oscar Robertson and Crispus Attucks High School made history back in 1955. Robertson attended Crispus Attucks High School, an all-black high school, where he was coached by Ray Crowe, whose emphasis on a fundamentally sound game had a positive effect on Robertson's style of play. In the eighth grade, we won the city’s first junior high school tournament. I was the last person chosen for the varsity, and assigned my brother’s old number, 43. In March 1954, Robertson played in the Indiana state tournament against Milan High—the real-life rural school that was the basis for the Hoosiers version, Hickory High. Posted: May 18, 2015 Oscar Robertson and his nine surviving teammates from the 1955 Indianapolis Crispus Attucks High School basketball team -- … No school from Indianapolis – Indiana’s largest city and the state capital – had won the championship in 44 years of organized high school basketball. But when I watched Attucks beat Anderson on TV, I got a vision of what I could achieve. Crowe installed the more up-tempo style of play that his players were already playing on the playgrounds. People started taking notice, including Attucks coaches who were in the stands. He noted that “Some of the older teachers still thought we needed to avoid being too aggressive and confrontational. And the state title was and still is the holy grail. That became a tradition from that point on. Attucks was overcrowded, and its facilities substandard compared with other schools. As a sophomore, I joined the junior varsity group lined up for tryouts. Robertson was born in poverty and grew up in a segregated housing project in Indianapolis. Lockefield Gardens and the Dust Bowl no longer exist, having given way long ago to the campus of Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis and IU Health University Hospital. © 2021 ESPN Internet Ventures. Its basketball teams played a technically sound but passive, nonconfrontational game so as not to upset anyone. We had proven emphatically that our up-tempo style of basketball could be just as effective as the plodding, feet-on-the-floor approach many coaches still favored. Our games would kick up clouds of dust, so the lot became known as the Dust Bowl. Attucks had come close once previously, reaching the final four in 1951 in Ray Crowe’s very first year as head coach. The Festival is underwriting the travel expenses of the seven players who live elsewhere than Indianapolis. INDIANAPOLIS — Two decades after the god of Indianapolis high school basketball Oscar Robertson made his mark, a 6-foot, 5-inch explosion of a player … Today there are four classes instead of one, ranked according to school size from 4A down to 1A. Hall of Famer Oscar Robertson said Steph Curry's ascension is a result of "what's going on in basketball today." Prior to 1955, the team that won the state basketball title took a ride on a fire truck around Indianapolis landmark Monument Circle, and then celebrated downtown. For its first six years, Attucks was not allowed to play against member schools in the Indiana High School Athletic Association (IHSAA), and it took 15 years to gain admittance to IHSAA membership and the “Hoosier Hysteria” that was state tournament competition. Flap was always a better shooter than I was. New York Times. Lane, Attucks’ principal from 1930 to 1957. Eison, who went on to be named Indiana’s “Mr. More than 120,000 readers have been schooled in the fundamentals of the game through his instructional books “Play Better Basketball” and “The Art of Basketball.” Find him at www.oscarrobertson.com. Robertson attended Some of the older players at the Dust Bowl, seeing how serious I was about my game, started taking me under their wings and giving me helpful tips. All Crowe had to do was apply the finishing touches. ... high school … The first player to average a triple-double for an entire season, he holds the NBA's career record for triple-double games (181) and previously held the single-season record of 41, which Russell Westbrook broke on April 9, 2017. His last-second shot capped a 10-point comeback against perennial powerhouse Anderson in the 1951 semi-state finals and put Attucks in the Final Four for the first time. He was not going to lose a game on a technical foul, and his players were not either. I came off the bench to score 15 points in our opener and started after that. The first black president of any national sports or entertainment labor organization, he led the National Basketball Players Association's class-action, anti-trust lawsuit against the NBA, resulting in the Oscar Robertson Rule which ultimately made NBA players the first pro athletes to achieve free agency. it will apply to data controlled jointly by the NBA and WarnerMedia as well as other data controlled by WarnerMedia. May 23, 2015 Updated: July 9, 2018 9:25 p.m. Facebook Twitter Email. This will be a national media story for its human interest angle as well as the sports angle. ESPN has already committed to coverage, and the parade's telecast originated by NBC affiliate WTHR in Indianapolis will be telecast nationwide by NBC Sports. Even if you were among the chosen, Crowe made it clear that your first priority was academics. The important work of the great Oscar Robertson laid the groundwork for professional basketball players’ rights for decades to come. As a sophomore in 1954, he starred on an Attucks team that lost in the semi-state finals (state quarterfinals) to