Mark Bennett B-Sides

Search Results

Close Previous Now showing: of Next

Previous Next Close

Related Photos

• Champions on the court of equality: The 1947-48 Indiana State Teachers College was the first collegiate racially integrated men's basketball team to play in the post season and was coached by the legendary John Wooden.

  

• Pioneer: Clarence Walker was the first African-American basketball player to play on a racially integrated collegiate basketball team in the post season during the 1947-48 season at Indiana State Teachers College.

  

• The groundbreaking Indiana State Teachers College: A two photo display in Parsons Hall commemorates the first racially integrated collegiate men's basketball team to play in a post season tournament which was coached by the legendary John Wooden at Indiana State Teachers College in 1947-48.

  

• A first at Indiana State Teachers College: This small plaque in the display in Parsons Hall on the Indiana State campus explains the significance of the 1947-48 men's basketball team.

  

Discussion

Welcome to our online comments feature. We welcome your thoughts and your opinions, including unpopular ones. We ask only that you keep the conversation civil and clean. We reserve the right to remove comments that are obscene, racist or abusive and statements that are false or unverifiable as well as posts that are attacking other users. Repeat offenders will be blocked. You may flag objectionable comments for review by a moderator.

comments powered by Disqus

June 23, 2010

MARK BENNETT: A milestone deserving of permanent commemoration

Mark Bennett The Tribune-Star The Tribune Star Fri Jun 25, 2010, 03:46 PM EDT

TERRE HAUTE — Significant moments don’t always make national headlines. Sometimes, the world doesn’t notice for months or years.

Or decades.

Most Americans never heard of Clarence Walker until this month. Most Americans didn’t realize John Wooden started his fabled college basketball coaching career at Indiana State. Most Americans knew nothing about the courage shown by a young Sycamore guard, Walker, and his coach, Wooden, during the winters of 1946-47 and 1947-48.

When Wooden died on June 4 at age 99, newspapers from around the country discovered the story more than 60 years later.

The delayed recognition from the outside world is understandable. Indiana State (now a university) has experienced only a couple of flashes on the national college hoops radar screen, particularly through Larry Bird and the ’78-79 Sycamores. Indiana State was still a teachers college in the 1940s and years away from university status. If Clarence Walker played at Kentucky or Kansas, his breakthrough would’ve become part of the game’s lore long ago.

But, better late than never.

Following Wooden’s death, former players, assistant coaches, rivals and fans shared remembrances of the devout, principled man who won 10 NCAA championships in 27 seasons at UCLA. People who knew Wooden from his first college coaching job — a two-season stint at Indiana State from 1946 to ’48 — recalled the stand he and Walker took to break that sport’s color barrier. That incident finally earned a spotlight, coast to coast.

That milestone deserves a place of permanent commemoration on the ISU campus. We all need a reminder of what happened — Terre Hauteans, students, faculty and visitors.

In 1946-47, Wooden’s first Indiana State team finished the regular season with a solid 17-8 record. The National Association of Intercollegiate Basketball invited the Sycamores to play in its 32-team postseason tournament in Kansas City, Mo. The NAIB was the most prestigious small-college tourney in America. It also excluded black players. Walker, a freshman reserve from East Chicago, was black.

Wooden refused the NAIB’s invitation.

“Even though [Walker] was one that probably wasn’t going to get to play hardly at all, he was still a member of our squad and I wanted him treated the same as everybody else,” Wooden told the Tribune-Star in 1999. “I stuck to my guns on that.”

His stand may have surprised the NAIB brass, but it didn’t surprise the Sycamore players. “No, oh, no,” said Duane Klueh, that team’s All-American forward. “[Wooden] was overly considerate of people at all times. Now, that doesn’t mean he was a patsy for anybody. He was a tough guy.”

That toughness wasn’t a one-time show at a national tourney. On several road trips during Wooden’s two seasons at Indiana State, he and the Sycamores walked out of restaurants that refused to serve Walker. “Wooden just wouldn’t accept that,” said Jim Powers, a 6-foot forward on those squads.

