Eastern Greene (Old) (1,800) Built 1961
June 4, 2026
There have been a number of people from the world of Indiana high school basketball who have gone on to make a name for themselves on the national stage. Some of them were legends of the high school game as well like Oscar Robertson and George McGinnis. We've also had a couple of people find nationwide acclaim who weren't exactly legends in high school, though these are more on the coaching side (on the player side, Larry Bird comes to mind, but even though he was a late bloomer, he still had an insane run his senior year). Gregg Popovich was a solid but not spectacular player for Merrillville in the 60s before he put himself on the Mount Rushmore of all-time NBA coaches. Brad Stevens had similar high school accolades at Zionsville before leading Butler to one of the greatest Cinderella runs ever in the NCAA tournament in back-to-back years and then becoming an NBA champion as the President of Basketball Operations of the Boston Celtics. Only the people in their hometowns probably remember what these guys were like back on their high school courts before they became larger than life figures. Another alum of Hoosier Hysteria has joined this prestigious list in recent years, and I had a chance to visit his old high school gym back in June. Dusty May graduated from Eastern Greene in 1995. As a senior point guard on one of the best teams Eastern Greene has ever had, he averaged 12 points. He was a really good player, but maybe not one people would expect to go on to coach a little known Division-I school to the Final Four, win a national championship at a Big-10 football school, and then parlay that into an NBA job with the Dallas Mavericks. Dusty May has taken the basketball world by storm over the last half-decade, but it all started at a small school in Greene County with a beautiful bandbox of a gym.
Eastern Greene was formed in the 60s as a product of consolidation like so many others were, but it was kind of an odd one. In 1948, Owensburg High School was closed, and the majority of those students actually crossed the county line to attend high school in Oolitic. This was the case until 1961 when it was decided that students in the area needed a more modern high school. Because of this, Solsberry High School was shuttered and students in Owensburg came back to Greene County and started attending the new formed Eastern Greene High School. The new high school also sported a brand new gym to go with. Seating about 1,800, it wasn't huge, but it was electric. It was known for being a hot, dimly-lit, cave of a basketball gym. The crowds were raucous, and according to a great article written by B.J. Hargis in the Greene County Daily World, Eastern Greene was known for getting some home cooking as well from the officials when playing big games here (although what good team hasn't been accused of this by their rivals at some point). Simply put, it was a tough place to go and get a win on a Friday night back in the day. The gym bears the name of Toby Yoho who was a legendary girls basketball coach at the school for almost 20 years. They won two single-class sectionals under his guidance in the mid-80s. This is now considered the old gym since a new high school and gym were built up the road in 2008. It serves as the home of middle school games now, but the heart of those old high school battles is still evident when you walk inside it.
The entrance into Toby Yoho Gymnasium is unlike any other place I've been. You can really only come in one way, and it's fantastic. Once through the doors, you're faced with a choice. You can take a short middle section of stairs down to the floor level and sit on the lower bleachers, or you can take one of the outer steps of stairs up to the second level. On the top of the tunnel leading to the court reads "Toby Yoho Gymnasium" in perfect red cursive script. If you choose to take the stairs upward, you'll find 10 rows of beautiful permanent bleachers on each side of the tunnel entrance. There are also 5 rows above the tunnel as well. The bleachers here are red wooden bench seats bolted down on short metal risers into the concrete. They look great. A red and black stripe follows the outline of the bleachers down the wall to the lower level and across the gym. Underneath this upper level are 6 rows of wooden retractable bleachers that are reached by walking down the entrance steps to the floor level. Across from them along the opposite sideline is another single set of wooden retractable bleachers that goes up 10 rows. Above these bleachers is one of the best mascot designs you find anywhere in the state, bar none. Eastern Greene's mascot is the Thunderbird (with a name that good you better have a great logo). My advice is to look at the pictures here, because any words I try to use to describe it won't do it justice. The best I can come up with is an angry looking chicken, with the powers of Zeus, and an affinity for basketball, all done in a traditional Native American artistic style. It's awe-inspiring. On both sides of it are really nice circular conference plaques for the Southwestern Indiana Conference teams. I'm really glad these were kept when the gym stopped hosting high school games.
One of the baseline walls in the gym doesn't have a lot to it, just an "EGMS" painted in red and black in the corner and some old red cloth athletic accomplishment banners hanging from the ceiling (which I'm also grateful they kept). The other baseline wall is gorgeous, all thanks to a classic stage. The stage has the standard brick pillars framing it in on the sides. "Toby Yoho Gymnasium" is written again across the top. A grey curtain runs across it with red padding underneath. I'm always going to appreciate when these old stages are kept in gyms that are still in active use when so many have been boarded up or walled off completely. The playing floor feels like it hasn't been updated since high school games were played on it, and I hope they never mess with it too much. It's stained a classic gold color, and has "Eastern" written across one baseline in red lettering and "Thunderbirds" across the other. "SWIAC" is written right inside the free throw lines. The half-court circle is completely painted black with a funky little design to it and "Eastern Greene" written across it in curvy red lettering. The brilliant Thunderbird logo is featured once again right inside the sidelines. I can't say there's anything I would change.
This was the last stop of the day on the trip Cliff Pappe and I took down south of Indianapolis. I never expected to go this far south when mapping out the trip, but when a few other stops fell through, it just kind of happened. I'm glad it did. I had heard a couple rumblings that this place was pretty cool, but it exceeded any expectations I may have had ahead of time. This gym bucks the trend of the standard multipurpose gyms that were built across Indiana as school consolidations cut the number of teams competing in the IHSAA tournament in half. It can be hard to get a feel for what a game night environment would have been like back in the day when visiting an empty gym, but not here. You can feel how intimate of a venue it would have been. If they ever decide to host a throwback game, I'll be clearing my schedule to come back. Dusty May may be the most famous person to come out of Eastern Greene and Toby Yoho Gymnasium, and he's earned all the fame and fortune that have come his way in recent years, but this gym doesn't need his notoriety to make it special. It can stand on its own two feet (do gyms have feet?). It's been a pillar of the community for decades, and with how well they've preserved it, I'm confident it continue to be so for many more years.
