Loogootee (Old) (1,000?) Built 1927
September 26, 2025
September 26, 2025
The concept of a holy grail is kind of funny to me. It's been mythologized in popular culture time and time again over the years to the point that it's become an overused trope. I was never a big Indiana Jones guy (yes I see the irony) or Monty Python fan growing up, but even I knew the legends of the holy grail in those movies. I guess the idea is that it's supposed to be the most important or valuable thing you could ever possibly find, right? It seems that in many of these stories, the protagonist spends most of his or her time searching for this unattainable object that will bring them worldy riches and fame, only to be disappointed. This is usually because they either come up short in their hunt, or they actually discover it, but then find out it wasn't all it was cracked up to be in the end. The holy grail almost seems to be an illusion for whatever our heart's most selfish desire is. It's just smoke and mirrors, a fugazi that leads to emptiness. With all that being said, I have to stand here today and admit that I have my own personal holy grail that I've been searching for. It's something that has eaten at me over the course of the last two years as I've researched and hit the road to discover old gyms. It's the ever-elusive, gym balcony.
A true balcony overlooks the floor below and allows a crackerbox gym to cram in a couple more hundred people right on top of each other. The sightlines aren't always the best, but the nostalgia sure is. Many old gyms had them, but very few remain today. Most of the gyms that had them are simply gone. There are a good amount that are still standing, but tore out the balconies years ago for a variety of reasons (my own home school of Shipshewana is guilty of this). Then there are the precious few that are still standing, and still intact. Finding these gyms has been a labor of love. Graysville, Fairbanks, and Brazil (the gym that sits atop my list along with the Wigwam for place I want to visit most but cannot gain access to) are some of a just a few that instantly come to mind. Technically I did visit one at Newport, but that one-sided perch from above barely counts. I came within inches of seeing my first one at Gas City, but a split-second decision involving a door that would've locked me inside a gym in which the legality of my visit was questionable to say the least saved me from a very potentially embarassing situation. I had to view that one through a window. The object of my pursuit kept evading me, even as I looked at old pictures of places like Bedford and mourned what now was lost. Then finally, through the guidance of my southern Indiana insider Nate Raber, I was put into contact with the athletic director and basketball coach of a school that is synonymous with Hoosier Hysteria and all the small town lore that surrounds it: Loogootee. It also just happens that they have an immaculate old chapel of hoops that contains the kind of balcony I've been dreaming about seeing for years. I'd finally done it. I had found the holy grail.
You cannot talk about the legacy of Indiana high school basketball without talking about Loogootee. They trace their roots back to 1917 when they played in their first sectional game, defeating the mighty Epsom Salts 23-11. They won their first sectional in 1939 and never looked back. Since then they've accumulated 31 sectional titles, 11 regionals, 4 semi-states, and a 1A state championship in 2012. Most of those came in the one-class era. Most of them were accomplished in the vaunted Washington sectional and regional. And most of them were won under the guidance of one of the most revered coaches in our state's history: Jack Butcher. Coach Butcher held down the fort at Loogootee from 1958-2002. For perspective, he coached at the same school from the decade Milan and Oscar Robertson happened to the advent of class basketball. Talk about seeing it all! There may not be another coach who gave more to the game while also experiencing all it had to offer. The "new" arena (which is fantastic in its own right) rightfully bears his name. He got his start though in the gym we are here to discuss today. The JFK gym as it is known around here (due to the street on which it resides) was built in 1927, and it was state of the art for a small town at that time. It was home to the Loogootee Lions until 1968. Since then it has primarily been used for middle school and elementary games and practices. It's hardly been touched since 1927, which adds to the ambiance I immediately felt when I stepped inside for the first time.
