Waveland (500?) Built 1937
April 24, 2025
April 24, 2025
The first gym I ever reviewed on this blog was fittingly the Hoosier Gym in Knightstown. It's the crown jewel of Hoosier Hysteria due to what it represents and the movie that told the story of Indiana's love affair with basketball so well. I rewatched Hoosiers again recently as I am wont to do every couple of months. This time it was specifically because I had just found the book The Making of Hoosiers by Gale Johnson. It provides incredible insight into how every aspect of the movie came to be, and how it really was a miracle that it all came together in the way that it did. I've always liked Hoosiers. It was heavily in the Sunday movie night rotation in my house growing up along with Remember the Titans, Facing the Giants, and Radio. I've gained a much deeper appreciation for what it signifies the more that I've read about the golden era of Indiana high school basketball and talked to people who lived it. One fun fact about the movie that I first read about in Kyle Neddenriep's Historic Hoosier Gyms and then again in The Making of Hoosiers, is that as iconic as the Hoosier Gym in Knightstown is, it almost faded into obscurity and destruction. The Knightstown gym wasn't the first choice to be the home gym of the Hickory Huskers. That honor was originally going to be bestowed upon the classic gym in Waveland. The timing wasn't meant to be, as the old Waveland high school was slated to be demolished and a modern elementary built around the old gym. After looking further, the writer and director of the movie settled upon Knightstown. Without that decision being made, there's a very good chance a parking lot or grassy lawn would now stand where the Knightstown gym is. Instead I consider it to be one of the triple crown of monuments to Hoosier Hysteria along with the Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame and the Milan 54 Museum. Luckily, even though Waveland wasn't chosen to be the Hoosier Gym, it has avoided the grim fate many other fading gyms do. It's not only surviving, but thriving in one of the most unique ways I've seen.
In my last blog about the old gym in Russellville (which is just a few miles away from Waveland), I talked about all the typical ways old gyms have managed to live on and serve the community after their days of holding high school basketball games are over. Waveland initially followed one of these conventional paths when it was turned into an elementary school after the high school was shuttered and consolidated into Southmont in 1971. It served this purpose until 2014. Eventually it was purchased by Charles Alsip who had a vision to not only preserve the historic gym, but utilize the entire school space. He and his family created Schoolhouse Venues and Storage which includes storage facilities, an event venue, a recording studio, office space, and even an Airbnb in the school. It's an incredibly innovative and efficient use of the entire building. While there have been many renovations, the gym itself has been relatively untouched. When you step inside, it's easy to imagine what it must have been like to watch the Waveland Hornets from 1937 when it was built to 1971. The Hornets captured five sectional titles in the building, including the 1951 season when they went undefeated all the way up to the regional finals where they lost to Covington by a single point. That's a pretty solid track record for a country school in a town of 500 people. The gym was a more than worthy home for those great teams.
Walking into the gym, it's no wonder why the writer Angelo Pizzo and the director David Anspaugh wanted to make it the centerpiece of Hoosiers. It's as quaint as they come, though you can tell it was spruced up a bit in the ways most old elementary gyms are. It has the typical 1930s setup of permanent bleachers along the sidelines, the main entrance on one baseline end, and a stage on the other. The one main question I have is about the little storage room type areas that have been built out into all four corners of the gym. I don't know for sure, but I just cannot imagine they are original to the gym. They reduce the sideline seating by quite a bit and I've never seen anything like them in a gym from this era. I'm assuming they were added after the mid-80s when the new elementary school was built. I don't think the gym would have been considered for Hoosiers with them in place as Pizzo and Anspaugh were so hyperfocused on ensuring every single detail in the movie was accurate for the time in history it was portraying. While they are odd, they thankfully do not detract too much from the historical ambience of the gym. The permanent bleachers that sit between the storage rooms go up five rows on each side. The bench seats are painted red and everything else is a muddy brown color. Huge rectangular windows used to sit above them that have long since been blocked in. They are massive and would have let in a ton of natural light back in the day. The original scorer's table is also present with a cool design across the front that says "The Hornets Nest." You don't see too many decorative fronts for scorer's tables so it definitely stands out in a good way.
The baseline wall where you enter the gym is fairly bare except for a 90s era scoreboard and some simple red padding running across the bottom with the Waveland Hornets mascot and lettering. There is also some Schoolhouse Venues and Storage signage and banners which you can find in various places around the gym. The opposing side that features the stage is positively exquisite. The stage is framed by what look like giant pieces of crown molding on three sides that are painted the same white as the rest of the walls. The bottom is a natural wood color that is partially covered by the same red mat you see along the other baseline wall. A heavy burgundy curtain hangs from above that matches the same dark red color used throughout the rest of the gym. A white "W" is stitched into the upper curtain ribboning. My favorite feature of the whole gym is the wooden "1937" that is set in place at the very top of the stage. It feels like the emotional anchor to the whole place. It's hard to say when the hardwood floor was last redone, but it looks to be in great shape. The whole thing is stained a classic gold color. A menacing hornet mascot wearing a red sweater sits at center court. "Waveland" is written in red block letters along each sideline, which isn't something you typically find in older gyms. Another oddity in the gym is how much space there is between the sidelines and the first row of bleachers. In old gyms they are typically mere inches apart. Seven to eight feet separate them here.
The Waveland gym was one of the first ones that came to mind when I considered adding old gyms to this project last summer. The name "Waveland" alone stuck out to me for whatever reason. It's a gym with a unique history that goes beyond just the fantastic basketball that was played there for four decades. While it may be tied in a strange way to the cultural touchstone that is Hoosiers, its legacy stands on its own. This is a place that has served its community in a wide variety of ways for almost 90 years. What the creative people at Schoolhouse Venues have turned it into is just the next iteration of this. They were incredibly gracious hosts as they showed me around to see all the ways they've ensured the building is stewarded well for years to come. There are original blueprints of the school framed and hung on the walls outside the gym along with other signage that pays tribute to Waveland both past and present. It appears the legacy of the gym is in good hands, and that's always the best feeling I can have when I drive away from one of these treasures.
