Whiteland unearths school photos from early 20th century

<p>The players and coaches of Whiteland High School’s 1919 basketball team peer out from the sepia-toned photograph.</p><p>Ray Crowe, a four-year letter winner at Whiteland and Indiana Basketball Hall of Famer, is seated in a team photo from 1933. The looped, cursive handwriting of legendary coach Glenn Ray fills pages of a notebook with plays, memos and ideas for coaching.</p><p>For decades, these treasures of Whiteland history had been hidden away. Only now are they coming into the light.</p><p>“It’s memorabilia. It should be seen, and should be accessible to people,” said Ann Conrow, a Whiteland alumni who uncovered the materials.</p>[sc:text-divider text-divider-title="Story continues below gallery" ]Click here to purchase photos from this gallery<p>Piled in boxes and forgotten in storage at Whiteland Community High School, the photographs, notebooks, scorecards and other items have been unearthed by Conrow. She and other alumni have gathered to sort through the items, catalog each one and refurbish and protect the items.</p><p>In addition to the basketball-related memorabilia, they have found senior class photographs dating back to the 1900s. Those are being protected and prepared for display as well.</p><p>“It’s part of the history of this community. I don’t think most of the young people going to school now have any idea,” said Mike McElwain, first vice president of the school’s alumni association and a 1969 graduate of Whiteland.</p><p>Conrow did not go looking for these items, or this project. Rather, she likes to say, this project came to her.</p><p>She had been asked to speak at this year’s Whiteland Alumni Banquet, being held today. As a retired choral director and music teacher at the high school, as well as student at the school, she was going to speak about the fine arts at Whiteland over the years.</p><p>During her research, it was mentioned to her that a collection of photographs were stored in basement of the school district’s administration building.</p><p>“So I went down there, and there were all of these boxes of old photos from the ‘20s and ‘30s,” she said.</p><p>Some of the first items that stood out were dozens of photographs of basketball teams from the era of Ray, who coached at Whiteland High School for many years. He was also a longtime teacher and principal at the high school. The gymnasium at Whiteland is named after him.</p><p>The earliest basketball photograph was from 1919, but photos captured the different teams for more than two decades.</p><p>Understanding the meaning these items had to the school’s history, Conrow contacted Butch Zike, the former longtime athletic director at Whiteland.</p><p>“I told him we had to do something — they were just in open boxes sitting out,” she said.</p><p>Conrow, Zike and McElwain started going through all of the items. The collection was a bonanza.</p><p>“It brought back so many memories for me, because I was always involved in Whiteland and always involved in the athletic part of it,” Zike said. “Whiteland has been very good to me. There was a lot of nostalgia. I bleed Whiteland blue, and it’s so important to me.”</p><p>Ray’s old notebooks featured yellowed pages of notes from coaching seminars. He stuck old scorecards and other items inside the bound books. The writings capture the mind of the longtime coach.</p><p>Another photograph taken during the 1933-34 season showed Crowe standing with the team in front of the high school’s old gymnasium doors. Crowe was the captain of that team.</p><p>He went on to be the coach at Crispus Attucks High School in Indianapolis, turning the school into a powerhouse and winning back-to-back state championships in 1955 and 1956. He was inducted into the Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame in 1968.</p><p>Scorebooks from the different seasons were also included. Programs from the Johnson County basketball tournament detailed Whiteland — they were known as the Wrens until 1939 — as well as their main rivals. Rosters and records for schools such as the Center Grove Swedes, the Union Ramblers, the Masonic Home Builders and the Edinburg Maroons (the city and school didn’t add the “h” to their name until later.)</p><p>“It’s a treasure trove,” Zike said. “Now what we’re trying to do is get as many of these pictures identified as possible.”</p><p>All of the items had been transferred to the media center at the high school, where each was placed in a plastic cover and organized in clear plastic storage bins.</p><p>Framed photographs received new glass and repairs to some of the frames. A collection of old senior class photos — showing the changes in class size, dress and styles over the decades — were uncovered.</p><p>The photos go back to 1903. Conrow asked Carolyn Wendt, a 1945 Whiteland graduate, if she could look at the photos and identify as many people as she can.</p><p>Some of the items will be put on display in the high school. Others will be stored in the school’s archive, or go to the Johnson County Museum of History. Conrow suspects certain materials will go to the Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame in New Castle.</p><p>Bringing the materials back to the public’s eye will hopefully revive memories and nostalgia for those throughout the Whiteland community, Conrow said. The items will also serve as a bridge to connect the school’s history to current students.</p><p>Conrow told an anecdote illustrating that effect. While moving the items into the high school library, a few members of the marching band helped out. As one looked at what he was carrying, he caught a glimpse of Ray’s name.</p><p>“He goes, ‘Wait, that says Glenn Ray. Was he a real person?’ And we told yes. He had no idea the gym was named after a real person,” she said.</p><p>Basketball was so important to small communities such as Whiteland for generations. Often, whole towns would come out on Friday or Saturday nights to cheer on the high school team.</p><p>These photographs and other materials are a bridge to that era.</p><p>“Basketball was the social event for the week. That was what you did. Those little tiny gyms were packed,” Conrow said.</p>