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Winter 2011 SuperSuper City HowHow IndianapolisIndianapolis UsedUsed SportsSports toto GrowGrow ItsIts EconomyEconomy andand BuildBuild BetterBetter NeighborhoodsNeighborhoods AlsoAlso Inside:Inside: TheThe JerseyJersey EffectEffect HunterHunter SmithSmith HowHow TeddyTeddy RooseveltRoosevelt SavedSaved FootballFootball JohnJohn J.J. MillerMiller Winter 2011 AMERICAN OUTLOOK | 1 Rooting the Future in History Susan Stinn Please Visit Us at The Levey Mansion –Where Indianapolis’ Rich History Meets Today’s Most Important Conversations Perched at the corner of Meridian and 29th Streets in downtown Indianapolis, the historic Louis H. Levey Mansion serves as an ideal vantage point for Sagamore Institute to conduct its work as a think tank in America’s Heartland. Originally built in the early 20th century by Indianapolis businessman Louis H. Levey, the mansion remains an integral part of what is today known as Historic Square. The legacy began when Mr. Levey joined his illustrious neighbor, Charles W. Fairbanks, in hosting such luminaries as Fairbanks’ former boss, President Teddy Roosevelt. President Theodore “Teddy” Roosevelt Louis H. Levey Charles W. Fairbanks Table of Contents 8 28 32 Cover Features 8 A Lasting Legacy—Indianapolis Style By Mark D. Miles and James Taylor 11 Q&A: Indianapolis Sports Strategy 14 Indianapolis- A Championship City The Playbook 17 Visionary Community Development Plan Earns Legacy Project By Bill Taft 20 Indianapolis’ R for Building a Better Community: Volunteers By Wesley Cate 24 From L.A. to Indy: NFL Charities Leaves a Lasting Legacy By Zoe Sandvig Erler Sports & Character 28 The Jersey Effect: Beyond the World Championship Ring By Hunter Smith 31 Uncommon: Finding Your Path to Significance By Tony Dungy 32 Passing Tradition 34 Tim Tebow’s Role Model By MicheaI Flaherty and Nathan Whitaker 4 | AMERICAN OUTLOOK www.americanoutlook.org OAmericanutlook Winter 2011 Vol. 9, No. 1 Jay F. Hein Editor in Chief Wesley Cate Managing Editor Beverly Saddler Production Coordinator Designer 36 39 Maki Wiering Sports & Character cont . Copy Editor American Outlook is published 36 The Butler Way by Sagamore Institute, 2902 North By Jay F. Hein Meridian Street, Indianapolis, Indiana 46208. 317.472.2050 www. 38 An Indiana Basketball Coach Starts a Movement sagamoreinstitute.org. Copyright © 2011, Sagamore Institute, Inc. 39 From Hardscrabble Indy to the Super Bowl All rights reserved. By Blaine Bishop Housing Innovations 41 From Leading the Nation in Foreclosures to Leading - Edge Solutions: Building a Home for Prosperity on the Near Eastside Sagamore Institute is an Indianapolis-based nonpartisan By Wesley Cate research group that brings Faces of Revitalization policymakers and practitioners 42 together to turn ideas into action. By Zoe Sandvig Erler Letters to the Editor: 44 Building with a Purpose: Send all “Letters to the Editor” to Holistic Redevelopment in the Meadows [email protected] By Wesley Cate Sagamore Institute 47 Extreme Home Makeover: Neighborhood Edition Board of Trustees By John Clark and Jay Hein Co-chairs Jerry D. Semler P. Douglas Wilson Reflections Jay F. Hein 51 The Big Scrum: How Teddy Roosevelt Saved Football David L. Helmer James T. Morris By John J. Miller Alex Oak 53 Sports on the Silver Screen Donald L. Palmer By Jeffrey L. Sparks Stephen A. Stitle Will Weaver 54 Indy’s First Sports Strategy Jean Wojtowicz By John Waters and Zoe S. Erler Fall 2011 AMERICAN OUTLOOK | 5 In Prospect By Jay F. Hein and Allison Melangton ndianapolis may be America’s biggest small town. It is a surely these things are not separate forces. It is the spirit of city with a million people, three professional sports teams, competition alongside community cohesion that makes sports Ione of the few Conrad Hilton hotels in the world, and so attractive and thus what resonates so well with Hoosiers. To countless cultural amenities. Still, it is a place where you can see more specifically what that’s all about, please read the Tony walk to all these things. Hinkle/John Wooden and Heartland Film Festival essays in this Beyond having pedestrian access to all its big-city magazine. amenities, Indianapolis has a culture of public spiritedness that Indianapolis’ sports strategy is similar to something just doesn’t exist in many other places, that is, outside of small that Harvard business guru Michael Porter calls economic towns. When its leaders stand up with an idea, two things are clusters. For Porter, economic clusters are how regions exploit typically the case: first, that idea is for the public good rather their natural assets and align their business practices to become than personal gain; and second, other leaders say, “How can we the best in the world at certain things. For instance, think of help?” how Silicon Valley arose around Hewlett and These elements of Indiana’s lead- Packard tinkering in a one-car garage; India- ership culture go a long way in explaining napolis did the same thing with sports and the Indianapolis sports strategy that was civic enterprise. conceived in the 