Going by Land: An Ode to the Forgotten Blackhawk

By Randy Mills | August 6, 2022 | Comments Off on Going by Land: An Ode to the Forgotten Blackhawk

Some would argue that the 1970s were a part of the golden age of Indiana high school basketball. The single…

“A Heart-Beat Away”: Larry Bird and the St. Ferdinand/Springs Valley 1964 Huntingburg Sectional Final Game

By Randy Mills | June 12, 2022 | Comments Off on “A Heart-Beat Away”: Larry Bird and the St. Ferdinand/Springs Valley 1964 Huntingburg Sectional Final Game

As I continue to work on a book about Larry Bird’s high school basketball senior year, I keep running across…

Tornado Season

By Randy Mills | April 23, 2022 | Comments Off on Tornado Season

Like other young boys growing up in the 1950s in the Horse Creek region of rural southern Illinois, I was…

How the Fabulous Fox Found His Place in the Game He Loved. 

By Randy Mills | April 9, 2022 | Comments Off on How the Fabulous Fox Found His Place in the Game He Loved. 

  It was late October in southern Illinois, a time when the leaves were morphing into astounding colors of yellow,…

King of the Hay Fields

By Randy Mills | March 15, 2022 | Comments Off on King of the Hay Fields

My first real job, hauling hay for a farmer I hardly knew, started on a bad note.  This was in…

The Oldest Things on Earth

By Randy Mills | March 5, 2022 | Comments Off on The Oldest Things on Earth

My dad loved to quail hunt, a yearly ritual that began during the relatively warm Indian summer days of November.…

Bringing Audiences to Their Feet: Oakland City College and the Evolution of Early Basketball in Indiana

By Randy Mills | January 30, 2022 | Comments Off on Bringing Audiences to Their Feet: Oakland City College and the Evolution of Early Basketball in Indiana

In 1891, James Naismith was tasked by his employer at the Y.M.C.A. International Training School at Springfield, Massachusetts, to come…

Remembering Indiana Soldier Dick Wolfe

By Roxanne Mills | December 31, 2021 | Comments Off on Remembering Indiana Soldier Dick Wolfe

January 6, 2022, will mark the 54th year anniversary of the Vietnam War battle of Xom Bung, a fight that…

“The Best High School Basketball Coach in the State of West Virginia”: Remembering Coach Paul Greer

By Randy Mills | December 27, 2021 | Comments Off on “The Best High School Basketball Coach in the State of West Virginia”: Remembering Coach Paul Greer

Those of us who have come to believe that Indiana is the only state that harbored great boys’ high school…

The Road Taken

By Randy Mills | December 3, 2021 | Comments Off on The Road Taken

I’ve always enjoyed doing research, seeking out and discovering interesting but unexplored stories about people that reveal long hidden dramas…

An Answer to a Prayer: Coach Charlie Trafton, Curt Gilstrap, and a Forgotten Era of Oakland City College Basketball

By Randy Mills | October 19, 2021 | Comments Off on An Answer to a Prayer: Coach Charlie Trafton, Curt Gilstrap, and a Forgotten Era of Oakland City College Basketball

In the early morning hours of May 30, 1986, Oakland City College’s Student Memorial Gymnasium was destroyed by a fire…

A Seething Presence: My Boyhood Adventures in Haunted Houses

By Randy Mills | September 19, 2021 | Comments Off on A Seething Presence: My Boyhood Adventures in Haunted Houses

Of all my boyhood adventures in rural southern Illinois, nothing ever matched the experience of exploring, with my older brother,…