Remember — this was 1946 and early ’47. Jackie Robinson hadn’t yet broken baseball’s color barrier.

Walker appreciated his coach’s conviction. “I know that he was thankful for the opportunity Coach Wooden gave to him, respected him, [and] kind of revered him,” Keith Walker said of his dad, who died in 1989.

That opportunity Keith Walker mentioned occurred the following season, 1947-48. The Sycamores, armed with Wooden’s fastbreak offense, roared through their regular season with a 23-6 record. Again, the NAIB invited them to their tournament at Kansas City. But on March 5, 1948, before the invitations went out, the NAIB board voted to end its all-white policy. Wooden’s stand caused the change.

Still, the NAIB only opened its door partially. It stipulated that black players couldn’t stay in the team hotels, or appear in public in Kansas City with their white teammates. Because of that condition, Wooden intended to refuse the bid again. But the NAACP and Walker’s parents convinced Wooden to accept the berth, so that Walker could break college basketball’s color line.

The lifting of the ban on black players also meant the NAIB champion would be eligible for an automatic berth in the 1948 Olympic Trials.

Walker had to stay with a Kansas City minister’s family that week, but he played, coming off the Indiana State bench. He and the Sycamores almost earned that Olympic Trials berth. They won four straight games until losing 82-70 to Louisville in the championship. They finished 27-7, and only Bird’s ’79 team won more games at ISU. Walker became the first black to play in a postseason tournament, and scored eight points that week.

“I thought something was going to come in time,” Wooden said of racial equality in that 1999 interview, “but never to the extent that it has. But I’m pleased that what we did helped enhance it somewhat.”

Coach Wooden was being polite. That stand was historic. The higher-profile NIT and NCAA tournaments finally integrated two years later.

“Wooden deserves a great deal of credit for breaking that barrier,” said Powers, now 85.

The surviving members of that team, all in their mid 80s, remember Walker as just one of the guys. “He was a wonderful guy and had a wonderful attitude,” Powers said. Like many of Wooden’s players, Walker went into coaching and served as assistant superintendent of schools in East Chicago. The tennis courts at East Chicago High School are named for Clarence Walker.

When current university president Dan Bradley heard the Walker story, he hung framed photos of the 1946-47 and ’47-48 teams outside his office in Parsons Hall. That’s a fitting gesture. After all, Walker quietly endured things most of us can’t imagine. A journal Walker kept detailed the disturbing taunts, snubs and disrespect he absorbed. “I imagine it was pretty hard for him,” said teammate Max Woolsey, “but he didn’t show it or talk about it, that I know of, around me.”

Klueh, Powers and several of the others continued their friendship with Walker long after they graduated.

That college diploma meant a lot to Walker. “He always said, ‘You’re there to enrich yourself and enrich your mind,’” Keith Walker said of his dad.

Clarence Walker and John Wooden enriched Indiana State, and the rest of America for that matter, in those two winters. Following the coach’s death, some people in college basketball circles called that stand against discrimination the most significant moment of Wooden’s career.

Wow.

Maybe one of the tunnels leading to John and Nellie Wooden Court inside Hulman Center should be named for Clarence Walker. A few photos of Walker, his teammates and Coach Wooden along the tunnel’s wall might remind new generations of Sycamores of how their path was cleared.



Mark Bennett can be reached at (812) 231-4377 or mark.bennett@tribstar.com.

Text Only | Photo Reprints

Copyright 2012 News From Terre Haute, Indiana. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Mark Bennett B-Sides

• MARK BENNETT: Proposed trail would give river development momentum, reacquaint community with Wabash

  Terre Haute and the Wabash River were like strangers living next door to each other.

  February 12, 2012 5 Photos  

• MARK BENNETT: Super Bowl luck? His is mostly bad

  I’ve learned to take a Seinfeld approach to Super Bowls.
  In a flash of clairvoyance, Jerry excitedly reminded buddy George Costanza that “if every instinct you have is wrong, then the opposite would have to be right.”

