Excerpt below from Wayne Engle’s article: “Here’s our Hoosier Hysteria!”
My own hometown of Madison, Indiana (southeastern also) had a period of considerable accomplishment in basketball from about 1941 to 1950, then another one in the late ’50s and early ’60s. A new coach hired in 1939 at Madison High School, Ray Eddy, took the Madison Cubs to the final game of the state tournament in 1941, although they — sadly — lost to Washington, 39-33. Then in 1949, the Cubs made it to the final game again — only to be edged by Jasper, 62-61. But Madison had its first “Mr. Basketball” that year, a hot shooter named Dee Monroe who scored 36 points in the championship game, a record for the finale at that time.
And the next year — finally — the Madison Cubs became state champions, easily downing the Lafayette Jefferson quintet, 67-44, in the final game. And they did it absent their star center, Spence Schnaitter, for most of the game, as Schnaitter received an injury early on and Eddy had to take him out. Sophomore center Morrie Lorenz came in and subbed for Schnaitter quite capably, and the rest of the starting five took up the slack.
To date, Madison hasn’t won another state championship in basketball, but in the years 1959-’62, the Cubs went undefeated during the season, three straight years. Their coach in those years was a guy named Julius “Bud” Ritter, who had played on the Evansville Bosse Bulldogs state champs of 1944 and 1945.
The key player in that long series of successes was a tall, awkward-looking All-Star named Harold “Buster” Briley.
Briley, an amiable young man, well liked but with a host of funny anecdotes that swirled around him, played forward. And he did things HIS way. Like Frank Sinatra, you might say.
Briley was a top scorer, sinking 1,985 points in four seasons in which he started every varsity game. And don’t forget, there was no 3-point shot in those days.
He had a wonderful shot from the left side, cattie-cornered from the basket (there’s a Hoosierism for you!) It was a one-hand set, although he did sometimes shoot jumpers –usually at the climax of a fast break. On his set shots, the ball would float up toward the basket, and the fan’s first thought might be, “Oh, Buster, it was too soft! It’s going to fall short!” But if you thought that, you obviously hadn’t seen Buster play before. His soft shots kept going, and going, and finally, SWISH! Two points.
And in the era of the late 1950s, when 6-4 forwards didn’t normally dribble the ball very much, Buster often did. And that was something to see. He wasn’t exactly a ballet dancer when it came to grace and agility. I can still see him roaring down the court at full speed, dribbling the ball in his own inimitable way, with his palm instead of his fingers, up high around his waist, glancing from the ball to his path and down to the ball again, constantly. But here’s the thing: You seldom saw anyone steal the ball from Buster Briley. He had it under better control than he appeared to have.
All-Star forward Larry Humes played the second leading role in those Cubs successes, and was chosen Mr. Basketball for the state in his senior year of 1962. Humes was a top-notch scorer and rebounder. All of us Madisonians felt that Briley should have gotten the honor, two years earlier; but instead it went to Ron Bonham, of Muncie Central, which had defeated the Cubs in the semi-state. Briley came in second. Both Briley and Humes starred on the court at Evansville College.