Sheridan honors 100-year anniversary of Indiana's first high school football homecoming
SHERIDAN – The state’s first high school football homecoming, it is widely believed, took place in Sheridan Nov. 9-10, 1923.
Among the events that weekend to celebrate the return of 75 members of the Sheridan High School Alumni Association: a “stag” smoker at the Red Men’s Hall, a storefront decorating contest with a silver cup prize, a parade through downtown and a discussion headed by Dr. A.C. Newby, Sheridan class of 1897, on the beginning of football in the Hamilton County community.
There was a football game, too, of course. Sheridan won, 29-0, over Wabash. A dance at the opera house followed. And yes, all of this predated Bud Wright.
“We have dispelled the rumor,” Sheridan superintendent Dave Mundy said with a laugh. “He was not here.”
For the 100th anniversary of the state’s first homecoming, Sheridan moved its football game to Saturday against Clinton Prairie. The school pep session and homecoming student games are planned for Friday during the day and the homecoming dance at night, followed by a full day of events on Saturday leading up to the game at 7 p.m.
Wright, 82, is the name most associated with Sheridan football. The state’s all-time leader in coaching victories could win his 450th game at Sheridan (and 451st overall; he won one at tiny Mt. Ayr in Newton County in 1965). Wright was hired at his alma mater in 1966 and never left, winning nine state championships. His current team, his 58th at Sheridan, is 3-1 and ranked No. 7 in Class A.
More: The forks in the road that led Bud Wright to a legendary coaching career
“Wherever you go around the state, people associate Sheridan with Bud Wright,” said principal Rick Davis, a 1988 Sheridan graduate. “I’ve even had people I’ve met out of state comment on Sheridan and Bud Wright. It’s a legacy he’s built and a proud tradition that has carried on for more than a half-century now.”
But long ago as it may be, Sheridan had a strong football tradition even before Wright’s nearly six-decade tenure. In the 1925 school yearbook, “The Syllabus”, it is noted Sheridan has “long been known as a football town.”
From the yearbook: “As Heze Clark once wrote (Clark played at Indiana the early 1900s and coached at Rose-Hulman), ‘They give babies footballs there, instead of rattles.’ From the time a boy is big enough to walk, it is drilled into him that he must make the high school football team.”
That yearbook entry also notes Sheridan could claim nine state championships in its first 25 years of football, which could make for a more crowded water tower at the edge of town. It proudly proclaims “Blackhawk County” and “State Champs” with the nine championship years under Wright listed. There was a comma on the water tower following the most recent 2007 championship, but has since been painted over to lift the “curse of the comma.”
“This small school of Sheridan has always been open to, ‘Let’s do it, bring it on,’” Davis said. “We’ve been able to maintain that small-town feel even though we’re now in the fastest growing county in the state and surrounded by the big boys. Everybody knows everybody and it’s a unique experience.”
In the 1925 yearbook, it is noted that the 1923 Sheridan homecoming “was the first of its kind in the state.” The two-day event offered “a good football game and old ‘grads’ come from far and near to renew their high school friendships.”
“By all the documentation we can find, it was the first (homecoming) in the state of Indiana and not many nationally at that point in time,” Davis said. “We thought with the 100th anniversary coming, that would be something cool to celebrate. Everybody got on board quick and it’s been neat that to see people dive even further into the history. We now have sweatshirts with ‘1899’ on them because that’s the official first year that football was played.”
The scores of those 1899 games are lost to history, though Sheridan defeated Boxley twice. “The history of Sheridan football goes way, way back,” Davis said. “So to be able to celebrate that with the community is awesome.”
Sheridan athletic director Beth DeVinney said the plans for Saturday include giving tours of the school, including the ongoing construction of an $11.2 million athletic facility renovation scheduled to be compete in January of 2024 that will include a 35,000-square foot fieldhouse, a new athletic entryway into Larry Hobbs Gymnasium and Bud Wright Stadium, new locker rooms and much more.
Davis said a cheerleader who graduated in 1946 will be in the parade.
“We’re going to have a huge turnout Saturday, which is going be tremendously exciting,” Mundy said.
The events will not be exactly like 100 years ago. There is no stag smoker scheduled, for example. But the gathering of Blackhawks to celebrate football and community is similar to what homecoming was intended to be in 1923.
The school tours will start at 9 a.m., the parade at 10:30 a.m., food trucks open at 1 p.m., at the school at the same time the powerpuff game begins and a kid zone and tailgating starting at 5 p.m. A dinner at the elementary will be 4-6 p.m.
“You come up knowing Sheridan football here,” Mundy said. “It’s been an honor for a lot of people for a long time.”
Call Star reporter Kyle Neddenriep at (317) 444-6649.
This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Sheridan honors 100-year anniversary of first IHSAA football homecoming