1970s and is now mani- After being elected the youngest mayor in the fest in the Super Bowl being played at Lucas nation in 1967, the thirty-five-year-old Dick Oil Stadium. This grand facility stands just Lugar galvanized the city’s most talented yards from the recently expanded conven- professionals to transform a city with no dis- tion center that encompasses where the old cernable reputation into the amateur sports RCA Dome stood. Much like the Field of capital of the world. The group’s inaugural Dreams, that dome was built before a pro action was to create the nation’s first private football team even had Indianapolis on its ra- agency dedicated to using sports to advance dar screen. But to properly understand how both economic development and community integral the city’s sports strategy has been to well being. Dubbed the Indiana Sports Cor- its development and to assess how far the city poration, it has since been replicated by over has come, we need to consider racing. 150 organizations across the country. The Indianapolis Motor Speedway Alongside the establishment of the (IMS) was built in 1909 as what could be considered the city’s Indiana Sports Corporation, the City of Indianapolis, Lilly En- first sports strategy. As you will read in the “Reflections” section dowment and numerous other partners made an initial invest- of this magazine, Indianapolis automobile entrepreneur Carl ment of $126.4 million to establish a sports infrastructure. As G. Fisher envisioned the raceway as a testing ground for cars you will read in the cover story, the 1980s brought a whirlwind before they were delivered to consumers. Noticing that the state of improvements to Indianapolis’ sports portfolio. In 1982, the had become an epicenter for auto manufacturers and suppliers, Indiana Sports Corporation authorized the construction of the Fisher asked, “Indianapolis is going to be the world’s greatest Hoosier Dome (later renamed the RCA Dome), which attract- center of horseless carriage manufacturers, what could be more ed the Colts. Other projects included the Indiana University logical than building the world’s greatest racetrack right here?” Natatorium, the Major Taylor Velodrome, the Indiana Uni- The track that Fisher built became known as the versity Track and Field Stadium, the Indiana/World Skating Brickyard for the brick surface used to enhance speed, safety Academy, the William Kuntz Soccer Complex and the Rowing and performance. The one hundred years of racing that fol- Course at Eagle Creek Park. These brand new facilities attracted lowed the establishment of the IMS have been called the great- numerous amateur sporting events to the city such as the Na- est spectacle in sports. Today, with a racetrack capable of seating tional Sports Festival (1982), the National Collegiate Athletic a half million customers, the city enjoys a Super Bowl-sized Association basketball finals (1980, 1986, 1991), and the Pan economic benefit every time Indy 500 and NASCAR racers rev American Games (1987). up their engines. By 1990, Indianapolis had firmly secured its seat as But the sports initiative’s story has always been big- the amateur sports capital of the world. Simultaneous, but with ger than just the spectacle and financial gain. The strategy has much less fanfare, the city’s civic leaders claimed that there are been about building a better community in equal measure. And no great cities without great neighborhoods. In doing so, they 6 | AMERICAN OUTLOOK www.americanoutlook.org launched the Greater Indianapolis Neighborhood Initiative build personal character. Former Colts punter Hunter Smith and a myriad of subsequent strategies to revitalize distressed writes about how he has become a champion for sports heroes urban areas. (from high school to the pros) who use their influence to benefit Twenty years later, the sports and neighborhood strat- others. He calls this the “Jersey Effect.” This section includes egies converged through the Super Bowl Legacy Project tak- other inspiring stories about athletic greats known as much for ing shape on Indianapolis’ Near Eastside. While some criticize their off-field service as their on-field success. For one, Bart sports investments as luxury spending, the renewed Indianapo- Starr, MVP of Super Bowls I and II, is so identified with high lis sports strategy demonstrates that the sports industry can be- character that the annual Super Bowl Breakfast gives an award get economic flourishing and neighborhood revitalization. This in his name to the NFL’s most recent example of servant leader- is especially apparent in the “Housing Innovations” section of ship. this magazine. The third section returns to the legacy theme by exam- The Near Eastside of Indianapolis has learned to navi- ining three high profile affordable housing experiences on In- gate the turbulence of urban flux. dianapolis’ eastside. In addition The area contains Indianapolis’ to the Super Bowl Legacy Proj- first suburb, Woodruff Place, ect, we investigate how Avondale where some homes still sell for a Meadows is replicating Atlanta’s half million dollars.