Wingate basketball 1952-53

Wingate Basketball 1947-48

Wingate basketball 1935-36

Wingate basketball 1930-31

Wingate basketball team late teens or early twenties.

Wingate High School, Wingate town sign and Wingate gym. The Wingate gym was built in 1917 as a stable. It was converted to a basketball court in 1925.

Roy MeHarry is shown with the his invention.

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The sign proclaims " Welcome  to Wingate State Basketball. Champs 1913, 1914. National Champs 1920.  3 Hall of Fame members and 2 Football Hall of Famers.  First electric scoreboard in the nation.  Made by two local men.Mechanical part by Lee Haxson.  Electrical part by Roy MeHarry.

Lon Goldsberry was another of the Wingate greats of the early years.

Lon Goldsberry

            Lon Goldsberry was another in the line of outstanding student-athletes from Wingate in the early days of basketball.  He graduated from Wingate in 1916 as a four year letterman in basketball and baseball.   He was the captain of the 1920 team that won the National Interscholastic Basketball Championship and was named a High School All-American.    After graduating from Wingate, he went on to Wabash College where he quarterbacked the football team for four years even though he did not have the opportunity to play football in high school.  He was captain of the Wabash College National Champions in 1924 and a member of the Wabash 4^th Wonder Five.  He also played baseball at Wabash and helped the team win the Midwest League Championship in 1922.  After graduating from Wabash, he coached at Shortridge for a while before returning to Wabash as an assistant football coach and head baseball coach.   Lon Goldsberry was inducted into the Indiana High School Basketball Hall of Fame in 1972.  He is also a member of the Wabash College Athletic Hall of Fame and the Montgomery County Basketball Hall of Fame.

Goldsberry HOF text

Alonzo E. Goldsberry

“Goldie” a High School All American

High School—Wingate High School 1920

College—Wabash College 1924

Coached at Shortridge, Wabash College, and South Bend Adams…Captained 1920 All-Star American Championship team in an interscholastic tournament…high school All-American…also captain of Wabash College team the won national championship… in ’24 his Wabash team won state championship…also starred in baseball in both high school and college…helped Wabash win the Midwest Baseball League championship…quarterbacked Wabash’s football team 4 years…officiated basketball and football for about 10 years after graduation…moved into coaching, first at Shortridge...assistant football and head baseball coach at Wabash.

Goldsberry HOF text

Alonzo E. Goldsberry

“Goldie” a High School All American

High School—Wingate High School 1920

College—Wabash College 1924

Coached at Shortridge, Wabash College, and South Bend Adams…Captained 1920 All-Star American Championship team in an interscholastic tournament…high school All-American…also captain of Wabash College team the won national championship… in ’24 his Wabash team won state championship…also starred in baseball in both high school and college…helped Wabash win the Midwest Baseball League championship…quarterbacked Wabash’s football team 4 years…officiated basketball and football for about 10 years after graduation…moved into coaching, first at Shortridge...assistant football and head baseball coach at Wabash.

Pictured at the right are the members of the 1917-18 Wingate basketball team that won the Sectional.  Front row, L-R are H. Irwin, H. Crane,  R. Carney, Lon Goldsberry, andH. Bell.  Back row, L-R are C. Crane, H. Kimbell, Coach John Blacker, and Marion Blacker.

 The top picture is a picture of the 1917-18 basketball team.  Lon Goldsberry is top right next to Coach John Blacker.  The bottom picture is a picture of the 1920 National Interscholastic Championship team.  Goldsberry is in the middle of the picture behind the player holding the ball.  John Blacker moved on to Crawfordsville and tried to recruit Goldsberry to play for Crawfordsville.  The player standing at the far left is Marion "Bake" Blacker (no relation to the coach).  He went along to Crawfordsville and lost his last year of eligibility as the IHSAA suspended both Crawfordsville and Wingate from the Association.  Goldsberry almost got swept up in the scandal.

After graduating from Wingate, Lon Goldsberry moved on to Wabash where he had an outstanding athletic career.  He was a four year letterman and member of the 1921-22 National Championship team labeled the 3rd Wonder Five.

