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Hinkle Fieldhouse

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Hinkle Fieldhouse - All You Need to Know BEFORE You Go (2024)

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Everything You Need to Know for Gameday at Hinkle Fieldhouse

Hinkle Fieldhouse personifies college basketball. This 90+ year-old basketball cathedral has stood the test of time as the home for Butler sports. It may be truly incredible, but just like Norman Dale proved, Hinkle's rims are the exact same measurements as anywhere else. This is your complete guide to gameday at Hinkle Fieldhouse.

Hinkle Fieldhouse - Indianapolis

The arena opened as Butler Fieldhouse in 1928 as the largest basketball arena in the United States until 1950. It was renamed Hinkle Fieldhouse in 1966 in honor of longtime coach Paul Hinkle. The fieldhouse is truly basketball royalty, as fans have been making their way to this bucket list arena for close to a century. Its classic splendor, character, and atmosphere have remained unchanged since its opening. Capacity is just over 9,100 fans today, although it was about 15,000 when it originally opened. There have been countless historic games and moments here that are forever engrained in basketball lore.

Photo taken pre-pandemic by Butler Sports.

Prominent Events Hosted: 

Hinkle Fieldhouse is iconic not only for its design but for the magical moments it has produced over the last 90 years. The Butler Bulldogs basketball teams call Hinkle home , with the men's team winning the Horizon League title here in 2010. It served as host to the Indiana High School Boys Basketball Tournament Championships from 1928 to 1971. Arguably the most memorable was when tiny Milan High School became the ultimate cinderella by beating Muncie Central High School in the 1954 men's championship. The "Milan Miracle" inspired the movie Hoosiers . Six U.S. Presidents have made their visit to Hinkle. All-star basketball games for the NBA and ABA have taken place at Hinkle Fieldhouse along with the first USA-USSR basketball game . It was also a host of the 2021 NCAA Tournament that took place entirely in Indiana.

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Column: Tour of historic Hinkle Fieldhouse

In 1921, 22-year-old Paul D. “Tony” Hinkle, a two-time basketball All-American at the University of Chicago, became assistant basketball coach at Butler University, then in Irvington.   In 1924, Butler won the AAU national tournament as Butler was planning a move to its current location. Butler hired Indianapolis architect Fermor Spencer Cannon to design a facility worthy of a national champion. Hinkle became head basketball coach in 1926, and construction of the brick and stone arena at the corner of Boulevard Place and 49th Street began in 1927.

When completed a year later, Butler Fieldhouse, engineered so all 15,000 fans had an unobstructed court view, was the largest basketball arena in the United States, a rank it maintained until 1950. In the inaugural game on March 7, 1928, the Hinkle-led Bulldogs defeated top-ranked Notre Dame in overtime. In 1929, Butler again defeated Notre Dame and won its second national basketball championship. During World War II, the fieldhouse was a barracks. In 1966, with Hinkle serving as both head basketball and head football coach, Butler’s trustees renamed the building “Hinkle Fieldhouse.”

Until 1972, Hinkle Fieldhouse hosted the IHSAA boys basketball finals, the oldest such tournament in the U.S., including the 1954 game in which Milan defeated Muncie Central. The state championship scenes in the movie “Hoosiers,” inspired by that famous game, were filmed in the fieldhouse. In the 1935 Butler Relays, Jesse Owens set an indoor record in the 60-yard dash in the fieldhouse, which has hosted six presidents and several religious leaders, including Billy Graham.

Hinkle Fieldhouse, named a National Historic Landmark in 1987, inspired the exterior of what is now Gainbridge Fieldhouse. A $36.2 million renovation completed in 2014 added 4,500 chair seats and a new scoreboard. It is open for self-guided tours on weekdays from 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.

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The History of Hinkle Fieldhouse

Hinkle Fieldhouse is one of six Indiana venues proudly serving as a host site for the 2021 NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Championship. Affectionately known as “Indiana’s Basketball Cathedral,” Hinkle Fieldhouse has played host to many memorable basketball games, community events, and notable public figures during its illustrious 93-year history. The construction and upkeep of this National Historic Landmark has been made possible by a long line of generous and visionary philanthropists who hoped this building would be a gift to the Central Indiana community.  

1928: Hinkle Fieldhouse, originally known as Butler Fieldhouse, was built and financed by the philanthropic contributions of a corporation of 41 Indianapolis businessmen. With a seating capacity of 15,000 at the time of its opening, it was the largest basketball arena in the country, a distinction it held for 20 years.

March 7, 1928: Butler played its first basketball game in the Fieldhouse on March 7, 1928, defeating Notre Dame 21-13, in overtime, before 12,000 fans. Since the Fieldhouse was not entirely completed at the time, the building dedication was held at a later date. Completion of the Fieldhouse was guaranteed when Butler signed a lease agreement with the Indiana High School Athletic Association, which allowed the high school state tournament to be played in the new facility.

December 21, 1928: The Fieldhouse was officially dedicated at a game against Purdue University, which the Bulldogs won 28-27.

October 28, 1932: President Herbert Hoover delivered a speech to an estimated overflow standing-room only crowd of 23,000 at the Fieldhouse in his bid for re-election in the upcoming presidential race. The speech was broadcast to a national radio audience. Hoover lost the November 8 election to Franklin D. Roosevelt.

1933: The removable hardwood basketball court, which originally ran east–west, was changed to a north–south orientation to provide additional arena seating and to keep the sunlight, which streamed in from the large west-facing upper windows, out of the players’ eyes.

March 1935: Future Olympic Gold Medalist Jesse Owens ran 60 yards in 6.09 seconds during the Butler Relays intercollegiate event, tying a world record. He had to crash into an improvised barrier of hay bales to prevent his momentum from carrying him into the stands.

May 3, 1936: To open National Music Week, Sigma Alpha Iota, the national professional music sorority, sponsored a grand piano recital. 125 pianos were brought to the Fieldhouse, where 825 pianists played a variety of songs and accompanied the combined choirs of Butler University and the Arthur Jordan Conservatory of Music. Admission was 50 cents, and proceeds were used to aid the sorority’s scholarship and student loan funds. Approximately 25,000 spectators attended the recital over two performances.

February 1937: The Fieldhouse hosted a six-day bicycle race that lasted for 11 hours and 45 minutes each day. Riders rested in bunks arranged in the infield of the track between races, and approximately 30,000 spectators attended over the course of the six-day race.

March 1937: Fred Perry defeated Ellsworth Vines in a three-set tennis match in the Fieldhouse.

March 1938: Elephants, ponies, and horses paraded through the Fieldhouse during the Shriner’s Indoor Circus, which also included a trapeze and high wire act.

March 1940: Butler hosted the 1940 Eastern Regional of the NCAA basketball tournament, which featured Indiana, Duquesne, Western Kentucky, and Springfield. Indiana won the Regional, advancing to the finals in Kansas City. This was the only other time Butler has hosted NCAA Men’s Basketball Championship tournament games.

1943-45: The Fieldhouse was utilized as U.S. Army and Navy barracks during World War II. Sailors and Army Air Corps recruits were stationed in the Fieldhouse while attending training courses on campus. Sleeping quarters were constructed in the main gym, and a kitchen and mess hall were also installed.

October 1952: The Fieldhouse was transformed into an ice rink to host an ice show headlined by Sonja Henie and a cast of 200 ice skaters.

March 1954: The “Milan Miracle” occurred at the Fieldhouse when tiny Milan High School’s basketball team defeated the much larger Muncie Central High School in the state high school basketball championship. Milan’s Bobby Plump made the last-second shot to win the game and went on to become a star player at Butler. Two other players, Rollin Cutter and Ray Craft, also went on to play for Coach Hinkle, as had the Milan coach, Marvin Wood.

September 23, 1954: Then-Vice President Richard Nixon delivered a speech in the Fieldhouse for a GOP Rally event in the lead-up to midterm elections.

October 15, 1954: President Dwight D. Eisenhower gave a speech at the Fieldhouse about farm policy and the state of agriculture.

