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Did you attend the same HS as...

Richmond Red Devils - Woody and Chad Austin

I was an acquaintance w Chad as we were both athletes in HS, both went to PU, etc, but he was a year older than me. I would see him at Wiley Hall once in a while, while visiting friends, and we would say hello and give a head nod. Bout it.

1992 State Champs, baby!!
Wasn't Damon Lewis on that team?
 
I went to Anderson Highland, which produced Linc Darner, who was a couple years ahead of me. I was friends with his brother who went to Appalachian State.
 
I played baseball at Elmhurst little league for years - that was my childhood. My parents both graduated from Elmhurst High School in Ft Wayne around 69 or 70. My dad played there and tells me stories of a few big guys that he played with to this day that got recruited by Knight. He was an IU fan growing up but now is for the boilers because I went to school there.

My dad graduated from Elmhurst in the late 60's too. I know they had a solid team back then with some height.
 
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Overlapped a couple of years with Bruce "Fireman" Rose at Haworth High in Kokomo. He became a good 6th man for us in the mid-70s.
 
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Elkhart Central in the late 80's. When Shawn Kemp was at Concord, we had 3 guys transfer from Central to Concord to play with him. Steve Larkin, Maceo Sharp and Jamar Johnson (whom I happened to be pretty good friends with and was a helluva football player. JJ went on to play point/shooting guard at Nebraska).
Two of my football buddies went to PU to play football, one OL and one LB.
Also, Dave Schnell was a SR when I was in 7th or 8th grade. He was the No.1 rated QB in the country (on the cover of SI I believe) and ended up at IU (he took my sister to the prom his Sr year). We were ranked #1 and Penn #2 and lost to Penn in the old 'cluster' playoff format when Penn let the grass grow to about a foot high and wet it down the day of the game to negate Central's speed advantage.
Sadly, Dave lost his battle with cancer about a year or so ago.
 
Yes sir. Damon and Chad were great friends. I used to see them at PU together all the time. I knew Damon about as well as I knew Chad.

Damon got a full ride to play football, and was doing very well, but got busted selling cocaine back in Richmond one summer (I think 97ish), and that was that.
Yeah, I hung out with Damon quite a bit at Purdue. I was always amazed how he could dunk at 6'2" 350! I just couldn't remember if it was Richmond he attended.
 
Fort Wayne South, same as our very own Ray Davis.
Cameron Stephens went there also. I remember him hitting a 1/2 court shot at the Coliseum to win either sectionals or regionals. That's when HS basketball in Indiana was great. I miss having all the FW schools playing their.
 
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I was at Ft. Wayne Snider at the same time as Geno Parker (Eugene's son). I believe he was a Purdue walk-on for a year or two. Also, it's not basketball but Rod Woodson. Maybe there's some I don't know of (i.e. pre 1980's) and am excluding. If CMP and staff get him, Malik Williams can be added.
 
BTW, just went to the Fort Wayne Community Schools Middle School City Championships a few days ago. Guess who was the head coach of the winning boys team (Blackhawk Middle School)?
 
BTW, just went to the Fort Wayne Community Schools Middle School City Championships a few days ago. Guess who was the head coach of the winning boys team (Blackhawk Middle School)?
Wow, had know idea Cam was coaching now. Good for him.
 
I was at Ft. Wayne Snider at the same time as Geno Parker (Eugene's son). I believe he was a Purdue walk-on for a year or two. Also, it's not basketball but Rod Woodson. Maybe there's some I don't know of (i.e. pre 1980's) and am excluding. If CMP and staff get him, Malik Williams can be added.
Nah, that's it from Snider. I believe the Gill twins or one of them played for Women's team in 80's.
 
Wow, had know idea Cam was coaching now. Good for him.
Bingo! (Cam/Cameron Stephens) Those Wednesday games just happened to be held at his alma mater (South Side HS) as well. They must recruit or "influence" because Blackhawk had a couple of studs for middle school age.
 
Bingo! (Cam/Cameron Stephens) Those Wednesday games just happened to be held at his alma mater (South Side HS) as well. They must recruit or "influence" because Blackhawk had a couple of studs for middle school age.
They've always been pretty good. FWCS has the open transfer rule, so I think they get a lot of the top kids from that.
 
Attended Andrean; home of Brandon Brantley and Carson Cunningham; Carson was a year ahead of me but we were in a couple of classes together; dude would read the newspaper in class then get the highest grade in class on every exam.

Our 95/96 team was loaded and had Reynard Jones not gotten mono and we'd not drawn West Side in the first game of sectionals (they were led by the McQuay brothers) I think we'd have won state that year; the team was loaded. Ironically, WS wound up losing to Lew Wallace in the sectional finals and LW went all the way to the semi state finals and lost to Lafayette Jeff (hard to win when it's 7 on 5 and the refs are clearly jobbing the team from NWI).
 
Attended Andrean; home of Brandon Brantley and Carson Cunningham; Carson was a year ahead of me but we were in a couple of classes together; dude would read the newspaper in class then get the highest grade in class on every exam.

Our 95/96 team was loaded and had Reynard Jones not gotten mono and we'd not drawn West Side in the first game of sectionals (they were led by the McQuay brothers) I think we'd have won state that year; the team was loaded. Ironically, WS wound up losing to Lew Wallace in the sectional finals and LW went all the way to the semi state finals and lost to Lafayette Jeff (hard to win when it's 7 on 5 and the refs are clearly jobbing the team from NWI).
Glad to see after all these years you let it go... Lol
 
Played with Denny Gamauf at CPHS (I sat the bench!). Denny was an incredible athlete, completely ambidextrous, and an even better person. His father was very controlling and would rarely, if ever, let him off the family farm so we would gather at his home to play basketball in his barn. CPHS was terrific but Gary Tolleston and EC Roosevelt were roadblocks. Denny is now a youth minister and occasional baller.
 
