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E-mail your memories
and stories of Rose-Hulman Basketball!
ROSE-HULMAN
BASKETBALL MEMORIES:
"About 1977 or so
one of John Mutchner's better teams
included a player named David
Sutherland, one of Rose's all-time
leading rebounders. While Dave was
about 6'7" or so, he had a vertical
jump of about an inch and a half,
and as a casual observer I wondered
how he could get so many rebounds.
We were scheduled to play Millikin
University on a Saturday afternoon,
and we had a terrific snow storm
early Saturday morning after
Millikin had arrived Friday night.
The officials were unable to get to
Terre Haute because all the roads
were closed. Finding two local
officials with experience working
college games wasn't all that easy.
Because Coach Mutchner knew I had
officiated games with schools like
DePauw, Franklin, and Wabash, he
explained my position at Rose (I was
registrar and taught courses in the
Humanities department) to the
Millikin coach, who gave his
approval for another local official
and me to officiate the game. During
the game I discovered that one of
the ways Dave Sutherland was able to
get such good rebounding position
was by very subtly (but firmly)
pushing opponents out of the way.
With Dave sitting on the bench with
several personal fouls, the game got
very close in the second half and
the thought occurred to me, "We
could lose this game." Not a
pleasant (or appropriate?) thought
for an impartial official!
Fortunately, Rose hung on to win the
game, and several years later a
friend and Rose colleague confided
to me that in that game perhaps I
had tried a little too hard to be
"fair!" - Lou Harmening,
Registrar and Associate Professor of
American Literature, 1970-2001
"I loved watching
the faces of opposing teams and fans
when the cannon went off and “Give
'em Hell Rose” fell from the rafters
of old Shook!" - Jan Jerrell,
Circulation Coordinator, Logan
Library
"The most
memorable game that I've ever been a
part of was Rose-Hulman's 'last'
home game at Shook Fieldhouse
against Wabash College. The
largest crowd that I've ever seen
for a Rose basketball game packed
the fieldhouse for one last time,
and the Engineers hammered the
visitors from Crawfordsville in
1997. The scene around the
game is what I remember most.
Hundreds of wood blocks, pots and
pans as noisemakers, the cannon and
siren -- everything about Shook was
on display. I think my ears
were ringing for two days after that
game. The irony is that Rose
would later host the ICAC Tournament
final and an NCAA Tournament win in
Shook before it closed. Most
people don't remember that, but the
'last' game in Shook is a night that
no one who was fortunate enough to
be there could ever forget." -
Kevin Lanke, Sports Info. Director,
Class of 1997
"In
1957, Bob Bright and I
unintentionally got ourselves into a
situation before a home game with
Harris Teachers. Larry Kirts and I
were rooming together at the
fraternity house. For several days
Don Simpson had been reminding Larry
that underclassmen could not have
facial hair. Late mid-morning I
sensed that something was going on,
and found that Simpson, Bright, and
Hal Brown had jumped Larry in the
bathroom and were trying to shave
him. Of course, I had to help my
roomie so I entered the melee. After
about twenty minutes of wrestling
resembling a football fumble, a
truce was called do to exhaustion.
When game time came I could barely
move my arms. I was guarding a tall
young center playing high post. I'm
thinking that if he turns around and
faces the basket he'll find out that
I can't raise my arms and guard him.
Early in the game he turned to the
basket and I fouled him hard. He
never turned again and most of the
game my arms rested. Bright was
guarding their best player and was
suffering. Coach Carr must have been
wondering why we were so sluggish.
We were better than them, but were
lucky that the game went to
overtime. Just before overtime
stated all of my fatigue left me and
I felt terrific. I scored seven
quick points in the first minute and
the game was over, no contest. Coach
Carr looked puzzled." - Jim
Oakes, Class of 1958
"Players say the funniest things at
times when the pressure is the
greatest. Patrick Grace, who was well
known to be the most excitable and
hyperactive guy on the team, was fouled
with barely no time on the clock in a
close game. The opposing coach
attempted to ice Patrick by calling a
time-out and when he came to the bench I
told him to relax and shoot them the way
he has done a thousand times. He
responded by holding his perfectly still
left hand out for me to see and
proclaimed, “I’m ok. Look, steady as a
rock.” But before I could respond he
quickly put his left hand down and
lifted his right hand, which was
quivering and shaking like a leaf and
added, “But of course I am right
handed!!” He made the free throw and we
won the game."
- Jim Shaw, Head Coach, 1994-Present |
