As the old saying goes, Rome wasn't built in a day.

While most area basketball fans know of the success Al Rhodes had during the 1980s and '90s and up through 2002, the Warsaw Tiger boys basketball program has come a long way since C.J. Roberts coached the school's first game in 1919.

It is arguably one of the most successful and respected programs in the state, and Saturday at Marion, also one of the most respected high school boys basketball institutions in Hoosierland, the Tigers will play their 2,000th career game.

Since their first game in 1919, a 42-15 loss to Elkhart, the Tigers have provided the community with a number of basketball memories - memories that many fans still recall today.

Whether it's recollections of Whitey Bell in the '50s, Charlie McKenzie and brothers Mike and Ben Niles in the '60s, Rick Fox and Jeff Grose and Co. in the '80s, the Elliott brothers (Brian, Dan, Ben) and Kevin Ault in the '90s or more recent players like Chris Wiggins, Jared Shaw, Todd Braddock or Michael Wienhorst, or coaches like George Fisher, Boag Johnson, Jim Miller and Rhodes, Tiger basketball seems to have always been well-accepted by the community.

"There's a lot of pride in basketball in the community," said Rhodes, the school's all-time winningest coach with his 405-133 record in 22 years. "While I was there, we had great support from Mr. Fulkerson and the administration and the community. I believe we built the best feeder program that ever existed in Indiana high school boys basketball. Players learned how to do things the right way, the Tiger way."

In his final 13 seasons at Warsaw, Rhodes, who stepped away from the Tiger program following a 21-3 campaign that ended with a loss in the 2002 sectional, took a year off from coaching and then took the head coaching job at Logansport, and the Tigers won more games and a higher percentage of games than any other program in the state.

"When you think of a basketball town, Warsaw is a basketball town," said Rhodes. "That doesn't mean you can't play other sports, but there's been a major emphasis on basketball for 2,000 games."

Tonight, under the direction of head coach Doug Ogle, the Tigers will play their 1,999th game when they host Northern Lakes Conference foe Elkhart Memorial.

To date, Warsaw's boys basketball program boasts a career record of 1,288-710 - a winning percentage of 64.5.

Most coaches would welcome a season in which their team won 65 percent of their games, or to accomplish the feat over the length of their career, but the Tigers have done it for nearly 90 years.

"Now that I'm a coach, that makes it even more impressive," said John Snyder, who started on Warsaw's 1981 Final Four team and who is currently in his first year coaching the Tiger girls team. "To have a system that has had that kind of success is phenomenal. There are some schools that don't have any Indiana All-Stars, and Warsaw has nine. You can put our numbers up against anyone, and I think Warsaw is one of the best programs in the state. One of the biggest things has always been the community support, this has always been a special place to play basketball."

Said current WCHS Athletic Director Dave Fulkerson, "The big thing about Warsaw always being successful in basketball, both boys and girls, and you can look at the banners when you walk in the gym, is that success breeds success. People here are used to a winning program and Warsaw has won a high percentage of their games. There's been a lot of consistency over the years."

With Roberts as their coach, the Tigers first started playing basketball in 1919, losing their first three games by an average of 31 points per game.

Elkhart beat the Tigers 42-15, followed by a 61-11 loss to Rochester and a 29-14 setback to rival Columbia City.

Warsaw, with players like George Bowser, Joe Woodward, John Longfellow and Ed Boyers turned things around and finished that first season with a 20-8 record.

That first Tiger team gave up just nine points to Churubusco in the sectional opener, 11 to South Whitley in the semifinal game and fell 17-10 to Kendallville in the title tilt.

That was the only season Roberts coached.

Much like going to the Final Four in his first season of 1980-81 set the tone for Rhodes' career, winning 20 games in that first season seems to have set the tone for the Warsaw boys program.

Over the years, the Tigers have had 16 different coaches - 11 of them had winning records, including current coach Doug Ogle.

In 85 complete seasons, Warsaw had 65 winning seasons, and in 22 seasons it won at least 20 games - meaning by average the Tigers won 20 games in a season once each four years.

Over the years, Warsaw has won 33 sectionals, 12 regionals, four semistates and the 1984 state title.

All four semistates and the state championship were teams coached by Rhodes, who, when he retired, said he was leaving behind the best program in the state of Indiana.

Of the nine Indiana All-Stars who have played at Warsaw, six - Ron Brandenburg, Marty Lehman, Jeff Grose, Rick Fox, Jason Zimmerman and Kevin Ault - played for Rhodes.

The Tigers' first three Indiana All-Stars played for coach Boag Johnson, who himself earlier played for the Fort Wayne Zollner Pistons, which later became the Detroit Pistons.

In 1966, Mike Niles made the squad, and a year later, Ben Niles and Charlie McKenzie made the all-star team. Only once in Warsaw history have two Tigers been on the team together.

In a phone conversation Thursday evening, McKenzie, whose sons Jason and Chad played for Rhodes, talked about the year he played at Warsaw after consolidation moved him from Claypool to Tiger Town.

"We had a good team my senior year at Warsaw," said McKenzie, who said he was 6-foot-7 and led the state in scoring his final prep season with an average of 34 points per game. "We would have had a good team at Claypool, too, we had everyone coming back."

McKenzie referred to Johnson as a nice guy, and said that while playing for Tom Miller at Claypool "we'd run for a week before we'd ever pick up a basketball. We'd run, run, run."

McKenzie, 57, was a teacher for 30 years and is now retired. He scored 2,100-plus points in his prep career. While he was on the phone talking about his playing days, his wife, Sally, was touching up his scrapbook of 40-year-old newspaper clippings.

Asked about the difference between basketball then and today, McKenzie talked about how players on his teams not only played basketball, but lived basketball.

"That's all we did was play basketball," said McKenzie. "I remember Hal Gunter's cousin, Herb Gunter, had this barn and we converted it into a gym and played all the time. Back then we didn't have satellite dishes and all the stuff they have today. Basketball was entertainment, everyone wanted to be in the gym. My senior year, it was hard to get a seat, we had really good players."

The face of basketball may have changed over the years, but it still seems to be smiling on the Warsaw Tigers. [[In-content Ad]]