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TWIN SPIN OF HOOPS HISTORY

By RICK MORWICK
Daily Journal sports editor
First Posted: January 24, 2013 - 10:48 pm
Last Updated: January 24, 2013 - 10:49 pm

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20130125dj submitted van arsdale photo Dick, left, and Tom Van Arsdale were teammates at Indiana University, as well as at Manual High School. Photo courtesy Johnson County Museum.

L-R Tom and Dick Van Arsdale photographed Friday, Sept. 7, 2012. STAFF PHOTO BY RICK MORWICK

If you are up on your Johnson County history, you know all about Tom and Dick Van Arsdale.

Or do you?

Sure, you know they were high school basketball stars who had All-American careers at Indiana University before playing 11-year careers in the NBA.

But did you know that, in addition to being identical twins, they put up nearly identical numbers throughout their basketball careers? Or that each had a 37-inch vertical leap? Or that when they played organized ball for the first time, they started on the fifth-grade but finished on the eighth-grade team?

Did you know they were outstanding tennis players who, at age 12, flipped a coin to determine which sibling would play in the championship match of a Greenwood city tournament because they didn’t want to play against each other?

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