 |
| George Harrison was one of the "Valley Boys" on the 1958 Springs Valley High School basketball team that reached the Final Four in the school's inaugural year after consolidating from French Lick and West Baden High Schools. |
Play the word association game with someone from the Hoosier State, and the mention of French Lick and West Baden will likely prompt the answer of “hotels.”
It was awfully close to being “basketball” as well.
While Milan is Indiana’s original small-town hoops mecca for
its 1954 state championship that inspired the classic movie “Hoosiers,” the
towns of West Baden and French Lick teamed up just a few years later for a run
in the state basketball tournament that nearly ended up being Milan all over
again. Back then, Timothy Wright was a first-grader fascinated with all the
hoops talk at his grandfather’s barber shop across the street from the school —
and 60 years later, Wright has rekindled those memories in his recently
released book “The Valley Boys,” highlighting Springs Valley High School’s 1957-58
basketball season that began bumpy and ended with a run to the Final Four.
There’s a chance this story could come to the big screen as
well, since Wright has been in contact with a Hollywood producer about a
screenplay. And this story is already in tune with the typical movie arc: initial
conflict that evolves into a happy ending.
 |
| The French Lick West Baden Museum has a Valley Boys exhibit with old newspaper clippings and a video loop of the state finals game. Rex Wells, the team's coach, took the black framed photos in the middle down from his wall and loaned them to the exhibit. |
French Lick and West Baden Springs Hotels play a supporting role in this story, too. Prior to 1957-58, the two towns had separate high schools and a quarrelsome mentality to match. “Very bitter rivalry between French Lick and West Baden, and you didn’t go to West Baden by yourself — you always went with two or three guys; same way whenever (West Baden) guys came to French Lick,” recalled George Harrison, a sophomore on that team who still lives in French Lick today.
 |
| George was a sophomore when Springs Valley High School opened in 1957-58. Basketball coach Rex Wells placed a call out of the blue to a Disney animator in California to see if he would draw a logo for the school's new blackhawk mascot — and amazingly, the artist complied and sent back a sketch. |
“There’s just a lot to that heritage and clinging to
something that I believe started as a result of the hotels being competitive,”
Wright says.
The old high school mascots were even a nod to the hotels:
French Lick was the Red Devils and West Baden was the Sprudels, matching the
mineral-based Pluto Water and Sprudel Water marketed at the respective hotels
of the towns. When the sudden decision was made to consolidate the schools in
the 1957-58 school year, most townspeople resisted the merger. And they showed
it by showing up at Springs Valley basketball games still wearing their old
school colors: West Baden folks in blue, French Lick people in red.
But as the newly formed Springs Valley team kept winning
basketball games. And unity followed. “Everybody loves a winner,” Wright says, “and
that was enough to make everybody jump on board.”
 |
| A statue of the blackhawk welcomes visitors to the gym today. |
But Springs Valley rallied to win that night, then clicked
off seven more victories in the postseason to reach the Final Four. The newly
formed team of former rivals was a perfect 25-0 in the school’s first year of
existence, and since they were still a small school of less than 400 kids, it
added to their aura of being the sentimental favorite among the four teams
remaining. Media from around the state and even nationwide took notice,
including one reporter from The Indianapolis News who wrote about the team
being invited to a luncheon at the French Lick Sheraton.
The book quotes that news story: “As the waiters were serving other guests pâté de foie gras, the kitchen was
besieged with orders for hamburgers and french fries.”
 |
| The team's special treatment included receiving massages, mineral baths and other freebies at the French Lick Sheraton. |
In the week leading up to the state finals, the French
Lick Sheraton opened its doors to the team to enjoy free reign of whatever
amenities they wanted. Steam baths. Swimming. Bowling and ping-pong. Even rub-downs
at the spa.
“That was pretty rare,” Harrison says of the free massages. “I
guess you could say it was more for the guests, and it was kind of expensive
for kids to even do or even think about. It was quite a treat.
“By this time, we were getting kind of cocky,” Harrison
continues, with a laugh. “We were feeling special, and we were getting treated
special. … Back then, the hotel kind of semi shut down during the winter
months. That’s why we got a lot of special treatment, because there wasn’t a
lot of guests in the hotel.”
Springs Valley’s torch got snuffed out in the state
semifinal game, but the team still returned to a hero’s welcome with a parade
through French Lick and West Baden. Years later, Wright can’t help but marvel
at everything that made Springs Valley’s inaugural season so unique — including
the backstory of how the team’s best players honed their game.
Four of the five starters came from the old West Baden High
School, and during that time, West Baden Springs Hotel served as a Jesuit
seminary. As Wright pointed out, “they would go over and play against these
college guys coming out of Xavier and Marquette, studying to be priests. Here
they were, kids in high school playing against college-aged guys, and they
would go over and beat those guys. They just knew how to play team basketball,
and that’s how these guys got so good.”
 |
| Author Timothy Wright, who grew up in French Lick, will be at the French Lick West Baden Museum on April 28 for a book signing from noon to 4 p.m. |
You can still see the Valley Boys in action — on a TV screen,
at least, as a loop of Springs Valley’s state finals game is playing in an
exhibit at the French Lick West Baden Museum (located across the highway from
French Lick Springs Hotel). Wright will be at the museum for a book signing
from noon to 4 p.m. on Saturday, April 28, and the book is available at lulu.com as well as Amazon and Barnes & Noble if you’re interested in
reading up on the magic the Valley Boys brought to this area 60 years ago.