March 1955, 1956: The Crispus Attucks High School basketball team, led by Oscar Robertson, became the first all-Black team in the nation to win a state championship in an integrated tournament. The team defeated Roosevelt High School 97-64 in the Fieldhouse, and went undefeated the following year to win a second consecutive title.

October 1959: Evangelist Billy Graham visited Hinkle Fieldhouse and delivered a speech to students. Afterward, he visited with students and faculty of the nearby Christian Theological Seminary.

November 1965: The Butler Board of Trustees voted to change the name of the facility from Butler Fieldhouse to Hinkle Fieldhouse in honor of Butler’s legendary coach and athletic director Paul D. “Tony” Hinkle, who contributed to the University’s athletic success for nearly 50 years. Hinkle is also known for originating the orange basketball. Until the late 1950s basketballs were dark brown. Hinkle worked with the Spalding Company to create an orange version that was more visible to players and fans. It was formally adopted by the NCAA after a trial use at the 1958 Final Four.

January 9, 1968: Hinkle Fieldhouse hosted the inaugural American Basketball Association (ABA) All-Star Game. Larry Brown, who would later become Head Coach of the Indiana Pacers from 1993-1997, was named the game’s MVP.

1975-76: The inaugural season for the Butler Women’s Basketball program took place in 1975-76 with the team’s home games being played at Hinkle Fieldhouse. Hinkle Fieldhouse also hosted the first girl’s high school state basketball championship in March 1976.

April 22, 1976: President Gerald Ford spoke at Hinkle Fieldhouse before a crowd of approximately 15,000 as part of the Butler University Student Assembly Lecture Series while fending off a Republican primary challenge from Ronald Reagan.

1986: The final scenes of the movie Hoosiers, loosely based on the 1954 “Milan Miracle” state championship, were filmed at Hinkle Fieldhouse.

1987: The Fieldhouse was declared a National Historic Landmark.

August 1987: Hinkle Fieldhouse served as the volleyball host venue for the 1987 Pan American Games. The United States defeated Cuba in the men’s gold medal match before an estimated crowd of 15,000.

1989: Renovations reduced the Hinkle Fieldhouse seating capacity from 15,000 to 11,000.

November 28, 1993 : Under then-Head Coach and current Director of Athletics Barry Collier, Butler defeated Bobby Knight’s No. 11 Indiana Hoosiers 75-71, the team’s first victory over the Hoosiers since 1958. Many consider the win to be a turning point in Butler basketball history.

March 1, 2003 : Avery Sheets hit a three-point shot at the buzzer to beat Milwaukee for the Horizon League Championship and an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament, where the Bulldogs went on to achieve their first-ever appearance in the Sweet Sixteen.

November 6, 2005: Former President Bill Clinton spoke at Hinkle Fieldhouse.

March 2, 2006: Former President George H.W. Bush spoke at Hinkle Fieldhouse. Both former presidents spoke as part of Butler’s Sesquicentennial Celebration of Diversity Distinguished Lecture Series.

May 6, 2008 : Future President Barack Obama delivered a speech at Hinkle Fieldhouse while campaigning against his Future Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in that day’s Indiana Democratic primary election for President.

November 2011: Butler announced a $16 million fundraising campaign to preserve and update Hinkle Fieldhouse, “Indiana’s Basketball Cathedral.” The renovations included extensive exterior work, improved stadium accessibility, and upgraded areas for sports medicine, strength and conditioning, academics, locker rooms, and athletic department offices. Game day upgrades for fans included new chairback seating (reducing capacity to 9,100), a video scoreboard, and more concessions and restrooms.

January 19, 2013: Hinkle Fieldhouse hosted ESPN’s national College GameDay broadcast. Fans rushed the court after Roosevelt Jones hit the game-winning shot as Butler defeated Gonzaga 64-63.

2014: Butler surpassed its fundraising goal for the Campaign for Hinkle Fieldhouse, ultimately raising more than $17.1 million for improvements aimed to “Keep Hinkle, Hinkle.” In honor of the largest gift to the campaign, a $1 million gift from the Efroymson Family Fund, the practice gym was renamed the Efroymson Family Gym. Renovations were unveiled to the public in fall 2014.

April 2015: Hinkle Fieldhouse received the Cook Cup Award for Outstanding Restoration from Indiana Landmarks.

January 4, 2017 : Butler defeated defending national champions Villanova 66-58. It was the first time the Bulldogs beat a No. 1 team at home.

October 2018: Butler University announced a second phase of renovations to Hinkle Fieldhouse. Donors collectively gave more than $10.6 million to fund updates including the installation of air conditioning for all public areas of the Fieldhouse, extensive work to the men’s soccer locker room, and a complete renovation of the Efroymson Family Gym.

March 2021: Hinkle Fieldhouse serves as one of the host sites of the 2021 NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Tournament, held entirely within the state of Indiana.

Related Stories

March Madness 2021: Hinkle Fieldhouse is 'what college basketball is meant to be.'

Six Central Indiana venues will host the 67 games for the 2021 NCAA men's basketball tournament. Perhaps the most romantic of those venues is the cathedral known as Hinkle Fieldhouse .

Address :510 W. 49th St., Indianapolis, IN 46208

Distance from downtown Indianapolis:  6 miles

Who plays there? : Butler Bulldogs

Opened : In 1928 (was the country's largest gym until 1950)

How many fans will be allowed for NCAA tournament

Hinkle Fieldhouse's capacity is 9,100, and Butler says it will allow up to the 25%-maximum capacity allowed for NCAA tournament games. That comes to 2,275 fans . Butler was one of a few programs in the country to allow fans this season and averaged 1,658 fans for 12 home games.

Who is Hinkle Fieldhouse named after?

Born Paul David Hinkle, he was called “Tony” by a University of Chicago coach who chided him for eating spaghetti and meatballs at a pregame meal. The Italian nickname stayed with him, except for the Hinkle family, who continued to call him Paul.

When he was 30, he led the Bulldogs to a 17-2 record and college basketball’s 1929 national championship, as recognized by the Veterans Athletic Association of Philadelphia. At 63, he coached in Butler’s first NCAA tournament game, a 56-55 upset of eighth-ranked Bowling Green in 1962.

Tony Hinkle: Ten things you might not know

In 1965, Hinkle was enshrined in the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame not as a coach, but as a contributor. He won more than 1,000 games in football, basketball and baseball from 1926-70.

Hinkle originated the orange basketball. Until the late 1950s, basketballs were dark brown. He worked with the Spalding Company to come up with a new ball, which was tested in the 1958 Final Four at Louisville, Ky., and approved by the NCAA.

March Madness 2021: Mackey Arena 'the perfect college basketball arena in every way'

Yes, you saw it in "Hoosiers"

From 1928 to 1971, Indiana's high school state championships were played at the fieldhouse and that includes 1954 and the Milan Miracle team, the real-life inspiration for "Hoosiers." The fictional Hickory vs. South Bend Central championship game was filmed at Hinkle. And yes, the rim measures 10 feet from the floor.

NCAA tournament history

Then the largest college gym in the country, the Butler Fieldhouse hosted the 1940 East Regional, which featured Indiana. IU swept through Springfield and then Duquesne in the regional before beating Kansas in Kansas City for coach Branch McCracken's first national title with the Hoosiers.

NCAA tournament 2021: What to know about TV schedule, odds, locations, tickets, brackets

When was it last renovated?

In 2019, Butler spent $10.5 million on a renovation to Hinkle that allows the Bulldogs to keep up with their Big East neighbors.

What’s new: floor, lighting, scoreboards, padding, window treatments and camera system (to film practices). Lights inside Hinkle have been raised to the beams, where they were originally, athletic director Barry Collier said. That allows the scoreboard to “really pop as the central focus,” he said.

Where does Hinkle Fieldhouse rank among college basketball's best venues?

► In 2020, Hinkle was ranked No. 1 by Stadium Journey with a 4.57 rating out of 5.

