No Wonder the Basketball is Flat

Episode #6 of Grandpa Billy Bob's Mooresville History Super Fun Quiz explores where Mooresville High School basketball games were played before the old gymnasium was built (next to the old high school building) in 1920.

Click Video (Above) to Play

The gymnasium was dedicated on December 30, 1920.  It was the first high school gym in Morgan County and was considered state-of-the-art a century ago.  It stood just north of the old Mooresville High School building (completed in 1909), and was across from the original Academy School built by the Mooresville Society of Friends in 1860, which was the first high school in central Indiana.  Both the Academy building and the gymnasium still stand today on the campus of Newby Memorial Elementary School on North Monroe Street (old State Road 267) in Mooresville.  Learn more about the century-old gymnasium from this superb handout by Susan Haynes, communications director for the Mooresville Consolidated School Corporation.

Mooresville High School (1909 Building) with

1920 Gymnasium (circa 1921 photo)

(Click Images to Enlarge)

1920 photo shows the Academy Building (left)

and Mooresville High School (right)

before the gymnasium was constructed

 

Many Mooresville High School basketball teams played home games downtown (you'll have to watch the video above to learn where), including those pictured below (photos courtesy of various Mooresville High School yearbooks and Mooresville Public Library's Indiana Room photo collection).

MHS 1909 Boys' Basketball Team

 

 MHS 1917 Boys' Basketball Team

 MHS 1917 Girls' Basketball Team

 

  MHS 1918 Boys' Basketball Team

You'll notice the basketball is flat when you watch the video.  No wonder--all the hot air is in the host, Grandpa Billy Bob.  (Just kidding.)
  

George H. Fields (Famous Mooresvillian)

George H. Fields (1921-2014) was a life-long Mooresville resident who became Mooresville High School's first Indiana boys' basketball all-star and, later, he became a standout on Purdue University's men's basketball team (1940-41) before playing through the 1940s semi-professionally for the Indianapolis Pure Oils (1943-45; 1946-47) and professionally with the Indianapolis Kautskys (1945-46) in the National Basketball League (NBL), the precursor to the NBA.

His parents were Herbert Andrew and Georgie (Conduitt) Fields.  George passed on January 22, 2014.  Click here to read George's obituary.  Click the images below to enlarge them.

Two-Twenty-Two-Twenty-Two

Click Photos to Enlarge

On February 22, 1922 (that's 2/22/22, at least in the U.S.), Mooresville High School students celebrated a basketball victory over Monrovia High School (24 points to 22 points) around the "silent policeman" pedestal (built by Raymond King) in the middle of the intersection of Main and Indiana Streets in downtown Mooresville, Indiana.  "Yell leaders" (what we now call cheerleaders) Delbert Wilson and Merle "Pinhead" Harvey stand atop the "silent policeman."

Note the horse carriage and the automobile, which were parked in separate areas "reserved" for horse-drawn vehicles (on North Indiana St.) and motor vehicles (on East Main St.) The I.O.O.F. building is in the background, where today (2015) stands Paul Hadley mini-park.  (UPDATE:  In 2017 the area became Mooresville Bicentennial Park.)

Note, too, that the "silent policeman" has been positioned incorrectly--it should have been turned 180 degrees to correctly designate directions to the cities listed. (The stand could be moved. This was a popular prank among high schoolers from neighboring communities. They would steal the "silent policeman" and haul it away somewhere, and Mooresville police would have to bring it back.)

 

"Two-Twenty-Two-Twenty-Two"

by Mooresville Public Library

(Mooresville Moments #27)