Northwestern (1,888) Built 1955
February 25, 2025: Oak Hill vs. Northwestern (Boys)
February 25, 2025: Oak Hill vs. Northwestern (Boys)
I didn't hear about seasonal depression until a few years ago. Maybe it's because I grew up always being pretty busy in the winter with basketball, or the fact that I always had a couple siblings around to keep things interesting, but I didn't really know that people got really down during the winter just because it was winter. I understand it more as an adult now, even though basketball season still helps the weeks move along and always gives me something to look forward to. For me it's really just because I hate the cold. If it never snowed a day outside of December 24th and 25th, I'd be a happy camper. The first really warm day at the end of February always hits me like a pack of smelling salts. It usually coincides with the tail-end of basketball season and the coming of sectionals. It's a bittersweet time and feeling. I am so ready for spring, but I'm never ready for the high school basketball season to end. This scenario played out precisely this week as I headed to Northwestern on a Tuesday night. It was bright out and sunny as I headed on my way to make it for the beginning of the JV game. I had the windows down, Mellencamp playing, and the weird feeling in my stomach that this time of year always brings.
Northwestern joins Northeastern and its neighbor Western as the worst high school names I've encountered so far on this Hoosier Gym Journey. If you're going to name your school after a direction, at least have the common courtesy to let the general public know what the direction is in reference to. For all I knew the gym could have been located northwest of Timbuktu before I plugged it into my GPS. Turns out it is located northwest of Kokomo in Howard County. According to one of the most detailed Wikipedia pages you will ever find for a high school (Wikipedia is an incredibly reliable source right?), the school was formed as a consolidation of Clay, Ervin, and Howard high schools in 1948. This was about two decades before everyone else got on the consolidation train in Indiana. The school wasn't named after Northwestern University, but it took on its colors and fight song. They didn't have a gym until this one was built in 1955. This also happened to be the year they won the Kokomo sectional. This was kind of a big deal. At the time it seemed more probable that man would colonize Mars than a small school would win the Kokomo sectional. What a way to open up your new gym! The gym has continued to serve Northwestern Tiger teams for 70 years. It definitely looks a little more modern than it probably did that first magical year, but there are a few elements that have stood the test of time.
It's probably an overused term when talking about old gyms, but I'm going to do it again here for the second blog in a row. This is a beautiful old barn of a gym. It's stuck in between eras a bit, but that gives it some charm. One way it is firmly rooted in the past is in what is always the defining characteristic of a gym for me: the bleachers. The seating situation along the home sideline consists of 14 rows of permanent wooden benches bolted into a concrete floor that rises up over the court. You know the gym is pretty long in the tooth when you see something like this instead of retractable bleachers. The benches are very weathered, but obviously that's part of that makes them great. I pray they never touch them. The seating goes wall to wall along the top, but on the very ends are little cut outs where there are entrances to the gym in the corners. The opposite sideline also has 14 rows of bleachers, but these are the more common retractable kind. They're also wooden and a little worn, but it continues to just add to the character. I also want to give them points here for keeping the bottom row of bleachers an appropriate distance from the out of bounds line. It's one of the few places where sitting in the front row is still actually a great seat! There is a little baseline seating section at the far end of the gym that utilizes about 8 rows of retractable wooden bleachers like the other sideline. The last remaining portion of seating is what really makes the gym unique. Along the baseline wall by the main entrance is a big cutout into the wall that holds 5 rows of purple and beige bleachers. On the wall inside this little alcove hang three huge team pictures of past state championship basketball teams which is a cool place to put them. The seating around this small gym is a big part of what makes it special.
The rest of the gym is a little more contemporary, but I want to touch on the one last aspect that makes it still have that air of being vintage. At the very top of each sideline wall are beautiful old rectangular windows. Most of them are frosted over in some fashion, but a few are clear and were letting in some pretty natural light since I got there early for the JV game. They look really cool. In between them on the cement walls are some modern and colorful square conference team displays. The baseline wall opposite of the main entrance has a newer looking painting of a tiger face that looks like it's about to pounce out of the wall with "Tiger Pride" overlaid on top of it and a big purple "N" in the middle of it all. A big purple strip follows the trajectory of this all the way around the gym. In this corner of the gym are also some tall jersey displays for past Indiana All-Stars. They're a little more elaborate than the ones you typically see, so some points for originality there. The baseline wall by the entrance has "Tigers" painted on it in big bold purple letters above the cutout. Hanging on the wall on either side of the cutout are state championship and runner up displays listed on a purple sign in the shape of Indiana. It's a smaller and more subtle way to recognize these teams than you normally see, but it sure beats the generic crap you find in the bigger Indy area gyms. In the corner of this wall are purple athletic accomplishment banners that are vinyl, boring, and have some of the smallest font I've ever seen in a gym. The playing floor is pretty basic other than the giant purple tiger stripe "N" at center court. You'll also see purple inside the foul lanes and around the perimeter of the court. "Northwestern" is written in black block letters along the baselines, and "Tigers" is actually written around the corners on two sides which I don't think I've seen anywhere before in this way.
Out in the lobby that you walk through to get into the gym is a great display of old Northwestern memorabilia and team photos. The school may have an awfully unoriginal name, but it has a mighty fine gym to play in, a good crowd to support it, and plenty of memorable history to draw from. Consolidating so early actually saved them from having just another typical 60s multipurpose gym. This place was teeming with life and energy just for a JV game. I didn't stay for the full varsity contest because I wanted to get my kid home for a decent bedtime on a weeknight, but I can only imagine that the environment is even better for a close varsity game between two rivals that comes down to the wire. Maybe I'll make it back for one of those here sometime. In the meantime, I'll remember my visit for way this gym connected me to the past, while reminding me of the world I live in today.
