Mark Montieth: Summers of endless hoops—pickup games, tourneys, fundraisers and pro challenges—are long gone

Decades ago, when basketball was more a sport than a year-round, full-court-pressing endeavor, games sprouted like corn during Indiana summers. They were just for fun, mainly—although sometimes for charity as well.

There were competitive outdoor tournaments in towns such as Lebanon, Rochester, Rushville, Elwood, Logansport, Franklin and New Castle featuring former high school and college standouts. There were barnstorming teams of former Pacers playing at high schools against faculty members and former players. There were fundraising games for a cause, and preliminary games before the Pacers tipped off, and nostalgic old-timers affairs to offer another look at has-beens. And pickup games. Endless pickup games at parks throughout the state.

Those “fun” games have mostly gone the way of canvas shoes and one-handed set shots. For that you can thank structured American Athletic Union tournaments, the threat of lawsuits and the variety of modern-day distractions that keep people indoors in self-imposed imprisonment.

Drive by any of the city’s outdoor courts throughout the summer, no matter how pristine, and you’re about as likely to see a dinosaur as a full-court pickup game. The good players are in an AAU program or playing inside the high school gymnasium, and the kids who at one time were recreational players are somewhere staring at their phones.

The outdoor tournaments that once were dependable moneymakers and crowd-pleasers in small communities went extinct decades ago, the inevitable result of the disappearance of the pickup games and the fact that many courts have been removed because they became centers for vandalism and other undesirable activities.

Barnstorming? Surely you don’t expect a former Pacer with all his millions to gather some teammates and go looking for games at high schools. Old-timers games, meanwhile, became a threat to life, limb and liability. The NBA hasn’t played its “Legends” game during All-Star Weekend since 1994 because of the injuries. The Pacers haven’t had one since the 1980s.

Former Purdue players have an alumni game at Mackey Arena in August, but that’s by far the exception for college programs. Benefit games still pop up occasionally but nothing like before, and they certainly don’t attract the same level of talent.

It seems a shame. It’s also reality. When time marches on, it often stampedes the past. But those who got to play in the just-for-fun era have great memories.

Outdoor courts

Time was, players built their games from competition on outdoor courts. Uncoached, they were free to experiment and expand their skills without being benched or yelled at. They also had the opportunity to play against older, better players and do it for hours on end.

Carl Short, a 1956 Manual High School graduate, was an outdoor court legend. He personally integrated the Dust Bowl during the summer before his sophomore year, riding his bike into the Black neighborhood at Lockefield Gardens west of downtown to become the first white person to play there with regularity. He later took two other Manual players, future co-Mr. Basketballs Tom and Dick Van Arsdale, to play there, further meshing the city’s basketball cultures.

Following his career at Newberry College, where he was a Division II All-American, and a stint in the Army, where he toured the country playing for its elite team, Short was a mainstay in outdoor pickup games and tournaments. He played frequently in Lebanon during his coaching career at Thorntown High School and became close friends with Rick Mount, the 1966 Mr. Basketball who considered his town’s outdoor court a second home.

Short recalls playing in 10 outdoor tournaments one summer and winning them all. One of the victories came in 1966 in Rochester. He scored 39 points in the championship game victory over a Rochester team led by 1959 Mr. Basketball Jimmy Rayl, who had 28 points. Rayl was awarded the MVP trophy for the tournament, a detail that still bothers Short, who considers it a political decision.

“I played in so many games, you wouldn’t believe it,” Short said. “Almost every town had an outdoor tournament. Every one of those tournaments had all kinds of talent.”

Rayl, 1959 Mr. Basketball, had squared off against Mount in a semifinal game of the Rochester tournament, outscoring him 34-28 in 90-plus-degree weather on the smoldering asphalt. A few days later, Rayl and several others from the Rochester tournament were playing in a tournament in Wabash.

Good luck finding former Mr. Basketballs doing that today.

Mount rarely ventured outside of Lebanon to play. He didn’t have to, as quality players routinely came to “his” court in Lebanon. His high school coach, Jim Rosenstihl, had it built in 1963 and ran a popular outdoor tournament, charging team entry fees, $1 admission for each fan and selling concessions to raise funds for the high school’s athletic department.

“Coaches back then knew how to make money,” Mount said.

Summer seasoning

Billy Keller, the 1965 Mr. Basketball, grew up just south of 16th Street, east of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, and was a mainstay at Meadowood Park in Speedway. It was a magnet for high school and upper-echelon recreational players.

Keller said it provided the launching pad for his seven-season career with the Pacers.

“You’re not being coached, you just go play,” he said. “That’s the way you learn more about how to play the game. You gain so much more when you’re just out there playing and on your own and having fun.”

The two courts were removed from Meadowood several years ago when they began attracting undesirable elements after the games dried up. A plaque commemorates their history.

