2024 Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame inductees include Dan Dakich, Al Gooden, Gene White
The Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame unveiled its 2024 men’s induction class Tuesday morning.
The 62nd induction class will be honored March 20 with a reception at the Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame museum in New Castle in the afternoon and a banquet in the evening at Primo banquet hall on Indianapolis' southside. Call the Hall of Fame at (765) 529-1891 or email info@hoopshall.com for more information.
Here is more on the 2024 men’s induction class:
John Adams, Rising Sun, 1961
Adams scored 1,568 career points as a four-year starter at Rising Sun, where he lettered in basketball, baseball and track, setting the school’s high jump record. He went on to play at Kentucky, where he was the team’s leading rebounder as a senior in 1964-65, averaging 11.8 points and 8.6 rebounds, and was named Kentucky’s most valuable senior. He went on to play for the 1973 AAU national champions in Lexington and played professionally in Argentina, Brazil, England and Mexico. He works as a part-time hearing officer for numerous boards for the Kentucky High School Athletic Association.
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Brian Bippus, Indiana Deaf, 1987
Bippus led his school to the National Deaf Basketball Championship as a senior in 1987, when he was named all-city and a first-team deaf All-American as the state’s leading rebounder. Bippus went to Gallaudet University, where he averaged more than 18 points a game in his four years. He left as the school’s all-time leading scorer with 1,882 points and was a second team academic All-American. Bippus played club basketball for 22 years and competed in various Deaflympics games beginning in 1989, winning several gold medals. He works as a math professor for Vincennes University on the ISD campus.
Clarence Crain, Shortridge, 1969
Crain was the leading scorer on a 22-4 team that lost to Washington in the regional, averaging 16 points per game as a senior. He was named all-city, all-sectional, all-regional and was selected to the Indiana All-Star team as a senior in 1969. Crain went on to play at Butler, where he averaged 10.3 points and 4.2 rebounds as a senior. He won the 1973 team MVP and Hilton U. Brown Mental Attitude award. Crain graduated from Butler in 1973 with a degree in business administration. Crain officiated basketball for 19 years and in 1999 was voted “Man of the Year” by the 100 Black Men of Indianapolis. He is currently on the Lilly endowment board of directors.
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Dan Dakich, Andrean, 1981
Dakich led Andrean to a 47-6 record as a junior and senior, averaging 23.3 points and 7.5 rebounds as a senior in 1980-81 as he was named to the Indiana All-Star team. He was also all-sectional, all-regional, all-semistate and all-state first team and named to the Silver Anniversary team in 2006. Dakich was a junior on the 1980 Andrean team that played in one of the legendary state finals, losing 69-68 in the early game to New Albany. The 1981 team reached the final game of the semistate, falling to eventual state runner-up Anderson. Dakich went on to play at Indiana, where he played on a Big Ten champion as a sophomore and was a team captain as a senior. He coached at Indiana as an assistant before leading Bowling Green from 1997-2006 and later serving as IU’s interim coach in 2008. Dakich currently hosts an online show on OutKick.
Chuck DeVoe, Park School, 1948
The late DeVoe was the team captain as a senior and was named all-conference and all-tourney as his team was runner-up in the Gold Medal Tourney. He attended Princeton, where he was a three-year letterwinner, earning first-team All-Ivy League and was named team captain and MVP as a senior. DeVoe, along with his brother, were instrumental in forming the ABA and bringing the Pacers to Indianapolis He succeeded his brother John as the second president of the Pacers. DeVoe, who served in the U.S. Army from 1952-54 and earned the rank of 2nd Lieutenant, died in 2013.
Emery Druckamiller, Syracuse, 1922
Druckamiller was the captain of his Syracuse High School team all four years. “Druck” scored 32 points in one game and 18 of his team’s 20 points in another. He was a unanimous all-state selection, while also earning all-county, all-sectional and all-regional honors. Druckamiller went on to attend Indiana University, where he played four years of basketball and baseball. He played for a Big Ten champion in 1925 and was team captain as a senior. Druckamiller went on to coach at Syracuse and Angola and taught for 35 years. Starting in 1937, he coached basketball and baseball at Tri-State (now Trine), which he did for 11 years. Druckamiller died in 1997.
