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Q: Let’s get back to you and your first getting interested in basketball. And we talked about your parents putting up the basket and starting then. What is it that drove you at that age, that early age to have an interest in basketball? W: I think that just being born in Indiana. In those years, in Indiana, young fellas were gonna be interested in basketball. It was just the natural thing. And we had a grade school team that we played other teams -- Hazelwood, Monrovia, and some of the others. Not very many games. And we played in our overalls, just had some sort of short type of shirt to put down over the tops of our overalls. Maybe we didn’t even have basketball shoes. We played outside, and sometimes we’d shovel snow off the court, so we could play. Our principal was also the coach, and a wonderful, wonderful person. And I think that created more of an interest. And we actually played, let’s see, it was the junior high team from Martinsville. Down there. We got to play in the gym one time. It was really great. We were going down there and when I graduated from grade school, it was just natural that I was going to go to Martinsville. I could have gone to Mooresville. We were about the same distance, Centerton. And the state provided your transportation, either way. But I know that sometimes, I couldn’t do anything my freshman year, because I had to get back, and only one interurban ran. But I missed it a few times, and I had to walk the eight miles up to Centerton. I had done that. And I can still remember that, walking along the trestle. I took the railroad track. And going across the White River, I know when a train would come along, I’d hurry across there. But then of course, in Martinsville, they’d just won the state’s championship, I guess, the year before I went, in 1924. And I’d heard about Martinsville’s basketball. And I’d seen some of the high school games. Not many. But when my brother was there, three years before me. And, uh, it was just natural that I was interested. Q: Did you have a natural talent for basketball from the beginning? Or was this something that you had to work at to get good at? W: Oh, anything, I think you have to work at, but you have to have some natural talent to begin with. But you have to work it to bring it forth. I think the Lord gave me quickness, and that was my biggest asset I had. Other things that the Lord didn’t give me, you just have to work on. But I was reasonably successful because of my quickness. Throughout my coaching career I’m recruiting, in college, I’m recruiting for quickness. Where many coaches would give up some quickness to get more size, I’d give up some size to get more quickness. Now we both wanted the same thing. We both wanted big and quick. But I would think most of those who followed my teams would say that we were always quick. And I know I was always hoping that I would have three players on the floor -- I’d have liked to have all five, but that maybe was asking for too much -- I’d hope three of my players would be quicker than three of our opponents. And I felt that was a little advantage. Where the other fella might be thinking, ‘Well, if I can have three of my players bigger than three of those, that’s an advantage.’ So you look at it both ways. But I did look for quickness, with as much size as possible. And then of course, they had to be a team player. And the bench was my best ally. If they don’t play as a team, they can sit on the bench and watch the others who wanted to play as a team. Like one fella, he just wanted to shoot the whole time, one time. And so after practice I just said, ‘We’re all going home now. Here’s the ball. You just stand here and get it out of your system.’ |
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