State of the game part II: gyms

With nine of the top 10 and 28 of the top 36 largest basketball gymnasiums in the country, some may mistake Indiana high school gyms for cathedrals.

New Castle's Chrysler High tops the list with a seating capacity of 9,325. It is so prestigious that it was featured in USA Today Feb. 5, 2004.

The gym was opened on Nov. 21, 1959 after high school students designated a "Gym Now" campaign that raised $3,951.83. The community did its part as well, pledging $200,000 for the construction. Construction was halted one year after a steel collapse on June 12, 1958.

Chrysler High Athletic Director Mike Bergum explained, "When the new high school was built, there were no provisions or plans made for a gym or a playing facility and the community wanted one."

The gym is so well-known, Bergum says someone stops by at least once a week just to see the gym. A large part of that has to do with the gym being so close to the Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame. Bergum said the Hall of Fame is a "stone throw away from the Fieldhouse."

The Fieldhouse has hosted NBA games, the Harlem Globetrotters, Indiana University and Purdue University basketball games.

Steve Alford, 1983 Indiana Mr. Basketball, former First Team All-American at Indiana University and current head coach for the University of Iowa men's basketball team, played for Chrysler in the 1980s.

"Not many high school kids get the opportunity to play in front of 8, 9, or sellouts of nearly 10,000 people," Alford said. "It was quite amazing to get to do that."

Herb Schwomeyer, author of the book "Hoosier Hysteria," said there are 30 high school gyms in Indiana that seat over 5,000 people.

Anderson's Wigwam follows the Fieldhouse on the list, seating 8,996. The Wigwam is different than most gyms because it has two levels of roll-out bleachers, and a stage at one end of the court. Anderson High Athletic Director Steve Schindler said the band sits on the stage during home contests except during tournaments, when there is a full set of bleachers.

Seymour's Lloyd E. Scott Gymnasium seats 8,110, but for years the top deck of the gymnasium has not pulled out its roll-away bleachers. Richmond's Tiernan Center is the fourth largest gym in the nation, seating 8,100, but according to Donald E. Hamilton's book "Hoosier Temples," Richmond no longer receives one of the states' 16 regional tournament sites because Chrysler is nearby and holds over 1,000 more fans.

However, not all historic gyms are large in size. Cannelton High School, until 1997-98, used a gym seating 1,099 people. Since then, the team uses the gym for practice purposes only and plays two blocks down the road at a newer community center. Cannelton's older gym, built in 1926, one of the oldest to be used for high school basketball, holds most of the town government offices. According to the school's athletic director, Brian Garrett, the police station has moved, but was once located at Cannelton Gymnasium.

"The gym is tiny," Garrett said. "The bleachers are so close that when you take the ball out, you're in the first row of people."

Some of Indiana's gyms have even been converted to Hollywood, being scenes in movies.

Knightstown's old gym was used as the home gym for the 1986 movie "Hoosiers." Ribeyre Gymnasium in New Harmony was used in a scene for the 1992 movie "A League of Their Own," and Frankfort's Case Arena was the home court for Western University in the 1993 movie "Blue Chips."

Of the top 10 largest high school gyms in the country, only Dallas' Alfred J. Loos Fieldhouse, which seats 7,500 and ranks as the seventh largest gym, is not located in Indiana.