On the left is the Manahan Orthopaedic Capital Center (home of the Grace College Lancers) and at right is Hinkle Fieldhouse (home of the Butler University Bulldogs). (Hinkle photo by Brandon Hill)
Ours was an Indiana University household during my youth. I’m really unclear how or why, but it might have had something to do with one of my dad’s high school buddies, Erv Inniger, playing basketball and baseball in Bloomington during the mid-1960s.
I recall seeing one of IU’s big stars of those 1970s teams, Ken Benson, at a speaking engagement in our home county. The details are hazy, but I recall him seeming larger-than-life (which, at 6-foot-11, I suppose he was to my 9- or 10-year-old self).
As noted in an earlier post, college basketball was the far superior product to the professional game in my part of the state and it was the choice for spectating during my childhood. Whether it be those Hoosiers’ teams of 1975, 1976, and 1981, the University of Notre Dame teams of the late 70s and early 80s with the likes of Kelly Tripucka and Orlando Woolridge, or that out-of-nowhere Larry Bird-led Indiana State University team of 1978-79, it was hard to be an Indiana native and not have some rooting interest in the college game. Heck, I suppose I could even include that Purdue University Final Four team of 1980 led by Joe Barry Carroll that was upset by UCLA in the national semifinal in Indianapolis’ nearby Market Square Arena.
All of which is to say I was very much looking forward to seeing some college basketball action while embedded in my native state for Event No. 14 of my Around the World in 80 Sporting Events project. Likewise, my father was excited to see the two venues and some on-campus hoops action.
Up First – The Crossroads League Men’s Championship Game
Indiana’s official state motto is the “Crossroads of America,” so it should come as no surprise that a National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) conference featuring eight of its 10 schools from the state would go by the name of the Crossroads League.
It turned out the week I was planning to be in Indiana coincided with the Crossroads championship game. Even more fortuitously, that game was played on Monday night when no other basketball action was scheduled. The 2025 participants were Grace College and Huntington University.
Grace is located in Winona Lake, a small community just east of Warsaw in the north-central part of the state. It was about an hour, 45-minute drive from my dad’s place and even after enjoying dinner at the nearby American Table Restaurant, we still arrived in plenty of time for the 7 p.m. tip off.
We had our pick of seats in the Manahan Orthopaedic Capital Center (MOCC) and, after looking at our options, settled in the first row of the permanent grandstands. It was a decision we’d later regret.
The venue opened in 2007 and still has a certain new feel to it. As it’s a multi-purpose venue there is a stage at one end with a red curtain pulled closed for athletic events. The website lists capacity for athletic events from 1,800 to 2,800. I’m believing on this night it was closer to the upper range.
Clockwise from upper left, I can’t recall too many cattle companies that advertise at college basketball games, but here’s one; the Grace logo; a small concession stand offered all the typical gameday fare; the view from one end of the MOCC; the view from our seats; this was one of two athletic trophy cases crammed with hardware; the Lancers were going for a 4-peat on the night we visited.
As the crowd began to fill in around us, I quickly deduced our seats were directly behind the Grace student section which didn’t seem to be a big deal … until the game started and, wouldn’t you know it, those youngsters were unwavering in their desire to stand and root on their hardwood heroes. My dad commented during our drive home that it “might have been the best game I’ve ever attended in which I didn’t really see much of.”
He wasn’t lying on either account.
The teams were rarely separated by more than two possesions and Grace’s winning margin of eight points (80-72) was its largest lead of the night. Huntington’s largest lead of seven points occurred early in both the first and second half and only ever-so-briefly. The atmosphere was, truly, electric. Huntington brought a couple hundred fans and the Grace faithful turned out en masse. The aisleway at the top of the bleachers was easily four patrons deep during a mid-second half restroom break.
And, while we maybe should have been standing because – as referenced above, our seats were somewhat obstructed – we really weren’t that invested to be on our feet the entire time.
At left, our view of the near basket. At right, our view of the far basket.
One thing I was able to see – though I was not entirely sure what I was seeing – was the halftime break line dance led by Grace’s mascot, the Lancer, to the song “Church Clap” by KB. (Note: It took a sharing of the following video to my 20-something daughter, Helena, before I was clued in to what exactly this was all about.)
Up Next – Xavier University at Butler University in a Big East Game
While the Huntington-Grace game was a lovely bonus amuse bouche during my week of Hoosier Hoops, the main course was a few hours south in a nearly 100-year-old barn on the campus of Butler University.
Oddly enough, I’d never been to Hinkle Fieldhouse. My dad, sister, and I had driven by a couple years ago with the plans of taking the self-guided tour only to discover it was student move-in day and Hinkle and it’s parking lot were being used as staging areas.
So, on the afternoon of March 5, 2025, my dad, his high school friend, George, and my cousin, Brandon, took our collective 250-plus years of fandom south on Interstate 69 to pay homage to this shrine of college basketball that none of us had ever visited before.
It. Did. Not. Disappoint.
Our time in Indianapolis began at Plump’s Last Shot, a tavern near the Broad Ripple neighborhood that’s home to Butler’s campus. It’s an ode to former Bulldog and Indiana schoolboy legend, Bobby Plump, whose last-second shot in the 1954 Indiana State Championship game against Muncie Central proved decisive for his upstart Milan Indians, 32-20, and provided the inspiration for the 1986 movie Hoosiers. (I’ll write more about Plump, his Milan team, and the eponymous restaurant in a coming post.)
With full bellies and wide-eyed anticipation we strode through Gate 1 and into the this fieldhouse which was constructed in 1928 and, rightfully, has the National Parks Service’s distinction of National Historic Landmark.
The main concourse is a bit like a history lesson. Whether it be the many photos, the Butler Athletics Hall of Fame wall, the various showcases, the 18 plaques that note the many momentous events in this storied site, visitors are really unable to escape that they’re visiting someplace historically significant to the campus, the community, and the state.
Clockwise from upper left, signs such as this one noting the first game at Hinkle (March 7, 1928) and the IHSAA’s State Championships through 1971 (a certain John Wooden played in the first!); the Fieldhouse included a pool until 2002; a look into the Men’s Basketball Office; the 2010 and 2011 team’s run to the Final Four are commemorated with banners; and with the regional championship trophies; when it first opened, the court ran in the opposite direction; the view from my seat; Tony Hinkle did a bit of everything at Butler and thus, has this building named in his honor; the Butler logo is illuminated during the Star Spangled Banner; high school basketball and the movie “Hoosiers” have their own showcase; the Athletic Hall of Fame runs the length of one side of the concourse; the Bulldog mascot is given the banner treatment on one of the ramps to the upper levels.
There was a game on the night of our visit. The visitors from Xavier University (just a couple hours to the east in Cincinnati) brought plenty of supporters with it to cheer on their Musketeers who, on paper, were the better team and, likewise, on the court. In the hunt for a NCAA Tournament bid, they posted a 91-78 victory thanks in large part to the play of Zach Freemantle who scored 24 points on 12-of-17 shooting in just 31 minutes of action. The Bulldogs had no answer for senior from Teaneck, NJ.
While the game on the floor was certainly entertaining, for me – at least – just being in the building, hearing the band, the cheers, the banter between Xavier and Butler fans, and bearing witness to the history around me in this venue that first hosted a game on March 7, 1928 (just shy of 97 years to the day of our visit) had me a bit mesmerized.
That something so old and so cavernous could at the same time feel so intimate was both remarkable and heartening. It was an evening I won’t soon forget nor will this Xavier fan, quite likely.
Previously
- Indiana’s Professional Game – Setting the Pace for a Week of Hoosier Hoops