Friday, March 15, 2013

Butler's Contribution to Indiana Basketball History



Thursday started the first round of the A10 Men’s Basketball Tournament in Brooklyn, NY.  AS far as Indiana basketball goes, the Butler Bulldogs joined the Atlantic 10 Conference for the 2012-2013 season.For the tournament Butler got the 5 seed and faced the Dayton Flyers Thursday and defeated them 73-67.  The Bulldogs take on Lasalle at 2:30 on Friday.



Aside from the actual basketball teams though, comes a history that is important to Indiana basketball as a whole. Hinkle Fieldhouse is home to the Bulldogs and this year, the building celebrated it’s 85th year.   



         


The Butler Sports website has a full history of the facility and says the first basketball game played in Hinkle was March 7, 1928, where the Bulldogs defeated Notre Dame 21-13. In 1983, Hinkle Fieldhouse was named to the National Register of Historic Places. In February 1987, it was tabbed a National Historic Landmark.
           


Even more to the history includes the 1986 movie “Hoosiers.”  Any sports fan should see this movie, but especially those fans trying to understand the heritage af Indiana basketball. The movie’s championship game takes place in Hinkle Fieldhouse.






With age, of course, comes wear and tear on anything, so Butler is currently raising money solely for renovations of the building. At games they promote the improvements and have a mobile service for people to donate $10 towards the construction to keep Hinkle up and operating. This piece of Indiana history is of course important to Butler fans and players, but it is also important to the whole state because it has such meaning to the heritage of basketball in the Hoosier State.


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