"There are college basketball arenas and then there are its cathedrals. The Hinkle Fieldhouse is the latter and entering its eleventh decade the atmosphere gets only better... Hinkle is what college basketball is meant to be."

► In 2019, Tim Newcomb of  popularmechanics.com ranked Hinkle the No. 1 venue in college basketball.

"Maybe history clouds judgement, but the 1928-opened Hinkle Fieldhouse boasts one of the most spectacular stages for college basketball... A venue on the National Register of Historic Places and a National Historic Landmark uses a brick façade, window-filled design, and unique stacked seating to embrace history."

>>  Athlon  Sports polled 12 college basketball media members for their top 10 venues. Hinkle came in at No. 3 overall. Here are some of the individual votes:

>> Pat Forde, SI.com: No. 1

>> Matt Norlander, CBSSports.com: No. 3

>> Rob Dauster, Field of 68: No. 3

>> Eric Prisbell, USA TODAY: No. 4 

>> Fran Fraschilla, ESPN: No. 5

>> Jeff Goodman, ESPN: No. 5

>> Jay Bilas, ESPN: No. 6

>> Mike DeCourcy, Sporting News: No. 8

Hinkle was used as a military barracks from 1943 to 1945 during World War II.

Historic Hinkle Fieldhouse’s aura unmatched in college basketball venues

“Hi, I’m Sally,” my tour guide said as we met outside Gate 1 of Butler’s Hinkle Fieldhouse on a recent summer day.

She smiled. “I hope you have a lot of time today.”

Oh, yeah. For Hinkle Fieldhouse, the 92-year-old cathedral located on Indianapolis’ north side, I have plenty of time – all day.

I’ve been to Hinkle, our local jewel, plenty of times over the years to cover Butler basketball, but generally speaking, the media doesn’t venture far beyond the undersized media room and the press box. We don’t see the nooks and crannies, the hidden treasures, the small but wondrous details that make the building such a unique and special place.

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We’re going to see them, thanks to Sally Wirthwein, a 1981 Butler graduate who is a freelance historian and archivist and gives tours of Hinkle during the summer (well, most summers; this one is, um, different). We’re going on something akin to an archaeological dig, discovering layers upon layers of history, including the remnants of Indianapolis’ first indoor pool, which once was located in the bowels of the building. Seriously, a pool.

“Hinkle is kind of my baby,” she said as we both put on masks and rubber gloves for our tour. “I have a heart for the place.”

She is not the only one who has had a torrid love affair with the building. Hinkle Fieldhouse, the sixth-oldest college basketball arena still in use in the United States, has owned Indiana’s heart since its completion in 1928. It is the physical manifestation of the Hoosier ethos, understated and earnest, a living, breathing monument to the game of basketball, which took the state by storm not long after Dr. James Naismith invented the sport in 1891. It has been renovated twice, in 1989 and 2014, and while several modern touches have been added in recent years, it has maintained its marvelous bone structure and charm.

Some old arenas are just, well, old, dusty relics of the past that have outlived their usefulness. Hinkle, though, has endured – through the Great Depression and World War II, where it served as an Army and Naval barracks and training ground from 1943-45.

It has hosted all types of events, but it’s best known for being the epicenter of Indiana’s glorious basketball universe. If you’re a member of Hoosier hoops royalty, you’ve graced the Hinkle Fieldhouse floor – which, by the way, is the original floor, replete with dead spots like the parquet at the old Boston Garden. John Wooden and Oscar Robertson. George McGinnis and Bobby Plump, the Milan High School star who was the inspiration behind the character Jimmy Chitwood from the movie “Hoosiers.” Rick Mount and Larry Bird.

(Bird came to Hinkle as a member of the Indiana All-Star team, but he refused to enter the game during garbage time, enraged over his lack of playing time).

That doesn’t even mention all the other non-basketball-related events, including the 1935 Butler Relays, where track star Jesse Owens tied the 60-yard dash world indoor record. One year later, he would go to win gold in the 100 meters, 200 meters, 4×100 relay and long jump at the 1936 Berlin Olympics – all in front of Adolf Hitler.

Architecturally, Hinkle Fieldhouse was a marvel, way ahead of its time, when it was first designed by noted architect Fermor Spencer Cannon. And it remains an inspiration for more recent buildings, including Indy’s Bankers Life Fieldhouse and Lucas Oil Stadium. Little wonder it was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1983 and named a U.S. National Historic Landmark in 1987.

The exterior, which looks like something of an oversized airplane hangar, is comprised of red brick and hints of limestone. It is an expansive structure, six stories, originally built to accommodate 15,000 fans, which is interesting given the fact that Butler, which moved its campus to its current location in 1928, only had 1,200 students at the time. But corporate leaders in the city believed the region needed a central meeting place and raised the money necessary to build the fieldhouse. Once the IHSAA committed to holding its state basketball championships there – they played there until 1971 – the deal was done.

The exterior of Hinkle Fieldhouse is shaped like a barn and mostly red brick. (Courtesy of Butler University)

The interior is, in a word, breathtaking. It doesn’t feature all the bells and whistles that modern-day arenas possess – as former Butler men’s basketball coach Brad Stevens once noted, it’s not every recruit’s cup of tea – but it is utterly unique, a throwback to another time.

You are immediately struck by its sheer enormity; for an arena with a capacity of 9,100, it looks and feels as spacious as a far larger building. The barrel-vaulted ceiling, featuring corrugated metal roof sheathing, reaches to the heavens. The exposed steel girders give it an industrial feel. The steel sash windows, clearly the defining characteristic of Hinkle, line the east and west sides of the building and allow the sun to bathe the basketball court in an amber glow. The interior walls are brown-glazed brick.

The arena’s ramps are typical of modern-day arenas, but in 1928, it was an architectural wonder, offering easy access to the top two tiers of stands in the three-tier structure.

Hinkle – then Butler Fieldhouse – was the largest basketball arena in the nation when it was built and remained so for 20 years, but after reconfigurations and renovations, capacity was decreased, first to 11,043 and then to the current 9,100.

The fieldhouse basketball court originally ran east to west, but in 1933, five years after its completion, it was changed from north to south because the sunlight out of the west-facing windows was blinding players.

“In a lot of ways, the building looks now more like it did in 1928 than it did before the (2014) renovations,” Wirthwein said. “All credit to (current athletic director) Barry Collier. He’s got a heart for Hinkle and a great vision and understood that while the building needed to be made more modern for games and the fans, he understood the best of Hinkle needed to stay. It was really well done.”

Ask Collier about his first impression of Hinkle Fieldhouse, and he doesn’t hesitate to recall the date he first saw the edifice.

“March 17, 1974,” he said.

“I was in for a recruiting visit (he transferred to Butler from Miami-Dade Junior College) and I love to say, ‘My jaw dropped like an egg from a tall chicken.’ Later on, I realized that was my ‘Hoosiers’ moment. I would have yelled ‘Hickory’ if I knew about it back then (the movie wasn’t released until 1986). I didn’t know anything about Hinkle until Butler started recruiting me. But we didn’t have computers or the internet back then, so I didn’t know. … Then I got there and my immediate thought was, ‘Wait, I get to play here?’

“Just the expanse of the place on the inside. It’s not like there are support poles running down the middle of the building. My high school gym seated 600 and Miami-Dade was around 3,000. … In comparison, Hinkle was 100 times more impressive. I was absolutely struck by the natural light coming from the windows, the floor was elevated. It felt like a trampoline. I felt like I was floating across the floor when I walked on it. Had they given me a ball and I made the shot, any shot, even if it took me 10 tries, that would have sealed my decision even quicker.”

Several large windows are just some of the defining characteristics of the arena. (Michael Hickey / Getty Images)

After six years as the head coach at Nebraska, Collier returned to his roots and became the school’s athletic director.

“The first thing I did in 2006 was meet with our vice president for facilities and ask him what kind of shape the building was in,” Collier said. “And he said the bones, the I beams, are really strong, but the skin of the building was showing its many years of wear. And the mechanical and electrical had to be upgraded. I did and do feel a real responsibility to take care of the building. It’s an important place to me and our community. It’s like a second home.”

