One more time, applause and adulation rained down on the Franklin Wonder Five.
The legendary high school and Franklin College basketball team won its first championship 100 years ago this month. As the team had done when it dominated the basketball court, it once again brought everyone together to cheer.
An official state historical marker honoring the Wonder Five was unveiled Thursday afternoon on Franklin College’s campus. A boisterous crowd of more than 200 people gathered outside the former gymnasium where the team dominated Indiana collegiate basketball in the 1920s, then moved inside to hear from local historians and Franklin College officials about its importance.
The event was an opportunity for longtime fans to revisit the team’s accomplishments, and for others to learn about them for the first time. For all involved, it was a chance to share in their Franklin pride.
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Click here to purchase photos from this gallery“Underdogs of their time, the Wonder Five team displayed tremendous skill, teamwork and grit as they earned championships and inspired fans of all ages to help shape the Indiana high school and college basketball of its time,” said Kerry Prather, acting president of Franklin College.
Strains of the fight song echoed around the courtyard outside the Franklin College Fitness Center as alumni, faculty, students and numerous descendants of Wonder Five players gathered around the covered marker draped in blue and gold.
The Fitness Center was the college’s gymnasium when the Wonder Five were dominant. When Prather and David Pfeiffer, director of the Johnson County Museum of History, unveiled the new historical marker, the crowd erupted.
“Given the impact Griz Wagner had on the players, and the collective impact that they had on the Franklin community, it seems only fitting that their story be enshrined here, next to the gymnasium where they played,” Prather said. “We’re honored to be the home of this state historical marker.”
The “Wonder Five” moniker refers to the teams that played at Franklin High School from 1918 to 1922, then at Franklin College from 1922 to 1926. Much of the team started playing together in elementary school, then stayed together through their high school years. Led by coach Ernest “Griz” Wagner and star player Robert “Fuzzy” Vandivier, the team was state champion from 1920 to 1922.
No team won three straight state championships in Indiana again until Marion did it in the mid-1980s.
After graduation, and when Wagner took the head coaching job at Franklin College, they all continued on as a team in college. In 1923, the group went undefeated, and were deemed national champions. There was no NCAA tournament at the time, but the team won five straight college state championships in a row.
“The Wonder Five attracted crowds from across the state to the small town of Franklin as ‘Hoosier Hysteria’ took root,” the marker reads.
Their contributions made for a natural fit for a historical marker, said Casey Pfeiffer, director of the state historical marker program for the Indiana Historical Bureau.
“On the most basic level, (these signs) tell us what happened at a site in the past. But they also help us inform Hoosiers and tourists alike about the people, places, events and organizations that had significant impact on shaping our state’s history, our own identity and our sense of community,” she said. “This is certainly true of this marker today.”
The effort to have a marker honoring the Wonder Five came about from Franklin College students. A class on public history, co-taught by Pfeiffer and history professor Meredith Clark-Wiltz, did the work of researching, planning and applying for a marker.
More than 670 official state markers have been dedicated throughout Indiana, with three others in Johnson County.
The students worked throughout the spring of 2019 to submit the application for the marker. They learned over the summer the application had been accepted.
“It gave them the potential to use some different historical skill-sets,” Pfeiffer said. “A big part of this application is showing statewide significance, and that’s something they were able to show in their research and prove in the application.”
While the marker project is in place, Franklin College will continue to have a role in spreading the story of the Wonder Five. Students in this year’s public history class will continue to focus on the team, creating a podcast offering a deeper look at its accomplishments.
Journalism students from Franklin College are also creating a documentary to tell the Wonder Five story.
“All of these efforts at education that actually meet the ground in terms of practical applicability is what we do,” Prather said. “We’re very proud of all of the students and professors leading those efforts.”
