NEW CASTLE, Ind. (AP) - Before Harry “Flo” Flournoy starred on Texas Western’s ground-breaking 1966 NCAA championship team, he was grabbing rebounds at a near-record rate for Emerson High School in Gary, Indiana.
Now the retired educator and salesman, who finished his career as Emerson’s No. 2 career rebounder, will be inducted the Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame. The entire class was announced Tuesday, with the induction ceremony set for March 25.
Flournoy was the top rebounder on the first Division I college basketball team to start five black players, a team featured in the movie “Glory Road.” He also appeared on the cover of Sports Illustrated following the title game, pulling a rebound away from Kentucky’s Pat Riley, who played on the Lakers 1972 NBA championship team and went on to win five NBA titles coaching the Lakers and Heat.
Thirteen other former Indiana high school players and contributors also will be honored, along with Marion’s 1985 state championship team - the sixth in Indiana history to complete an undefeated season and the eighth to be inducted as a team.
The list includes Centennial Award recipient Herman “Suz” Sayger, who scored a state record 113 points in one game as a junior at Culver before graduating in 1914. Sayger went on to have single-game scoring efforts of 79, 55 and 52 points as a senior and averaged 29.5 points during the season. He played football and basketball at Heidelberg College, earning all-Ohio honors in both sports, before coaching both sports and becoming the school’s athletic director. Sayger died in 1970.
Others being inducted are:
- John Bass, the 1941 Mr. Basketball Award. The Greenwood star led Johnson County in scoring for three seasons before serving in World War II. He died in April 1989.
- Harold “Buster” Briley, who scored a school record 1,985 at Madison High School and was part of Evansville’s 1964 NCAA College Division national championship team.
- Danny Brown, a 1973 Indiana All-Star who scored a school record 1,960 points at Jennings County before playing college basketball at Louisville.
- Bill Depp, who still has the highest career scoring average (27.5 points) in Johnson County history. He had 65 points and 31 rebounds in one game as a senior, starred at Vanderbilt and was drafted by the NBA’s Boston Celtics in 1961.
- Rick Goins, who led Rushville to a state runner-up finish in 1976 and became an Indiana All-Star. He set school records for points in a game (45), points in a season (622) and career scoring average (18.4) and graduated from Miami (Ohio) as the school’s No. 6 career scorer.
- Jerry Lewis, who set NAIA single season record for free-throw percentage (93.8) at Indiana Central College. He also won 354 games as a prep coach at Roachdale, North Miami and Norwell.
- Vic Molodet, an East Chicago Washington star who was a three-time All-ACC selection at North Carolina State. He led Everett Case’s team to three straight conference championships in the 1950s and was part of one of the most celebrated draft classes in NBA history — when the Celtics took Bill Russell, Tom Heinsohn, K.C. Jones, Sam Jones and Molodet in 1956.
- Marvin Pruett, who led Springs Valley to an undefeated regular season and the state finals in 1959 and became an Indiana All-Star that season, the first year the school existed. He scored 1,625 points and averaged 25.1 points as a senior.
- Roger Schroder, who played on Milan’s 1954 state championship team, competed in three sports at Franklin College and spent 31 years coaching and teaching in the Indianapolis area.
- Dan Sparks, a Bloomington High School star who played on Vincennes’ 1965 junior college national championship team and in the ABA. In 33 seasons as a coach at Vincennes and Wabash, he won 869 games — more games than any other college coach during their tenure in the state.
- Dean Weirich, who scored 1,823 points at Northridge to become Elkhart County’s career scoring leader. He averaged 31.8 points and 16 rebounds as a senior in 1971-72.
- Longtime referee Jimmy Dimitroff, this year’s Silver Medal winner. He is estimated to have worked 8,000 high school and college games including five Indiana high school state finals, the Indiana-Kentucky All-Star series and the Hall of Fame Classic.
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