When When the tunnel was sealed, was there any kind of time capsule established? If there wasn't, there should have been. Other than Old Stoney, was any of the 50's/60's "artifacts" encased anywhere? Is the possibility of a roundhouse museum the next best chance? The Hot Dogs have won four basketball state championships. Is there anything other than a few photos that survive that era? Where did everything go?
Very good questions, Ron. I do not know what would have happened to the state championship trophies but I would guess they are in the basketball museum here in Indiana.
I was in part of the tunnel you speak about here not too long ago. It still extends under the front lawn of Old Stoney about 30 feet or so. The Clinton County Historical Society had been using it for storage but there wasn't a bunch of stuff in there. When I start doing my "Frankfort Artifacts" page for Frankfort Place, I plan on getting some photos of how the tunnel looks now.
Also, as far as the era from when Frankfort won at state, I have a 16mm film being digitally transferred frame by frame over to DVD and it contains footage of basketball players from the early 1930s. I can't wait to get the film and DVD back. I looked at the film by hand and a magnifying glass and saw several players posing for the camera holding a basketball before taking a shot at the hoop. It appears to be taken at Howard Hall but I will not know for sure until I get it back from being transferred.
One thing you touched on here that other people have be recently talking about. Whatever happened to these artifacts. When they tore down Riley and Kyger School, they had the name stones and the Kyger bell removed. Somebody recently asked me if I knew where the bell was. I thought that the school had it but this guy told me they didn't. I need to make some phone calls and find out where it is and make sure it is accountible. There are a lot of people who would of like to have this bell and once out of sight, things like this become forgotten and then you never know where it went.
Wouldn't the trophies still be at the high school? I remember a large case when you went into the arena and assumed that they would be there. I was thinking that the restaurant that was connected to the Common Grounds had a lot of local sports memorabilia at one time, anyone know what happened to those items? As for when they torn down Riley, I wish I had known before hand. I heard about the open house they had the night before it was to happen and I was 1,000 miles away. It was great to find the video on youtube, but it wasn't the same as being there. I would have been happy to buy some bricks if someone was selling them, seems like that neighborhood group would have been all over that. PJ
Jim & Jan Reno purchased some boards from the Howard Hall floor and donated them to the Class of 58 for one of our Reunions. I cut them into short pieces engraved them and gave them to the class members as a memento. I believe it was also Jim & Jan that retrieved bricks from the old Frankfort High School. Again they were made into memento's, I don't remember who (it could have been Jim & Jan) but someone attached a picture of the old high school to each brick and gave it to our classmates.
Just a few weeks back, I was doing some service work at the "Night Moves" bar on N. Main St. I was looking at their dance floor that had various markings on it that looked like a puzzle that wasn't put together correctly. The markings prompted me to ask the owner where he got his wood from for the dance floor. He told me it came from Howard Hall. I told him if he ever wanted to sell any of it to contact me.
The trophys could be in some forgotten corner in "old stoney".Over the yrs.areas get remodeled and closed up.People doing the job may not look closely at the areas.I used to work in Muncie downtown and found many areas in old bldgs.forgotten by time.Those trophys could be hidden in the old tunnel or in some Indiana State basketball museum.Then again they could be unknownly stashed in someone attic who tore down Howard Hall.God knows! I think the tunnel could be a good place to check for a time capsule whether one really exists or not.Surely something of interest could be there!
