ESPN Classic to Air Documentary About Butler's Hinkle Fieldhouse
Feb. 2, 2006
Story courtesy of Butler University
It's "Indiana's 15,000-seat monument to the game of basketball," "the most magical place to watch a basketball game," and playing there or visiting is "like going to the Chosen Land."
It's Butler University's Hinkle Fieldhouse, and it's the subject of "Indiana's Basketball Cathedral - Hinkle Fieldhouse," an hourlong documentary that premieres at 10 p.m. Feb. 2 on ESPN Classic and will air monthly throughout 2006.
Produced by Todd Gould for Indianapolis-based Pathway Productions and narrated by Butler alumnus and trustee Corey McPherrin, this is lump-in-your-throat, swell-with-pride television as person after person reflects on the majesty of Butler's landmark building.
"It's the basketball equivalent, or as close as you're gonna get, to walking into Wrigley or Fenway," sportscaster Bob Costas says in the documentary. "It feels authentic. You have a sense, even if you don't know every specific of it, that some history happened here."
"That was the ultimate," basketball legend Oscar Robertson adds. "I mean, man! Just to be able to play at Butler Fieldhouse, get on the court. You heard so much about it, and you know, I thought it was mystical. It's like going to heaven to get on this court and play a basketball game."
And that's just the first minute of the documentary, which was underwritten by National City Bank of Indiana.
Gould traces the history of the venerable fieldhouse from its opening in 1928 as the second-largest basketball arena in the world (second only to Madison Square Garden) to today. Using Costas, Robertson, John Wooden and a host of notable commentators, the documentary discusses the impact the building has had on Indianapolis, Indiana and the sports world.
"You can tell how much this means to people who are doing the talking," Gould says. "I was impressed at how many people on the national level saw this as such a fantastic place to watch a ballgame or had some memory from something they had seen or experienced in their comings and goings through the state of Indiana."
The story of the fieldhouse is told in six segments - an introduction and quick history lesson; a biography of Tony Hinkle; the Milan Miracle team of 1954; the Crispus Attucks championship teams of 1955 and 1956; the trials and tribulations of the Indianapolis Olympians, the professional basketball team that called the fieldhouse home; and a remembrance of other events that took place in the arena.
The documentary contains footage and photos you may not have seen of construction of the fieldhouse, crowds inside and outside the building and Tony Hinkle in his various college sports uniforms.
"Some of the most compelling photos are when the fieldhouse is just being constructed," Gould says. "You look and it's nothing but cornfields out there. Butler was Jordan Hall and the Butler Fieldhouse. It was literally out in the middle of nowhere at the time. You can imagine Madison Square Garden and the pulse of the game happening in an arena like that. But you can't imagine how, out in the middle of nowhere, this structure just rises up."
At the time, Butler University had 2,800 students. "To have a 15,000-seat arena, it's certainly making a statement about what the game means to the people of Indiana, what Tony Hinkle's position was and where the university wanted to position itself on the national map," Gould says.
Former U.S. Senator and NBA Hall of Famer Bill Bradley, author David Halberstam, Indiana Pacers CEO Donnie Walsh and former NBA great George McGinnis are among those who pay tribute to the fieldhouse, which is described as a dream factory for a lot of ballplayers - and fans too.
"It's our heritage," former Indiana Pacers coach Bobby "Slick" Leonard says. "Our fathers, our grandfathers, played here. Hinkle Fieldhouse is where it all happened. It's history."
