College Corner (Union) (700?) Built 1925
March 24, 2026
In second grade I vividly remember my teacher pulling out two giant books for each student. They were easily the thickest books I had ever seen. You can probably guess what they were, a dictionary and a thesaurus. We were taught how to use both. I thought the dictionary was pretty boring, but I loved the thesaurus. I started looking up synonyms for different words and trying to use them in my writing and every day conversation. What I didn't realize was that they couldn't all be used interchangeably in every situation, and that context mattered. I remember I described myself as "elegant" in an acrostic poem of my name after seeing it in the thesaurus, and a student teacher in my class flatly told me that the word didn't describe me and I should try another one. While I was personally offended at the time, she was right. There was nothing elegant about me in second grade, and I can't really say there is to this day. Anyways, I also learned that a thesaurus is useful because good writers shouldn't repeat the same words or terms over and over when a variety of them are available. This is something that I've tried to keep in mind as I've gotten older, but sometimes it proves to be difficult when I'm writing about a similar topic over and over again but in different ways like I do with gyms. One word I probably consistently overuse is "unique." A thesaurus tells me I can use one-of-a-kind, rare, unusual, or abnormal in its place. I guess I probably should. It's kind of ironic that the one word I commonly use too often is one that describes something uncommon. It just seems to happen naturally when I write about these old gyms that consistently produce oddities that are far from common.
When I first read Kyle Neddenriep's Historic Hoosier Gyms back before I ever started this blog, I came across a gym who's story goes far beyond just being unique. It can only be described as one-of-a-kind. Not just in Indiana, but I have to assume the entire country. It's a school and gym that is so unconventional that I'm not even sure what to call it! I think officially the name of the old school was Union High School. Though in Historic Hoosier Gyms it is referred to as West College Corner, and on John Harrell's site it is listed as just College Corner. Since John Harrell's site is the de facto Bible of Indiana high school basketball, and because there are already enough schools that use the Union moniker throughout the history of Hoosier Hysteria, I'm going to roll with College Corner. College Corner is a town that resides in two different states, Indiana and Ohio. While rare, it's not unheard of. I wrote about Union City just last week which is in a similar spot. What makes College Corner a one-of-one situation is that the school itself sits directly on the state line. Scratch that, the gym itself sits directly on the state line. Sorry, let me be more specific. The state line and halfcourt line in the gym run in the EXACT SAME SPOT. That's right, when the tipoff would happen to start the game, one player would be standing in Indiana, and the other would be in Ohio. The ball would float up into the air for the tipoff and one hemisphere would be in Indiana and the other would be in Ohio. You cannot make this stuff up. Normally this is where I would say, "Only in Indiana." But that's not true, it's also in Ohio.
This unbelievable setup brought about some pretty crazy occurrences. A player could shoot a long shot in Indiana and make it in Ohio. If you didn't like your seat in Ohio, you could cross the bleachers over to Indiana and see if you could get a better view of the action. Halfcourt is often referred to as the "timeline" in basketball. In this case it was literally true! Back in the day Indiana and Ohio used to be in different time zones during certain parts of the year due to Daylight Savings Time. You would gain or lose an hour with every back and forth possession. The remarkable setup has created a wide variety of logistical issues for the school corporation to work through over the years. College Corner has long been served by school board members and officials from both states. It is governed by the Indiana Department of Education as I understand, but students in town from both states have always attended (hence the name Union), dating all the way back to 1893 when the first school building was constructed on this site. The current building was erected in 1925 and served as a grade and high school until 1972 when it consolidated with Liberty to form Union County. Since then it has continued to serve the whole town as a grade school. Another oddity is its postseason tournament history. When I was looking it up as I always do, I found a huge gap. College Corner participated in the IHSAA tournamed from 1929-1931, and then again from 1966-1972 when the high school was shuttered. Where did the other 35 years ago? I read the many articles you can find online about the school's history, and found nothing. It seemed inexplicable, I knew there was always a high school here. Then I remembered that Gregg Doyel of the Indy Star wrote a fantastic article about the school and gym years ago. I was able to dig it up and luckily found the answer. In that giant gap of time, College Corner chose to participate in the Ohio postseason tournament, even though they played many Indiana teams throughout the regular season. I should have thought of that from the beginning. Imagine being able to choose which tournament you wanted to play in (although I must say, declining the chance to participate in Hoosier Hysteria for that long is a bit suspect)! Just another element that makes this place an astounding abberation.
For as wild and wonderful of a history this place has, the gym could have been a dud. Luckily it's not. The setup isn't one you find too many places. A few weeks ago my friend Ted Shideler and I finally made it into the old Gas City gym, and that's the closest comparison I can think of. There's a small stage built into one sideline wall, and all of the seating is directly across from it. Only half remains from what was originally there. There used to bleachers underneath the balcony that still hangs above. At some point they were removed to provide more space for P.E. classes in the elementary school. The seating that still sits up in the balcony is incredible. It is only accessible through the exterior second floor hallway. There are two entrances into it that split the bleachers into three sections. One big one in the middle, and two smaller ones in the corners. The bleachers go up 6 rows. They feel really tall and wide, the kind where the feet of the people behind you sit on the same surface you're sitting on. The wide bench seats are wood, but the sides are actually covered with a dark brown metal. I'm not sure I've encountered that anywhere else before. The view down to the court below is a little obstructed due to the fact the balcony hangs right over the edge of the court. There would've also been obstructed views in the lower bleachers as a couple big support beams rise up to the balcony. I'm guessing the lower bleachers would have gone up 5-6 rows as well.
The two baseline walls of the gym don't have anything on them, and it doesn't even really matter. The rest of the gym is so perfectly put together. The lower walls are red all the way around. That red follows the perimeter of the stage up and over top of it. A gorgeous red curtain spans the length of it. All the lines on the court are painted the same bright red. It pops against the the light-tan hardwood floor (which apparently my brother helped refinish when he was in college and worked for a company that does that sort of work on gym floors). At center court, with the state line running right through it, is a Trojan head. On one side of it is a large "I" for Indiana and an "O" on the other for Ohio. The perfect finishing touches on a lovely little bandbox of a gym.
When I visit these old gyms that are in active elementary schools, I usually don't get to talk to the elder statesmen who walked the halls of the schools back in their heyday. This is one where I really wish I would have been able to. I can't even imagine what games would have been like here on a packed Friday night in February. A few hundred people stacked on top of each other almost hanging over the court with probably another hundred up on the stage, man that must have been incredible to be a part of. Just sitting in the 100 year old bleachers, I could feel the weight of the history. It's incredible that the school has survived all the red tape and bureaucracy needed to keep it open all these years given it's unique (there I go again) situation. I hope it can continue to defy the odds for awhile longer. It's too special to let fail. The gym is a big part of that. It may only sit halfway in Indiana, but it's fully everything that Hoosier Hysteria is all about.
