Silence of the gym: Indiana woman searching for fight songs of 600 forgotten high schools

FRANKFORT -- Reta Williams is a retired elementary school principal, a fiery, redhead, who is part historian, part high school basketball fan, part lover of nostalgia and part chaser of wild dreams.

As she sits inside her farmhouse in Clinton County trying to explain the latest wild dream she is chasing, Williams repeatedly says things like, "I'm not being practical or logical," and, "I know it won't happen, but I can try," and "It's pretty farfetched."

Come hell or high water, Williams wants to track down the lyrics and music to every fight song from every closed Indiana high school that has been depleted of its magical, melodic history.

Scattered throughout Indiana are more than 600 forgotten high school gyms that sit shuttered or, more likely, torn down and razed. They are tiny gyms that were silenced by consolidation decades ago.

But inside Williams' living room as she talks, if you concentrate closely on what she is saying, you might be able to hear the sounds of one of those gymnasiums roaring with students, basketballs echoing and a pep band playing the school fight song.

Williams has a way of bringing nostalgia to life.

"Back in the 1930s and '40s and even '50s basketball games were the social life. That was it. Basketball was king," says Williams. "The gyms were packed, the atmosphere was electric and the playing of the school fight song was the tipping point."

Williams should know. For the past several years, she has been deep in Indiana high school history, and she has learned more about the Sugar Creek Crickets and the Michigantown Ganders and the Scircleville Ringers than any human should know.

Those are just a few of the 70 schools that Williams has been able to uncover fight songs for, which is pretty darn impressive.

Now, she has just 530 more to go.

'Something that should never be lost'

Williams' school fight song project, titled "Gone but Not Forgotten," happened on a whim, of sorts, and then became a long time in the making.

It was 2007 when Williams found herself with extra time on her hands as she retired from the now-closed Kyger Elementary in Frankfort after 35 years as a first-grade teacher and then principal. What would she do with that extra time?

Williams had always loved history, even as a little girl. She loved the kind of history that wasn't about wars or dates, but about people. She loved listening to her mom tell stories about their ancestors. And she loved hearing her talk about Michigantown High, where Williams' mother and father both went to school.

"She would tell me about how everyone went to the basketball games," said Williams. "I was mesmerized by her stories."

There was no way Williams could sit still in retirement, so she got a part-time job working in genealogy and local history at the Frankfort Community Public Library, where she became a pro at microfilm.

On her lunch breaks, just for fun, Williams would go through old high school yearbooks on microfilm, and she was captivated. The people who came into the library were captivated, too. Williams noticed there was something about their high school days that people gravitated toward.

She would help them look up classmates and basketball team photos and football rallies. She loved the joy it brought them.

In 2013, with three new grandchildren on the way, Williams quit her part-time gig at the library to have more time with her family. But she quickly missed devouring Indiana high school history.

Two years ago, Williams decided to put together a book of the nine Clinton County township schools that were closed to form Clinton Central and Clinton Prairie high schools.

She included a photo of the building, the mascot, the school colors, the words to the school fight song and the tunes those songs were sung to. Five of the nine were to the Notre Dame fight song music.

"The one thing that really brought out the loyalty of the alumni, after over 60 years," said Williams, "was the school song." And that happened to be the toughest part of the entire project, tracking down the school songs.

That's when Williams realized if she didn't do something about it, all the songs from those 600 closed high schools might be silenced forever.

"That is something that should never be lost," she said. "It's a history that will soon be forgotten if someone doesn't do something about it."

'My projects take on a life of their own'

When people hear about Williams' school fight song project, they assume it's pretty cut and dry. They assume old yearbooks have the songs right there in black and white.

"I'm not saying the school song isn't in any yearbook, but it's very rare to find a school song in a yearbook," Williams said.

To track down those first nine Clinton County township school songs, Williams had to be creative.

One of the schools that formed Clinton Central was Kirklin, which had an original tune. No one knew where the sheet music was because Kirklin had been torn down. "So who knew where that stuff went? And that's sad," she said.

Williams was not deterred. One day, she had three Kirklin cheerleaders stop by her house to sing their fight song so she could record it. All three of those cheerleaders were in their 80s. An alum from Sugar Creek sang Williams the school song over the phone.

She has received school songs via fax and email, and she has heard them live at high school reunions. She has scoured archives at the Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame in New Castle, historical societies and talked to former high school star basketball players.

Her book includes a CD of all nine Clinton Township school songs, recorded by the high school choir at Clinton Central.

Reactions to the finished book have been incredible, said Williams. One man who graduated from Mulberry High in 1949 saw a blurb about Williams' book at the local library and had to get his hands on one.

"I delivered one of these books to him, but he is very unsteady," Williams said. "I said, 'Please when you hear Mulberry's school song do not jump up really fast.'

"Because that's what they do. When people hear their school song, they get beside themselves."

Gene Williams nods emphatically as his wife talks about her project, her farfetched project, tracking down 600 Indiana high school fight songs.

"My projects take on a life of their own," she said.

Gene has been a big help, so many people have helped, but Williams has hit a wall. Now she needs your help.

She's asking for anyone who knows the lyrics and tune -- or just the lyrics or just the tune -- to a fight song from a closed Indiana high school to send them to her.

"This history should not be forgotten," she said. "Let's not let these gyms be silenced forever."

Have school fight song info?

Contact Reta Williams via email at retawms@hotmail.com, by phone at 765-414-4388 or by mail at P.O. Box 2, Michigantown, IN 46057.

Follow IndyStar sports reporter Dana Benbow on X: @DanaBenbow. Reach her via email: dbenbow@indystar.com.

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Indiana high school fight songs: Woman seeks to find, save all 600