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An
Overview History of Garfield High School
Artist rendition of Garfield
High School
A tragic trolley-train collision that
took place in October 1908 was indirectly responsible for the creation
of Garfield High School. Speculating as to what might have
happened if the accident had occurred while students were returning home
from overcrowded Wiley High School, several Twelve Points residents
gathering in Crooks Cigar Store at Tenth and Lafayette resolved to seek
a safer alternative. By the time the board of the Terre Haute
Public Schools agreed to meet in the Wiley Assembly Room on Feb. 18,
1909, more than 6,000 people had signed a petition, prepared by "The
Northside Committee," urging the creation of a northside high school.
It was not until January 1910 that the school board, with former
superintendent of schools William H. Wiley as a new member, agreed to
erect a new school. During the summer and fall, the board acquired
land at Twelfth Street and Maple Avenue, upon which the building was to
be situated, for a total sum of $23,000 from the Ketchum, Phillips,
Miller and Byrne families. W. Homer Floyd of Terre Haute was the
architect. Meanwhile, at the Sept. 16, 1910, school board meeting,
Wiley advanced "Garfield" as the proposed name of the school. His
motion carried 4-1.
Ryan and Hayworth Construction Co. was awarded the contract to build
the school for $93,345, but, alleging lackadaisical practices, the board
revoked the contract on May 12, 1912 and assigned the work to Terre
Haute contractor P.C. Kintz & Sons less than a week later. On
Sept. 8, Charles J. Kintz laid the cornerstone, in which Charles T. Nehf,
president of The Northside Committee, deposited many items. School
board president Wiley was one of the speakers.
When Garfield High School opened its doors to its first 432 students
on Sept. 3, 1912, it did not have a heating plant or finished floors,
and much equipment remained unpacked. It was winter before workers
left the premises. Albert E. Highley, mathematics teacher at Wiley
between 1910 and 1912, was the first principal. The student body
selected purple and white as the school colors. After one year,
Highley became the superindent of schools in Marion, Indiana, and was
succeeded by Thomas W. Records. The initial sophomore, junior and
senior classes were composed mostly of Wiley transfers. The
freshman class came from Collett, Rankin, McKeen and Warren schools.
In June 1913, diplomas were issued to the first 39 graduates.
 Of
the many traditions associated with Garfield, none was more enduring
than "The Spirit of 7-6," conceived by eventual principal Jim Conover
after 7-to-6 football triumphs over Wiley in 1915 and 1917. The
legacy was glorified by an oil canvas presented to the school by alumnus
John M. "Jock" Wilson after another 7-to-6 triumph in 1922. The
rivals faced each other in football on 56 occasions, 38 times on
Thanksgiving Day.
On April 29, 1934, the school was severely damaged by fire but it
survived, creating a gymnasium in 1938. Garfield carried a
reputation for producing outstanding business leaders and three Olympic
gold medal winners - Clyde Lovellette (1952), Gregg Bell (1956) and
Terry Dischinger (1960) before closing due to consolidation in 1971.
Garfield Gardens and Garfield Towers now occupy the high school grounds.
Exploits of Olympic Gold Medal Winning Garfield
High School Graduates to be Honored
By Andy Amey
The Tribune-Star
Printed Nov. 17, 2007 in the Tribune-Star
 TERRE
HAUTE — Terre Haute welcomed its three Olympic champions back home
Saturday morning with the announcement that construction will soon begin
on The Gold Medal Plaza at 12 Points Park.
Clyde Lovellette, Greg Bell and Terry Dischinger were guests of honor at
a breakfast at the Holiday Inn where the announcement was made, and the
three Gold Medal winners — Lovellette for basketball in 1952, Bell for
track and field in 1956, Dischinger for basketball in 1960 — enjoyed
each other’s company and paid heartfelt tribute to their city.
Or, as Mayor Kevin Burke quipped, “Welcome to the Garfield High School
reunion.”
Lovellette and Bell were fellow Garfield graduates in 1948 and
Dischinger, who grew up in the same block as Lovellette, graduated in
1958. The new plaza honoring their exploits will be just a block from
their former school.
It’s a project that began to take shape more than a year ago, when plans
were being made for Lovellette to be the honored guest at the annual
draw for the Pizza Hut Wabash Valley Classic boys basketball tournament.
The City of Terre Haute and Union Hospital are its primary sponsors,
with Pizza Hut and MillerWhite as secondary sponsors; First Financial
Bank sponsored the breakfast.
It’s a project, many indicated Saturday, that was long overdue — but in
another way, one that came in the nick of time.