Jay Frye, Greencastle, 1968
Frye was a three-sport standout in basketball, football and baseball. He earned all-conference, all-sectional, all-regional and all-semistate, averaging 13.5 points and 8 assists as a senior. He was also a three-year starter in football and four-year starter in football. He pitched a 16-strikeout no-hitter as a sophomore. Frye went on to play basketball and baseball at DePauw, where he graduated with a degree in zoology. The 5-7 guard was named the shortest starting guard in the nation as a junior and senior and in 1972 was named to the “Outstanding College Athletes of America.” After DePauw, he graduated from Ohio State in physical therapy. Frye was a physical therapist with the United States Ski Team at the World Ski Championships and has worked with high school, college and professional athletes. He was involved with the Continental Basketball Association and owned the Fort Wayne Fury of the CBA.
Al Gooden, Fort Wayne Wayne, 1977
Gooden graduated in 1977 from Fort Wayne Wayne, where he was all-conference and honorable mention all-state as a junior and senior. He averaged 20 points and 14 rebounds as a senior, then went on to Ball State. He was all-Mid-American Conference as a junior and senior, helping Ball State to MAC regular season and tournament championships, helping the program reach the NCAA tournament for the first time. Gooden graduated as the team’s all-time leader in field-goal percentage. After graduation, he went on to coach high school basketball at Heritage, Harding, New Haven and Lawrence Central. His 2001 Harding team won the Class 2A state championship and was a state runner-up four times. Gooden was became the first Black coach in state history to win 500 games while coaching at Lawrence Central, finishing his career with 525 wins.
Dick Harris, Liberty Center, 1964
Harris holds the career scoring record at Liberty Central with 1,200 points. Harris played in one of the most famous games in state history, a state-record nine-overtime game in the Marion Regional in 1964. He also played three years of baseball and ran track for three years at Liberty Center. After graduation, Harris went on to Manchester, where he was a four-time All-Indiana College Athletic Conference selection and was a three-time NAIA All-American, holding three of the top four single-game scoring efforts in school history. Harris scored 2,643 career points at Manchester. After college, he played 15 years for independent teams. He served in the U.S. Army, later becoming a pilot.
Doug Linville, North Salem, 1965
The late Linville graduated from New Salem in 1965, where he averaged 27.5 points as a junior and 28 points as a senior to leave the school as the all-time leading scorer with 2,120 points. After attending Brevard Junior College, where he averaged 13 points and 13 rebounds, Linville went on to play at West Florida. He was the team’s MVP as a junior and senior and set seven individual scoring records and was later inducted into the school’s athletic hall of fame. Linville went on to teach for 33 years, all but one of those years at Mt. Vernon Middle School. An influential figure in the swine industry, Linville was recognized at the 2008 Indiana State Fair for his national spotted swine distinguished service award. He died a few months later at age 62.
Jim Morris, Jeffersonville, 1953
The late Morris starred at Jeffersonville, where as a senior he was named the team MVP for a team that finished 24-2 and was ranked No. 1 most of the season. He earned three letters in basketball, four in baseball and one in football. Morris attended Notre Dame from 1953-54 and played basketball and baseball. He graduated from Bellarmine in 1957 after earning three letters in basketball and three in baseball. Morris was named all-conference and co-captain as a senior. After earning his Master's degree at Indiana, he coached high school and college basketball, winning 470 games in college (Oscar Rose Junior College and IU-Southeast) and 310 as a high school coach. He was the first athletic director at IU-Southeast. Morris died in June.