He had two jobs as it pertained to Hinkle.

One, to raise the money necessary to renovate the building, an effort no doubt aided by Butler’s back-to-back national-title-game appearance in 2010 and ’11.

Two, to do it in a way that maintained Hinkle’s special history while adding modern elements that improved the game-day experience. Nobody wants to change the essence of Hinkle, but it needed some work.

“We tossed and turned about what to do because we wanted to keep the feel, the mystique, all the things that people love about it, but if you don’t change anything, you can’t make it better,” he said. “We didn’t want to change much in terms of its defining features, the brick outside, the windows. But we wanted to make it more accessible to more people. We brought in an elevator and handrails and more handicapped seats.

“The new scoreboard was a head-scratcher because it had to look like it belonged in the building. But I thought the design group did a great job making it look like it fit with the rest of the place. We weren’t trying to modernize it, per se, as much as we were trying to improve the fan experience while maintaining what’s unique about Hinkle, and I think we struck that balance.”

Over the years, Collier has unearthed various artifacts from Hinkle’s very early days.

“In 2006 when I came back, I graduated to getting the keys to everything, so those first few months, before my family moved back (to Indianapolis), I’d walk around and one day I went down to the swimming pool and found the pulleys that the horses pulled when they were moving dirt during construction in the 1920s,” he said. “We’ve found (game) programs that are from the high-school tournament in the 1940s.

“I remember talking to one of our alums, when he was at school, his scholarship job was to be the night watchman at Hinkle. He had a cot in the building. He would tell me how he’d spent the night and hear all the creaks and noises.”

“Nothing that I can prove,” he said, laughing.

The entrance to the building is unremarkable and the concourses are fairly tight by modern standards. But there is history here, so much history, and you don’t have to look very hard to find it.

In the concourse, there is an oversized display bearing the description of the “Butler Way,” a philosophy that pertains to life on and off the basketball court.

There is a blown-up photo of the first Butler game at the fieldhouse in 1928, a 21-13 Bulldogs victory over Notre Dame. Yes, that was the score … in overtime. Glad I bet the under.

“Remember, in those days, they did a jump ball after every basket,” Wirthwein said.

There’s an oversize photo of John Wooden playing in the first-ever IHSAA state basketball tournament at the fieldhouse while playing at Martinsville High School south of Indianapolis.

Everywhere you look along the walls in the concourses, there are photos of games from the fieldhouse’s early years and plaques commemorating the great players who have played for Butler or come through the fieldhouse.

There are plenty of historic moments that can be found in Hinkle Fieldhouse. (Bob Kravitz / The Athletic)

“This building is very much alive,” Wirthwein said. “During normal times, when there aren’t games, you can come in and wander out onto the court and shoot baskets and nobody will say anything. It has a very welcoming feel.”

We walk down a ramp and emerge outdoors, where the school’s football stadium, the Sellick Bowl, resides. It is a humble structure, seating just 5,647 fans, but when it was built, Butler had oversized football dreams and constructed it to fit roughly 40,000 fans. Wirthwein has seen plans to add a second level around the stadium, increasing capacity to almost 70,000 with the idea being that Butler would someday join the Big Ten.

“Then the Depression came,” she said.

And that was that.

We walk back up the ramp, back inside Hinkle. It is one of a seemingly endless number of labyrinthine tunnels that run throughout the structure. Without Wirthwein holding my hand (rhetorically), I’d be lost.

We open a door and arrive in the equipment room one level below the court. There is a caged-in area that looks like something from a high school where the equipment guy hands out T-shirts, shorts and jockstraps. This used to be the purview of a small, curmudgeonly fellow named Charlie McElfresh, who worked in the dark, cramped room for 33 years before passing away (in the equipment room, of course) in 1980.

“Charlie was crusty,” she said. “He’d be down here smoking (cigarettes) and Tony Hinkle (the former Butler athletic director and multi-sport coach after whom the building was renamed in 1966) would come down and smoke with him. I’m sure Charlie’s ghost is still down here. And I’d bet Tony’s ghost comes in and out.”

Collier told the story of coming back from a road trip after his final game as a player (1975-76) and heading down to McElfresh’s lair to return his uniform for the last time.

“So we’re emptying our gym bags and throwing our uniforms in the basket, and Charlie is just standing there, and I’m pretty melancholy because it’s my last game and my career is over,” he said. “Just imagine Charlie. He was a small guy, and he had a cigarette holder that’s like 6 inches long, and a cigarette that’s 5 inches long, and he had this raspy smoker’s voice.

“He says, ‘Check the ice machine.’ And I made the mistake of saying, ‘What?’ and he screamed at me in that voice of his: ‘Check the ice machine before you leave.’ So I walked over, opened it and there was a brown paper bag with a six-pack of Stroh’s (beer).

“Then I spun around and he was gone.”

Next, Wirthwein pointed to some worn blue wooden benches.

“Remember the locker room scene from ‘Hoosiers’ before their (state championship) game?” she said. “These are the benches they used. They’re tucked away all over the building. They’re military benches from World War II when the Army and Navy were here.”

A few feet away, there is an old-school scale.

“You may recognize that,” she said. “That’s from ‘Hoosiers,’ too. From the locker room scene when the preacher talks to the team about David and Goliath. That’s the original. They still use it. They say it’s still within one pound.

“You want to get on it?”

Um … no, thanks.

An old scale, which makes multiple appearances in “Hoosiers,” remains in the arena. (Bob Kravitz / The Athletic)

Down the hall, there’s the old coal room. Hinkle Fieldhouse once was heated by coal. No longer, obviously, but a lot of the ductwork still exists and is visible from inside the arena.

“At least we have air conditioning in here now,” she said. “They just put it in last year.”

Upstairs we go to the Wildman Room, the place where boosters go to engage in a little pre-gaming. It, too, was expanded during the most recent renovation. Along the wall, there is a frieze mural of yearbook pictures from the 1920s and ’30s that tell the story of Butler’s sports and campus development.

“When Tony Hinkle got word of what they were doing in the Wildman Room, he went home and told his family, ‘You’re not gonna believe this; they’re putting a saloon in my fieldhouse,’ ” Wirthwein said.

We moved down the hallway and my eyes were immediately drawn to a loading dock door. I had re-watched “Hoosiers” just a few days earlier and something looked familiar.

“This is where they shot the scene of the Hickory team arriving at the fieldhouse, when the door goes up and they walk in for the first time,” Wirthwein said.

(In the movie, the team was greeted at the loading dock door by Ray Craft, the former IHSAA associate commissioner who played for both Milan and Butler).

We’re just getting started.

But first, a brief detour, if I may.

For Angelo Pizzo, the screenwriter and producer of the 1986 movie “Hoosiers,” there was never a question that he and director David Anspaugh would shoot the 1954 high-school championship scenes at Hinkle Fieldhouse, the place where real-life Milan High School (Hickory in the movie) beat Muncie Central on a buzzer-beating jumper by Bobby Plump (Jimmy Chitwood in the movie).

The studio preferred shooting up in Canada, where it would’ve been less expensive with the help of tax credits, but Pizzo and Anspaugh weren’t having it. This was a movie about Indiana basketball and its special relationship with the state; without Hinkle, the film was a non-starter.

“Ultimately, we (Pizzo and Anspaugh) made strong and convincing arguments that one of the protagonists in the movie is not just Gene Hackman, it’s Indiana and Indiana basketball,” Pizzo said. “Unless that’s the foundation, unless that’s part of the fabric, it’s not worth it. We also knew we’d get people to show up and those extras, being Hoosiers, they would really know basketball.

“Hinkle is our state’s crown jewel. It’s iconic because it represents something larger than itself. … It’s a place where we go to worship the religion of basketball. … When you first step into that arena, it’s bigger and grander than you could ever imagine watching it on TV or seeing pictures of it. If we couldn’t shoot at Hinkle, it would have been a tragedy and a huge blow to our dreams about the movie.”

