Ramblin' Reck: ISU class of ’58 reunites to share stories of sports, life

By Tom Reck
Tribune-Star Correspondent

TERRE HAUTE April 28, 2008 11:01 pm

— Time flies, they say, when you are having fun.
That old saying seemed to be true during the weekend while taking part in reunion festivities at Indiana State University — we were part of the class that graduated in 1958. Yep, it was 50 years ago, but doesn’t seem that long.
It was Indiana State Teachers College in those days and the campus was much smaller. Basketball games were played in the gymnasium that once stood on Seventh Street — all the big high school games and the ISU games were played there.
ISU football games as well as high school games were played at Memorial Stadium, which still was a baseball diamond, the home of the Huts before the team folded.
Many of the graduates actually went into teaching and coaching at that time and one of the men who graduated in 1958 still is active in the coaching ranks and still teaching. He may hold the record for doing both among active coaches in the state.
Phil Teegarden played football for four years at ISU and began his teaching/coaching career at Ashboro Township in Clay County in the final year that the school was open.
He will begin his 51st year of coaching in the fall as the football coach at Elkhart Memorial. It will be his 18th season there and he says it may be his last.
He was started football at Green Township in the South Bend area and also coached at North Liberty and South Bend Riley. He had a long, successful tenure at South Bend St. Joseph’s and is in the Indiana Football Hall of Fame.
Other coaches back for the nice two-day reunion were Jerry Hile, Ed Beasley, Don Jennings and Ben Ranum.
Hile noted that he also was the coach of the first football team at Paoli. Jennings coached baseball at Terre Haute Garfield and Terre Haute North, where he had a state champ and one that finished second. He is in the Indiana Baseball Hall of Fame.
Ranum was his assistant at North and was an assistant in football at the same school. Beasley coached cross country and golf at West Vigo and was athletic business manager.
Basil Sfreddo is another ISU grad who was at the reunion with wife Carolyn, a 1958 grad. The 1956 grad began his coaching career at Kansas, Ill., and took a basketball team to the finals of the Wabash Valley, a big tourney then. He then was at Plainfield for six years, then coached at Indianapolis Washington for 30 years, serving as head coach 19 seasons.
He was an assistant under Bill Green when the Continentals won the state in 1969. He recalled that Indianapolis Washington, Vincennes and Marion all were unbeaten going into the finals at Butler Fieldhouse and Gary Tolleston had lost just once during the regular season.
Washington rallied to nip Marion in the afternoon and became the third team, at that time, to go undefeated.
• • •
Coaching update — Updating movement in the high school ranks:
• Mike Wagoner is the boys basketball coach at Loogootee. He played for Jack Butcher at the school and was an assistant for 16 years under Butcher and Steve Brett.
• Interviews have been conducted for the boys basketball vacancy at Northview.
• Scott Heady has resigned as the boys basketball coach at Warren Central to pursue other opportunities. He had a 191-104 in 13 years and 12 winning seasons.
• • •
• Tom-Cattin’ It — Austin Akers of Northview was one of the players who took part in the Underclass Showcase for basketball players Saturday. His name was omitted from a list that appeared in the newspaper last week.
He said the workout lasted six hours at Ben Davis and that all the Indiana college coaches were on hand.
• High school golfers who qualify for regional play from this area won’t have as far to travel this year since the regional will be at Country Oaks near Washington instead of Santa Claus.
Terre Haute North will have its annual fundraiser, the Steve Higham Scramble, on Sunday at Hulman Links.
Another big field of 140 players competed in the Forest Park two-man scramble and enjoyed the best weather for the event in recent years.
One participant was former Terre Haute Golf Association president Jim Andrews, who now lives in Brownsburg. Former South Vermillion standout Dusty Jovanovich, who teamed to win the title two years ago, was there. He is coaching the Mooresville High School boys golf team again.
• John Longfellow, a former ISU basketball player and longtime coach at Muncie Central, died at the age of 82. His father, John Longfellow Sr., was basketball coach and athletic director at ISU.
• Jayson Nix beat out Clint Barmes for the job at second base with Colorado in spring training but has been sent down for reassignment. Barmes has played in most games recently but was not in the lineup Sunday.
• The Chicago Cubs won their 10,000th game last week, the same day Lou Piniella won his 100th in Chicago.

Tom Reck may be contacted by telephone at (812) 232-3231, by e-mail at treck@ma.rr.com or by mail at 4276 South 5th Street, Terre Haute, IN 47802.