Ladoga vs. Crispus Attucks--The Green Gold plays the Green and Gold

Ladoga Canners vs. Crispus Attucks Flying Tigers

Back in the early 50’s when Jim Crow was alive and well in Indiana basketball, Crispus Attucks, an all-black high school named in honor of the first person killed at the Boston Massacre which was the beginning of the Revolutionary War, was having trouble getting a full schedule of 18 games. The coaches and principals of Ladoga High School and Crispus Attucks got their heads together and signed a three-year contract to play basketball just before the sectional firing began. Jack Hester was the basketball coach at Ladoga and Ray Crowe was the coach at Attucks. The principal at Ladoga was Olin Swinney and the principal at Crispus Attucks was Russell Lane. The two schools played two games at the Crawfordsville High School gymnasium and one game at the Tech gymnasium in Indianapolis.
I was a big Attucks fan in those days and was overwhelmed at the thought of playing against some of the best players in the history of Indiana basketball. The first game was at the end of the 1951-52 season when Ladoga was enjoying one of its best seasons ever. I was in the 8th grade at that time. The Canners ended the season with a 20-3 record which included a 17 game winning streak, losing only to Linden in the final game of the County Tourney 49-47 and the first game of the sectional 51-36 and to Crispus Attucks 64-35. The Attucks team that year had such stars as Wee Willie Gardner, Hallie Bryant, Bailey Robertson, and Hal Crenshaw. The Tigers were led by Robertson with 16 points, Leighman Covington with 15 and Gardner with 12. Mort Kimmel led the Canners with 10 points.

I was a freshman when we played Attucks at Tech HS. We took the floor first and began our warm-ups. When the Tigers came out, the entire Ladoga team turned around and watched in awe as every single one of the Flying Tigers dunked the ball during the layup drill. We were a little intimidated. The Tech gym was full and listening to the Tiger pep block and watching their cheerleaders perform was also quite an experience. I remember thinking that their cheerleaders could all jump higher and were more athletic than anybody on our team. I’m glad we didn’t play them. Attucks was led that year by Hallie Bryant who scored 45 points (43 in his basket and 2 in ours.) We should have gone home after the referees lined the teams up facing the wrong basket. Hallie got the tip and made a layup in our basket and we were ahead 2-0. That was our only lead of the night as we lost 79-36. Hallie was assisted in scoring by Bailey Robertson who had 14 points. The Tigers played 17 players that night and were good enough and deep enough that freshman Oscar Robertson didn’t play. The Canners were led in scoring that night by my older brother Danny Boone who had 13 points. I had two free throws so at least I contributed something.

We were much more competitive the next year at Crawfordsville. We were in the game all the way until they pulled away in the 4th quarter to win 68-51. The Tigers were led by sophomore sensation Oscar Robertson who scored 19 points before fouling out early in the third quarter. I think everybody on our team took turns guarding Oscar so we could brag about how we held him to 19 points. Shedrick Mitchell led the Tigers with 20 points (He was my man.) The Canners were led by Bill Kimmel who scored 13 points and Shedrick Mitchell’s man (me) who also had 13. After I scored my first basket, Shedrick said to me on the way back down the floor, “Little white boy, you ain’t gonna do that no more.” He was pretty close to right. It was a memorable experience. We ended our season at 17-5 and Attucks went on to lose to eventual State Champ Milan 65-52 in the Semi-State at Indianapolis. The Tigers ended up 23-5 for the season.