Take a seat at Hinkle – and there’s not a bad or obstructed seat in the place – and it’s as if you’ve been transported back in time. The mind’s eye sees the game through a sepia-toned lens, taking you back to the 1950s, cheerleaders wearing saddle shoes, players wearing short-shorts, shooting set shots and absurd running hook shots from the deep corner.

Oscar Robertson of Crispus Attucks shoots a jumper during the 1955 state high school title game at Hinkle Fieldhouse. (Courtesy of the William Palmer Collection at the Indiana Historical Society)

“Every time I go to a place that has the kind of history that Hinkle does, I can’t help but flashback to what had taken place there before,” Pizzo said. “Do I believe in ghosts? No, I don’t. But symbolically, in terms of one’s mindset, you walk in there and there are so many memories. Watching Oscar (Robertson) and Crispus Attucks winning, and you just imagine them being there. You imagine that. It’s palpable. The Milan game (in 1954), we watched the old kinescope of that game countless times, just totally immersed ourselves in it, and it’s powerful.

“… It is one of a kind, a place where unless you walk into it, you don’t understand it. But if you have a passion and an understanding of the history of high school basketball and its importance to the state, it represents what makes the game so special.

“A lot of us connect our memories, our appreciation of basketball and love of the game back to that cathedral. It’s kind of the apotheosis of what Indiana basketball means to us in this state.”

Back to the tour.

We make our way back through the concourse and enter the arena itself, the mid-afternoon sun from the west-facing windows shooting beams of light onto the court.

Before the 1989 renovation, the seats were bleachers of all different colors. Now, they are all painted blue. Now, there are seatbacks in the lower tier and the benches up high (they are the original bleachers from 1928), although they were outfitted with cushions during the renovation.

In most old arenas and stadiums, there are poor or obstructed sight lines. That’s not the case at Hinkle, which offers perfect views of the elevated basketball floor.

“There’s not a bad seat in the building because of the way it was constructed,” Wirthwein said. “The whole bridge structure, it was really innovative at the time, which meant no obstructed seats.”

I asked her to show me where her season tickets are located. We trudge up one level and sit on the front row of the balcony behind the basket near the Butler bench.

“Just listen,” she said as we both went silent for several seconds.

It was eerily quiet except for the whir of the air conditioning. The western light flowing through the windows, providing the court with its unique ambiance.

“Isn’t it beautiful?” Wirthwein said, breaking the silence. “I feel like you can hear the squeak of the shoes on the floor, the roar of the crowds, see those incredible games and the shots at the buzzer. This place never gets old.”

Butler and Creighton battle during a Big East Conference game in January. (Zach Bolinger / Icon Sportswire)

We head back downstairs, at which point we are transported back to the current day. For all of Hinkle’s history, there are several necessary touches of modernity, all thanks to the 2014 renovation by RATIO Architects.

We pass the coaches’ offices, which are as up to date as any you’ll find.

We walk into the Butler locker room – Gordon Hayward still has a locker stall here – and it is as clean and modern as any Power-5 conference locker room.

Inside, there is a giant photo of the tip-off from the 2010 NCAA national championship game between Butler and Duke at Lucas Oil Stadium. I look for myself on press row and damned if I don’t come across the old bald spot. What a night that was. What a night that could have been.

We walk down the concourse and into the Efroymson Family Gym, the team’s glistening practice facility.

We move back down to the deck level in the lower reaches of the fieldhouse, and there are small remnants of the indoor pool that once existed here. It was largely removed during the 2014 renovation, but you look around, and there are still lane markers on the wall where the pool once existed.

Hinkle Fieldhouse is where past and present meet, where history stands side by side with modern, fan-friendly conveniences. This is what Collier wanted when he laid out plans for the 2014 renovation. The mantra at the time was “Keep Hinkle, Hinkle.”

Mission accomplished.

(Top photo: Zach Bolinger / Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)

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Hinkle Fieldhouse

Basketball arena

Hinkle Fieldhouse is the nation’s oldest college basketball arena and takes the nickname, “Indiana’s Basketball Cathedral.” The construction of Butler (later Hinkle) Fieldhouse in 1928 thrust butler university ‘s basketball team and its coach Paul D. (Tony) Hinkle , into the national spotlight. Along with Madison Square Garden, the 15,000-seat fieldhouse was considered the nation’s premier basketball venue, and the fieldhouse served as the nation’s largest basketball arena until 1950.

The large structure attracted defending national champion Notre Dame to play Butler in the inaugural game, with the Bulldogs’ subsequent victory propelling them to the 1928 national championship. Over time, the destination remained the same, but the arena was renamed Hinkle Fieldhouse after 1965 in honor of the legendary Butler coach.

The fieldhouse, designed by Indianapolis architect Fermor Spencer Cannon , served as a prototype for other large indoor athletic complexes. The brick structure is six stories high and covers over three acres. Its innovative construction techniques, such as an arched steel truss system that supports the roof, allows spectators to view events unobstructed by posts or pillars. Butler Fieldhouse was also the first arena to employ a ramp system to get people to upper-level seating. The original basketball court ran east and west. This design was changed in 1933 to provide more seating and because athletes complained about facing the late afternoon sun when attacking the western basket.  

The building quickly became the focal point for high school basketball in Indiana. The Indiana High School Athletic Association held its annual basketball championships there beginning in 1928, and Butler Fieldhouse became a coveted destination as “Hoosier Hysteria” swept through small towns throughout the state every March.

One such notable event came in the 1950s when Hinkle saw the Crispus Attucks High School basketball team became the first all-Black high school team to win back-to-back high school championships in 1955 and 1956. Just a year prior, the stadium hosted the game known as the “Milan Miracle,” which went on to inspire the movie Hoosiers  (1986).

Eventually, the IHSAA moved its basketball tournament finals from Hinkle to Indiana University’s Assembly Hall in 1972 (and later to other sites), but the fieldhouse continued to host sectional play through 1993. The IHSAA’s decision to move the sectional to Lawrence North High School in 1994 ended Hinkle Fieldhouse’s long association with IHSAA basketball.

Aside from basketball, the fieldhouse has hosted numerous important athletic, religious, political, and entertainment events, including the butler relays of the 1930s and 1940s, professional tennis tours, and circuses. It also served as a venue for prominent political and cultural events, hosting such prominent figures as Wendell Willkie, Herbert Hoover, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Gerald Ford, and Billy Graham. The final scene of Hoosiers  was filmed at Hinkle Fieldhouse in 1985. The structure was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1983.

The 21st century brought both significant change and success to Hinkle Fieldhouse. Between 2009 and 2014, Hinkle underwent a $36.2 million renovation. This led to improved seating, accessibility, and training facilities among other changes. The changes occurred following massive success for the Butler Bulldogs, which made the NCAA basketball tournament routinely and reached the NCAA national championship game two years in a row under coach Brad Stevens.

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The ncaa tournament is back at hinkle fieldhouse, forever a part of hoosier history.

More than 60 years have passed, but a basketball goal still hangs on the side of the beat-up building in the grassy alleyway behind the old Schroder’s Store in Pierceville, Indiana.

Hoops could be found fastened just about anywhere in the basketball-crazed state in 1954, but the one in rural Pierceville, located just 3.6 miles west of the tiny town of Milan, still remains one of the most famous.

The makeshift court is a small part of the David-and-Goliath story about Milan, which has now become one of the most famous in sports history.

“Every time I talk about it, I should really start with ‘Once upon a time,’ because it’s almost like a fairy tale, but it actually happened,” Roger Schroder said.

Schroder, 85, was a senior on the 1954 Milan High School basketball team of legend. His parents are the ones that owned the Pierceville business, which was a grocery store, service station and post office all wrapped in one. At the time, Pierceville had approximately 45 residents.

The storybook tale goes that Milan (enrollment 161) won the single-class Indiana High School Boys Basketball Tournament against Muncie Central High School (enrollment 1,662) in front of 14,000 fans at Butler Fieldhouse in Indianapolis on March 20, 1954.

