A High Flying Flyer of the 40’s


How did an ex-Ladoga Canner end up sitting in the living room of a New Market Purple Flyer legend and his legendary coach? It all started with the purchase of the best book on Indiana basketball that I have ever read. The book is entitled Hoosiers All by Emerson Houck. I picked it up at Barnes and Noble and began to leaf through it. I stopped when I saw my name in the book. What was my name doing in a book? It turns out that the author had found an article about my old friend, Charlie Bowerman, on a Wabash college blog that I had been working with. I fired off an e-mail to Emerson Houck and told him that it was the best book I had ever read because it had my name in it. He fired back an e-mail and said that he wanted to come down and visit the “Cradle.” Of course, he meant Crawfordsville, the Cradle of Indiana Basketball. Well, to make to long story even longer, he came to Crawfordsville and we toured the historic places that relate to the beginning of basketball outside its birthplace in Springfield, Massachusetts.

We started at the National City Bank building which also houses the Paper of Montgomery County. The bank building is built on the site of the old YMCA Armory, which I am convinced as are many others was the site of the first basketball game played outside the state of Massachusetts. We next visited the Basketball Heritage Project display at the old Steck’s store on Main Street. We looked through the window at the pictures, trophies, pennants, and other memorabilia placed there by Carolyn Teague and her committee. Next, we visited Bob and Marcheta Dixon’s antique store and Montgomery County Sports Museum on West Main. While Emerson was looking at old uniforms, letter sweaters, senior cords, cheerleader outfits and other items, Marcheta (a former cheerleader for the Alamo Warriors of the Charlie Bowerman era) mentioned to me that she had a photograph album that I might be interested in. That is how I ended up in the living room of a New Market Purple Flyer legend, Bill Etter on a sunny Wednesday afternoon.

The photograph album had several pictures of New Market basketball teams and individuals. One of the pictures showed three young men holding trophies. It turns out that the three young men were the only members of the Purple Flyers who played on the teams that won three straight Montgomery County Championships, an unprecedented feat which didn’t happen again until the Darlington Indians accomplished it in 1968, 1969 and 1970. The three young men who played on the County championship teams of 1939, 1940 and 1941 were Bill Etter, Bud Marts and Jr. Gardner. Being a student of Montgomery County Basketball history, I had heard of all three and their equally legendary coach, Jack Hester, who was my basketball coach at Ladoga High School in the early 50’s. Jack has the distinction of being the coach with the most County Championships in his coaching career. He was the coach of five winners at New Market and one at Ladoga. He is the only County coach to win three straight County championships. When Darlington won three straight near the end of the days before consolidation, they had two different coaches, Galen Smith, who won it in 1968 and Dave Nicholson who was the Indian coach in 1969 and 1970.

As I looked at the picture of the three young men and then at the teams that they played on, I was reminded of the story about one of those players who went on to become the only Montgomery County basketball player to play in the NBA. Earl Barton (Red) Gardner, Jr., not only played a season in the NBA, he played on a championship team with Lakers legends George Mikan and Jim Pollard. Herm Schaefer, an Indiana University graduate was also a member of the Minneapolis Lakers of 1948-49; The Minneapolis Lakers were the first NBA dynasty and became the Los Angeles Lakers of today.

The story of Red Gardner is the story that every boy who ever played basketball in Indiana dreams of starring in. He played on the team that won the first County Championship for his school. He recalled in later years that, “The celebration bonfires in the middle of town after each of the three consecutive County championships was a pleasant indoctrination into the values of winning athletics. I’m sure that the ’39, ’40, and ’41 championships contributed to a unity and feeling of pride in the whole town.” Red continued, “Harold “Jack” Hester was our coach and I’m sure we would have tried to move mountains if he had asked.” Red was named to the All-County and All-Sectional teams in both his junior and senior years and was the president and Valedictorian of his class when he graduated in 1941.

