Versailles (1,800) Built 1950
December 6, 2025: North Decatur vs. South Ripley (Boys)
December 6, 2025: North Decatur vs. South Ripley (Boys)
I've opined about throwback games on here to the point that anyone who regularly reads my blogs is probably sick of hearing about them. For me, they're the perfect combination of the old gyms I love and the incredible environment that even current Indiana high school basketball can bring. It's the closest thing I'm ever going to get to the magic of Hoosier Hysteria at its peak. They're still fairly rare, so when one is on the schedule, I do my best to drop everything and make the trip. Earlier this fall I was planning a gym hunting day down in southeast Indiana. The day was supposed to be centered around seeing Tyson Auditorium in Versailles and any other gyms around it that I could schedule. Right before I started reaching out to people, I saw that Tyson Auditorium was going to host its first varsity basketball game in almost two decades in December. I quickly changed my plans. If I have the option between seeing an old gym when it's empty vs when it's filled to the brim with fans, I'm going to choose the latter 7 days a week and twice on Sundays. I still made the trip down that day in October and saw five old gyms which I'll be writing about soon, but I knew nothing would compare to seeing Tyson in an environment that would make it come alive, and boy did it ever deliver.
Tyson Auditorium has an interesting history. It was one of the first postwar gyms built in the state that I am aware of. The only other one I know of that was built quicker after the end of WWII was Kokomo. It was funded by James Tyson who was a wealthy individual who grew up in Versailles and was a major benefactor to the town. His fingerprints are on other buildings in Versailles, including a gorgeous church just up the street from the gym that was lit up beautifully on this week leading up to Christmas. The exterior design of the gym sets it apart from anything else I've seen. The internet says it was built in an Art Deco style that I'm sure my interior designer wife would recognize and appreciate. To me it just looks fancy. It was home to the Versailles Lions from its inception until 1966 when they were consolidated into South Ripley along with Cross Plains and New Marion. It was in these early years of the gym when it also played host to the home games of the most famous high school basketball team of all-time, the 1953 and 1954 Milan Indians. Milan was drawing crowds way bigger than what their own tiny gym could hold, so the majority of their home games were played in Versailles. While the gym may be best known for playing host to the team that inspired Hoosiers, the Versailles Lions had a good amount of success themselves while playing in the gym. They captured 4 sectional titles while playing here, 3 of them with Tyson Auditorium as the host site. After consolidation, the gym became home to the South Ripley Raiders for 4 decades. They also had some good times in the gym, winning 6 sectional championships and 2 regional titles. In 2008, the powers that be finally made the decision to start playing games at a new gym that was attached to the high school. While it became much more convenient, all the charm and history of Versailles and South Ripley basketball was zapped in an instance. Maybe that's too harsh. I haven't been to the current gym in person yet, but the pictures I've seen don't exactly inspire confidence. Without a team to call its own, the gym sat empty for awhile. About a decade ago, a community group stepped in to save not just the gym, but the adjoined school. The school was turned into apartments, and the gym was turned into a community center of sorts called the Tyson Activity Center. Now it is used almost daily and continues to serve the community in a variety of capacities. After my experience a few weeks ago, I hope one of those ways is more throwback games going forward.
The one thing that throwback games are known for is turning the nostalgia levels up to 100. Just filling an old gym full of people is enough to do it, but lots of times the host school will pull out all the stops. While they didn't use throwback jerseys like some schools do, South Ripley did everything else, and hit all the right notes. They brought out every living former South Ripley coach and recognized them along with their accomplishments. They also recognized every former South Ripley player in attendance by having them stand according to the decade they played in. This included one lone survivor that played in the 1950s at Cross Plains. Then they had every former student who was connected to the basketball program in one way or another stand for an ovation. It was emotional, it was moving, and it was everything Indiana high school basketball is supposed to be. I'll have another blog coming soon about the attacks that are being waged on small town schools in our state right now with my full thoughts on the matter, but this moment just personified why community matters and why the schools are still the lifeblood of so many small towns. I found myself getting sentimental, and I don't even have any personal affiliation with South Ripley. It was just a really cool moment.
Amidst all the chaos of a packed gym and the emotion that hung in the air, I was actually able to take in my surroundings a little bit and check out the gym itself. As always, it was hard to get good pictures in a packed gym, but that's a good problem to have. The gym is set up in a classic horseshoe pattern with seating on three sides and in two corners, with a stage along one baseline end. I expected it to be a little bigger. 1,800 feels small for a gym with this setup. There are 10-11 rows of permanent wooden bleachers all the way around the gym. The sides are painted South Ripley green with classic unpainted bench seats on top. The two main entrances to the gym are in the corners opposite of the stage with bleachers continuing above the tunnels from which you enter the gym. The wall above the bleachers is painted that same shade of dark green with big square windows lining the upper most parts of the wall which mercifully have never been blocked in. The windows in the corners of the gym are the frosty kind that are made up of rows of little square blocks. Maybe this is a continuation of the Art Deco style? I'll ask my wife and get back to you. Painted up on the walls are also great little insignias indicating who each seating section is for. It sure beats the standard letters that are typically used in most gyms. A couple posters hang on the wall here recognizing some of the great coaches of Versailles and South Ripley's past. There are also some really pretty Ohio River Valley Conference team displays that were actually painted on the wall itself and thankfully left intact.
Looking over to the wall with the stage, I wouldn't change a single thing. The stage is wide and trimmed with a curtain and ribboning that features the same hunter green used everywhere else in the gym. There are two murals painted inside green circles on either side of the stage. One features the regal Raider mascot, and the other says "Go Big Green" in emphatic lettering. The stage housed the concession stand for this game, though I was told it used to reside under one set of the bleachers. They were also selling shirts commemorating the historic night which of course I had to purchase. The court here doesn't seem to be that different from when it last hosted regular South Ripley games. It's stained a classic light gold color with green inside the foul lanes and an off white inside the top of the key area. James Tyson's signature is scripted right inside each sideline as the court is named after him. "TAC" for Tyson Athletic Center is featured at center court. I particularly liked the scorer's table (though I couldn't get a good picture of it) which is painted green and simply says "Tyson Auditorium, The Home of the Raiders" in a really tasteful display.
I'm sure there are other little odds and ends to the gym that stuck out to me that I'm forgetting, but I hope I hit most of the highlights here. There was a lot to take in, and I had my five year old with me who did pretty good for sitting through 2 hours of basketball in cramped quarters without his normal partner in crime to play with. One of the other highlights of the night was finally getting to meet Mr. Richard Tekulve. He's someone I first came into contact with around a year ago when I found some comments he had left on a vintage aerial photo site regarding a picture of an old high school gym that had been long lost to history. In the comments he mentioned that he had been to hundreds of old high school gyms over the years and had been documenting his travels. I remember thinking, there's someone who's as crazy about this stuff as I am! I tracked him down on Facebook, and he has been an invaluable resource over the last year in helping me research these old gyms and just reminiscing about his firsthand experiences in them. Getting to talk to him in person over the course of the JV and varsity games was a real joy. I also saw another Facebook friend in the crowd, Cliff Pappe, who is also on his own journey to see all the current and former gyms that he can find. It's just another example of the community I've found through doing all of this. Finding like-minded people to share in this odd hobby makes it all the more special. Throwback games in venues like this bring the magic to life for all of us, and push me to go keep going.
