By Arthur Foulkes
TERRE HAUTE — It seems fitting that the gymnasium at Otter Creek Middle School was dedicated Thursday evening to a former coach and teacher following one basketball game and immediately before the start of another game.
Immediately after the Otter Creek seventh-grade boys basketball team defeated the visiting West Vigo squad, there was a short ceremony to unveil a large sign under the gym’s west scoreboard reading “William Thornton Gymnasium” in the school’s purple-and-gold.
“I’ll always remember this,” said William Thornton, who was a teacher, coach and athletic director at Otter Creek from 1963 to 1994. “I’ll always remember Otter Creek.”
Thornton, speaking at a reception in the school’s band room after the dedication of the gym, also said he recalls walking through the halls of the northside school while it was still under construction in 1962.
The school still looks as good as it did the first year it opened, he said.
Dozens of former students, colleagues, friends and family attended the reception, which featured a cake with Thornton’s picture on it. Former Otter Creek Principal Fred Heine and current Principal Scott Moore also spoke at the reception.
“I owe a lot to this man,” said Rick Petty, a former student and current teacher at Otter Creek. Then-coach Thornton convinced Petty to join the Otter Creek track team despite his reluctance, Petty said. “He changed my life because he got me involved in school.”
Several 1960s-era members of the Otter Creek basketball team were also at the dedication and reception Thursday evening in honor of their former coach.
Thornton instilled a determination to overcome difficulty in his players, said Randy Stevens, who was a member of the Otter Creek ninth-grade basketball team under Thornton in the 1966-67 season. Stevens still remembers with pride a five-overtime team victory over a heavily-favored Sarah Scott team. “We showed up with the idea we could beat anybody,” he said.
Thornton could often be found spending countless hours in the gymnasium or in his office working, former principal Heine recalled. The gym that now bears his name was Thornton’s “second home,” Heine said.
Thornton was the sort of coach and teacher who took a strong interest in the success of his students and players, recalled Tom Barth, a manager of the 1966-67 basketball squad. Thornton would stay at the school after a game until the last student was picked up and taken home, he recalled.
“I can’t think of a man in my life that’s more deserving” of the honor given Thursday night, said John Wessol, another member of the 1966-67 team. Wessol, who won the school corporation’s prestigious Eddie Connors Award while at Otter Creek, said many of the teachers and others at Otter Creek had a big impact on his later life. “Now I realize how much of an effect it had on me. … I’ve got a lot of good memories here.”
Several other members of the 1966-67 team showed up to honor their former coach, including Lon McDonald, David Black and Steve Howard.
“I’m really proud of the accomplishments of many” former students and players, Thornton told the people gathered Thursday evening to thank him for his decades of dedication and service. Thornton taught Otter Creek students that school was more fun when they got involved. And, he said, the students who played for his teams “learned the lessons of life.”
Arthur Foulkes can be reached at (812) 231-4232 or arthur.foulkes@tribstar.com.