“It’s a honor to see Terry and Greg and these people,” Lovellette said
during his remarks. “A lot of times you get awarded and you’re gone.”
The three Olympic champions were very much alive Saturday morning,
introduced in order by Gary Fears of Wabash Valley Pizza Hut, Inc.
 Lovellette,
Fears pointed out, led the Purple Eagles to three Wabash Valley
Tournament titles, a perfect regular-season record during the 1946-47
season (when Garfield was upset by Shelbyville at the state finals) and
was an Indiana All-Star; was a three-time All-American at Kansas, where
he led the nation in scoring as the Jayhawks won the national
championship in 1952; and played for three National Basketball
Association championship teams. He is the only player to have led the
nation in scoring for an NCAA championship team, and the first player to
have won NCAA, Olympic and NBA championships.
Emotional throughout his short talk, the big man recalled that his
college coach, “Phog” Allen, recruited him by saying that the Jayhawks
could win a national championship and that Lovellette could make the
Olympic team, and revealed that for a long time he felt like “a black
sheep” back in Indiana because people thought he should have played for
one of his own state’s college teams.
Bell, who was drafted into the U.S. Army after graduating from Garfield,
lightened the mood considerably — he accused Lovellette of being a
potential culprit behind his only school suspension involving a missing
textbook — but added some poignant moments as well.
“Most of my family is here, and some of my old long-time family from
Garfield,” he said to begin his remarks. “From the back of the bus to
the podium.”
Bell, who was the European armed forces long jump champion in 1950, was
encouraged to attend Indiana University by Dr. William Bannon and was
undefeated in his event as a collegian, won the Big Ten Medal in 1958
and was the captain of the U.S. team in a dual track and field meet
against the U.S.S.R. in 1959. His long jump record at Indiana — 26 feet,
7 inches — wasn’t broken for 35 years, Fears pointed out.
He drew a parallel between his high school track career and Lovellette’s
basketball seasons at Garfield. Lovellette and his teammates suffered
their heart-breaking loss to Shelbyville, and Bell lost the state long
jump championship in 1948 by four inches to an athlete named by Russ
Smith, on Smith’s last jump.
Years later, Bell saw Smith’s name on the entry list for a meet. “Russ
Smith beat me by four inches in 1948,” Bell said. “I beat Russ Smith by
four feet in 1955 — and I was not a gracious winner.”
Bell took particular delight in recalling an English teacher from
Garfield who had said that “there’s no way a colored child can earn
anything better than a C in English — and in her class that was true.”
Still the director of dental services at a hospital in Logansport, Bell
noted that he was an A student in English composition and English
literature at Indiana, and read two of his own poems — one written to
commemorate Saturday’s occasion and the other, titled “I Believe in
You,” written earlier as a tribute to Bannon.
“I hope I never stop learning,” Bell said
Dischinger, voted Vigo County’s all-time greatest athlete by the
Tribune-Star several years ago, may also have gained inspiration from
falling short in high school events. Thanks to rival schools in the city
and in the Big Ten, the Olympics proved to be his only basketball
championship.
A member of the 1955 Babe Ruth League World Series baseball champions,
Dischinger earned 11 varsity letters at Garfield and was an all-stater
in football and track as well as an Indiana All-Star in basketball who
was named the game’s outstanding player — 23 points, 10 rebounds — in
the game the Indiana stars played at Kentucky that year.
He was also the second-leading scorer in Big Ten basketball as a
sophomore when he was invited to try out for the Olympic team, and as a
19-year-old was the 1960 team’s best defensive player as the U.S. —
whose team also included Oscar Robertson, Jerry West, Walt Bellamy,
Darrell Imhoff, Jerry Lucas and others — cruised to its championship.
“I love you, Terre Haute,” Dischinger said to begin his remarks
Saturday. “I feel very privileged to have grown up in this town. I thank
my mom and dad for giving me the character I had … and my relationship
with God.”
Dischinger, who finished his three seasons at Purdue with career
averages of 28.3 points and 13.7 rebounds per game and who won Rookie of
the Year honors in an NBA career interrupted by two years of service
during the Vietnam war, introduced his family in attendance, praised his
longtime best friend Bob Kehrt who “made me the competitor I was,” and
shared memories of what it was like being a youngster in Terre Haute
during the 1950s.
His Olympic experience at Rome always seemed surreal to him, Dischinger
said, but echoed what Bell had said earlier about standing on the podium
with the National Anthem playing.
“You realize that you are from the greatest country in the world, and
second place is so far behind us,” Dischinger said.
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