Morgantown (900?) Built 1953
June 4, 2026
June 4, 2026
In the early days of this blog, it was a pretty lonely venture. During the basketball season I went to games by myself after I put my two boys down for bed. It took until the end of my first summer writing that I got the idea to visit old gyms as well. Then I would write about a gym, post the blog, maybe 20-30 people would read it, and I'd move on to the next one. No one in my personal life really understood why I was doing what I was doing. While my wife and mother were kind enough to read every one and give me positive feedback, they didn't exactly share my same passions for old high school gyms. For awhile I honestly didn't think anybody did. People would share their memories about a particular gym that was close to their heart, which is always great, but that's about as far as it went. Eventually, things started to change. I started connecting with people who not only have fond memories of their own high school gym, but share a deep interest in the history of Hoosier Hysteria and the gyms all over the state that have made it so special for over a hundred years. I don't even want to try and list them all here because I know I'm going to leave someone out, but I cannot tell you how much more enriching it has made this whole gym journey experience for me. Whenever I walk away from a conversation with one of these people, I'm buzzing. I tell my wife that and she just smiles and shakes her head at me. It's like talking to someone who speaks your own language that very few do. Back in June I got to spend a whole day with one of these people. Cliff Pappe is someone I first encountered on the Indiana high school basketball Facebook page. He's on a very similar mission to me, to see as many current and old high school gyms as he can. He documents all his travels over on Instagram on the Hoops_hunter74 page (I would link to it directly but either it's not possible with Instagram or I'm not technologically savy enough to figure it out). After crossing paths briefly in a few different places, it was nice to be able to spend time with him and share stories and compare notes from all of our gym travels as we ventured south of Indianapolis to check out a few old gyms. After meeting in Whiteland, our next stop was right across the Morgan County line in Morgantown.
In 1967 Morgantown found itself in the same position most small town schools did in the 60s, facing consolidation. Their situation was a little more unique than others because the proposed consolidation was going to bring together schools from across county lines. This wasn't unheard of, but it certainly wasn't common. Morgantown, Trafalgar, and Ninevah (home to the school scenes shot in the movie Hoosiers), all came together to form Indian Creek. With that consolidation came the loss of a lot of fierce local rivalries. The Morgantown Trojans weren't exactly a basketball powerhouse, but they certainly had their moments. They played in the Bloomington sectional which was famously one of the most raucous anywhere in Indiana back when it was played at the original Bloomington High School gym (this is the sectional and gym that gave Bloomington native and Hoosiers screenwriter Angelo Pizzo much of his appreciation for Hoosier Hysteria). A small school like Morgantown was going to need everything to come together perfectly to climb that mountain, and it finally did in 1956 when they defeated the host school for the sectional crown and even made it to the regional championship game where they fell to the Black Cats of Terre Haute Gerstmeyer. It would be their only sectional title. After consolidation, Morgantown's gym continued to serve as an elementary facility for about 20 years, and then was attached to the current Baptist church after the original school building was torn down. The church still uses the gym today for a variety of functions and has kept it in nice shape.
The Morgantown gym matches one of a few different designs that are synonymous with the 50s. In this case, it's the cavernous variety with high ceilings that make it feel really large even though the seating capacity isn't (think Reelsville, Russellville, Cadiz, etc.). Unlike many of those similar gyms, Morgantown doesn't have a stage. Both baseline walls are pretty bare. One of them has had an exterior hallway built into it along with some storage space that wraps around the corner to the sidelines on both sides a bit. Other than where that storage space has been built out, all the original wooden bleachers are intact, and they're the focal point of the gym. The bleachers are the retractable variety that slide in at an angle instead of straight up and down vertically. I just love these every time I come across them. The ones here have been stained a very dark brown color and they're as weathered as can be, which is perfect for bleachers that are 70 years old. "Players" is painted on the bottom row to show where the teams would have sat. All the way around the gym are gargantuan old windows that were bricked in at some point to help save on HVAC costs. This is another feature of these cavernous 50s gyms. An old school Fair-Play scoreboard hangs up among the old windows. The court below is stained a light-gold color and is in great shape. The original baskets with fixed rims hanging from long stationary supports are still in place as well.
Cliff and I had to walk around the back of the church and gym to get a good picture of the gym by itself. It looks older on the outside, Mother Nature and Father Time have both done a number on it over the years, yet still it stands tall. It was a hot day and we were on a bit of a schedule so we didn't linger too long. Hopping back in my van (I lamented to Cliff that I had to trade in my trusty little high gas mileage car for a second van when we had our third kid) we started off down State Road 135 to our next stop. Instead of listening to every John Mellencamp album for the thousandth time on these trips, I got to have meaningful conversations with someone who appreciates them as much as I do. I knew it was going to be a good day.
