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Class of 2018 Arrives Today, We Look Back to the Best


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I've truly been blessed ! I've seen all of those recruiting classes play except the 1937 class ! And , I have seen the big guy , Don Schlundt , play ! I have truly been blessed ! I saw Walt Bellamy play in the old fieldhouse ! Wow ! I HAVE truly been blessed ! P.S. I am hoping that the 2018-2019 season will come close to matching the sucess of the best IU classes of the past ! 

 

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On 6/12/2018 at 6:47 PM, milehiiu said:

TDH.  Another fine job. Great research.  And personally, I can't find fault with any of your choices.

Having said that, I would like to present a recruiting class that was far from the best.  And goes back perhaps to a time when most HSN members were not even born yet. However, it had what I have said for years, as for me, was the greatest Hoosier of all.  Walter "Big Bell" Bellamy.  He was out of North Carolina.  And I recall the nights listening to WOWO radio out of Fort Wayne, always impressed with Bellamy's game.

Again, far from the best.... the 1958 IU squad, aside from Bellamy was notable to me for one other thing.  We talk a lot about how kids from the Northern part of Indiana are rare when donning the Candy Stripes.  Yet that 1958 squad was dominated by players from Northern Indiana.  As a youngster, I remember watching LeRoy Gamble and Randy Williams from Gary, play high school ball, before matriculating to IU. 

And others from the Northern part of Indiana that were on that 1958 squad were : Frank Radovich, from Hammond.....Herbie Lee, from South Bend....Bob Wilkinson, from LaParte.... and Leroy Johnson, from Mishawaka.

 

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My father tells of the 1959-60 team that had many of these players.  They went 20-4 and came in 2nd to OSU(eventual national champs) in the Big Ten.  I believe back then only the conference champs went to the tourney.  There was some racial tension on the team when Herbie Lee was caught smooching a white co-ed in the Union and Radovich was evidently not happy.  (This is how my father recalls it, and his memory is second to known.)  IU started Big Ten play with 3 straight loses, with on coming from OSU. Once the tensions were "cleared up", they did not lose another game the rest of the season, crushing the Buckeyes at the end of the season.  There was little doubt IU was the best team in the country that year.  Does anyone else recall that season the same way?

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1 hour ago, IUDan93 said:

My father tells of the 1959-60 team that had many of these players.  They went 20-4 and came in 2nd to OSU(eventual national champs) in the Big Ten.  I believe back then only the conference champs went to the tourney.  There was some racial tension on the team when Herbie Lee was caught smooching a white co-ed in the Union and Radovich was evidently not happy.  (This is how my father recalls it, and his memory is second to known.)  IU started Big Ten play with 3 straight loses, with on coming from OSU. Once the tensions were "cleared up", they did not lose another game the rest of the season, crushing the Buckeyes at the end of the season.  There was little doubt IU was the best team in the country that year.  Does anyone else recall that season the same way?

You are correct. Back then only conference champs went into the tournament. Racial tension was not unusual at that time... even years later.  Both on the BB and FB teams.  Thank goodness, that is a thing of the past.

By the way....any one recognize the guy in the second row, to the left ?  He went on to become IU's Head Basketball coach, after McCracken.  He was IU's coach when I was a student. 

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1 hour ago, hoosiertildeath said:

I've truly been blessed ! I've seen all of those recruiting classes play except the 1937 class ! And , I have seen the big guy , Don Schlundt , play ! I have truly been blessed ! I saw Walt Bellamy play in the old fieldhouse ! Wow ! I HAVE truly been blessed ! P.S. I am hoping that the 2018-2019 season will come close to matching the sucess of the best IU classes of the past ! 

 

I saw Don Schlundt play, too, but it was golf!  😁😉  He was a regular at Old Oakland Golf Club where I worked in the snack bar as a teenager.

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