  February 2, 2012 1 Photo  

• MARK BENNETT: Not-so-casual observers

  In the minds of many adults, the most upstanding generation of young people was, ironically, their own.

  January 29, 2012  

• MARK BENNETT: On the banks of the Wabash, a sculpture

  Paul Dresser remembered his hometown at its best. Terre Haute should remember him the same way.

  January 26, 2012 1 Photo  

• MARK BENNETT: A reminder for electorate: You get what you vote for

  In the rear-view mirror of our lives, some days loom larger than we expected.
  For many Hoosiers, the date Nov. 2, 2010, probably fits that category.

  January 19, 2012 1 Photo  

• MARK BENNETT: Keys to the future

  Steve Witt fielded a jarring phone call in October 2007.

  January 15, 2012  

• MARK BENNETT: Hall-of-Famer Larkin delivered more than clutch hits

  A logjam of kids swelled behind the first-base dugout in Riverfront Stadium.

  January 12, 2012 1 Photo  

• MARK BENNETT: Polian, Colts and Terre Haute were good for one another

  Sentimentality seems alien in a discussion of Bill Polian.
  That emotion rarely influenced his decisions in 14 seasons as the day-to-day boss of the Indianapolis Colts. He surely felt it, but seldom submitted to it. The NFL is a business, after all, with winning as its bottom line. Polian knew how to make that happen, and did. Anyone or anything threatening to divert the Colts from title contention could not linger. When it came to that mission, Polian functioned with all of the sentimentality of Joe Friday.

  January 5, 2012 1 Photo  

• MARK BENNETT: In this day and age, pure quiet is hard to find

  It’s hard to emulate JFK — this JFK, at least.

  December 18, 2011  

• MARK BENNETT: Rose professor’s bit part in classic holiday movie leaves a major memory

  Most of us see a bit of ourselves in “A Christmas Story.” Mike Kukral does so, literally. The 1983 movie grew into a holiday classic because so many of its poignant, awkward and hilarious moments seem to have been pulled straight from our childhood memories.

  December 15, 2011 6 Photos  

• MARK BENNETT: Ferrell’s love of Old Milwaukee shines light on Old Terre Haute

  Will Ferrell didn’t walk through traffic at Seventh and Wabash for nothing.
  Well, actually it might have been for nothing. Apparently, the comedian just likes Old Milwaukee so much that he came to Terre Haute, unannounced, one morning last September to film wacky commercials for the beer.

  December 8, 2011 2 Photos  

• MARK BENNETT: Holiday season makes going to the mailbox fun again

  Ants decided to set up a colony in our family’s mailbox last summer.

  December 1, 2011 1 Photo  

• MARK BENNETT: First impressions: City benefits from hearing visitors’ views of community

  The town should blush.

  November 27, 2011  

• MARK BENNETT: When it comes to retail, Thursday is the new Friday

  The new Thanksgiving dinner tradition?
  Turkey, mashed potatoes and pumpkin pie served at a family tailgating party in a big-box store parking lot on Black Thursday.

  November 24, 2011 1 Photo  

• MARK BENNETT: 'The Way We Worked' exhibit explains how work became a cornerstone of Americana

  Young steelworkers, like Robert Bruno’s dad, often took dates to the railroad yards, watching train cars rumble past in blue-collar Youngstown, Ohio.

  November 20, 2011 1 Photo  

• MARK BENNETT: He told tales of great-uncle Mortecai Brown, but Fred Massey's story is worth hearing

  Fred Massey loved to talk about his family.
  His wife and daughters, his parents, his brothers and sisters. And, his great-uncle, Mort. Mordecai “Three Finger” Brown, that is, the Hall of Fame pitcher who led the Chicago Cubs to their last World Series title in 1908 with an amazing curveball and without an index finger.

  November 17, 2011 1 Photo  

• MARK BENNETT: Guess where the newest THPD headquarters is?

  The city election involved lots of debate over a new headquarters for the Terre Haute Police Department.
  But is Raleigh, N.C., really a fitting location? The 750-mile commute for the cops would be dreadful.
   

