Freetown (400) Built 1931
July 7, 2025
July 7, 2025
Last week, after I posted my blog about Howe Military and mentioned that they hadn't entered the state tournament until 1943, another Indiana high school basketball fan reached out and reminded me that parochial and all-black schools were not permitted into the state tournament until that year. Catholic and other religous schools were barred because they weren't public. All-black schools, in an unbelievable and hateful twist of irony, were not admitted because they weren't truly "public," due to the fact they were segregated, as if that was their choice. Even after that cockamamie statute was dropped, things didn't magically become easy for black high schools across the state. The most famous one, Crispus Attucks in Indianapolis, struggled to fill their schedule for years in the 1940s and into the early 50s. They would often travel out of state just to find suitable competition. Inside Hoosierland, Attucks would travel far out into the country to play small schools, because their neighboring schools in Marion County refused to schedule them. I've come across a few of these little schools in my travels as I've visited their old gyms. When talking to my guides in these towns, those games against Crispus Attucks are often some of the first memories they share with me. The fact that an Indianapolis school drove all the way out to their little town to play them was a big deal back then, and it seems like it still is to this day. My latest trip south this summer took me to Jackson County and the village of Freetown. Freetown hosted Crispus Attucks in the days before Oscar Robertson made the school synonymous with Hoosier Hysteria. In Kyle Neddenriep's Historic Hoosier Gyms, he talks about how fans would climb the frozen, slanted roof and look through the upper windows to get a glimpse of the action as the gym was already packed to the gills on the inside for that game. Mental images like that are what stick with me when I think of the golden age of Indiana high school basketball. The Freetown gym was home to many of these moments.
The Spartans of Freetown only hit paydirt in the sectional one time, and it was exactly 100 years ago in 1925. That was before this fine gym was even built. They came close a few other times and had many more great teams, but playing in the Seymour sectional was no easy task. While I'm sure that Shields Gym in Seymour felt large in comparison, I doubt the moments felt too big for the Spartans as they had played many big games with electric atmospheres right here in their own little bandbox. The Freetown gym was actually built with materials from an old grist mill nearby. I've heard of gyms being moved from other sites, or being used for other purposes before they were used for basketball, but this was a first for me. To give you an idea of what rural Indiana living was like when the gym was built, I also learned that the foundation for the gym was actually dug out with tools pulled by horses. It's just another example of the lengths people were willing to go to for basketball in Indiana during that time. People valued it, and they worked hard to give their students something they could be proud of. In this case, they also gave them something that would last a lifetime.
Unlike Shields Gymnasium that sits crumbling 20 minutes east of here in Seymour, the Freetown gym continues to stand tall as a pillar of community pride. It has been meticulously cared for and maintained as a community center for decades now, well after the high school was closed in 1964 and students were bussed to Brownstown Central. On the inside, the gym is set up in a fashion very similar to what I found a few weeks earlier in Griffin (the exterior is closer to Economy). There are two long sections of permanent seats along each sideline. They are built into areas with lower ceilings that slant downwards. From the outside, it looks like little lean-tos have been added to either side of a barn. The bleachers have six rows going up on each side. They are pretty standard and painted grey. Support beams that come down into the first row of bleachers partially obstruct views, but add a lot of charm to the place. The original scorer's table sits wedged between two of them. It's a little beat up, but it's another cool link to the time in which the gym was built. Beautiful little square windows line the very upper walls right above the court.
The baseline wall from which you enter the gym doesn't have much going on, but it does a great job of displaying the thin wooden boards that the gym is primarily made of. There is just something about these old wood-frame gyms from the 20s and 30s that I absolutely love. There are two tall rectangular windows that let in more light on either side of the old hoop. The backboards here are made of glass, and I have to think they are original to the gym. They look very similar to the one displayed in the Owensville gym, which was the first glass backboard ever used in Indiana. One tell that helps date them are the solid wooden sections that are at the bottom of the backboards right below the rims. The opposite baseline wall features a simple but nicely framed stage. It's small, and there isn't anything fancy around the edges of it, but it just fits the gym perfectly. You can easily imagine community plays or graduations being put on there, or rowdy fans cramming into additional seats during a big game. The playing floor looks like it was redone at some point. It's a little more modern and shiny than everything else. The floor isn't quite regulation in length or width, but that's to be expected with gyms from this era. Last but not least, you have to check out the basket support on the end by the stage. I've never seen something quite like it. I'm not sure it could handle a lot of vicious dunks being thrown down on it. Luckily I don't think that was much of a concern in rural Indiana games in the 40s and 50s.
Before I arrived in Freetown, I took a winding road down to Clear Spring to take a look at their faded gym. It was a perfect sunny morning. As I sat there and looked at the old Clear Spring building, I couldn't help but be struck by how little I knew about it. I was able to find the year it was built, and that's about it. I had no stories of their conquests on the basketball court. I had no vignettes about the community that once was thriving before they lost their school. I had no personal memories shared from people who experienced it in its heyday. I had nothing. In contrast, I heard and read so many interesting accounts about the history of the Freetown gym. It made me overwhelmingly thankful for the people of Freetown who chose to save their gym and the memories that live with it for future generations. It also made me profoundly sad to think about how many places like Clear Spring are either already lost or soon will be, and in most cases, all the stories and memories go with them. It gives me a sense of urgency to keep going. I currently have 264 old gyms on my list that I still need to visit (not to mention 291 active ones). The clock somehow feels like it's ticking faster, and I pray that time doesn't run out before I can visit more gems like Freetown.
