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GWHS boys basketball team celebrates 50th anniversary of state title

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As people started filing into The Workingman’s Friend on the night of March 22, their conversations were at first overcome by the loud music pouring from a makeshift DJ’s table in the corner. Some wanted it turned down, but it soon didn’t even matter. No one could hear “My Girl” and “War” over the sound of old friends and classmates reminiscing about what some consider to be the greatest Indiana high school basketball team to ever lace ‘em up.

They were there to celebrate the 1969 George Washington High School boys basketball team, which went a perfect 31-0 to capture its second — and last — state tournament championship. Some of the players from that team, along with cheerleaders, teachers and community supporters, saw old photos, gawked at the trophy on display and shared a cake with the team photo on it.

They brought their stories, too, from beating Marion High School in the afternoon game that day to winning a state title over Gary Tolleston High School.

Somewhere out there, there’s a photo of Steve Stanfield holding his championship ring in a fist high above his head, and in the background is a Gary Tolleston player sulking in defeat. Stanfield said he didn’t play much that year as a sophomore, but he had “the best seat in the house.”

“The comradery we’ve had throughout the years through basketball, it’s just phenomenal,” Stanfield said after former cheerleaders led everyone in a rendition of what used to be the Friday pep rally at George Washington.

Not everyone could be at the reunion, but many of the players from that team still live in the Indianapolis area and get together from time to time. It’s a bond that is evidenced in the way they played half a century ago.

Playing against Marion in the afternoon game, with a berth in the state title game on the line, Steve Downing picked up what would have been his fifth foul, disqualifying him from the rest of the game, but the legendary George McGinnis quickly raised his hand toward the scorer’s table so he would be charged with the foul. George Washington went on to win that game, 61-60, behind 27 points from McGinnis.

“George McGinnis was the best player I ever knew,” Downing said. “It made us all competitive. We played hard against each other because we wanted to win. My game developed because of George’s greatness.”

As kids, those George Washington players watched the great Crispus Attucks High School teams of the 1950s dominate with all-time greats such as Oscar Robertson, who served as motivation. When George Washington won its state title in 1969, it became the third team to complete an undefeated season, joining Crispus Attucks in 1956 and South Bend Central in 1957.

McGinnis was recovering from back surgery and couldn’t be at the reunion, but he said in a phone interview with the Recorder that his 1969 George Washington team ranks up at the top of his great athletic accomplishments, which included a 13-year professional basketball career.

“All of our guys seem to be doing very well off the court,” he said, “so all those things, to me, not only make me feel good about the guys I played with, but it makes me feel honored that I got to play with that group of guys.”

The team piled on McGinnis after the final buzzer. He scored 35 points and had 27 rebounds that game, one of the great individual efforts Indiana’s state tournament had ever seen, but he said one of his lasting memories from that game was someone who scored only two points. Jim Arnold chipped in a pair of free throws late to help George Washington secure a narrow 79-76 win. All these years later, he said he just felt a sense of relief.

“Put yourself in the mind of an 18-year-old,” he said. “You’re doing stuff you love to do. You’ve hit the pinnacle of high school basketball in the state. It was just fun. You felt really happy. I’m not gonna give you some big words. We were just happy and excited that we won.”

 

Contact staff writer Tyler Fenwick at 317-762-7853. Follow him on Twitter @Ty_Fenwick.

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