  November 11, 2011 3 Photos  

• MARK BENNETT: Mayor’s progressive vision today has ties to leader long ago

  Going backward rarely works as a leadership strategy.
  Political groups often insist they’re primed to “take back America.” While their intent is to reclaim lost turf, the ultimate goal is to go backward — to a different time. Life isn’t “Back to the Future” or any other movie, though. The best policy for worthwhile living is to do things right today that make tomorrow better.

  November 10, 2011 3 Photos  

• MARK BENNETT: ‘It’s giving with care, and without judgment’

  Let’s avoid the P-word today.
  Just for some clarity, we’ll offer its dictionary definition: “The state or condition of having little or no money, goods, or means of support; condition of being poor.”

  November 3, 2011 1 Photo  

• MARK BENNETT: Pull up a telescope and see a show at Rose-Hulman observatory

  Once in a lifetime. The phrase gets uttered often. Sometimes, it’s an assumption, as in traveling to Europe or getting tickets to see the Cubs play in the World Series. Occasionally, it’s definite.

  October 27, 2011 3 Photos  

• MARK BENNETT: Year of the River inspiring new ideas

  The Wabash River inspired the state song. That’s impressive.

  October 20, 2011 1 Photo  

• MARK BENNETT: The significance of writing: T-S columnist Mike Lunsford pens third book

  Our nerves buzz with anxiety for different reasons.

  October 16, 2011 2 Photos  

• MARK BENNETT: Movie’s portrayal of fatherhood’s issues lives up to its name

  For three summers, I had the good fortune to watch and listen to Tony Dungy day after day.

  October 13, 2011 1 Photo  

• MARK BENNETT: Could a new champion for public schools be emerging?

  Deep down, millions of Hoosiers would wear the label “advocate for public schools.”
  Yes, many have their complaints, criticisms and a few “you-know-what-they-really-need-is” suggestions. But, in their heart of hearts, they want to see their alma maters and hometown public schools succeed and progress.

  October 6, 2011  

• MARK BENNETT: In Prairieton, renovation gives new life to old park

  There wasn’t much leg room in that Radio Flyer wagon.
  Our sons — two years apart but squashed together inside its fading wooden rails — always fidgeted until the black wheels started rumbling over the uneven WPA-era sidewalks running through Prairieton.

  September 29, 2011 4 Photos  

• Rekindling a dream on the river

  Mark Twain probably would grin at the sight of John Cornell, Jim Foster, Dan Remaly and their raft.

  September 22, 2011 4 Photos  

• MARK BENNETT: Just another Terre Haute celebrity sighting

  At some point, this stuff becomes routine.

  September 14, 2011 1 Photo  

• MARK BENNETT: Everyone has a role in this American story (see VIDEO)

  We stood atop a hill in rural southwestern Pennsylvania, and I do mean rural. Cars, trucks, SUVs and RVs kept pulling into the parking area. Groups of people climbed out of their vehicles and into the suffocating July heat. Then, they too stood on the hilltop, staring down at a grassy clearing in front of a woods.

  September 8, 2011 4 Photos 1 Video  

• MARK BENNETT: It’s time for us to rekindle our volunteer spirit

  Hoosiers exhibit generosity.
  Terre Hauteans, in particular, displayed that virtue after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and the local flooding in 2008. They donated blood, money, food, clothes and — most significantly — their own sweat and time.

  August 25, 2011 1 Photo  

• MARK BENNETT: What would Debs think?

  Pretend it’s the year 2111.

  August 14, 2011 3 Photos  

• More Mark Bennett B-Sides Headlines

© 2012 Community Newspaper Holdings, Inc. · CNHI Classified Advertising Network · CNHI News Service
Associated Press content © 2012. All rights reserved. AP content may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Our site is powered by Zope. Some parts of our site may require you to download the Flash Player Plugin.
Privacy Policy | AP News Registry privacy policy
Terms and Conditions
Advertiser Index

Events by eviesays.com

News From Terre Haute, Indiana 222 S 7th St Terre Haute, IN 47807