Mexico (500?) Built 1921
October 13, 2025
October 13, 2025
Ask any teacher what their favorite week of the year is, and you'll probably get pretty similar answers. Usually it correlates with the first week of whatever break is coming up next. Christmas break, spring break, summer break, those are the big ones. Most wouldn't mention fall break, because for most schools fall break is just a couple days, or at most a week. Where I teach in Anderson, we actually get two weeks off for fall break. Most people look at me funny when I tell them that. Many teachers I work with don't like it because the trade-off is that it shortens our summers a bit. Reporting back to school in July is admittedly a little depressing. For me though, the answer to that question is hands down the second or third week of October. That's because it always falls on the last week of my fall break. I always spend the first week of fall break each day at home with my kids, and I reserve that second week for a gym hunting extravaganza that usually takes me to every corner of the state. This week also typically coincides with when the trees are starting to change colors, so the views are often spectacular. Driving state and back roads all across Hoosierland is almost as rewarding as seeing the gyms themselves. This year was no different. My first stop took me to a place named after our North American neighbor to the south, and a gym that's as old as the hills.
As far as I can tell, and honestly it's getting harder to keep track of the longer I do this, the Veedersburg gym had been the oldest gym I visited to this point that was actually intact and reviewable. It was completed in 1923. A couple faded ones have it beat, but most of those were really just big rooms where high school basketball games happened to be played. They weren't really built with the purpose of being a gym (but yes they do count!). My trip down to Mexico broke this record by two years as it was constructed in 1921. That ties it with Mooresville for the oldest gym I'm aware of that is still intact. 1920's gyms are always fascinating because you never quite know what you're going to get. There wasn't really a set style like there was in the 30s and 50s. What I found in Mexico was no exception. The Mexico Bulldogs played in this gym from the first year they had a basketball team in 1921 to the year they consolidated into North Miami in 1961. In those forty years, they never did bring home a sectional title, but they had many great teams over that time period. Many of those teams took the fight valiantly to the big school power in the area over in Peru. Like in most small Indiana communities, consolidation may as well have been a four letter word. Nobody wanted it, but there seemed to be little that you could do to stop it. After the high school was closed, the gym continued to serve the elementary school that hung around for awhile. Eventually that too was closed, the school was razed, but the gym was mercifully spared and turned into a community center. Ever since then it has been preserved and cared for under the watchful eyes of Jefferson Township trustees. The current caretaker probably knows the gym better than anyone else ever has. Mr. Reggie Wolfe has not only tended to the needs of the gym for the last many years, but he was also a member of one of the last graduating classes that the school produced. He grew up watching basketball games in this gym when it was still the place to be on a Friday night. He's seen it all, and in some ways I am quite jealous of him for that.
Mr. Wolfe was kind enough to let me into the gym on a balmy fall morning and show me around. What surprised me immediately was the fact that when you enter the gym, you actually walk down five steps of stairs to reach the playing court. Who knew one of the first gyms ever built in the state was actually a sunken gym? Maybe not in the traditional Ralph Legeman sense, but technically so! The most inherently cool thing about the gym that struck me right away was that while it has been maintained and cared for meticulously over the years, it still feels like it hasn't been touched much since the 20s, and I mean that in the best way. Along each sideline are 5 rows of handcrafted permanent wooden bleachers. The wood is a dark brown color that is perfectly weathered and worn. The original scorer's table is still up at center court and matches the shade of the bleachers perfectly. Continuing on the subject of beautiful woodwork, the doors in this place are just gorgeous. There are marvelous wooden doors all over the gym that are each uniquely ornate. So many of these get taken out of old gyms in favor of more modern fixtures that just don't match the history of these placess. The ones that are still here help transport you back in time to when this gym was full of people cheering on their Bulldogs to victory.
Above the sideline bleachers are brick walls that stand out for their variety. The bottom halves of the walls were constructed with very light tan bricks that I've seen very few other places. The upper halves of the walls were constructed with what look like common grey cinder blocks. I'm curious why two different primary building materials were used, but it gives the place a unique look. At one point there used to be huge square windows framed within these walls that have long since been filled in. The baseline wall on the end from which you enter the gym is pretty much bare. A long ramp was built here at some point to help with handicap access. There are also two long rectangular windows that were thankfully never filled in. The opposing baseline wall features a modest-sized stage that is framed in by a section of traditional red brick. A wooden cover of sorts was placed across the stage at some point. You can also find an old school scoreboard hanging by a slightly newer one on the sideline walls. The hardwood floor was unfortunately covered when I visited because the weekend before the Mexico Lions Club had used it for a get-together. When I peeked underneath, the floor looked to be stained a classic old gold color that fit the rest of the gym's aesthetic perfectly. Both baskets that are hanging in the gym still utilize wooden backboards which is neat.
Leaving the gym, I felt a profound sense of appreciation for Mr. Wolfe and the people like him who have ensured that the legacy of places like the Mexico gym continue to live on in the communities that they serve. Like I said earlier, I also felt a little jealous. I cannot imagine growing up in a time when small towns were so tight-knit that they all gathered together for a common purpose on Friday night and then again on Sunday morning. And then on top of that, you get to help protect the heritage of the community that you've invested so much of your time into over the course of your life. As much as I love old gyms, Hoosier Hysteria, and everything that comes with it, that's just something I'm never going to be able to experience personally. That pains me a little. Those of you who regularly read my stuff know I can be melodramatic at times, but the feelings just come when I visit these places. I'm beyond thankful for the life God has given me, but there's always that little twinge inside of me that makes some wonder what it would have been like to be born and raised in the golden age of all that Indiana high school basketball has to offer.
