Greensburg (Old) (3,100?) Built 1925
October 15, 2025
Our state has a weird obsession with the color green. The founding fathers who named our fine towns just could not get enough of it. Take a dart, throw it at a map of Indiana, and chances are you're doing to hit a spot within a few square miles of someplace named after the emerald color. This makes it hard when people ask me questions about gyms with Green-something in the name and I'm trying to run through the Rolodex in my head of current gyms, old gyms, and gyms that are long gone. My friend Ted turned me on to a decaying gym in Greene Township in Parke County last year, but it was recently torn down before I could go see it. Greenfield's old gym was also torn down just in the last few years, while Greenfield Central's current gym is a lifeless box of nothingness. Greensfork's old gym has faded but now lives on as a fire station. Eastern's gym in Greentown is one of the closest active gyms to my house that I haven't been to. Greenwood has an old gym that's been Frankensteined into a modern sports complex, and a current gym that is high on my list of places to go see. The town of Greensburg has three gyms worth mentioning here. The first is the current one that is massive, featuring gorgeous wooden bleachers in the latest picture I saw (hopefully it still does), and I need to go visit it soon. The second is in the old armory and is an interesting case as it didn't host games for just one school, but many county schools utilized it over the years for various time periods. The third is the one I'm going to focus on here: the old Greensburg High School gym.
The Rushville gym turned 100 years old this year, and it was celebrated in a couple unique ways throughout the basketball season. Just 20 miles south, the old Greensburg gym also hit the century mark, but with a lot less fanfare. These two gyms are forever linked, and not just because they were built in the same year and are separated by just a small stretch of State Road 3. The gyms are near mirror images of one another. Both are built in the classic "upside-sunken gym" style where it's a bowl, but it works from the bottom to the top. They both have a stage of some sort behind one baseline. They both have support beams right outside the perimeter of the court creating some obstructed views. Everything about them was the same from the start. The main difference is what has happened to them since the mid-20s. While the Rushville gym looks essentially the same as it did a century ago, you have to pull back some layers and squint a bit to see what the old Greensburg gym originally looked like. If you want to get a better mental visual, check out the Rushville gym HERE. We're going to discuss some of the changes that have happened over the years here, but I want to also focus on what made this place so special back in its glory days. The Greensburg Pirates played here from 1925-1970 and hosted the sectional every single one of those years. They also won the vast majority of those sectionals. In 1971 they built a new gym that was big enough to keep the sectional in Greensburg. They kept winning, but not quite at the same clip. There was something magical about this place, something you can't quite recreate, even if the new gym is pretty neat in its own right.
When the gym was built, it featured a bowl shape that wrapped around the entire gym except for a section behind one baseline where a narrow stage stood. There were 11 rows of permanent wood bleachers that encircled the court, though that numered was obviously lessened up in the corners above the four different entrances into the gym. Today, all the corner and baseline seating is gone, it's been walled off. The only seating that exists is what is directly behind the sidelines. The original bleachers were in place here at least 15 years ago judging by pictures in Historic Hoosier Gyms by Kyle Neddenriep, but even at that time they were covered with a blue composite material you occasionally find places. Just recently those were replaced with more standard modern blue and grey plastic bleachers. While I lamented the lack of original seating, all was not lost! My guide for the day was the principal of Greensburg Middle School, Mr. Clifford. He was kind enough to give me the grand tour, and he led me through a narrow door in one of the baseline walls. Behind it sat rows and rows of the original wooden bleachers. They were weathered and worn (I mean they're a 100 years old, what do you expect!), but you could still see the rich mahogany stain and neat vertical design on the sides of them. The original seats can be found behind many walls in the gym and are used for storage these days. Mr. Clifford had heard that at one point a spectator had actually fallen from the bleachers down into the entryway below which was possibly the catalyst for walling off so much of the seating. That coupled with the fact that the gym was only going to be used for middle school games going forward, I understand why the decision was made. It's unfortunate, but reasonable.
One feature that keeps the gym anchored in the time in which it was built are the support beams that reach from the ceiling down into the first two rows of seats. They make it a little hard to see some of the action on the court, but they're a cool sign of the times. The stage area here is pretty unique. There are two short little sections of stairs on each side that lead up to it from the court. The stage itself is very high and feels narrow. I'd be curious to see what it looked like back when it presumably had a big curtain and how the bleachers kind of fitted into it on the sides. The stage is also a little funky at Rushville which has a similar situation going on. These days the gym features a blue and grey color scheme that works really well. I always love a good pirate logo which you can find in a few spots in the gym, including a great one on the scorer's table. The classic blue "G" can be found up on the sidelines walls and at center court. The basketball hoops hang from high up on the ceiling and have a cool crisscross pattern coming down the basket supports. The floor is stained a very clean light-tan color with blue inside the foul lanes and "Greensburg" written across the baselines.
Before I left, Mr. Clifford took me down below the gym to see the underside of the court, which isn't something I usually have the opportunity to do. It was neat to see how it's built up a little bit off the ground and the supports used to keep it all in place. Maybe my favorite fact I learned about the place is that when the school was originally built, it was designed so that from an aerial view it actually formed the shape of the letter "G." It's been kind of lost over the years due to a lot of remodels and additions at the school, but it's still an incredibly cool piece of architecture and design. Like I almost always do when visiting these old gyms, I tried to get a good exterior shot on my way out. The best one came from walking clear across the parking lot and crossing the road. When I took it, I once again was reminded of the angle and picture I took back at Rushville last year. The main difference was at Rushville the picture was taken in the dark, while the one at Greensburg was in the light of day. It's a perfect contrast to the gyms themselves. Today Rushville feels like the one that can be seen in all of its glory under the Friday night lights.. The heart of the Greensburg gym is still there too, it's just shrouded by a bit of darkness. If you grab a light, open some doors, and look a little closer, you can still see it.
