Hall of Famer has Greene County roots
Wednesday, July 18, 2012
By B.J. Hargis, Sports Editor
Larry “Buddy” Graham is shown above during his playing days at Odon High School The Greene County native, originally from Scotland, was recently inducted into the Indiana High School Basketball Hall of Fame. (Submitted photo).
When you look at the resume of Larry “Buddy” Graham, it doesn’t first appear that he has any ties to Greene County. But upon further investigation, Graham, who earlier this year was inducted into the Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame, cannot deny his local roots.
“He was a year behind me in school,” said Bill Asdell, who attended Scotland School with Graham before it closed after the 1954-55 school year. “We played a lot of basketball on a goal out back of the school in Scotland.
“We just did what typical kids do in summer time — we played basketball, baseball and softball. We had a normal relationship.”
The 1959 regional championship Odon Bulldogs are pictured after winning the Huntingburg Regional, defeating the host 60-58 in the title game. Larry “Buddy” Graham is pictured is the back row (second from left, No. 35). Graham led the Bulldogs in scoring, ending up the all-time leading scorer at OHS. (Submitted photo).
When SHS closed its doors for good, some of the students ended up at Bloomfield and some went to Odon, a town of 1,500 then with a school enrollment of 240.
“A few like Bud went to Odon and the rest of us went to Bloomfield,” he said. “We lived right across the street from each other. The bus would come to Scotland every morning and pick up the kids to go to Odon.”
Graham said his stepfather was from Odon and that was one of the reasons he ended up at a school in Daviess County instead of Greene.
Above is a current photo of Larry “Buddy” Graham. He went to school in Scotland before it closed in 1955. He finished up his academic and athletic career at Odon High School. (Submitted photo)
“My stepdad showed up in the fifth grade and I thank God he did. I guess you could say he steered me toward Odon,” said Graham. “Bill was a year ahead of me in school and he went to Bloomfield.
“It was funny that we lived in the same neighborhood, but went to different schools. Bill was a really great player at Bloomfield, where he was part of some very good teams.”
Graham described himself as a self-made player.
“I had no money or job, so I played basketball all the time,” said Graham, who went on to become Odon’s all-time leading scorer. “I wasn’t very good at first.
“There was a nice place to play at the Scotland School and I played all the time. A lot of town’s people probably thought there was something wrong with me because I was always playing. We would sneak into the gym and people knew about it, but I don’t think they cared.”
Graham kept working on his game and he kept growing in skills as well as stature.
“I had grown to about 6-1 as a freshman,” said Graham. “That was tall back in those days.”
Graham became a three-year starter at Odon, before graduating in 1960. He finished with 1,387 points, all-time best for the Bulldogs. He also grabbed 929 career rebounds as he helped OHS finish 61-18 in his prep career. They posted a 17-7 record in 1957-58.
As a junior in 1959, Odon defeated Elnora (60-42), Washington Catholic (58-34), Shoals (52-38) and the host Hatchets 59-46 to win the Washington Sectional, the only such title in school history.
“They had beaten us in the sectional championship game the year before,” said Norm Beasley, who started along side Graham. “They tried to intimididate us in the locker room before the game in ’59.
“After we beat them, we knew we could beat anybody. “Bud was a fantastic player. I don’t think people realized how good he was and the numbers that he kept putting up.”
At the Huntingburg Regional, the Bulldogs took out Vincennes 63-61 and host Huntingburg 60-58 in the title game at the Huntingburg Memorial Gymansium, winning the only regional at OHS.
“Vincennes was a tough game in the afternoon,” recalled Beasley. “Huntingburg might have been our best games.
“When they were doing their 50th year anniversary celebration, they asked me to come down, but I had no idea what for. Our game was voted as the second most memorable game in the history of the gym at Huntinburg.”
Odon defeated Brazil 78-65 at the Evansville Semistate before falling to New Albany 70-68 in a game that was the last sudden death overtime game in IHSAA history (if an OT game got to a second overtime, the first team that scored won). They finished 27-4 that season.
“New Albany was a very physical team. They had a couple of players who were on their mythical state championship football team. When they fouled you, they left a scar,” said Beasley.