After graduating from high school, Jr. and Bill Etter, his Purple Flyer teammate of the three years when they won three straight County championships, went to Wabash and played basketball for two years. He recalled in an interview with Ted Stephenson in the Sports Tattler in 1980,”I made no impression on anyone. I was a starter for Mr. Patterson, a stern taskmaster of the freshman team, whose chief aim was to indoctrinate a group of ‘high school hotshots’ in the way of college life. Our only enjoyment was grueling scrimmages against the likes of Ray Grieve, Earl Dowd, and “Ox” Kelly, who were the mainstays of the varsity. As a sophomore, I made the varsity team, but with the above mentioned all returning, I was relegated to the bench most of the time.” Red’s teammate and good friend, Bill, played three sports during his first two years at Wabash participating in baseball, basketball and football. He became a starter at linebacker under the legendary Pete Vaughan his sophomore year. Bill’s dad, Lloyd G. Etter also played football and basketball at Wabash, winning letters in football in 1918 and 1919 and basketball in 1920.

The war had already begun and both young men left college to serve their country after a year and a half at Wabash. Jr. went into the Navy and while serving on a mine-sweeper continued to play a lot of basketball in China. His duties with the Shore Patrol still left him time to play ball. After his enlistment was up, the Navy sent him home to enroll at DePauw University and join the V12 program to become a naval officer. While at DePauw, Jr. Gardner played on the great DePauw teams of 1946-47, and 1947-48 when the Tigers were 16-3 and 14-6 respectively. Members of those DePauw teams were Stan Landon, Bill Walton, Wally Etchison, and Deac Freeland. Led by his efforts, the Tigers qualified for the NAIB (National Association of Intercollegiate Basketball) tournament after the 1946-47 season. He was the leading scorer for all three of his years at DePauw scoring 683 points, a record that placed him in the top ten Tiger scorers well into the 70’s. They also beat the Little Giants six straight times during the Gardner era at DePauw. He was named All-State and Little All-American in his junior and senior years and was recommended by Chuck Taylor of Converse shoes to the NBA, then drafted by the Minneapolis Lakers. He played in 50 games in 1948-49 and scored 89 points. After the championship season of 1948-49, Red was traded to the St. Louis Hawks for Slater Martin. He reported to the Hawks, but began to experience some physical problems that would bother him for the rest of his life and decided to leave the NBA ranks and continue his passion for basketball as a coach.

He went to Indiana University to complete a degree in Health and PE and then went to Oakwood High School outside Dayton, Ohio, where he stayed for 33 years and coached against many great Ohio teams including Middletown where the great Jerry Lucas played. Red Gardner was the head coach at Oakwood from 1952 to 1975 and had winning records for all but two seasons. His 1970-71 basketball team won the District title, which would be comparable to an Indiana regional title. His teams won the Southwest Buckeye League championships in 1964 and 1971. He was the coach in the Ohio North-South All Star game in 1971 and was named Coach of the Year for District 15, Class AA that year. Red was also the assistant coach in the Mid-Western All American Classic in 1975. He also coached golf for 18 years at Oakwood. Gardner became a member of numerous Halls of Fame including the DePauw University Hall of Fame, the Sam Andrews Educational Hall of Fame in Ohio, the Montgomery County Basketball Hall of Fame, and finally the Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame in New Castle.

The picture that you see of the three Purple Flyers holding County Championship trophies will remind County basketball fans of a great era in Montgomery County basketball. Of the three, the subject of our little article went on to a great career in basketball and education. His sister Nancy Rogers (Bob) and brother Jack Gardner still live here in Crawfordsville. Jack remembers going to Oakwood to play against his brother’s team when Bill Melvin was coaching the Purple Flyers in the early 50’s. Jack said that he and teammates Norm Surface and Mac Cash were on the team that year. It was a close game with New Market leading by a point at the end. Oakwood took a last second shot and missed. It came down between the three of them and was taken away by an Oakwood player who put it back in for the Oakwood win. That player was Barry McKay who turned out to be an outstanding tennis player for the University of Michigan and played on five Davis Cup teams. He is now highly-respected tennis announcer.

Bill Etter returned home after the war and returned to Wabash for his final two years graduating in 1948. He then became a member of the third generation of the family to be a part of Etter Ford of New Market and now Crawfordsville. Etter Ford began in 1920 when Bert Etter started the business. In 1923, Lloyd and Roy Etter who also played basketball for the Purple Flyers in the late teens, joined their father in 1923. After graduating from Wabash, Bill joined his brother John in the car business and remained until his retirement in 1990. John’s son Jeff is now the Etter of Etter’s Ford as the business is now into its fourth generation.