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Hoops legends recall different era for Bainbridge, high school basketball
BAINBRIDGE — Every little town that dots the map of Indiana has its share of basketball heroes and stories. It’s only right in the land of Hoosier Hysteria.
On the other hand, we’d be hard pressed to find another town of 600-some residents that can boast four Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame members.
Yet we have Bainbridge with Archie Chadd (Bainbridge High School class of 1924), Jeff Blue (1960) and Larry Steele (1967), as well as Pat Rady, who although he graduated from neighboring Roachdale in 1959, actually led the Pointers to two semi-state appearances in 1966 and 1967.
All of which makes it entirely appropriate that a celebration of the town’s bicentennial was not complete without the inclusion of the Hall of Famers.
On Saturday afternoon, Jeff Kiger of the Bainbridge Improvement Society sat down with Rady, Steele and Chadd’s son Ben for their memories of Indiana basketball in an earlier time.
What made it special in the eyes of the men who lived it is how much the town’s identity was wrapped up in its varsity basketball team.
“I think the thing we forget about is that the identity of so many small towns in Indiana at that time was basketball,” Steele said. “We didn’t have football, we didn’t have swimming, we didn’t have golf courses. We didn’t have anything but hayfields and basketball courts in barns and back yards, and we played basketball.”
In the midst of recalling things he missed about the town in the late 1960s, Rady mentioned McCall’s Barbershop, though he never ventured through those doors on the morning after a loss.
“You gotta remember, in those days if we happened to lose on Friday night, there was no way you were going to see me in the barbershop, and I wouldn’t even walk by,” Rady said, also adding he wouldn’t speed past in his car, lest the town marshal give him a ticket.
“It was a different time,” Rady said.
The old coach and his player had different memories of the Tap Lounge, though, as Rady recalled the food being very good, but he tended to get it via carryout through the back door to avoid getting fired as a coach and teacher frequenting the tavern.
Steele said the experience was different for the players.
“Coach, we used to go through the front door of the Tap Lounge,” Steele said with a laugh. “I don’t know what you were doing.”
Basketball in Bainbridge had earlier roots than those late 1960s teams, though, with Ben Chadd telling a story of his father’s teams and a very different era of basketball.
Before the panel discussion, Putnam County Historian Larry Tippin had shared a brief history of the town, which included a photo of the 1920 Putnam County Championship team, along with its live pointer mascot, although it was actually a short-haired fox terrier.
“Back at that time in a basketball game, the players at the end of the first quarter would sit down around the key. They could not converse with the coach — that was reserved for halftime,” Chadd said, recalling his father’s story. “Since they couldn’t converse with the coach at the end of the first quarter, the coach asked the referee if it was all right if this little fox terrier could go out and encourage the boys to play. The referees, every one of them, said that was all right.”
As it turns out, though, the little dog was providing more than encouragement.
“They made a collar for that little fox terrier, and that collar had a little zipper container on it,” Chadd said. “At the end of the first quarter when that dog would go out there, the next play’s plan would be on a note. They would take that note out, read it. They’d put the note back in and the dog would trot back to the bench. No one ever caught on to that.
“Now, some would say that’s not fair — that’s cheating. Well, I would say that’s strategic innovation.”
After graduating from Bainbridge, Archie Chadd went on to play for a young Tony Hinkle at Butler before a coaching and administrative career at Anderson High School, where he led the Indians to state titles in 1935 and 1937.
The final great era of Bainbridge basketball (before consolidation with Roachdale and Russellville into North Putnam in 1970) actually began with Blue and his teammates in the late 1950s and 1960, with a regional championship in 1958-59 and just two losses in 1959-60.
“Jeff and that crew really started the tradition, and they paved the way,” Rady, a high school opponent of Blue’s Pointers, said of his own success less than a decade later. “We just came along for the ride. They went to the semi-state and, I’ll be honest with you, there’s no way Jeff Blue fouled out of that game, but he fouled out.”
Rady also took a few moments to explain Blue’s absence on the stage Saturday.
“Jeff Blue was supposed to be here,” Rady said. “He was here last night and had a great time. He stayed in a hotel nearby, but he’s had a lot of problems with arthritis.”
Blue actually texted Rady that morning saying he had a lot his arthritis had him needing to travel home to Columbus for medication rather than making another appearance on Saturday.
