As tourney time nears, Perone remembers past success in basketball

Associate dean of students Al Perone, said over 10,000 people were waiting for the 1979 basketball team when they returned to Terre Haute from competing for the NCAA Championship in Salt Lake City.

Perone said the Terre Haute community was so connected with ISU that there were people three-to-four-deep down Wabash Avenue welcoming the Larry Bird-led team home after their loss to the Earvin "Magic" Johnson-led Michigan State Spartans.

"There had to have been at least 10,000 people in the Hulman Center waiting for them," Perone said. "The floor was completely filled."

Perone also said there was a lot of school pride in 1979.

"Everyone knew about the games and everyone was talking about them," he said. "At the games, the benches were on the west side [opposite of where they are currently located] and the student section was right behind the benches."

Perone also said the 1979 team had a strong fan base.

"As soon as the doors opened two hours before [the games], the seats filled up," he said. "The conference tournament was held at the site of the higher seed, so we hosted the games for the MVC; we camped outside from 12-8 a.m. for tickets to go on sale."

He said that for the second round of the tournament, the South Gym was opened to students so they could wait for the ticket office to open.

"Back then, the ticket office was on Fourth and Chestnut streets, where the women's basketball office is now," he said.

One of the most memorable moments of the 1979 season, Perone said, was Bob Heaton's half-court shot against New Mexico State University.

Perone said the Sycamores were down two points when they fouled NMSU. Heaton got the outlet off a rebound at half-court and made a shot to send the game into overtime.

"People had already started announcing that ‘ISU finally lost,'" Perone said. "This place went nuts. People took the screens out of their windows and marched to the Condit House."

ISU President Richard Landini added another day to spring break that year, Perone said.

Perone said men's basketball was not the only athletic program that was successful on the national stage in 1979.

"Gymnastics and wrestling were both top-notch in their field," he said. "We were national champions in gymnastics, and Bruce Baumgartner was national champion in wrestling."

Perone said Baumgartner also carried the flag into the arena during the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta and is the current athletic director at Edinboro University of Pennsylvania.

Perone has numerous boxes of memorabilia he has saved over the years. The memorabilia includes the Horrible Hanky — (which is similar to the Terrible Towel of the Pittsburgh Steelers)— T-shirts, pennants, bumper stickers (including one that says "Give ‘Em the Bird at Salt Lake"), 7UP bottles, Sports Illustrated magazines, a booklet titled "Bird Watchers," which lists all of Larry Bird's accomplishments, and many other pieces of memorabilia.

Perone said there was a time when he thought his memorabilia had gotten destroyed.

"I thought it was in a footlocker in my basement, which flooded," he said. "I opened it and nothing was recognizable."

Years later he opened a box that was in the attic and found a T-shirt, which led to his rediscovery of the lost memorabilia, some of which can be viewed online at

http://visions.indstate.edu and searching for "1979 basketball" on the advanced search link.
Perone's favorite piece of memorabilia is his Sycamores 7UP bottle.

"It has all of the scores and shows us as number one," he said. "It is also the only time 7UP did that for a team that didn't win the national title."

Perone is not aware whetheror not  a bottle was made to commemorate the Michigan State Spartans, who defeated ISU in the national championship.

"If there's a Michigan State one, it wouldn't be on my shelf…unless it‘s in pieces," he joked.