A Memorable Night in Bowman Gym is Recalled as Evansville Honors 1965 National Champs

January 25, 2015

This weekend, as the University of Evansville pays tribute to the 50th anniversary of its 1964-65 national champion men's basketball team, a former editor of the Evansville Courier & Press recalls a memorable night from that undefeated season.

Tom Tuley writes, "There are, of course, many memories of that season -- far too many to express in the space they allocate to retired newspaper editors these days. But the one that will stay with me the longest is one that even the most ardent fans did not experience, because it took place out of town. It happened on the night of Feb. 3, 1965, in Greencastle, Indiana, where I had been assigned by the Press to cover the Evansville-DePauw game. It was played on the campus in a bandbox called Bowman Gym, which could seat only 2,000 but was crammed to the rafters that night. Seats were so close to the floor that front-row spectators could actually touch the players. And it was full of students -- loud, boisterous, hostile, angry students who had not forgotten that, just three weeks before, Evansville had embarrassed their Tigers by running up 117 points in a 117-88 humiliation at Roberts Stadium. The students were out for blood."

The Aces took a 48-33 lead to the locker room at halftime, and put the Tigers away in the second period. "With five minutes left in the game, the score was 92-69 and Coach Arad McCutchan pulled starters (Larry) Humes, Jerry Sloan, Russ Grieger, Sam Watkins and Herb Williams and sent in the second string. At that moment, a strange and poignant thing happened. Those loud, boisterous, hostile, angry DePauw students rose as one and applauded, and for almost a minute the game was delayed while they gave the departing Aces a standing ovation, despite the fact they had just beaten them senseless. I had not seen anything like that before. I have not seen anything like it since." (photo: Evansville's Larry Humes and Jerry Sloan in Bowman Gym; from the DePauw Archives)

Tuley recalls, "The display so touched the Aces that, a week later, they sent a letter to the DePauw student body president, telling him 'we … were given a thrill the like of which we had never known before by the DePauw students'."

The retired sportswriter also remembers what DePauw head coach Elmer McCall said after the game, when asked why his team -- trailing by 16 points -- held the ball as time expired. With a straight face, McCall stated, "I think it was fairly obvious. We wanted to get in the last shot."

Read the complete column at the newspaper's website.

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