Mitchell (Old) (3,000) Built 1927
March 25, 2026
March 25, 2026
One of the unintended joys that gym hunting across Indiana has brought me is a love for our state roads. I've said it once and I'll say it again, Indiana is the greatest and most beautiful state in the nation to travel through. If you disagree, argue with a wall as the kids say. Each pocket of the state has its own unique intricacies to discover, and I've found our state roads to be the best way to explore them. While Indiana's vast network of highways makes it quick and easy to travel far distances, they bypass all the best parts of our state. I avoid these highways whenever it's practical (and even sometimes when it's not). County roads can be wonderful as well, but they can also be perilous. You never know how long it's been since they've been paved, and a pothole causing a flat tire three hours from home isn't really my idea of a good time. Our state roads are numerous and take you through many of the small towns that give Indiana its rich character. You can kind of travel at your own pace on them. They get you where you need to go safely and efficiently while allowing you to take in all the scenery. Over the last couple of years I've become very fond of a few in particular. SR-3 from Knightstown down to Greensburg is a gem. I've always liked taking SR-15 from Marion up to Warsaw. I got to drive SR-446 through the Hoosier National Forest recently and that one took my breath away. There are far too many others to mention here, but one I've been on a lot in the last couple of years really stands out: SR-37 from Bloomington heading as far south as you can take it. I've been on it multiple times on different gym trips, and I've come to really look forward to it. From Oolitic, to Paoli, to English, and many places in between. It's winding, serene, and takes me back to what it must have been like to travel from town to town in the cold Indiana winters of yesteryear for games when there were no highways. On all of these trips there's been one town I've always stopped at for gas, and it has an old gym I finally dropped in at instead of passing it by.
Mitchell has always been a good place to stop along the southern stretch of SR-37 because it sits right in the middle between Bloomington and English. It's an interesting place. It's not a huge town by any means, but it was large enough to keep its school when nearly everyone else in the county was forced to consolidate in the 60s and 70s. While Bedford absorbed about 8 different county schools and sort of got to keep its name in becoming Bedford North Lawrence, Mitchell absorbed just one school along the way (Huron, which was sadly torn down less than a decade before I started doing this) and got to keep its name completely. In doing so, they're the only Lawrence County school that has been around Indiana high school basketball from start to finish. According to Kyle Neddenriep's Historic Hoosier Gyms, they got their start playing in a basement gym in the old high school in 1916. This lasted until 1927 when it was decided a bigger gym was needed, and boy did they go big. A 3,000 seat facility was built next to the old school. While many new gyms were built in the 20s and 30s, very few were as large or grand as this one. It was vast enough to allow them to host some sectionals even though the equally impressive Quarry opened over in Bedford around the same time. The Mitchell Bluejackets found a lot success while playing here, especially in the early years. They won 9 sectionals, and in 1940 made it all the way to the state championship where they unfortunately fell to a very strong Hammond Tech team. The gym hosted varsity games until 1978 when the current high school gym was built. I didn't come to see the current gym though, I came to see the one that holds all the memories of the Greatest Generation of Bluejacket players and community members.
The Emerson Gym (named after the original school built many years before) still has many of its historical elements, but it's also missing a few big ones. At one point there were three different levels of seating. The first was a lower level of bleachers right down by the floor. I'm not sure if they originally were permanent or retractable, but today they're the more modern wooden retractable kind that go up just 4 rows (oddly one side has them all along the sideline while the other has only one tiny section in the middle). Above those on a short second level were 8 rows of beautiful blue permanent wooden bleachers which are still intact today and in great shape. The one level of seating that is gone today is the balcony that went around three different sides of the court. Judging by the distance between the middle level and the ceiling, that balcony must have been pretty tight and housed maybe 4-5 rows of seats at the most (Thank you to Kevin King, Kim Earl, and Jamie Philpott for proving some old yearbook photos that I've included here at the bottom that show the balcony)!
You can see where old windows have been blocked in over the years throughout different levels of the gym. The baseline wall opposite of the main entrance has a ton of them. This is one of the walls that would have had the balcony, and it would have sat almost right over the basket. The opposite baseline wall housed the other big feature that is now missing, a stage. You can kind of see where the brickwork changes and shows an outline of where it would have been. While I hate seeing something like that lost, they've done a nice job of utilizing that wall space. "Mitchell Bluejackets" is written across the middle of it in nice blue lettering. Two big blue vinyl banners hang underneath. One says "Welcome to Historic Emerson Gymnasium" and the other says "Hoosier Hysteria Lives Here!" You know I'm a sucker for stuff like that. In the corner of this wall is a similar banner recognizing the 1940 state runner up team and a big framed photograph of the team hangs next to it. It really takes you back. Old practice hoops with wooden backboards hang above the sidelines. The playing floor is all a nice light-gold color with a simple dark blue "M" in the middle.
A sign hangs on the wall saying that the current seating capacity is 916. It doesn't feel like two thirds of what it used to be is missing, but I guess a balcony, some lower level bleachers, and stricter fire marshals can make a pretty big dent it. When I walked in the gym I was all by myself to take pictures. While I always prefer to have someone to talk to and tell me about the history of a place, it is kind of nice when I'm on my own to take pictures. I don't feel rushed, and I don't feel weird when I just stand in one place and take it all in. I did that for a few moments here. I tried to picture what it would have been like 99 years ago when the first game was played. I tried to imagine what it must have felt like for those players on the 1940 team to come home from a semistate championship to celebrate in front of 3,000+ people that were all there to see them. It sends chills down my spine just thinking about it. They played a throwback game here 5-6 years ago, and I'm sure that was a cool experience for people who lived much of their lives in this gym either as a student, player, or fan. Hopefully that happens again at some point. As the signs accurately state: This is historic Emerson Gymnasium, and Hoosier Hysteria lives here! Even to this day.
