"Scoreboard"

by Donald W, Alexander

My latest and perhaps, my fondest memories of the Fieldhouse are of the twenty or so years that I ran the scoreboard for all the basketball games played there.  This was during the exciting years when we had Sectional, Regional, and Semi-finals in Muncie.  During those years there were seats on the floor level on both sides of the end doors.  The crowds would fill all of the regular seats, aisles, and upstairs corners.  In the later years the Fire Marshall put a stop to that!  I also ran the scoreboard for the McKinley Bulldogs, the Harlem Globetrotters, and any tournament that was played there.

My early memories however are long before those “scoreboard” years.  I was six years old when this huge building was built where there was once a dump.  A few years later I attended school there. (During 1935, 36, 37.)  The Field House was part of McKinley Junior High School.  We had classes there in Art, Music, Industrial Arts, Home Economics, Physical Education, and Mathematics.  Other classes were held at the old Elementary School one block away.

During my time there as a student, the famous photographer, Margaret Bourke-White, took a lot of pictures of McKinley pupils for Life Magazine.  That was exciting, but I don’t believe that the pictures were ever published.  I joined the McKinley Boy Scout, Troop #36.  We met each week in a Fieldhouse room at the back, upstairs.  As Boy Scouts, several of us did our public service by holding ropes around the basketball floor at half time and after the game to keep the fans off the shiny court.

I came back to McKinley as a teacher in 1946.  Many hours were spent in the Fieldhouse attending assemblies, Science Fairs, dances, supervising test etc.  My Science classroom was in the building just north of the Fieldhouse, and I could see it any hour of the day for the 37 years that I taught there.  Do I have any memories of the Fieldhouse? You bet!

"The Fans Really Backed the Team"

by Arthur Hall

My name is Arthur Hall.  I went to Muncie Central High School from 1937 to 1940.  I was a loyal fan of the Bearcats and attended almost all of the basketball games there in the Fieldhouse.  In fact, I served as an usher in the balcony.  I enjoyed working at the games.

There always was a full house whenever the Bearcats played at home.  The fans really backed the team.  They were favored to win the state in 1938. 

I was away from Muncie from 1942 until 1948 in the Navy.  In 1951 I married and moved to Portland.  Since the Bearcats beat the Portland Panthers in sectional of 1948, the name Bearcats wasn’t very popular here in town.  It was nearly five years before people let up on the teasing.

Another popular event which occurred at the Fieldhouse once a year was the annual Christmas Sing.  That event my family enjoyed attending.  Different groups performed special numbers.  Then the entire audience got to join in by singing many of the traditional carols.  It was the highlight of the season.

"Memory"

by Richard Leitch

I remember:

• Five cent popcorn
• Soft Drinks
• Earning my Bulldog letter in 37.
• Singing a solo as the third king in a Christmas Program.
• Sitting at the press table with Bob Barnet and Herb Silverberg when we lost to Ft. Wayne South in 38.
• Grandpa Leitch winning a car in an M.I.R.M.A. drawing held at the Fieldhouse.
• Getting pinned by Don Odle in Gym Class. Mel Wilson was our Student Teacher.
• Donkey basketball games when the poor animal did his business on the floor
• Big Bill Tilden tennis exhibition.
• Roy Lewis, Spider Thomas, and Rusty Cleek punching their way into the pro-boxing ranks. 
• Don Burton and Super Fan Herbie Houck.
• Principal Rosco Shafer giving me my diploma.  I am sure he would only shake his head if he knew that I am serving as President of the New Castle Community School Board.
• My Senior Prom when my beautiful date whispered tenderly in my ear “please do not chew gum, it is getting in my hair.”  I might have been the original “nerd”
• Great teacher’s at McKinley.  Mrs. Hinshaw, Mr. Anderson, Miss Brown, Mr. Ebrite, and McComas.
• Janitors Ephes and Roger and a lot of great Bearcats: Gene Huff, Walter White, Jack Young, Rusty Holiday, Rolland Stillwagon, and another hundred guys if space allowed. 
• Most of us served our country during WW2.  I was in the South Pacific when I received a letter from home telling me that Center beat the Bearcats in the Sectional.

I cannot remember what I had for breakfast, but these events and people are still fresh in my memories of the Muncie Fieldhouse!

"600 Plus Graduates"

by Mrs. Pat (Buckles) Jeffers

For me, memories begin when I was an elementary student at Washington School and was chosen to sing in the Muncie Community Christmas Sing.  Overwhelming doesn’t begin to describe my feelings when I arrived at the Fieldhouse and saw all the school children sitting in school groups to sing together as Miss Hunter directed us.  I was so nervous.

