Muncie Central (6,578) Built 1928
March 7, 2025: Anderson vs. Mount Vernon (Fortville) (Boys)
March 7, 2025: Anderson vs. Mount Vernon (Fortville) (Boys)
Bias can be an ugly thing. The reality of the world we live in is that everybody deals with it in one way or another. We're all biased in some way whether we want to admit it or not. Obviously some biases are way more malicious than others. Some are evil, while others are silly and trivial, but they still all affect the way we see and interact with the world around us. I like to think I'm a fairly self-aware person. Most of the biases I've had in my life I've tried to break down and deal with over the years, but occasionally blind spots pop up. One bias that would fall into the trivial category, but is something I didn't really think about until this last weekend, is my feelings towards Muncie Central and their gym. I didn't grow up immersed in the Muncie/Anderson rivalry. I'm not going to pretend that it's a deep-rooted part of who I am like it is for so many people who were born and raised in these communities. I do know what growing up with an intense Indiana high school basketball rivalry feels like though, mine was just the northeast Indiana version (Lakeland and Fairfield still make my insides turn).
I moved to Anderson and started teaching there almost a decade ago now. Since then I've learned as much about the local history and culture as I've been able to, and I've sort of adopted a lot of it as my own. I've become as much of an Indian as you can without having actually been born here. When I started this blog, I had already been to the Muncie Fieldhouse a couple of times. It's obviously a marvel in so many ways. Even the biggest hater can't deny that. I tried to find ways to nitpick it though. I didn't want to admit it was as amazing as everyone made it out to be. Maybe it's because Muncie managed to save their cathedral of hoops when Anderson couldn't save theirs. Maybe it's because Muncie has managed to seal the deal in the postseason so many times while Anderson has made it all the way to precipice only to fall short so many times. I'm not sure. There are so many parallels between the two towns and schools that I just haven't wanted to give Muncie its full credit even when it is deserved. Sectional week brought me back to the Fieldhouse this year for the first time since I started the blog. My eyes were fully opened to this bias, and I have been forced to reckon with it. The Muncie Fieldhouse is every single thing I look for when traveling across the state in search of the best gyms. The history, the architecture, the aesthetic. It is all there, I just haven't wanted to see it. Shame on me.
393. That's not only the number of times I've agonized over where exactly to seed Muncie in the top 5 of my gym rankings, but also the number of postseason wins the Muncie basketball program has accrued over the course of its existent. No one has more. Kokomo is hot on their heels at 391, but the Bearcats can still claim they are number one all-time in the best basketball state in the union. They can also claim the crown for most state titles ever at 8 (Marion is technically tied with them, but one of theirs came in the class era so it comes with a bit of an asterisk). They've won their sectional basically every other year since 1917. Bill Harrell, whom the court is named after, is one of the best and influential coaches our state has ever seen. A list of their best players ever would read like a phonebook (look it up kids), but here are a few who have stuck out the most to me in my history reading: Ron Bonham, Chandler Thompson, Ray McCallum, and NBA Live 2003 legend Bonzi Wells. I could list plenty of other ridiculous stats and historical moments that convey the dominance that this program has achieved over the last century, but I think there's one crucial point I want to make that sums it up best. Muncie Central has been the single most imposing and intimidating program in the history of our sport. In every single history book you read, or person you talk to who was around Indiana high school basketball from 1950-2000, that much is clear. The aura around this program is just different, and that extends to their gym.
