Two Hamilton County basketball legends are among the 17 members of the Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame’s 2022 Men’s Induction Class, which was announced Tuesday by the organization’s Board of Directors.
Tony Etchison, a 1991 graduate of Noblesville and Doug Mitchell, a 1975 Hamilton Heights graduate who was a long-time coach at North Central, will both be honored along with the other inductees at the 60th Men’s Awards Banquet on Wednesday, March 23, 2022. The day’s events will include a reception at the Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame museum in New Castle that afternoon with a banquet that evening at the Primo Banquet Hall in Indianapolis.
Etchison was a four-year varsity starter at Noblesville High School, where he scored 1,357 career points and led Noblesville to three consecutive sectional titles in 1989, 1990 and 1991. He was named all-county four years, all-sectional and all-regional three years, all-conference, all-Indianapolis Metro and was the 1990 and 1991 Hamilton County Player of the Year. Etchison averaged 22.8 points, five rebounds and four assists per game as a senior. On scholarship at Mercer University, he was a two-year starter earning all-academic honors four years and led the TransAmerican Conference in three-point shooting. He died in 2019 at the age of 47.
Mitchell established North Central as a state power. In 25 seasons leading the Panthers, his teams won 428 games (71 percent) and a pair of IHSAA 4A championships while coaching nine Indiana All-Stars and four All-Americans. Leading the North Central program from 1992-2018, Mitchell’s teams claimed four MIC conference titles, four Marion County Tournament championships, won 11 sectionals, four regionals, and three semi-states, claiming 1999 and 2010 4A championships and 2007 4A state runner-up. He coached four Indiana Mr. Basketball winners (Jason Gardner, AJ Ratliff, Eric Gordon and Kris Wilkes) each who were recognized as McDonald’s All-Americans. Mitchell was an assistant coach in the 2003 McDonald’s All-American game, an assistant for USA Basketball multiple times and head coach of the 2008 Gold Medal USA Basketball Junior National Team. Prior to his coaching success, he was a standout as a player at Hamilton Heights, where he totaled 1,167 career points, was the 1975 Hamilton County Player of the Year and led the Huskies to a 1975 sectional championship, the first for the school in 35 years. A scholarship player at Butler University, he received the Hilton U. Brown Mental Attitude as a senior in 1979. He resides in Fishers.
Reservations will soon be available online or through mail order in early 2022. Call the Hall at 765-529-1891, visit www.hoopshall.com or email info@hoopshall.com for more information.