Pete Thorn--One of Homer Stonebraker's teammates on the 1914 State Championship team was Lee Norman "Pete" Thorn who later who played on the 1921-22 National Championship team before enrolling at Wabash Collegwe where he became the only Wabash athlete to win an incredible 16 letters.

Raymond Robert "Gaumy" Neal was another outstanding Wingate athlete in the middle teens.

An artist's portrait of Gaumy Neal in a DePauw jacket hanging in the DePauw fieldhouse

This is a picture of the 1915 Wingate High School baseball team.  Pete Thorn is the first player on the left and Gaumy Neal is the second player on the left.  The basketball picture below is the 1915-16 team.  Pete Thorn is seated in the middle with the ball between his feet and Gaumy Neal is standing second from right.

Gaumy Neal

            Born Raymond Robert Neal in Mellott, IN, Gaumy graduated from Wingate High School in 1916.  He was an outstanding athlete and graduated in the same class with Pete Thorn.  After graduation, he and Pete went to Wabash College where Gaumy starred on the football team even though he had not had the opportunity to play in HS.  He was a four year letterman and captained the football team in his last year, 1919.  He transferred to Washington and Jefferson after his last year of football and played on the W and J team that went to the Rose Bowl and played the University of California in 1922.  There was no explanation of the fact that he played four years of football at Wabash then a year at Washington and Jefferson.  At any rate, he returned to Wabash and graduated in 1920 after lettering in basketball in 1918, 1919, and 1920.   He played professional football with the Akron Pros in 1922 and the Hammond Pros in 1924, 1925, and 1926.  He became head football coach at DePauw University in 1930 and coached until 1945 and had a career record of 79 wins, 34 losses and 7 ties. He coached a DePauw football team in 1933 that was undefeated, untied and unscored on.  The Tigers outscored their opponents 136-0 that year.

           

Gaumy Neal was inducted into the Indiana Football Hall of Fame in 1977, the Wabash College Hall of Fame in 1984, the DePauw University Hall of Fame in 1986, and the Washington and Jefferson Hall of Fame in 2002.  When Chet Elson, a four year starter in football at DPU and a member of the 1933 undefeated team was inducted into the DePauw Hall of Fame, he paid Robert Raymond Neal the ultimate compliment.  He said, “Gaumy Neal fed me when I was hungry, housed me when I had no place to live, and helped me when I had no money.”  Elson who came to DePauw with $7 in his pocket considered Neal a principal influence in his life.

                         Coach Neal is shown below diagramming a play for his DePauw football team.

Shelter house at the south edge of Wingate dedicated to the memory of Raymond Robert "Gaumy" Neal.

Wingate High School Building dedicated in 1907. Horse drawn school hacks brought students to school. Another view of the first school building.

Wingate High School 1950

First School building at Wingate

Wingate High School in the horse and buggy days

Homer Stonebraker led Wingate High School to its first State Championship in 1913. The first team pictured is the 1911-12 team, Homer Stonebraker's sophomore year. The 1913 title game was a five overtime game won by Wingate over South Bend Central 15-14. Forest Crane made the winning basket and finished with 6 points. Homer had 9 points.

Homer Stonebraker was the tallest player on the 1911-12 team

 

Jesse Wood was the coach of the 1913 State Championship team.  He is standing on the far left.  Homer Stonebraker is kneeling in the middle and John Blacker is on his left.

Another picture of the Championship 1913 team

Jesse Wood HOF text

Jesse Wood

Coached Wingate to 19013 State Championship

High School—Bedford

College—Indiana State 1910; Purdue 1917

A baseball and football player at Bedford, which he “left” in 1906…played basketball and football at Indiana State Normal in 1910…left that school to coach tiny Wingate High School in 1912 and ’13…in that second year, Wingate posted a 21-4 record despite playing without a gymnasium…won state championship 15-14, in a 5-overtime game in which the referee had ruled that the first team to score 2 points would be the winner,,,coached Rockville to 18-6 record a year later, before returning to school. 

John Blacker was the pitcher and captain of the baseball team and guard on the basketball team.

Indiana University Assembly Hall--Site of the Early State Championship games

Wingate won their second State Championship in a row in 1914. Homer Stonebraker and Jesse Graves were selected to the Indiana All-Student team.

Homer Stonebraker and the two-time State Champs, Wingate High School.

