Knightstown (Old) (600) Built 1922
October 16, 2023
October 16, 2023
The old Knightstown gym is more commonly known as the "Hoosier Gym" as it was the home to the fictional Hickory Huskers in the greatest sports movie of all time, "Hoosiers." The film is a fictional retelling of the 1954 Milan team that upset Muncie Central to capture the state championship and cement themselves as legends of Hoosier Hysteria forever. I'm not going to wax poetically about it here, but if you care enough to read blogs about old gyms and haven't seen it, then you need to carve out 2 hours in your evening and indulge yourself.
As famous as this gym is for being in a feature film, I want to look at it in terms of what it really is: an absolute gem of Indiana basketball tradition. The old Knightstown gym only hosted regularly scheduled games for the school for 44 years as it closed in 1966. When it was restored and reopened in the early nineties, it began hosting games again for various high schools and traveling teams once again. While Knightstown did finally play a home game in the gym at the end of last season, this isn't a common occurrence which is a miscarriage of justice. It should be a state law that old gyms that are in good enough shape should host one throwback game a year for the local high school. Some schools do this, but not enough. There's no downside. It's a win for both the players who get a small taste of what basketball in this state was like in its heydey, and for the community who gets to take a trip down memory lane.
When you walk into the entrance to the gym, you're greeted with a ticket booth transported straight out of the 1940s. Its gorgeous. The gym itself has two sidelines of permanent wood bleachers with about 6 rows each. The seats set behind a five foot wall which was common of many small gyms built in this era. There is a large stage on the opposite end of the entrance. The hardwood floor dates back to the 1930s and has been beautifully restored. I love the big windows letting in a ton of natural light along both sideline walls. A lot of old gyms have filled these in with bricks to help with heating/cooling costs, but the effect here in leaving them in is striking. There is an old-timey scoreboard one wall in conjunction with two more modern ones. If you visit the the gym when there isn't a game going on, you can tour the basement locker rooms which have barely been touched since the gym closed in 1966. My guide actually played for Knightstown right before the gym closed and showed me which bench the seniors got to sit on because it was in front of the radiator and hot water pipes so they could stay warm during the cold Indiana winter nights. Everything about it is authentic.
This gym is soaked in history that goes way beyond being a part of a Hollywood movie. Its true heritage is rooted in the community it belongs to: Knightstown. It's the story of so many small towns across the state. It involves consolidation, newer and modern facilities being built, and people who still care deeply about their legacy and pride in where they are from. I went in with big expectations, and it exceeded every one. If you care about high school basketball in this state, you have to make the trip.
