Remembering Danny Gray: The Dream Season of the Boys from the Old Southside of Noblesville

By DR. TERRY COOMER
I grew up in the Old Southside of Noblesville right across from South Side Park. The park was the center of attention for whatever sport was playing. It was a huge city block between 4th Street on the east, 3rd Street on the west, Pleasant Street on the north, and Washington Street on the south.
Many of the great athletes from Noblesville High School have come from the Old Southside of Noblesville. It was a man-building neighborhood! As an example, we did not play flag football, we played real tackle football! I remember the Camp boys, Jimmy Camp, a great running back for Noblesville High School. The Bradfield, Harber, Pryor, Nethery, McKinley, Schoolcraft, and Wariner boys. Yes, that’s right Steve Wariner of country music fame grew up on the Old Southside of Noblesville. Jim Tittle, Denny Russ, Ray Dixon, Jimmy Atwell, and I am sure I am missing some. There were a lot of tough boys in the Old Southside. We never played football without someone getting a bloody something or other. It was tackle football at its best. Coach Jim Belden and Phil Shelby would have loved it! Line up and hit hard! No pads and some fights!
Baseball was big as well. I owe a lot to the boys in the neighborhood as I played against the older boys every day when it was warm enough to play and they helped me to get better. Jimmy Atwell and I played many hours of catch. In 1973, I was the 78th player taken in the Major League Baseball draft by the San Francisco Giants as a pitcher. The first player in Indiana. However, this article is not about baseball or football. It is about basketball!
Recently, I read the obituary of Danny Gray, who grew up on the Old Southside of Noblesville. It made me think about “The Dream Season.” The year was 1968 and I was starting into the eighth grade. I had played basketball on the seventh grade Junior High School basketball team.
Another place that was especially important to the boys of Noblesville at the time was the Noblesville Boys Club. It was located above Kirk’s Hardware, on the square, up a mountain of stairs on the third floor. Basketball was played along with some real tough murder (dodge) ball games. I knocked plaster off the wall several times! Noblesville’s population at the time was around 7,000 people.
In 1968 the boys of the Old Southside had a discussion. What do you guys think about playing basketball for the Boys Club this year instead of the school system? Just some guys from the “Neighborhood” deciding to have some fun playing together as childhood friends. Honestly, we did not think about “winning anything” but just having some fun together.
Danny Gray, to me, was one of the most inspiring sports stores I have ever seen. Danny was going into ninth grade and the rest of us were going into eighth grade. The core of the team was Danny Gray, Larry Stidham, Joe McKinley, and me, Terry Coomer. We were the starters along with different boys from the neighborhood playing the fifth spot.
Remember, it was all about fun, not necessarily winning and it was about our friendship together and where we all grew up.
As the season started, we won a few games. Winning is always fun. Danny was taller than the rest of us, so he played center. This season was a big deal for Danny as it inspired him to want to play basketball. He was not a great athlete, but he did put in the work. As the season wore on, we continued to win. We went to Anderson and played the Wilson Boys Club. It was an intimidating gym, and it was packed for the game. Huge crowd and a lot of noise. Many people circling the court. They took their basketball seriously. A young man who many might remember was playing for Wilson Boys Club. His name was Harry Morgan, who later went to star at Indiana State University with Larry Bird. I remember that night as people were screaming from the stands, “Fling some elbows Harry, fling some elbows!” He did! This was our first loss of the season by two points. We were not too disappointed, remember, it was all about fun, but we now realized we were playing well together, and we were surprisingly good. Hey, we stayed in the game and did not get blown out. Danny held his own in the middle with the “big boys”.
The Boys Club season was structured pretty much the same as the high school tournament at the time. There was a sectional, regional, semi-state and then the state finals. Only they had different names for it. We practiced every night at the Boys Club gym.
We got to the final game of the sectional. Noblesville was the host. Because you had to have a regulation gym size, the tournament was held at North Elementary School which was new and had a regulation gym. Guess who we got to play in the championship game? You guessed it, Wilson Boys Club from Anderson!
A couple of interesting things happened. Our coach had a job transfer and was required to leave immediately for his new job. So, here we were in the championship game and no coach. Walter Smith was the Director of the Noblesville Boys Club at the time. Walter was a kind and gracious man. He came into the huddle and said, “Boys, I don’t know that much about basketball, but you are doing pretty good, so just keep doing what you are doing! I am rooting for you!”
Another thing we did, and remember we were young boys, we decided not to wear any shoes or socks for the game. Hey, we had better traction, but it did hurt when someone stepped on your foot! Just having fun and it distracted the Anderson boys. They were laughing at us, but they did not do so as the game continued. We only lost by two points the last time. The game came down to the end of regulation and was tied. There were eight seconds left. We had the full length of the floor to go. In the huddle the whole game Walt just listened to us talk and devise plays and what we were going to do. Then he would say “sounds good!” We devised the play at the end of the game, where Joe McKinley would throw the ball into me. Danny Gray lined up at the foul line under the basket (left side) with his back to the basket. I lost my man, and Joe got me the ball. Larry Stidham went to the other side of the foul line with his back to the basket. As soon as Joe got me the ball, Danny and Larry spun backward and crossed the lane. Their men got tangled up and just as I threw the ball the length of the court Danny went up got the ball and laid it in for the Noblesville Boys Club to win the championship! Perfect play designed by young boys to win a big game! I had never seen such a big smile on Danny’s face. What poise, he caught the ball perfectly and laid it in under pressure to win the game! And nobody even stepped on his foot which they were trying to do all night!
I remember Walter Smith just standing on the side lines smiling big and clapping his hands and I ran over and gave him a big hug and thanked him for letting us play. There had been some discussion about not playing because we lost our coach.
We went on and won the regional, semi-state, and the first game in the state championship where we played a Boys Club out of Gary, Indiana. The state finals were held in Shelbyville. All the teams had warm-up clothes and uniforms. We had whatever we were wearing. Money was difficult for our Boys Club at the time and no one figured we would get close to this far. We looked at the size of those boys from Gary and figured the season was over. We hit several shots from the outside and won by eight points and Danny got his fair share of rebounds. We lost the State Championship game by six points to Shelbyville. But what a season! A “dream season!” The winter of fun with just boys from the “neighborhood.” By the way we wore shoes for all the rest of the games because our feet were killing us for a week after that Anderson game! Dumber than all get out, but we had fun!
What about Danny Gray? He went out for the Noblesville High School basketball team the next season and was the last player cut and did not make the squad. This bothered Danny greatly. He wanted to make the team and play.
All through that winter Danny played basketball every night. Many nights he was down at the old Third Ward school playing. Rain, snow, it did not matter. If there were guys to play, they played games. If not, Danny would practice shooting and rebounding. He many times took a snow shovel with him and shoveled off the court so he could practice. The next Noblesville High School basketball season came around and Danny made the team!
I remember going by seeing Danny down at Third Ward just shooting on very cold evenings. He inspired me about hard work and fulfilling his dream. He made it happen. His determination was well-known. Thanks, Danny, for showing all the guys in the “neighborhood” and others what hard work really meant and that nothing is impossible with hard work. As we grew up and moved away from each other, this season kind of reminded me of the movie called The Sandlot where the boys from the “neighborhood” played. I do not know where all the boys from the “neighborhood” are now, but Danny Gray is now gone, but I wanted to share his memory and the inspiration he was to all of us. Thank you, Danny!

Dr. Terry Coomer may be reached at
drterrycoomer19@gmail.com