While attending McKinley Jr. High in the 7^th, 8^th, and 9^th grades, I had my first experience in Home Economics.  In the southwest corner of the Fieldhouse I learned to bake and cook, under the watchful eye of Miss White.  I also learned to sew on a pedal sewing machine.  Our first project was a gym bag, complete with draw string. I had gym class in the Fieldhouse gym, and we learned to do tumbling, square dancing, and to play many sports.  Of course, during our morning classes we could smell the wonderful aroma coming from the cafeteria as the cooks prepared lunch.

But my fondest memories of the Fieldhouse took place when I attended Muncie Central High  School and attended the Bearcats’ basketball games and tournaments in 1951, 52, and 53.  Those were the best years ever to be a teenager.  What better way to spend a cold snowy Friday or Saturday night than going to the Fieldhouse to see it filled to capacity as our beloved Bearcats won their way to two state Championships?  What excitement to watch as all the county schools, Burris and Central battled for the championship during Muncie Sectionals?

Finally, I remember the thrill of that June day in 1953 when I walked into the gymnasium in my cap and gown on my graduation day.  What a feeling of pride to be part of the 600 plus graduates dressed in purple and white caps and gowns.  It was a beautiful sight.  The gymnasium was transformed into a huge auditorium with a stage covered with flowers, school administrators, surrounded by tables stacked high with diplomas, waiting to be handed to each of the graduates.  What a wonderful part of my life the Muncie Fieldhouse has been.  When Muncie celebrates the 75^th anniversary of this wonderful building, I plan to be there.  Thank you Muncie for giving me such a wonderful place to grow up! 

"Purple-White-Fight-Fight"

 by Janet Halliday Ervin

It was a Plain-Jane building, utilitarian, not glamorous. Strange that it remains, in memory, a Fieldhouse of Dreams, probably because of those heroes, the Bearcats.  They practiced and played there.  For their tournaments the whole town turned out.  Purple-white-fight-fight. (Some Fathers got into fights.)  In June, Central High seniors took over with baccalaureate and the beribboned and crepe-peppered Prom.  About 1940 the black kids proposed One Big Prom instead of two separate and unequal ones.  A great idea at long last!

Celebrities came to visiting exhibitions tours, like Bill Tilden, the national tennis champ. We hung around and collected autographs.

For those of us who attended McKinley Jr. High, 7 thru 9^th grades, there were personal wins and losses.  I won the school Latin contest to Miss Whyte’s surprise and mine.  In Home Economics I got an F in sewing (my initials on my Apron) but learned from Mora Morris to make a nice white sauce.  Then on to the big one, downtown Central High, as sophomores.

Later, as a young Muncie Press reporter, I interviewed Sigmund Romberg, famous composer, appearing with his orchestra at the Fieldhouse.  I don’t remember how the acoustics were for music.  They were great for basketball.  Can’t you still hear the bounce of the ball?  The roar of the crowd?  The voice of the big guy, Coach Pete Jolly?  Happy birthday Fieldhouse.  You were there for us, several generations of us.

"Dog Show"

by Jane Ayres Sulanke

Although I have participated in the Community Christmas Sing and attended rock concerts, revivals, and ball games in the building, my fondest memory is of the time I won a trophy there.

When I was growing up, my family always had a dog.  My mother had grown up showing dogs of various breeds and she continued that hobby as an adult, but my father insisted that we could only have one dog at a time.  When I was 12, our family pet was a Pembroke Welsh Corgi named Duke.  Now, Duke was not a very showable Corgi as he was a bit big to conform to the standard for that breed.  Still he was a wonderful guy and very smart.

The Muncie Kennel Club used to hold their annual Dog Show at the Fieldhouse.  In 1966, my mother entered Duke in the Corgi competition.  He lost, but because he was entered in the show, I was able to show him in the Junior Handlers competition that evening.  Armed with several chunks of liver, Mom prepared to hold Duke’s attention, I took him into the ring.  He seemed to sense from my excitement that we were doing something cool and he really wanted some of that liver, so he obeyed my commands and looked very perky.  The judges took quite a bit of time going over each dog, observing how we handler’s worked with them, in the end Duke and I got the nod and I was awarded a shiny chrome trophy set on a marble base.  It was a wonderful experience.  But, I still wonder who got to clean up after those shows?