After helping Purdue to the final game of the NCAA tournament in 1969 and before joining the Pacers in the fall, Keller played in all-star games and outdoor tournaments, none of which exist today. There was the then-annual all-star game sponsored by the Sertoma charity, played at Butler and featuring graduating collegians from lndiana, who played teams from Kentucky or Ohio. He also played for a team of Midwestern college stars against a touring Russian team.

Still, he wasn’t above going to Rushville to play in an outdoor tournament. He scored 38 points in the championship game to lead a victory over a team sponsored by Burger Chef that included former Butler players.

After spending much of his college career feeding the likes of future pros Mount and Herm Gilliam, Keller felt unleashed. He was voted tournament MVP and presented a trophy by the Rushville mayor.

“I could shoot as many times as I wanted; I didn’t know that feeling,” he said, laughing.

Keller returned to grassroots basketball following his seven-season Pacers career that was cut short by a knee injury. Local sports entrepreneur Garry Donna put together a collection of former Pacers and college standouts and named them the BK All-Stars, after Keller. They traveled to high schools throughout the state to take on local teams and collected a percentage of the gate.

He also was one of the featured attractions of a one-of-a-kind game put on by the Pacers following a regular-season game against Chicago on Nov. 10, 1984. Called “Pride and Nostalgia Night,” a team of ex-Pacers coached by former coach Bob Leonard took on a group of former Indiana high school and college stars.

Roger Brown, Mel Daniels, Bob Netolicky, Darnell Hillman and Rayl were among the former Pacers. Oscar Robertson, Tom Van Arsdale, Steve Green, Walt Bellamy, Billy Shepherd, Walter Jordan and Jim Price—all former pros—were headliners. With most of the sellout crowd of nearly 17,000 who came to watch Michael Jordan’s Market Square Arena debut still on hand, Robertson scored 13 points to lead his team to a 75-61 victory.

“It was so cool!” said Walter Jordan, who was an all-Big Ten player at Purdue. “I got a chance to play with Oscar Robertson. Most of us were not in tip-top shape, but I found out how competitive he was. He did not want to lose that game.”

Racers versus writers

Back in the 1980s, Jordan put on a game for charity in his hometown of Fort Wayne—called the Parade of Stars—that drew an impressive collection of NBA players. Isiah Thomas, Dominique Wilkins, Chuck Person, Ron Harper, Scott Skiles, Robert Reid, Ray Tolbert and Jerry Sichting were among the participants. Most of the players didn’t seek compensation beyond travel expenses.

It lasted 10 years before becoming outdated.

“I had to cancel mine when they started talking about liability insurance,” Jordan said. “We couldn’t afford it.”

It also became more difficult to attract NBA players as salaries skyrocketed and endorsement and business opportunities filled the offseason.

“They were getting afraid of injuries,” Jordan said. “All of them are so busy now. The season is so long, and the money is so good. They’re not going to do it for free.”

Jordan’s game preceded and in some ways was run out of business by more glamorous games put on by Magic Johnson and Larry Bird, which also quickly became extinct. “Larry’s Game,” played in late June at Market Square Arena from 1988-1990, drew NBA talent nearly the equivalent of an all-star game.

Bird also headlined a benefit game in Terre Haute in August 1981 that seems unimaginable today.

Kevin Thompson, a Terre Haute South standout and Indiana State recruit, was hospitalized in New York with cancer. To raise funds for his treatment, the ISU team that reached the final game of the NCAA tournament in 1979 reunited, put on their powder blue college uniforms, and played a team consisting mostly of former Pacers, including Keller, Mount, Freddie Lewis, Don Buse, Brown, Netolicky and Daniels.

Bird, two seasons into his NBA career with the Boston Celtics, had 25 points and 29 rebounds to lead a 115-99 victory before 9,100 fans at Hulman Center. Keller led the losers with 20.

Most benefit games of that era were not so well-attended. But they still qualified as well-intended and meaningful.

In 1968, before the Pacers played Rick Barry and the Oakland Oaks in a preseason game at the Fairgrounds Coliseum, a collection of Indianapolis 500 drivers took on local media members. The racing team included the likes of A.J. Foyt, Mario Andretti, Johnny Rutherford, Parnelli Jones and Bobby Unser.

The “game,” consisting of four five-minute quarters, helped raise $14,000 for driver Bob Hurt, who had been paralyzed from the neck down in a practice accident at the speedway the previous May.

The game ended with a custard pie fight. Consider that a signature moment for a bygone era.•

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Montieth, an Indianapolis native, is a longtime newspaper reporter and freelance writer. He is the author of three books: “Passion Play: Coach Gene Keady and the Purdue Boilermakers,” “Reborn: The Pacers and the Return of Pro Basketball to Indianapolis,” and “Extra Innings: My Life in Baseball,” with former Indianapolis Indians President Max Schumacher.