The final play saw senior Bobby Plump hold onto the ball for 4 minutes, 13 seconds before dribbling and knocking down a jump shot with three seconds remaining to win the game, 32-30, for the Indians. After the win, more than 40,000 people caravanned to Milan to congratulate a group that would become world famous.

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Later dubbed the “Milan Miracle,” the story of the Indians was again immortalized by the 1986 film “Hoosiers,” which was based on the Indians’ story. Members of the '54 team know one of the sites for the tournament well. Hinkle Fieldhouse, as it is now known, hosted the high school boys basketball championship games from 1928 to 1971. The Fieldhouse was the largest in the country from 1928 until 1950, as it could hold 15,000 fans.

In 1940, the second year of the NCAA tournament, Indiana beat Duquesne in the Eastern Regional Finals at Butler Fieldhouse on the way to its first national championship. This week, 81 years later, the NCAA tournament will return to the building that Milan helped make famous.

While the game has changed since their time on the court, the Milan men know just how impactful the sport could be for those teams competing in the NCAA tournament this year. High school boys basketball has a massive following in Indiana, although its peak was before school districts started consolidating and the Indiana High School Athletic Association changed the tournament to a multi-class format in 1997.

“It was the only way that a small town in Indiana could have any kind of recognition,” Plump said. “Towns were farming communities. It ended up being that if you won a sectional in the state of Indiana, everyone in the state knew about it. Just like with the NCAA, where everyone does their brackets, everyone in the state of Indiana did the brackets for the state tournament. In the '50s, they would have a TV program listing the drawings, and it was one of the best-watched programs.”

At its peak, in 1990, the state finals had more than 40,000 fans in attendance. That year saw a boost due to the popularity of Bedford North Lawrence phenom Damon Bailey, who still holds the state scoring record with 3,134 points.

Currently, Indiana boasts 14 of the 16 largest high school gyms in the nation. Seymour’s Lloyd E. Scott Gymnasium, which is 51 miles west of Milan, is the biggest, with a capacity of 8,228.

The Milan players, now all in their 80s, said they all watch a significant amount of college basketball, and that it’s special to them the tournament will be in Indiana.

“Years ago, the man who invented basketball (Dr. James Naismith) made a statement in a speech here. He said he invented the sport in Massachusetts, but it really belongs to Indiana,” former Milan forward Gene White, 85, said. “I think that’s a meaning that caught on in Indiana.”

Plump and fellow teammate Ray Craft, 84, who led the Indians with 14 points in the game against Muncie Central in '54, both played for former coach Tony Hinkle at Butler after graduating high school. Rollin Cutter, 82, a sophomore on Milan's state championship team, also went on to play at Butler for four years.

“It’s a special place for me,” Plump said of the Fieldhouse. “The players from these schools that are coming in are going to find that the floor at Butler will be very, very friendly to them. It’s the same floor that was laid down in 1928 when they opened the fieldhouse.”

Craft didn’t just play on the Fieldhouse floor in high school and college -- he also acted there. He had a minor role in “Hoosiers” during the state final scene, which was filmed in Hinkle.

All of the team members said the biggest difference between the movie and real-life event was that Milan coach Marvin Wood was widely respected in the community, unlike Gene Hackman’s character in the film. Wood, a Butler alum, had also taken Milan to the Final Four in 1953 prior to winning the title. Basketball is much bigger than the sport itself -- and the players from Milan know that. They have met every year since they won the state title to celebrate the life-changing tournament run that happened 67 years ago.

“Coach Wood told Plump and a couple of the other guys that this was a very, very special thing,” Schroder said. “He said we might not realize it, but that we want to stay together. He organized the first reunion, which I think was at his house. To begin with, we did it at Easter because guys would go back to Milan to visit their families. We also originally had it during the week of the finals of the high school tournament. As the years have gone past, we have taken turns hosting.”

Schroder said plans for this year’s reunion are underway, and that a trip to visit Coach Wood’s wife, Mary Lou, 92, in Mishawaka, Indiana is going to be arranged.

Plump said he sometimes thinks about how their lives would’ve been different had they not won that state title all those years ago. Growing up, his mother died when he was 3 years old, leaving his father to raise six kids on his own.

“We never had running water at my house ever,” Plump said. “We never had electricity until I was 13, and never had TV until '54. We had a radio, but had a windmill that would charge it, and we would have to swap out the batteries. Most of us were like that. There was only one of us that could’ve possibly paid for a college education.”

Plump estimated that nine of the 10 players on Milan’s roster went on to attend college, and that more students from the school started pursuing higher education after seeing what the players had accomplished.

These days, there’s a museum dedicated to the team called the Milan 1954 Museum. The museum, which houses hundreds of different items associated with the team, recently sent out invitations to all the teams in the NCAA tournament to stop by once their run comes to an end.

Craft, Plump, Schroder and White all said that they will be rooting for underdog teams, in addition to supporting programs representing Indiana, and that they expect a few upsets to happen once the tournament kicks off on Thursday, when Hoosier Hysteria meets March Madness.

“I just think (visitors) need to realize how the people of Indiana view basketball: high school, college and pro,” Craft said. “I don’t know that they will get the same feel with the pandemic, because there may be limitations on attendance, but basketball is just so deep-rooted in Indiana. If they go out in the neighborhoods, they will see different basketball goals everywhere.”

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Hinkle Fieldhouse Is Still Ready for Its Close-Up

The aging movie star in Indianapolis, which was featured in the film “Hoosiers,” is too small to host national tournament games these days, but the pandemic has put it back in the spotlight.

Hinkle Fieldhouse on the Butler University campus. Credit... Kaiti Sullivan for The New York Times

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By Billy Witz

• Published March 26, 2021 Updated March 30, 2021

INDIANAPOLIS — As fresh as Hinkle Fieldhouse may feel — nearly $50 million spent over the past decade has provided quite a face lift — ghosts of the basketball cathedral’s past remain to greet visitors. Names carved into a nearly century-old wooden ledge are still visible beneath slick navy paint. Wads and wads of gum, long ago petrified, are glued to the underside of the now-padded bleachers in the fieldhouse’s upper reaches.

Then there are the wooden benches where the tiny Hickory team sat in a musty locker room near the end of “Hoosiers,” the 1986 movie classic about an unlikely run to the Indiana high school basketball championship.

Hinkle — the home court for Butler University and the former site of the state’s famed high school tournament — is taking another star turn now, during the N.C.A.A. men’s tournament. Were it not for the coronavirus pandemic, which required the games to be played with reduced audiences and entirely in the state of Indiana, the tournament could not take place in this venue, which is long on basketball tradition but short on the seating capacity and amenities of a modern arena.

“When you’re a 19-year-old kid, you watch ‘Hoosiers,’ and you know the history of the building, and then you walk around the halls and read the walls, you’re part of something that’s bigger than yourself,” said Mitch Ballock, a senior at Creighton, recalling his first visit as a freshman. Ballock and his team beat Ohio on Monday night, and they will return to Hinkle to play top-ranked Gonzaga this Sunday.

Twenty-four teams played there through the first two rounds, some bathed in the sepia tones of late-afternoon light that streams through the windows. Four more games will be played in the round of 16 this weekend before the tournament moves on to its final stages at the cavernous Lucas Oil Stadium. The last time national tournament games were played at Hinkle was in 1940, when the entire event had just eight teams.

Making an entrance at Hinkle can be a transportive experience for a player, calling to mind the final scenes of the movie and thoughts of giants who crossed the same threshold.

Like John Wooden, as a teenager at Martinsville High. Or Oscar Robertson, whose Crispus Attucks Tigers became the first all-Black team to win an integrated state tournament. Or Larry Bird, who refused to enter a high school all-star game during garbage time because he felt stung by a lack of playing time.

Or the man who did the most to make the fieldhouse famous: Gene Hackman , who starred in “Hoosiers” as Norman Dale, a crusty coach in search of redemption years after his college career ended in disgrace. As a teenager, Hackman played high school basketball in Danville, Ill., just over the Indiana state line.