“I got another text here lately that he said make sure to tell everybody he misses it and coming here to Bainbridge meant so much to him,” Rady said. “I can assure that because I was playing when he played and he was a man among boys. There was nothing like Jeff.”
After leaving Bainbridge, Blue went on to star for Butler before being drafted by the Boston Celtics.
While Rady and Blue may have been rivals on the court during their high school seasons, the coach actually credits time playing in barnstorming tournaments as Blue’s teammate with his big coaching break.
After a playing career at Hanover College, Rady spent one year as an eighth-grade coach at New Albany before he got the call back to Putnam County by school trustee Jewell Blue, Jeff’s father.
Rady was a bit surprised to get the job at such a young age, but waited until after signing the contract to ask why he got the chance. The elder Blue credited former Bainbridge coach Ed Longfellow, who had coached Jeff and Pat in those barnstorming games.
“It was Coach Longfellow,” Jewell Blue told Rady. “I called him and said, ‘Do you know anybody we might use as a head coach?’”
Longfellow reportedly said, “Well, you might look at that Rady kid. When we barnstormed around playing tournaments with Jeff and Mike and Mike O’Hair, when there was a break between games, Jeff and the other guys would be trying to hit on girls. That Coach Rady kid, he’d come over and want to talk basketball. He’d want to know what drills we used, what was our favorite drill and what we did not offenses and defenses. The guy just thinks about basketball.”
As the laughter died down, Rady confirmed that his wife Margaret could confirm the truth of the statement.
Longfellow and Blue apparently got something right, as Rady retired from coaching in 2015 after 51 seasons and 761 wins with stops at Bainbridge, Southmont, Winchester, Shelbyville, Terre Haute South and Cloverdale.
Steele was a big part of getting it all started for Rady. While the coach’s first year yielded just six wins, success quickly followed with back-to-back regional titles and trips to Lafayette for semi-state. Steele was the leading scorer on those up-tempo teams.
“I think the thing we don’t appreciate enough is the game of basketball,” Steel said. “It’s a great game. And I don’t believe it’s such a great game unless you have the right philosophy for it, which Coach Rady did, and Ben’s dad Archie, and really the communities around here. Hoosier basketball meant you were pressing on defense, you were running and fast break and as a result it was fun to play.
“I hope I’m not offending anybody out there, but I don’t know how anybody ever plays for a slow-down basketball style. The ability to get out there and play the game, I don’t think you see anymore.”
Following his high school days, Steele went on to star for Adolph Rupp at the University of Kentucky before a nine-year NBA career with the Portland Trailblazers that included leading the league in steals in 1974 and a 1977 NBA championship.
“Style of play, for me, was seamless,” Steele said. “When I went to Kentucky, we played the same way. That allowed me to play a lot at Kentucky, and it continued and allowed me to play a lot in the pros. I tell people my good fortune was I played 21 years of the same style of basketball. Coach Rady and his philosophy was a great foundation for me to continue to play.”
The best memories, though, were of the way the town supported its team.
“How many of you remember the parade up to Lafayette where the cars were decorated and painted? As we go across the overpass (at Linden) all the players were able to look back and we were a mile or two of cars going to the tournament,” Steele said. “For two years in a row, I don’t think there was anybody left in town. But the beauty of living in Bainbridge was you didn’t have to lock up anything, just leave.”
Unfortunately, both of those trips ended in heartbreak for the Pointers, one of them on a phantom foul call that stopped a fast break that would’ve sent Bainbridge to the Final Four.
And yet, Rady recalled with great emotion the reception the Pointers got when they arrived back at the old gym that night.
“They had the gym packed congratulating us,” Rady said. “That was so special to lose a game and still be rewarded by the fans. And that’s what the Bainbridge fans would do.”
Besides the 6-foot-6 Blue, the biggest thing missing on the scene Saturday was that old gym.
“I wish they’d have never torn the gym down,” Rady said. “I don’t care if there were bats in the basement who scared me every time I went in that gym. The poor players – they were hanging on the showers downstairs.”
“I miss the gym too,” Steele agreed. “I wish the gym was still going, and if I would’ve known it was going to get torn down, we would’ve found a way to fundraise and keep it there because it is one-of-a-kind and has so many memories for all of us.”