THE GAME and THE SHAME V 2.0

    Version V 2.0 provides additional info at the end of the Post


WARNING---This Post contains some material that may be offensive to some readers!

This story of the greatest basketball game I ever saw IN PERSON started at the Westport Baptist Youth Camp in the summer of 1957. I was assigned to a cabin that had many campers from Madison. For whatever reason, I immediately made friends with one of the Madison campers. Before the week was out I really bonded with the guys from Madison. The big topic of discussion was about the upcoming basketball season and what a great team Madison was slated to put on the hardwood.

My initial, and best friend, and I wrote to each other when we got home and I think I even saw him once down at Madison. Somehow, before the start of the 1958 Sectional at Scottsburg, he invited me to sit with the Madison fans.

The first game of the Sectional pitted the highly  ranked Scottsburg Warriors against the unheralded small Catholic school---Madison Shawe Hiltoppers. Every fan, player, and sportswriter just knew the finals would be Madison Cubs vs Scottsburg Warriors. Scottsburg, as the host team, had a large number of seats directly across the floor from the Madison fans. Both were seated in sections just as you entered the gym, but on opposite sides of the court.

Even before the Shawe vs Scottsburg game started the fans from Madison and the fans from Scottsburg were exchanging, "We got Spirit, Yes we do...."


(There was a rumor the Scottsburg Gym was built because the seniors would perhaps take the State Championship. I have recently communicated with a  Scottsburg person who runs the Warriors' web site and she said the gym was built in 1956 in an attempt to steal the Sectional from Madison. They did and Madison built a new gym and won it back. The 1958 Warriors team was 16-2 going into the Sectionals.)

The Shawe vs Scottsburg game was close all the way. Through some very late second heroics, Shawe put the game into overtime. Somehow Shawe won the game 44-41. Of course the Madison Cubs fans were going crazy because their biggest obstacle had just been eliminated.

The Scottsburg cheerleaders, some of the players, and many of their fans were crying at a deep emotional level of disappointment and genuine heartache. Individual fans from Scottsburg and Madison started taunting each other. Most of the spectators just sat motionless. We had just witnessed a modern day David defeats Goliath basketball game.

Before the next game started some of the girls from Madison returned from the restroom and reported grown women from Scottsburg and Madison were fighting---hair pulling and all. The games that followed mattered little to either Madison or Scottsburg. The shouting across the court grew in intensity. It was what ABC would later say of their Wide World of Sports: "The thrill of victory and the agony of defeat" A large number of Scottsburg police showed up and when the games were over I didn't see any fights, just lots of name calling. By the way Madison Shawe would defeat PCHS and go on to be beaten by Madison. Madison defeated Austin for the Sectional title.

HERE'S WHERE THE WARNING IS APPLICABLE:

The second night of the Sectional was tension filled from the start. The infamous Sheriff Jug Raiser and several of his Jefferson County deputies were present, along with a score of other law enforcement officials. To understand what follows it is necessary to report that Madison had many great players, Buster Briley best known, and one starting  African American player--I think it was one of Humes brothers.


I was again seated in the Madison section and the taunting grew and grew. I don't know if what followed was planned or a spur of the moment action. The boys from Madison said in loud, coordinated voice, "Hey Scottsburg! Say Scottsburg! E*T us!!!!" I could not believe what I had just heard.

Very few seconds went by before the boys from Scottsburg shouted back, "Hey Madison! Say Madison! We don't E*T dark meat!" It was as if all voices in the gym went mute at the same time. What had just happened was racist, vulgar and mean spirited. This was after all Indiana, not New York or LA.

What happened next is where I went from shock and anger to being afraid. A pistol was fired from the extreme end of the Madison section. Instantly, Sheriff Raiser and two deputies charged into the Madison section. I cannot swear in a court of law that I actually saw the pistol. I did see something black being passed rapidly from fan to fan in the row just in front of me. Whether this was just a blank track starting pistol or a real firearm will probably never be known.

The taunting calmed a bit and attention went back to the games. The last night of the Sectional the National Guard was there, maybe just to direct traffic or maybe to prevent a riot. Many of the Scottsburg fans didn't show up for the final game. Those that did cheered wildly for Austin. I lost track of my Madison friends after the Sectional.

Now you can see why I call this Post THE GAME and THE SHAME.

ADDITIONAL INFO: My source in Scottsburg stated the 1956 Warriors team went 23-3 and lost to Oscar Robertson's team at the Semi-State.

Some may question my motivation in putting this Post on my Blog: 

1. I had provided the major portion of this Post to the Sports Editor of the Madison Courier several months ago. Maybe he doubted my truthfulness; maybe he felt the story was too sensitive to print---it does not cast the fans of Madison in a favorable light; or maybe he felt it happened so long ago it would be of little interest to current readers. For whatever reason, he chose not to print it.  I feel it must be told in the hopes it never happens again.


2. From a selfish point of view, I feel a need to go on record that I had no part in this regrettable incident. Even after 50 plus years, this incident remains as the low point in my high school experience.  I am ashamed and embarrassed to been have sitting with the fans of one of the two schools involved.