High school boys basketball in Indiana has seen the winds of change, but at least one thing has stood the test of time: Bill Patrick.

How things have changed since Patrick, the gray-haired 61-year-old who commands the Tippecanoe Valley Vikings, took his first varsity coaching position some 30 years ago.

Patrick, a 1956 graduate of Sidney High School, began his coaching career in a time when heroes came to be by putting a leather ball in an iron hoop, a time when most boys knew two things: basketball and farming.

Patrick picked up his first varsity win Nov. 1, 1963, at Sidney High School, a school with 69 students in grades 9-12, when his players were named Jerry Walther, Henry Whitaker, and the Leiter boys, Tom and John. Today he will guide Tippecanoe Valley, a school of 700, against Northfield with players named Craig Kuhn, Noah Silveus, Dax Snyder and the Eaton Brothers, Brandon and Trey, as he searches for win No. 500.

In 31 years of coaching, Patrick owns a 499-190 record.

Thursday, Walther, now 53 years of age and a teacher of 31 years at Silver Lake Elementary, dug out his senior yearbook and newspaper clippings and spoke of Patrick's early days of coaching.

"I think we had him in eighth grade, so we were familiar with him," said Walther, Patrick's first superstar. "We knew he had a tremendous desire to win. We were a very small school. We only had 11 kids in the junior class and 18 in the senior class. There was a lot of small schools, but we were still pretty small. Our gym was only 60 feet long."

Walther gestures with his hands how big Sidney's gym was back then. His hands are about a foot apart and he says this is the distance between what is now the top of the key and the half-court line.

In Patrick's days at Sidney, players often had to practice from 6 a.m. to 7:30 a.m. in someone else's gym and then return to Sidney for school. And for most, said Walther, it was then home to do chores on the family farm.

Games also were more often than not played in an out-of-town gym.

"We played games at Larwill and Pierceton," said Walther. "We played a lot of games at Pierceton. A lot of practices were at 6 a.m. to 7:30 a.m. in someone else's gym, and then we got to go back to Sidney for school. We virtually never had a home game on our home floor. If you went in for a layup the stage was right there."

Walther spoke a lot yesterday of the small-school gym that Patrick first called home, and the gym he played high school hoops in.

Sidney's gym was 60 feet long, had six light bulbs hanging from the ceiling, had a stage at one end with a brick wall at the opposite end, and would seat only an estimated 500 spectators.

Walther cracked a smile when he said he remembered something else about the Sidney gym: the locker room.

"The locker room, in the shower area," said Walther, "we used to have snow on the window sill. On the inside. That was a cool shower even when the water was warm."

Patrick took the reins from Bill Dorsey and guided Sidney to a 13-9 record, the Wildcats' first winning season in nearly a decade.

"The year before, we were 8-11 under Bill Dorsey," said Walther. "We lost eight guys from that team. Coming in we really only had two returnees."

Those returnees were Whitaker and Walther.

Whitaker scored 14 points in Patrick's first win, an 83-61 drubbing of Leesburg. Walther poured in 29.

"With really just the two of us returning," said Walther, "Henry played outside and I played inside. I suppose he built the offense around a one-two punch. Between us we averaged 51 points per game. Our team averaged 82 points per game."

Not only could the Wildcats score, they also could rebound.

Sidney set a record in a 1964 85-56 thrashing of Akron with 62 rebounds. The 6-foot-3 Walther, who later accepted a full-ride scholarship to Oklahoma University, accounted for 24.

Walther was blessed with leaping ability.

Today Patrick's players are asked to jump over a two-by-four 24 inches off the ground 50 times in a minute. Over and back is one jump.

Walther doesn't remember doing this in his days under Patrick. But he does remember Patrick's drills were designed to help his players jump.

"The drills we worked on were with jumping," said Walther. "I was blessed with rebounding ability. Some of the guys would be shooting free throws but I might go and do 50 dunks."

He laughed when he said "I should've been practicing free throws."

Walther said at 6'3' he was able to stand flat-footed under the basket and jump up and dunk the ball backwards.

In Patrick's 30 years he's always stuck by his stern morals. He said in 1963 that his players' hair had to be above their collars. The same rule applies in 2000.

"It was more of a style to have short hair back then," said Walther. "I don't remember anyone testing that idea. He was clean-cut and set an example. He was a role model for us. He had the mindset that 'I'm very competitive and will do anything to win.' He inspired you to be that way. He went at it hard and it was contagious."

If it was contagious, then it was a disease for Patrick.

In 31 varsity seasons he has never had a losing season, with his worst record being 11-10 in Whitko High School's first year of existence.

With Patrick's stern morals, knowledge of the game and father-like figure in mind, Walther answered yes when asked if Patrick defines what Indiana high school basketball once stood for.

"From the competive end and the small-school end he is," said Walther. "He started coaching right after the Milan era. I've watched the movie "Hoosiers" eight to 10 times, and he could've been that coach. Not that he had a rough background like the coach in the movie, but that he took the kids and got results."

One of the memories Walther has of playing for Patrick comes from a 1963 tournament at the old armory in Warsaw.

"We were playing in a four-way tournament at the old armory," said Walther. "There was controversy at the end of the game in relation to the scorebook. We were playing Claypool, who had beat us by five and later 10. Anyhow, their scorebook was different than ours.

"All of the sudden we stop playing within the last minute because there was a discrepancy in the scorebook. They had an extra two points and we don't remember that guy even shooting the ball. If you're gonna give someone two points at least give it to someone who scored. If I remember right, they may have only lost one game that year. We tried to make a point but you had to go by the home scorebooks."

Claypool won the game 89-85. As for the player with the extra points, Walther asked that his name not be printed but did say he is a local basketball coach.

All of Walther's memories of the legendary Patrick come from a distant time. A time six years before a man walked on the moon. The same year JFK was assassinated.

A lot of things have changed since then. Patrick has seen a lot of players come and go. Yet what has stood the test of time are his stern morals and burning desire to win.

Patrick once said he planned to get out of coaching after his first losing season. There's a reason why he's still coaching today.

Walther led the way in Patrick's first win 30-some years ago. Tonight he will sit in the gym at Tippecanoe Valley as his former coach tries to become only the 20th boys high school basketball coach in Indiana to reach the 500-win plateau.

Before Walther left the interview he handed over a white piece of paper with 16 names on it; eight names from Patrick's first team are scribbled on it, as are the names of four cheerleaders, a manager and three teachers.

They all will be in attendance to watch Patrick make history. [[In-content Ad]]