The Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame is three-plus months removed from inducting its 63rd class of Hall of Famers – 18 men from various eras who made a significant impact as a player, coach or both.
Sadly, six of the eventual inductees have passed away, their respective hoops legacies kept alive by family members, yellowed newspaper clips and old-timers spinning yarns over coffee counters.
Two of the Hall of Famers hail from the Roaring ’20s in Don Chambers of Smithville High School and Frankfort alum Wilbur Cummins. The youngest of this year’s bunch is 1994 Indiana Mr. Basketball Bryce Drew out of Valparaiso High School.
Drew graduated 74 years after Chambers picked up his diploma.
Translation: Like virtually everything else in life, the Hall of Fame selection process isn’t an exact science. Rather, it’s a process continuously handed down from generation to generation in an attempt to make certain the most-deserving men and women receive their long-awaited sliver of spotlight.
Or, in six of this year’s cases, their descendents do.
Matt Martin, in his third year as the Hall of Fame’s Executive Director, can’t emphasize enough just how serious members of the Hall of Fame’s selection committees takes the overall process.
Considering Indiana boys basketball officially started to keep score the 1910-1911 season with players from Berne to Brownstown and beyond launching one-handed set shots, this can take ample amounts of both time and research.
“Anybody can nominate anybody to be a nominee, and we have two lists. We have a nominees list and we have a deceased nominees list,” said Martin. “The Hall of Fame didn’t exist until 1962, so you almost have to play catch-up at times.
“Our bylaws state that you’ll take eight to 11 living members and between three and six who are deceased. While the ultimate goal is to get them while they’re living … it would be impossible to get everyone in while they’re living.”
Chambers, who passed away in 1975, would go on to coach his alma mater to five sectional championships, a regional title and a State Finals berth in 1931. He would make six more coaching stops, the last being Medora in the early-1960s, before Chambers officially hung up his whistle following the 1961-1962 season.
The 6-foot-2 Cummins was the leading scorer of the 1924-1925 Hot Dogs’ squad that captured the state championship, scoring an unheard of (at the time) 1,140 career points. He would later star at Purdue University, picking up All-Big 10 laurels at the conclusion of the 1926-1927 season.
Other soon-to-be Hall of Fame inductees who have passed are Jake Weber (1937, Plainfield), Dan Howe (1958, Fort Wayne South) and twin brothers Floyd and Lloyd Kerr (1965, South Bend Washington).
All would have stories to tell the night of March 19 inside Primo Banquet Hall in Indianapolis. Some truthful, others slightly (or more) embellished.
Only they can’t, so others must.
But they soon will be Hall of Famers – better late than never.
Some might think committee members simply show up in New Castle for one night each year, make quick work of the food and beverages, scribble a few names on paper and exit the premises.
In actuality, all nominees must be submitted annually before August 1. The list is updated the following month with persons interested in doing so invited to speak on behalf of his or her nominee. Over time, the list of approximately 300 living and 125 deceased nominees are pared to 25 and 20, respectively.
What Martin refers to as an anonymous committee then chooses that year’s list of Hall of Famers.
“In my short time of being here, they do a good job of having a balancing act,” said Martin. “The committee does look at the process so that we hit multiple time frames.”
The 2025 class represents seven different decades.
Job well done.
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