            Wingate High School watched Crawfordsville win the first IHSAA State Tournament in 1911, followed by Lebanon in 1912, and then dominated the basketball world in the state of Indiana for the next two years.  Wingate was led by 6’3” Homer Stonebraker who took his snow shovel and cleared the path to New Richmond, six miles away, so that he and his teammates could practice in a real gymnasium one day a week. The boys traveled by horse and buggy, in Model T’s, or simply went by foot in those two eventful two years.

            According to A.H. “Tuck” Williams writing in his book The Big Bang of Basketball, “…there was a grade school farm boy who put up a small ring on his woodshed in his barnyard near Wingate.  Homer Stonebraker’s hoop was about half the size of a regulation goal.  He used a rubber ball about the size of a tennis ball to practice shooting.  His relentless practice prepared him for a high school, college and professional basketball career that put him in the same class as the all-time basketball greats from Indiana.  During his junior year at Wingate, 1913, Stonebraker led Wingate to a 22-3 record that season when he had a single game in which he scored 80 points in a 108-8 thrashing of Hillsboro.  Wingate had an enrollment of about 60 pupils and their Indiana State Championship against much larger city schools created tremendous interest, enthusiasm, and participation in the sport throughout the Hoosier state.” 

The state finals that year was played at Indiana University in the Old Assembly Hall.  Wingate defeated South Bend in an overtime game 15-14 as Forest Crane hit the winning field goal before a packed house of 2500 fans.  Jess Wood was the coach of the Wingate team.  Wingate had to play five games in one day to win the championship.  The members of the championship team were Leland Olin, Forest Crane, Homer Stonebraker, Jesse Graves, John Blacker, McKinley Murdock, and Lee Sinclair.

            Wingate followed up its initial championship season with the first repeat championship in the now basketball-crazy state of Indiana.  Wingate’s enrollment had dropped to 48, but they still had Homer Stonebraker and four other returning players in Leland Olin, Lee Sinclair, Jesse Graves and John Blacker.  In order to win the tournament, Wingate had to play 2 games on Friday and a grueling 4 games on Saturday. Stonebraker scored the first 20 points for his team in the championship game as they defeated Anderson 36-8.

One of Homer's teammates on the 1914 State championship team was Lee Norman "Pete" Thorn who followed Homer to Wabash where he became the only athlete to win an incredible 16 letters. He was also a member of the 1921-22 National Championship team and a member of the 3rd Wonder Five.

Above is a picture of the 1914-15 Wingate basketball team.  Pete Thorn is seated in the middle holding the ball.

In addition to winning 16 letters at Wabash, Pete Thorn played on a State Championship baseball team and placed first in the shot put at the Big State and Little State Track meet in 1924.  Even though Wingate did not play football when Thorn was in high school, he was an outstanding football player at Wabash and was inducted into the Indiana State Football Hall of Fame in 1976.  Pete Thorn was the first IHSAA certified official in football, basketball, baseball, and track and officiated in those sports in high school, college and at the semi-pro level for 40 years.  He also coached all four of those sports at Warsaw in 1924-26.  He was a coach, teacher, and guidance counselor at Warsaw High School for 40 years and started the Boy’s and Girl’s Club which still bears his name.  A scholarship honoring Warsaw students is given in his name every year.  He was inducted into the Indiana State Basketball Hall of Fame in 1978.

Pete Thorn is shown 6th from the left.

Pete Thorn HOF text

Lee “Pete” Thorn

Wabash College’s 16-letter winner

High School—Wingate 1916

College—Wabash 1924

A member of Wingate’s state championship team in 1914…earned 9 letters in three sports there graduating in ’16…took his all-sports talents to Wabash College, where he earned 16 letters in 4 years…the school’s only freshman to ever win 4 varsity letters…member of state baseball champions…won shot put title in both Big State and Little State meets…as a senior in ’24, played with the national Lambda Chi Alpha basketball team…starting guard for Wabash’s national championship team of ’22…played semi-pro basketball..an active official for many years, and the state’s first certified official in basketball, football, baseball and track…founder and 39-year director of Baker Boy’s Club at Warsaw…coach, teacher, and guidance counselor in Warsaw school system for 40 years.