Beasley said that their only losses came to Bloomfield in the Wabash Valley, Montgomery and Washington before New Albany.
“We were picked to win the Wabash Valley and we read our clippings and forgot to play Bloomfield,” he said. “We had beaten them (66-56) a couple of weeks earlier and we did not think they could beat us.
“Montgomery beat us by one or two and they shouldn’t have. Four or five games later, we lost to WC in the Birdcage in a game that came down to the last play. But we had great chemistry and had high expectations. We beat some good teams. At first the newspapers said we were upsetting people but soon they realized it was not an upset. That put a chip on our shoulders.”
Although they could have become teammates, Asdell and Graham became opponents when Bloomfield and Odon met on the court.
“Bill was a great player at Bloomfield,” said Graham, who added that when in junior high he remembers playing at the park in Bloomfield in front of Hall of Fame Cardinal coach Guy Glover. “He was really fast and he could jump too.”
Asdell said the Cardinals split two games against Odon in 1958-59.
“They beat us by 10 at Odon early in the season,” said Asdell. “Then we happened to play them at Switz City in the Wabash Valley prelims and we beat them by 12 over there.
“But to be honest, I really did not like it very much — playing against a good friend. Obviously he wanted to win and I want to win.”
Graham, who was MVP of a Indiana North-South All-Star team that battled against Ohio, was hoping for a third meeting that season.
“They had really good teams back then. Bloomfield had won the sectional too and was playing at the regional (Bloomington),” said Graham. “We would have played them at the semistate but they lost to Brazil (67-58) at the regional.
“I liked competing against Bill and Bloomfield. It would have been great to have had another chance to play them, this time at the semistate.”
Beasley wondered if Odon or Bloomfield basketball history would have been different if Asdell, who scored 756 career points at BHS before graduating in 1959, had went to Odon or if Graham had attended Bloomfield.
“Bloomfield people say they could have envisioned winning the state,” said Beasley. “Bill would have added to our talent at Odon too, but we were pretty good.
“It’s not to say we would have been better because Bill would have replaced someone that was part of our line-up. But it is ironic that you could throw a rock and hit their houses from each other’s yard with no problem at all and they played on different teams. But I would have loved to have played Kokomo with Jimmy Rayl in the Final Four in 1959.”
Graham said that Bloomfield always had good teams, winning seven straight sectionals from 1959 to 1965 including regionals in 1961 and 1965 as players like Asdell, Danny Roach and Dan McGhee were standouts for the Cardinals. He added that Roach attended LSU.
Graham said Odon was led by coach Floyd Henson, who left after that season to come to Linton. He added that Benny Hanna, Richard Kaiser, Dallas Myers, Stanley Sims and Beasley were some of his teammates.
“Beasley was a cocky gunner who got hot in the tournament. He added that Dallas Myers hit a last-second shot to beat Huntingburg. Hanna had some good games in the tournament. The whole team played well, according to the Hall of Famer.
Graham, who had career averages of 17.4 points and 11.8 rebounds per game at Odon, was called a legend by Beasley.
“He was deceptively fast, an extremely good shooter and stronger than what he looked,” said Beasley, who along with Asdell played at Indiana Central College in Indianapolis. “Buddy was an outstanding rebounder, grabbing 35 rebounds against Shoals, which was unheard of back then.
“He never got rattled and was always calm.”
Graham said he did not play in the fourth quarter much during his junior season. “I think I averaged 18, but probably could have scored 27,” he said. “But it was more important to win. As a senior, I scored about 24 per game.
“Against Vincennes in the regional, I remember playing against Norman Starks, who was later my teammate at VU. He dunked the ball and then he blocked my shot. The first time I shot from 15 feet, I missed the whole rim, but I ended up hitting a last-second shot to win the game.”
Graham said his career high was 39 points and he scored 35 a couple of times.
Kaiser, who was a sophomore sub in 1958-59, said that a bad call cost them a chance to go to Butler Fieldhouse for the state finals.