The design of the Muncie Fieldhouse is something you really only saw in gyms built in the 1920s. A bowl concept isn't unique, but one that goes up instead of down like a sunken gym is. Rushville was also built in this era and is the most comparable in my opinion, though much smaller. The old Martinsville gym that still stands but is unrecognizable on the interior from its early days, along with the old Anderson gym that disappeared ages ago are other gyms that remind me of the Muncie Fieldhouse, but nothing is quite like it in terms of size and grandeur. There are two sections of lower sideline seating here. Each have 8 rows of retractable wooden bleachers. There is a good amount of space between the out of bounds lines and the short walls where you enter the gym along the baselines which makes me wonder if there used to be a little bit of baseline seating down here at the floor level as well. It's hard to tell. The main baskets that sit here are the NBA rollaway kind. There are interior stairs in all four corners of the lower level that lead to the upper bowl. The floor design is very simple yet incredibly effective. Most of it is stained a light-gold color, with an only slightly darker shade inside the three-point wing areas. The slightly unnerving purple Bearcat logo sits prominently at center court. "Muncie Central" is written in purple across one baseline and "Bearcats" across the other. "Bill Harrell Court" is written in flowing script right inside the sidelines.
I took my 4 year old son with me to the sectional game, and he likes to be further away from other people so he can dance to the pep band and drive his trucks in peace, so we sat high up in one of the far corners of the gym. I've never minded sitting up high in gyms, and this vantage point in the Munice gym is honestly a splendid one. It gives you a great view of not only the game, but everything else that makes the gym so special, and many of those features are in the upper sections. The upper level bowl consists of about 20 rows (it varies slightly depending if you're along the sidelines, baselines, or in the corners) of permanent wooden bleachers. They're all painted grey while the stairs are all painted purple. They're gorgeous. At the very top of these bleachers, you'll find some elaborate semicircle windows that have long since been filled in, but still look really cool. I can only imagine the added effect they must have had back in the day. Up here along one sideline you'll find maybe my favorite old-timey pressbox in the entire state. It instantly transports you back to the 50s when dozes of radio stations and newspapers would come to cover big games here. Each corner works its way up to a small platform. I'm guessing they were used for additional standing room only sections back when this place was packed to the gills. Along with the interior stairs, there are 8 exterior ramps that lead up into the upper level of the gym. They open up like purple mouths into the gym and are labeled with big white numbers. They create some interesting little seating sections between them along the baseline sections. Looking even further upwards above the court you'll find the menacing purple state championship banners over one baseline (they were kind enough to include the since consolidated Muncie Southside's 2001 state championship banner, but it looks a little out of place hanging out on the end). Hanging over center court is what has to be one of the oldest jumbotrons in Indiana. I love it.
After Anderson suffered their yearly soul-crushing sectional loss, I made my way through the cramped hallways in the bowels of the gym to visit the Muncie Central heritage room that they created in a big corner inside the gym. I'd heard of its existence before, but never took the time to actually stop in. I'm glad I did. Lots of schools do a good job of displaying pieces of their history and traditions out in the halls around their gyms, but nobody has more history to display than Muncie, and I haven't seen anyone do it better (out of the active schools at least. Owensville's shuttered gym is the one place that could rival it). There is a huge room dedicated to displaying old photos, trophies, letter jackets, jerseys, yearbooks, and even the old banners that used to hang in the Fieldhouse. If I didn't have a tired 4 year old with me I could have spent an hour in there. Hats off to them. Add it to the list of things they've managed to do that I wish Anderson could.
As I walked out to my car, I stopped and turned around to take in the exterior of the gym one more time before I left. It's a beautiful brick structure with some ornate features around the top of it. It's hard to believe many thought its days were numbered in 2017 when a tornado came in and did considerable damage. Thankfully the school board and community valued it enough to make the extensive repairs and save it. We've lost many great gyms to natural disasters and the hands of time over the last 30-40 years, but this would be the most monumental loss of them all. The Muncie Fieldhouse is a shining beacon for everything that is Indiana high school basketball. It is the embodiment of Hoosier Hysteria. I can see that now, as I think I always have deep down, even if I haven't always wanted to admit it. Growth is understanding when you've been wrong and fixing it. Everyone is going to have their opinion on which Hoosier temple of basketball deserves the very top spot. At the end of the day those conversations come down to personal preference, and again, bias. What cannot be debated is that you cannot have that conversation without including Muncie Central in it.