“Walking into Hinkle did bring back fond and significant feelings of my earlier days,” Hackman, 91, recalled in an email interview conducted through his publicist. “We — meaning the professional crew: director, production staff, myself — rehearsed for a day or so without an audience, so by the time the actual scenes were shot, we were accustomed to the space. But it was still somewhat overwhelming.”

Players this month might have a different experience: Hinkle is more intimate than the arenas they typically play in. And the movie now might be seen as overly sentimental — Baylor guard Jared Butler said he had turned it off because it was boring. But the red brick building carries a special resonance for those of a certain age, for those who grew up in this basketball-mad state and for anyone with an appreciation for the game’s history.

“Out of all the venues here, this would be everybody’s favorite,” said Michael Lewis, an assistant coach at U.C.L.A., which defeated Brigham Young at Hinkle in the first round and will play Alabama there on Sunday night. “When you walk through the doors, you can feel the history.”

Lewis might know the building as well as anybody in the tournament. He grew up in Jasper, Ind., and led the state in scoring as a senior. After playing at Indiana, Lewis coached at Butler for five seasons. He played in an exhibition at Hinkle, and also in summer pickup games beginning in college.

“Anybody who is anybody in the state of Indiana, you found a way to get onto Hinkle’s floor to play,” Lewis said.

Duke Werner, the trainer for Florida, which opened the tournament at Hinkle with a win over Virginia Tech, first came to fieldhouse as an 11-year-old in 1981, when the high school team in his hometown, Versailles, population roughly 2,000, reached the sectional tournament. He said it felt as if half the town had formed a caravan that followed the team buses on the 90-mile drive to Indianapolis.

“The guys on that team were your heroes growing up,” Werner said. “In a small town like that, it’s not just that you know them, you know everything about them. They were only 17-, 18-year-old kids, but you see them have that kind of success, they almost become bigger than life.”

The next time Werner set foot in Hinkle was in 2006, when Florida used it as a practice site for the Final Four in Indianapolis. As the players entered and put on their basketball shoes, Werner grabbed a ball and stepped right to the free-throw line.

“I was the first one on the floor that took a shot — just because of where we were,” he said.

Hinkle opened in 1928, financed by local business leaders who wanted a home for the state high school basketball tournament. With seating for 15,000, it was the largest basketball arena in the country, reflecting the popularity of the sport in Indiana. By 1972, the high school tournament had moved to bigger arenas. By 1998 the state had given up its single-division format, which made a legend of the 1954 champions from Milan High , a 161-student school whose team was the inspiration for “Hoosiers.”

In some ways, the changes have reflected the evolution of the sport and of basketball culture. When “Hoosiers” made its debut, college basketball was a regional sport. There was a Big East style of play (rough and rugged), a Pac-10 style (skilled and finesse) and a Big Ten style (shooting and defense). The movie, though it was from a bygone era, highlighted aspects of the game still prized in Indiana, where basketball hoops have long been put on street poles and on the sides of barns.

“Like they say, in 49 other states, it’s just basketball,” said Malachi Rice, an Indianapolis native and a senior guard at Georgia Tech, which lost its first-round game at Hinkle. “Stereotypical Indiana basketball is super conventional. By that, I mean the focus on the fundamentals — standard passing, dribbling drills, not focused on fancy things, like eurosteps. The other thing is shooting.”

One of the first places Rice — and his twin brother, Isaiah, who is at Vanderbilt — was exposed to those fundamentals was at a Butler basketball camp around the time the Bulldogs were appearing in back-to-back national championship games. Those runs — particularly the one in 2010, when Gordon Hayward’s half-court shot at the buzzer just missed winning the championship in Indianapolis — only tightened the bonds among the movie, the old arena and the college.

“Hoosiers” has been shown on the Hinkle scoreboard on the college’s movie nights, and it is a staple of summer basketball camps at Butler. “You don’t get an opt out on that if you’re a camper,” said Barry Collier, the university’s athletic director, who also played for and coached the basketball team.

Collier has been the custodian of the gym’s preservation. He first set foot in Hinkle during a recruiting visit in 1974, as a prospect from Florida. “When I walked in, my jaw dropped like an egg from a tall chicken,” Collier said. “I remembered pinching myself, thinking: ‘I could play here ?’”

When he returned as athletic director in 2006, the arena’s bones were good, but a few nips and tucks were in order. The refurbishment included replacing many of the bleachers with seats (reducing capacity to 9,100), updating the locker rooms, restoring the original lights in the arched ceiling, putting in a new scoreboard with video screens, fortifying the mortar that held the bricks together, applying buckets upon buckets of navy blue paint and replacing the 8,000 window panes that can create an extraordinary effect for day games.

“They light up orange if the sunset is orange,” Collier said.

There was one such sunset last week, the low, winter sun bathing the arena in a warm glow. It was easy, then, to see the lure of nostalgia. To see why the building is a National Historic Landmark. Or why last year The Associated Press declared “Hoosiers” the best sports movie of all time .

That is a debatable point, no doubt, but even now scenes from the movie remain embedded in the minds of many basketball fans.

There is the quiet confidence of the star Jimmy Chitwood assuring his coach , “I’ll make it,” before the winning shot. Then there is the moment when the Hickory team arrives wide-eyed at Hinkle, and Hackman’s character pulls out a tape measure to remind his players that the rim of the hoop is 10 feet above the floor and the free-throw line is 15 feet from the basket — exactly like at their gym back home.

The point, Hackman said, was “to make the audience of the film understand the naïveté of the boys, their ineptitude and that the monstrous goal of the state championship was attainable.”

The scene’s message, Hackman said, could also have applied to the younger members of the cast, who had played basketball in high school and at small colleges but were novices as actors.

“Oddly and nicely, though, the inexperience of the boys as actors helped convey the first-time pressure of the players in that state championship,” he said.

It’s an experience that many players will understand this weekend, as they have throughout the tournament. The jitters, the climactic moments, and the exhilaration and devastation that are sure to follow — the ghosts that live in the old basketball barn know them well.

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Hinkle Fieldhouse

Construction began in 1926 on Arthur Jordan Hall and the Butler Fieldhouse (renamed Hinkle Fieldhouse after coach Paul “Tony” Hinkle in 1966). Classes began in the fall of 1928. Jordan Hall, designed in the Collegiate Gothic style by Robert Frost Daggett and Thomas Hibben, housed the classrooms and offices; it still anchors the campus today. Both are on the National Historic Register. Ca. 1950s Digital Image 2011 Butler University. All Rights Reserved.

Nation’s oldest college basketball arena that takes the nickname “Indiana’s Basketball Cathedral”

The construction of Butler (later Hinkle) Fieldhouse in 1928 thrust Butler University’s  basketball team and its coach Paul D. “Tony” Hinkle, into the national spotlight. Along with Madison Square Garden, the 15,000-seat fieldhouse was considered the nation’s premier basketball venue, and the fieldhouse served as the nation’s largest basketball venue until 1950.

The mystique of the large structure attracted defending national champion Notre Dame to play Butler, with the Bulldogs’ subsequent victory in the building’s inaugural game propelling them to the 1928 national championship. Over time, the destination remained the same, but the arena was renamed Hinkle Fieldhouse after 1965 in honor of legendary Butler coach Paul Hinkle.

The fieldhouse, designed by Indianapolis architect Fermor Spencer Cannon, served as a prototype for other large indoor athletic complexes. The brick structure is six stories high and covers over three acres. Its innovative construction techniques, such as an arched steel truss system that supports the roof, allows spectators to view events unobstructed by posts or pillars. Butler Fieldhouse was also the first arena to employ a ramp system to get people to upper-level seating. The original basketball court ran east and west. This design was changed in 1933 to provide more seating and because athletes complained about facing the late afternoon sun when attacking the western basket.

The building quickly became the focal point for high school basketball in Indiana. The Indiana High School Athletic Association held its annual basketball championships there beginning in 1928, and Butler Fieldhouse became a coveted destination as “Hoosier Hysteria” swept through small towns throughout the state every March.