“Buddy ended up taking the last shot and he was fouled,” Kaiser said of the double overtime loss to New Albany. “They had a photo which showed the guy grabbing Buddy’s forearm.
“But that was one of those breaks. We had a very good basketball team and they knew each other so well.”
Beasley said each team made a free throw in the first overtime and that Buddy was fouled in the second OT.
“Buddy will tell you he should have faked it,” said Beasley. “Bud control the tip to begin the second overtime and we held the ball right until the end.
“There was a jump ball at the end as both teams went for the rebound. We were tickled to death when a guy from New Albany threw up a NBA 3-pointer at the buzzer, until it went in to win the game.”
Graham went to Florida State University on scholarship briefly before ending up at Vincennes University.
“Coach Henson had a good friend at Florida State. I went down there but I left right away,” said Graham. “I talked to Allen Bradfield at Vincennes University and got lucky and was able to get a scholarship. They shipped everything to me COD.
“As it turned out, I needed community college to mature. From there, I ended up at Texas Wesleyan in Fort Worth, playing for Indiana native Elmer Hanebutt from Huntingburg. He recruited a lot of players from Indiana.”
Beasley said that Graham scored over 21 points per game during his two seasons in Vincennes.
“I played in college and he was as good as I ever played against,” said Beasley. “He’s got the credentials (to be in the Hall of Fame).
“He went on and had a very good college career. I know he made made me a better player.”
Graham wanted to play professional basketball but he realized that dream was coming to an end.
“Coach Hanebutt told me and that was the first time I had heard that I wasn’t good enough to play pro ball,” said Graham. “I still wanted to be around basketball so I ended up in coaching.
He said his first year as a coach was 1965-66 at North Knox.
“I coached with Rich Jones, who was one of the best coaches I was ever around. For years, I used some of the stuff that he introduced me to.”
Jones and Graham were both fired after that season.
“I did not know it until recently that Buddy was fired about week after they let me go,” said Jones, who had won the Vincennes Sectional in 1965 at North Knox. “He was my assistant right out of college.
“He got in the Hall of Fame in Indiana because of his days as a player and he is in the Illinois Hall of Fame because of his ability to coach. He is extremely knowledgable and a gentleman all the way. He is very deserving.”
After Jones was let go, Graham wanted to stay in Indiana, but nothing opened up.
“I went over to Illinois and ended up at a couple of small schools,” he said. “I ended up interviewing at Madison and that was the turning point of my coaching career.”
From 1969-70 to 1983-84, he won 312 games and lost 103. In 15 seasons. he had just one losing season and his teams won 24 or more games in eight different seasons.
His 1977 and 1981 teams won state championships and his 1980 squad finished fourth.
After that, Graham, who still teaches at Lindenwood University in St. Charles, MO, coached for eight seasons at Southern Illinois-Edwardsville, one of his four head coaching jobs at St. Louis area colleges. His team went 147-84 at Edwardsville.
He won over 806 games in high school and college and was named Illinois Class A Coach of the Year in 1977 and 1981. In 2007, he was named one of the “100 Legends of the Illinois High School Basetball tournament.”
“I had some really great players at Madison,” he said. “The first state title happened so quickly. I think I had the chance to enjoy the second one more.
“Ron Jones was one of my players. He went to Illinois State and was runner-up MVP in the Missouri Valley Conference in the late 70s.”
Graham had time to reflect on his career.
“I am kind of amazed it happened,” said Graham, who said he was a laid back coach that did not yell or cuss much, but was a pretty big crybaby with the referees. “I was just blessed to be in the right place at the right time.
“I have always been a basketball junkie that loves to be in the gym. I feel very fortunate to have had all this success.”
Asdell said that he was tickled to death for Graham. “He dedicated most of his life to playing and coaching basketball. This is well deserved.”
Beasley said that Buddy always had a great desire for the game and that helped fuel his success.
“It was fantastic to play with and to go to battle with Buddy and the guys. We held our own,” said Beasley. “Teammates were never critical of Bud and you never heard him criticize teammates.
“There were many people that went to the Hall of Fame dinner. He was so well liked and would have won any popularity contest, hands down. We are all so happy for him.”