eventual state champions Milan, whose story would later be the basis of the classic 1986 movie Hoosiers. Lane, Attucks’ principal from 1930 to 1957. And, thanks to puberty and another summer of work on the farm, I grew from 5-8 to 6-3 and packed on some muscle. INDIANAPOLIS – Jamal Harris has a 48-inch vertical jump. Our school was named for a man of color – part African-American, part Native American – who was the first casualty of the Boston Massacre in 1770 and by extension, the American Revolution. If you make a request through Born Oscar Palmer Robertson on November 24, 1938, in Charlotte, Tennessee, he was the son of Mazell (nee Bell) Robertson. Luke Walton, the radio play-by-play announcer, was now referring to us as “Indianapolis Attucks.” Perhaps we had opened a small crack in the walls of segregation and discrimination that stood at the time. Oscar Robertson How an all-black high school team starring Oscar Robertson changed Hoosier Hysteria. 4. We had lost only one game all season, and we were not going to lose this game. Even in the mid-’50s, the Klan had tremendous influence in Indiana politics, business and education. Instead, Mayor Alex Clark read a brief tribute, we took another lap around the circle, and then our parade was redirected to Northwestern Park in the black section near Attucks, where 25,000 people celebrated around a huge bonfire. He is in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame as an individual and as co-captain of the 1960 gold medal-winning U.S. Olympic basketball team. Draft eligibility now begins at age 19, so most high school graduates have to attend college for a year or sit out a year before turning pro. the NBA Privacy Center, it will apply to data controlled independently by the NBA. My first experience facing white players on the same court came when I was in the seventh grade at P.S. And we took at least one small step on the culture side. When I was playing at Indianapolis’ Crispus Attucks High School, Butler University Fieldhouse in Indianapolis, site of the final rounds of the tournament, was the cathedral. I had seen very few varsity games up to this point. 1 rankings all season long, and some of the media were calling this “the game of the century.” And it was a close, hard-fought battle. And while we may not have been aware of it at the time, our quest for a breakthrough on behalf of all-black schools was part of the larger social context of the mid-’50s. Fortunately for history, Bob Collins, a sports reporter for the Indianapolis Star, accurately chronicled all Indiana high school athletic teams – including Crispus Attucks basketball – despite enduring continued harassment from whites. And they will be celebrated in a manner denied to them 60 years ago. Milan prevailed and faced Muncie Central in the state Finals. We were up 21 at the half, and the only suspense was about whether we’d score 100 points. But our win came with a bittersweet aftertaste. Just in the last couple of years, however, the program has been rejuvenated, and I’m betting that Saturday’s visit to the state finals and its championship win will not be its last. Crowe ran very few set plays, but his teams still played with discipline – focusing on team success, sharing the ball, working for good shots, deferring to the better shooters, playing within themselves without showboating. Not anymore. In the second game, Gary Roosevelt had its hands full with Fort Wayne North before winning 68-66. The thing to remember about Oscar is that he was always great." You ran on offense, pressed on defense. Every moment we weren’t on the court, I was off to the side, working on my game. Excluded from teaching at white schools, these dedicated men and women were determined to create a superior academic environment within the confines of a segregated school system. When the final horn sounded, we could not contain our jubilation as we raced onto the court. In 1953, Bailey graduated and went on to Indiana Central University. And basketball was the king of all sports. Athletic excellence might change attitudes on a personal and cultural level, but it could not by itself end institutionalized segregation and discrimination. (This was a tall order, since there were no black officials in the Indiana Officials Association.) PLEASE VIEW SCANS AS PER ACTUAL CONDITION. But in 1955, our Crispus Attucks Tigers had an opportunity to change all that – because we were in the state’s Final Four for the first time. I learned the importance of playing against people who were better than you, so you can learn from them and improve your own game. As we advanced through the tournament, superintendent of schools H. L. Shibler arranged for cheerleaders from all the Indianapolis schools to join forces with our cheerleaders for the first time. Would also be a first for the state tournament three years in a segregated school from 1930 to 1957 high. The rest are for us. ” black high school basketball in Indiana were members we raced the... Underwriting the travel expenses of the season the process of learning, the wisdom our teachers passed on, public! Was naturally oscar robertson high school and did not raise my hand to volunteer answers, I... He expanded the curriculum accordingly, with college prep courses included, but I was naturally shy did! 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Dust Bowl and the Tigers did not mean he was not sent - check your addresses.