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Attended Andrean; home of Brandon Brantley and Carson Cunningham; Carson was a year ahead of me but we were in a couple of classes together; dude would read the newspaper in class then get the highest grade in class on every exam.

Our 95/96 team was loaded and had Reynard Jones not gotten mono and we'd not drawn West Side in the first game of sectionals (they were led by the McQuay brothers) I think we'd have won state that year; the team was loaded. Ironically, WS wound up losing to Lew Wallace in the sectional finals and LW went all the way to the semi state finals and lost to Lafayette Jeff (hard to win when it's 7 on 5 and the refs are clearly jobbing the team from NWI).
There has never been as long a string of unearned victories than Jeff had from like the forties through the nineties. Marion Crawley sat right under the basket and made it quite clear that if a ref ever wanted another NCC game, he'd better get this game turned around.

In 1965, Otterbein was picked to beat Jeff in the regionals. Even the J&C said Otterbein would win. Otterbein was up 7 or 8 at the half and within 90 seconds of the second half, three fouls had been called on their tallest player. It was blatant . . . but so were many, many other games.
 
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Went to Valparaiso with Robbie Hummel, and Scott Martin. I didn't really know Scott Martin until he played at Purdue, I got asked if I was related to him...No, I'm a foot shorter than him, I don't think so haha. Hummel lived close to people I know, and had friends of friends. There were a few interactions, but I was a grade above, so no classes. Me and my friend who was in his class were at the fair at Robbie crossed paths, apparently if he made the NBA he owed him a PS2 or something. Also went to school with Jeff Samarzija, had weight lifting class with him, but never talked to him.
 
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We have a few days until our big game with UMD. I thought it would be interesting if any of you went to the same HS as a Purdue BB player and did you attend at the same time? What memories do you have of them as a player and person?

I attended FW Concordia, where Eugene Parker and Ricky Hall attended and they both predated me quite a bit. So I really don't have a great story to add to my own thread but was curious if others might....


Got an anecdote that sort of fits this thread. I once played football with a future hall-of-famer but no one would have guessed it that day. See if you can decipher who I am talking about. (Answer will be revealed at the end.)
In the Fall of '85, several of us were playing sandlot FB on the south field of the school many of us attended. Up rides this black kid on a moped, asking if he can play. Mind you, having graduated from this school, well within a decade of this time , I can only recall black kids from 2 families who also attended; the rest of us were lily-white, as were all of us playing FB that day. Several of us recognized the kid on the moped, and, excitedly told him he shouldn't play because he might get hurt for basketball, for which he was known. (He actually was a freshman starter on a sectional champion the previous winter.) Well, the youth said very resignedly, "I don't care", and he stayed and plated QB. I appreciated the fact that, at that moment, this child who was to gather so much fame and adulation in the next 2 decades, just wanted to be a kid! It was Shawn Kemp. One of the few athletes at that time to play on a State Finalist team in both FB and BB.
 
I was at Lafayette Jeff with Ryan Berning but he was a couple of years ahead of me. I graduated with the worst Indiana Mr. Basketball possibly ever. Do you remember Mark Jewell who ended up going to Iowa. I think he ended up lasting two years there and rarely played so he left.
what year did you graduate? I was 89 and remember the same.
 
Gerald Thomas (player on Connersville's 1972 State Championship team) was an undergrad at Purdue when I was in grad school. Purdue won the NIT in 1974 with Thomas. Missy Taylor was a Boilermaker for a year before she transferred to Louisville.
I am from Connersville ...long after Gerald though.....
 
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I am from Connersville ...long after Gerald though.....

I am also from Connersville. Gerald was new at Purdue when I was finishing up. Had a small conversation one day in the Union building. He was very accommodating and nice to talk with. Glad he is a Boilermaker.
 
No one from my high school...but I played basketball at Tri-State (now Trine) with Etwauns older brother Ezel.

Also the Matt Pike works at a play it again sports part time here in Chicago...I had to get some hockey equipment for my 4 year old. I remembered him because I grew up not to far from Huntington and my high school (Norwell) used to play them...
 
I was at Lafayette Jeff with Ryan Berning but he was a couple of years ahead of me. I graduated with the worst Indiana Mr. Basketball possibly ever. Do you remember Mark Jewell who ended up going to Iowa. I think he ended up lasting two years there and rarely played so he left.

Did you take HS Chemistry?
 
No one from my high school...but I played basketball at Tri-State (now Trine) with Etwauns older brother Ezel.

Also the Matt Pike works at a play it again sports part time here in Chicago...I had to get some hockey equipment for my 4 year old. I remembered him because I grew up not to far from Huntington and my high school (Norwell) used to play them...

I live in Ossian 200 yards away from Heyerly’s bakery. Norwell is 2-3 miles away.
 
Ft Wayne North-- I was a soph on reserve BB while Matts dad- Dave Painter played varsity his SR year---- he was really a tough small forward-- meanwhile then my Sr. year we finished second in state finals to Indy Washington and played against Bill Kellar and Ralph Taylor, both on that team

Matt's dad is Mike.

We went to one of North's games against FW Central. North was leading by about 10 at half, but ran out of gas. Mike was a tremendous jumper and a great player.

Did you play with Matt's uncle at North?
 
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