Let's not bury the lede here. Let's start with the main course, that balcony. If you walk into the front entrance of the gym, which feels very grand, you'll find yourself standing in a small foyer. The foyer still contains the original ticket booth and fancy inlaid ceiling design overhead. There are two crimson red staircases that lead upwards to the balcony. The staircases open up into the back of the balcony above the baseline end. Today some batting cages have been built out over the original bleachers, but it's easy to imagine what they looked like based on all the original bleachers that are found along the sidelines. Let's talk about those bleachers! The stairs open to the very top of the balcony level. On this level, there are tall, basic wooden benches constructed. Beneath them are two rows of wooden bleachers that you have to step down to access. The steps are very steep, and there is just a short railing along the bottom wall to protect you from hurtling to your doom if you have one false step (I'm sorry if this sounds dramatic, I've never been a big fan of heights). These bleachers extend all the way down the sidelines, curve in the corners from where you enter the balcony, and continue across one baseline. The far baseline end contains a wall with a stage, so this is where the balcony stops. The corners by the stage used to have stairs that accessed them as well, but at some point they were taken out and the entrances boarded up. This is the only major way the gym has been altered over the years. The corners by the stage are pretty neat though. The bleachers and railing curve a little as they get close to these corners and jut out over the court a little. It almost looks like box seating in an old-timey theater, ornate and fancy. There are little steps that lead down from the top balcony level to the corner areas. The whole thing is just perfect.
Coach Josh Thompson was kind enough to let me into the gym and talk with me for a little bit. He pointed out the doors that led from the balcony into the wall above the stage. He told me that the one to the left of the stage actually was Coach Butcher's office, and that both locker rooms were actually up above instead of down below which is certainly unique. Luckily the doors were unlocked, and I was able to check out Coach Butcher's office for myself. It was pretty neat to think about the conversations that must have taken place in there over the years. When I finally had my fill of the balcony, I headed back downstairs and started looking around at the rest of the gym from a lower vantage point. The windows throughout the whole gym really stick out when you take a step back and look from a wider view. They surround the gym on two levels and on three sides. They were never blocked in over the years, and natural light just poured through on the perfect autumn day that I visited. The ceiling has that common little short arch to it supported by massive metal beams crossing from sideline to sideline. The bottom of the balcony underneath the railing is trimmed in Loogootee yellow (or is it gold? I apologize if I'm mischaracterizing it). I was told there used to be bleachers along at least one sideline opposite of where the team benches now are. I'm not sure if there were also some on the side that houses the team benches. The "benches" today are actually varsity level cushioned chairs that have neat "Loogootee Lions" script and logos on them.
The playing floor here has obviously been refinished fairy recently and has a modern sheen to it. I do appreciate that they kept an old school Loogootee Lion logo at center court. They also recognize the state championship team with block lettering right inside the sidelines. It's a little odd to be featured in an old gym like this, but I'm never going to fault a school for honoring a title winning team. It looks fine. The last big feature of the gym that caught my eye was the stage itself. It isn't big by any means. It's actually narrow enough that it forms more a square than a rectangle. It's trimmed with brick that juts out ever so slightly further than the rest of the wall. A big red curtain hangs across the length of it. At the very top in the middle of the curtain ribbon is the classic dueling acting masks symbol with a sword in the middle representing the drama and arts programs that I'm sure would have utilized the stage back in the day. It's a small thing, but it's unique. Like I said earlier, the balcony juts out a little in the corners here towards the stage which really presents a regal view when looking at it from afar.
If the inside of the gym isn't picturesque enough for you, take a look at the exterior from across the street. There are few gyms that stand as tall and proud as this one. When you look at straight on, it's just gorgeous. This gym has been high on my list from the second that I saw it featured in Kyle Neddenriep's Historic Hoosier Gyms. Not only did the holy grail of balconies exceed my high expectations, but the whole place lived up to the hype and then some. I texted Mr. Raber as I walked out of the gym and just said that this may be my favorite "retired" gym I've been to yet. It's in a tier with Peru and Vincennes Lincoln that just levitates above everything else. This probably isn't a place that can hold a throwback game. Coach Thompson even told me he's not sure how much it will get used now that more auxiliary gym space is being added over at the current Loogootee campus. While I pray it continues to be preserved, I'm just glad I got to see it. It's one of those visits that will stick with me forever. If it had this kind of impact on me in just one morning, I can only imagine how much it means to the people who got to experience it on those cold wintery Friday nights when the games mattered most.
