Oil Township (150?) Built 1948
July 7, 2025
July 7, 2025
Researching old gyms in the off-season has become a labor of love for me. Using John Harrell's infallible website, I did my best to investigate every old school that at one point fell victim to consolidation to see if they have an old gym that is still standing. It took me a few months, but I finally finished. Then I moved on to every current high school to see which ones have old gyms that are still hanging on. I sifted through over 1,100 school histories in total. There was only one small subsection of schools that for the most part I either skimmed over briefly or skipped altogether: township schools. Schools that were simply named after the township in which they existed. Historical information on these schools is simply much harder to come by. I think it's because they were not tied to a specific town. Without people in a town passing down or documenting that history, it often just gets lost to the sands of time. Once I realized how hard it was, I honestly just passed over them when conducting my research. Lazy? Maybe, but I was so excited every time I unearthed another gym that I didn't want to put a lot of time and effort into something that initially was proving to be very fruitless. Recently though, my friend Ted Shideler of the magnificent Hiding in Plain Sight blog started sending me old schools and gyms that he was tracking down. So many of them were township schools! I was very thankful to him, but also a little annoyed with myself for not being able to find them on my own. He is an expert at scouring Google Maps and spying structures that match the features of old gyms from a bird's-eye view. It's honestly something I used to pride myself on, he's just way better at it. This has reinvigorated my pursuit of finding any old township school gyms that may still be standing, and I'm in the middle of that research right now. Ironically, the first old township school gym that I have been able to visit and review wasn't found through any research at all, it was sent to me completely out of the blue by a college friend of my wife, and at first I didn't even think it was a township school gym at all.
Perry County has been an interesting area to research throughout this whole process. They don't have many old gyms still standing, but what they do have all seem to have interesting stories. I've already recounted my deep disappointment regarding the old Derby gym that wasn't. Cannelton has been a bucket list gym for a long time that I finally visited and will be writing about soon. Tell City's gym is one of the brightest stars we have in the deepest part of southern Indiana, and I cannot wait to get down there for a game. One town and gym that was not on my radar, even after doing my research, was Leopold. I saw that the high school there closed in 1938, and I didn't really dig that deep. Information on high schools that closed before 1940 is harder to finder to find than even info on township school gyms. So when my wife got a text from her friend that grew up in St. Croix that said there was an old gym down in Leopold, I was very intrigued. I quickly learned that it was owned by the local Catholic church in town. That was a little odd, but not entirely unheard of. When I finally got my trip to Cannelton planned, I knew I had to stop by and check it out. I made it down on a blazing hot July afternoon and was greeted by Scott Hubert and his father Sam. They were both kind enough to take the time to show me around and answer all my questions, and I had a lot! Sam actually played some of his high school ball in this gym. I was initially confused because I knew he was definitely not around in the 1930s, but then he told me that he didn't play for Leopold High School. He played for Oil Township High School. This solved the mystery! When Leopold High School folded in 1938, they were absorbed into Oil Township which was located just up the road on old State Road 37. Oil Township didn't have a gym of their own on site, so they practiced and played at this gym which was built and owned by the Catholic church in the late 40s. While they played their games here for a while, in the later years (the school was consolidated into Perry Central in 1962) they played most of their home games in other gyms nearby because this one was so small (easily the smallest I've ever visited). What it lacks in size, it makes up for in character. While not many fans could squeeze in to watch their Oilers play, those who did were treated to an environment that was as intimate as they come.
I'm going to refer to the gym here as Oil Township's, while acknowledging that St. Augustine Catholic Church has always owned and maintained the gym, even to this day where they use it for various church and community functions. The gym feels long and narrow when you walk inside, and that's because it is. I've seen a couple gyms that are about the same size in length, but I've never been in one this skinny. There is probably 10-12 feet from the free throw lines to the sidelines. There is only about 4 more feet from the sideline to the walls on both sides. There are no bleachers to speak of. During games there were just benches along the walls for players and a few fans. Anyone else in attendance would have to be up on the stage. The walls are pretty bare and the cinder blocks are painted a slightly off-white. Looking up, you'll see a roof that is slightly arched with exposed curved beams, a lot like what you will see at Bryant, only on a much smaller scale. One sideline wall is unadorned except for a set of double doors that exit the gym. The other sideline wall features a large square opening that once housed a small stage. The stage area has since been converted into a kitchen that is used when the gym holds events. Above what would have been the stage hangs a large cross between a row of small upper windows that let in some natural light. Off to the right sits a large metal door that certainly looks to be original to the gym. The baskets feature old-school fixed rims and wooden backboards. You can still go downstairs to see the original locker rooms as well. The gym floor is stained a really nice dark-gold color that gleamed against the low light coming through the windows.
One of the things that makes researching old township school gyms so difficult is that not only is there little information about them, but so many of their names are the same. For example, there were once SIX Union Township high schools across the state in various counties. The ole' Google machine gets very confused very quickly in instances like this. Thankfully, there was only one Oil Township. Even so, I don't know beyond what the Hubert's shared with me about the gym. I know Oil Township got its name from Oil Creek that runs right through it. I know the old Oil Township high school building actually was home to Perry Central for a few years right when it started before the current high school was built. That's about it. I wish I knew a lot more. Most Indiana high school basketball fans don't even know this gym exists. I hope this blog reaches many of them, so that Oil Township and it's proud basketball home begin to get the recognition they deserve. It may not the be the biggest or flashiest gym, but it has a unique history that is worth honoring.