Joe Mullan, Evansville North, 1961
After high school, Mullan went on to graduate from George Washington University in 1965 with a bachelors degree in physical education and masters in secondary education. Mullan won the Tommy O’Brien Award. After graduation, he began coaching at in 1967 at Gunston Junior High in Arlington, Va. Mullan became the head coach at Evansville Bosse in 1980, earning multiple city, conference, sectional and regional titles. During Mullan’s tenure, in 1982 and ’83, Evansville Bosse had undefeated regular seasons while being ranked No. 1 in the state and were ranked No. 4 in the final USA Today poll in 1983. Mullan was 209-55 in 11 years as the Bosse coach.
Pete Smith, Rochester, 1979
Smith led Rochester to a 16-5 record as a senior as he was named defensive player of the year, Mental Attitude Award winner and team captain. He attended Bethel College, where he was injured prior to his sophomore year and began his coaching career as a junior. He was an assistant at Rochester, South Bend Adams and Warsaw, prior to becoming a head coach at Manchester, Noblesville, Penn, Carmel and Guerin Catholic. He started the basketball program at Guerin Catholic in 2004 and led the program to state championships in 2012 and 2016. Smith won 389 games in his coaching career and earned numerous honors from the IBCA, including District Coach of the Year. Smith was assistant coach for the McDonald’s All American game, director for the Indiana-Kentucky All-Star series and director of 5-Star summer basketball camps for 24 summers.
Larry Weatherford, Evansville Bosse, 1967
Weatherford scored 1,559 career points at Evansville Bosse, averaging 28.5 points, 12 rebounds and 6 assists as a senior in 1966-67. He was named to the Indiana All-Star team as a senior before going on to play at Purdue, where he scored 1,103 points in three seasons. As a senior in 1970-71, he averaged 21.1 points. Weatherford was a fifth-round pick by the Chicago Bulls in 1971, though he never played in the NBA. After his playing career, Weatherford was director of the Evansville Community Center, deputy sheriff, and supervisor/instructor at the Evansville YMCA, among other positions.
James Webb, South Bend Adams, 1973
The late Webb graduated from South Bend Adams in 1973 and was the second freshman to start for a South Bend school. His senior year accolades include all-sectional, all-regional, all-semistate, all-conference and Indiana All-Star as his team reached the state finals. Webb was the leading scorer in South Bend/St. Joseph County with 1,769 points and most free throws (291). He was named to the Silver Anniversary team in 1998. Webb attended Cincinnati, playing in 26 games in 1974-75 before missing the following season due to illness. He went to Cal Poly, where he averaged 10 points a game from 1977-79. Webb played semipro in Mexico, where he averaged 26 points per game. He died in 1988 at age 33 due to kidney cancer.
Gene White, Milan, 1954
White was all-sectional, all-regional, all-semistate as a junior and senior and was named all-state as a senior when the 1954 Milan team made its underdog run to the state championship. White went to Franklin College, where he graduated in 1958. He played both basketball and baseball in college. After graduation, he served in the U.S. Army and later became the athletic director and basketball coach at Milan, which he led to the 1985 sectional title. White coached at Franklin College from 1987-1994, where he led the women’s team to 158 wins (second all-time), then served again as the women’s coach from 1999-2002. White was the three-time Indiana Collegiate Athletic Conference Coach of the Year. He is retired from Franklin schools.
SILVER MEDAL
Bill Walker, New Castle, 1970
Walker is the recipient of the 2024 Indiana Pacers Silver Medal Award for contributions to Indiana basketball other than as an Indiana high school player or coach. Walker is a graduate of New Castle, where he lettered in cross country, track and was a student manager for the basketball team. He is the current treasurer and executive committee member of the Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame. Walker graduated from Indiana University in 1974 with a bachelor's in radio/TV and earned his Master's in journalism from Ball State in 1977. Walker was inducted into the Huntington North Sports Hall of Fame in 2009 for his work as the public address announcer for baseball and football for over 30 years. He oversaw the Huntington North High School radio station while teaching from 1974-2007. Walker also kept stats and has been the public address announcer for Huntington University. He received the Hall of Fame’s President’s Award in 2019 and the IASB John King Award in 2022.
Call Star reporter Kyle Neddenriep at (317) 444-6649.
This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame Class of 2024 inductees