One such notable event came in the 1950s when Hinkle saw the Crispus Attucks basketball team became the first all-black high school team to win back-to-back high school championships in 1955 and 1956. Just a year prior, the stadium also hosted the game known as the “Milan Miracle” which went on to inspire the movie “Hoosiers.”

Eventually, the IHSAA moved its basketball tournament finals from Hinkle to Indiana University’s Assembly Hall in 1972 (and later to other sites), but the fieldhouse continued to host sectional play through 1993. The IHSAA’s decision to move the sectional to Lawrence North High School in 1994 ended Hinkle Fieldhouse’s long association with IHSAA basketball.

Aside from basketball, the fieldhouse has hosted numerous important athletic, religious, political, and entertainment events, including the Butler Relays of the 1930s and 1940s, professional tennis tours, and circuses. It also served as a convention center, hosting such prominent figures as Wendell Willkie, Herbert Hoover, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Gerald Ford, and Billy Graham. The final scene of the 1986 movie “Hoosiers,” the fictional story based on the 1954 IHSAA champion Milan High School basketball team, was filmed at Hinkle Fieldhouse. The structure was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1983.

The 21st century brought both significant change and success to Hinkle Fieldhouse. Between 2009 and 2014, Hinkle underwent a $36.2 million renovation. This led to improved seating, accessibility, and training facilities among other changes. The new century also brought massive success for the Butler Bulldogs. During a stretch that saw the team make the National Championship Game two years in a row under coach Brad Stevens, the team won the Horizon League Conference title in 2010 en route to their legendary championship showdown with Duke University in downtown Indianapolis.

More about Paul Daniel “Tony” Hinkle, coach and athletic director

Tony Hinkle. Digital Image 2011 Butler University. All Rights Reserved.

(1898-Sept. 22, 1992). Born in Logansport, Indiana, Tony Hinkle attended the University of Chicago where he was named to the All-Western Conference (Big 10) basketball team in 1919 and 1920 and won All-America honors in the latter season. An end on the Maroon football team, he earned three letters playing for the legendary Amos Alonzo Stagg. While pitching in Chicago’s semi-pro leagues, he won a tryout offer from the New York Giants.

Hinkle joined the Butler University coaching staff in 1921 as an assistant to Stagg disciple Harlan Page. When Page took over the Indiana University football program in 1926, Hinkle succeeded his mentor as head coach of Butler’s athletic teams. Except for a 1942-1944 stint as coach of the powerhouse Great Lakes Naval Training Station squads, Hinkle remained at Butler until his retirement in 1970. His Bulldog football teams claimed a 171-100-12 mark and nine Indiana Collegiate Conference titles. His baseball teams finished 325-305-4 and Hinkle’s basketball charges achieved a 572-403 slate. A 1929 national college championship, National Invitational Tournament appearances in 1958 and 1959, and a 1962 NCAA berth highlighted his tenure as basketball coach.

On March 7, 1928, Hinkle and his team dedicated their new basketball arena with a 21-13 victory over Notre Dame. Butler Fieldhouse remained America’s largest gymnasium until after World War II, and Hinkle was still head basketball coach when the hall was christened Hinkle Fieldhouse in 1965. Named Butler’s athletic director in 1932, Hinkle also ran fieldhouse concessions for a brief period. He was known to do groundskeeping on the football field and to polish the basketball floor himself.

Hinkle’s greatest impact on national athletics may have been his invention of the “Hinkle System.” A basketball strategy based on motion, passing, picks, and screens, the system was a precursor of offenses later perfected by Indiana University coach Bob Knight and others. Hinkle’s success at teaching athletics led over 200 of his lettermen to pursue coaching careers at the secondary school or collegiate levels.

Tony Hinkle served on the NCAA Basketball Rules Committee (1937-1938, 1942-1950), including a term as chairman (1948-1950), and during 1954-1955 was president of the National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC). He received the 1962 National Collegiate Basketball Coaches Association Award and the 1986 NABC Golden Anniversary Award. Hinkle was a member of the Indiana and Helms Foundation football and basketball halls of fame and was inducted into the James Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame in 1965.

Dale Ogden (Howard Caldwell, Tony Hinkle: Coach for All Seasons)

Historic Hinkle Fieldhouse

If these walls could talk…stories from Indiana’s Basketball Cathedral

Under the spell of Hinkle Fieldhouse at Butler University—Indiana’s Basketball Cathedral since 1928

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Sea of blue nothing new for Indiana State. But at Hinkle? 'It felt like a home game.'

INDIANAPOLIS — Playing in front of capacity crowds is nothing new for Indiana State, this spring especially, as the Sycamore faithful packed the Hulman Center to support their team during its NIT run. The community is heavily invested in their men’s basketball team and the program’s high-scoring, high-flying style of play is perfectly suited for such ravenous supporters. 

So of course there was a sea of blue — a very, very loud sea of blue — there to greet the top-seeded Sycamores as they took the floor at Hinkle Fieldhouse for the NIT semifinals Tuesday.

“It felt like a home game,” senior Xavier Bledson said following Indiana State's 100-90 win over No. 2-seed Utah. "The atmosphere is crazy, they're looking down on you. It's a different feeling. It felt amazing."

Doyel: ISU reaches NIT final, captivating fans but setting up one last heartache

'Appointment TV.' Indiana State thrills in NIT, continuing to make its March Madness case

The scene Tuesday was in stark contrast to what Utah coach Smith experienced Monday, describing a “peaceful" and almost "serene" atmosphere that greeted the Utes when they arrived for practice. "Anybody who understands basketball understands the tradition of this amazing place. It was really kind of calming,” he said.

"Tonight was obviously a different vibe."

Smith spent the week blasting music and crowd noise, and installing viral and non-verbal calls in preparation for the hostile environment. And there were still a couple occasions in the first half when only four of the five Utah players knew what play was being run. "(The fans) showed up and you could certainly feel that," Smith said.

The Sycamore faithful helped spur the team's first major run of the second half, feeding off the electricity of a no-look, underhand pass from Julian Larry to Robbie Avila underneath the basket that staked ISU to a three-point lead and brought chants of "I-S-U" raining down from the capacity crowd.

That was the main highlight from ISU's game-tilting 10-2 run early in the second half. Those involved agreed on the crowd's role in fueling it and the game flow illustrates its influence on the final result with the Sycamores gradually ceding control from there.

"When that happened, I was like, 'Oh yeah, we might be up to something,'" Bledson said. "It's time. It's winning time, for sure."

On a night when the Sycamores scored 100 points, knocked down 12 3-pointers, shot 57% from the field and had four different players score in double figures, one of their biggest stars was the hometown kid, Pike alum Ryan Conwell.

Back at Hinkle Fieldhouse for the first time as a player, he reflected on Butler games he attended with a childhood friend when they were young. "It's crazy how it came full circle," Conwell said. 

"Full circle" is an apt label for the sophomore's journey back to Hinkle Fieldhouse, and he marked the occasion with a career performance: 27 points on 9-of-16 shooting with four 3s, plus six rebounds, four assists, a steal and a block to help the Sycamores (32-6) advance to Thursday's NIT championship game opposite Seton Hall.

There's something about playing in Indianapolis that brings out the best in the 6-4 sophomore, coach Josh Schertz observed, citing Conwell's 27 points at Gainbridge Fieldhouse vs. Ball State in December.

"Being around the home folks gets him excited," Schertz laughed. "But what a phenomenal player, a special player. And as good as he is as a player — he's elite — he's an even better human being."

The sea of blue that greeted the Trees on Tuesday may pale in comparison to what’s in store for Thursday.

"It's an amazing feeling to continue being able to play in front of a crowd like that. It's a blessing," Avila said. "We hope to do this Thursday, too. … We're winners. We came here with one single goal and it's time to get the second win."

Follow Brian Haenchen on Twitter at  @Brian_Haenchen .

2018 Primetime Emmy & James Beard Award Winner

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