Plainfield’s Weber -A Starter in the First NBA Game Written by Del Harris

On November 1, in Evansville; and then in February of 1893, Earl- 1946 in Toronto, Can- ham College students conducted a game. Soon af- ada, the New York ter in 1893 the Indianapolis News reported a com- Knickerbockers were petitive game at the local Y; in the same year there in town to play the To- was a game in Connersville, and in December ronto Huskies in what of that year Columbus was calling the is now considered the “city’s favorite game.” Portland, Terre Haute and first NBA game, even some University students reported games though the league being played before that celebrated Crawfords- was actually named ville/Lafayette game. It likely depends on a point the Basketball As- of view of what constituted a competitive game. sociation of America Still, there is no question that Montgomery County (BAA) for the first four was the true incubator of basketball in the state seasons. That was a with the massive contributions made by the Craw- momentous event, considering how much a part fordsville Y, and the little town of of American life the NBA has become. While Indi- Wingate. Of course folks in Lebanon, Thorntown, ana is proud of its role in propagating the game of Franklin and several other outposts will be upset at basketball nation-wide, its fame came more from seeing such a notion in print. This is simply to es- its pioneering in the first state high school basket- tablish the point of the importance of the history of ball tournament than from ABA/NBA history. And our game in our state to those who love the game then there is the claim to the first national colle- dearly. Thus, the reason for this article. giate champions, the 1932 For many years I had the honor of being the of Piggy Lambert and famed star, . only Plainfield graduate in the HOF, and then an- Of course, there are other Hoosier claims of pre- other local took the “only” out of that distinction. eminence such as being the first state to begin Bob Lovell was inducted in the 2018 class for his hosting competitive basketball games between many accomplishments in and for the game, and two separate entities as opposed to recreational, to think, I used to deliver the Indianapolis Star to as were the initial games in the Springfield YMCA his parents when he was a little boy. It got me in Massachusetts. It has generally been held by to thinking about a man who had gained limited Hoosiers that the first game between teams from notoriety in our town when I was a young boy, a separate communities occurred when the Craw- giant of a man in those days, Jake Weber. I had fordsville YMCA played the Lafayette Y in 1894, or heard he was a very good player and I knew him was it? Hoosiers are extremely proud of our bas- personally and fairly well, I thought. Well, I should ketball history and the names of the many people have, but in reality I did not. How could that be, as who have dominated the game in one form or an- I look back on it now? I say that because I worked other within our borders and world-wide such as for him the summer of 1952 when he was building Wooden, Robertson, Bird and even Chuck Taylor National Homes to catch up with the need for more of fame. And, certainly, no town wants affordable housing after World War 2. I helped put to give up its claim to having started the competi- up about 10 of those homes that summer, though tive impetus that gave birth to seemingly forever he would ultimately put up quite a lot more. And rivalries. A blog by Chandler Lighty in 2016 in his they are still standing and doing well after all this Basketball History presentation cited notes from time. But here is the point: not once did I ever hear newspapers around the state that had recently him say anything about playing basketball, or what been digitalized which showed that several other the coach or I should be doing to be as good as he towns set up competitive games as early as 1892 and his teams were just 15 years previously. And 21 even in a town of about 2000 at that time, no one with the game, just too clumsy. Of course, Indiana ever came around and asked him anything about had seen exceptions such as Homer Stonebraker our basketball team, which was not very good at of Wingate and Purdue fame, but it was indeed that time, and when they would ever get back to rare for such a big man to be outstanding at the being a dominant team in Hendricks County again. game. This is incredible to me in retrospect. But Jake was a true athlete, not just an over- So, for some reason unknown to me other than grown boy. We are here to talk of basketball, but the stimulus to think about Plainfield at Bob Lovell’s it should be stated that he was an All-State end in induction, I decided to check into how good Jake football two years, and was an outstanding track Weber may have been. I started by calling old performer in shot put, pole vault and high hurdles. friends in seeking to find a contact to one of his His shot put record held for 40 years at Plainfield daughters that I remembered. I found that Judy, and he was second at the state meet each of his the firstborn, passed away in 2006. Of the three last three years and held the record for a time. He living girls—Jane, Carol and Cathie, I was told also held the county record for the high hurdles how I could contact Carol, the only one still living for a number of years, reportedly. One clipping in the home town. Fortunately, their mother had showed that he was the leading scorer at a track kept a scrapbook that contained some good infor- meet at Southport in which he won all three of his mation which was in the hands of the youngest of events, even though his team fell far short of the the three remaining daughters. These were very title. And he was first baseman on the enlightening and the ladies were quite enthusias- team. tic about my quest. And Having noted that, what then I scraped up some Jake accomplished as a information on my own hoopster is absolutely stun- as well. ning. His high school career I came to believe alone is adequate for consid- strongly that Jake and eration into most state’s Hall his family are certainly of Fame. He set the state due some level of recog- all-time scoring record in his nition for his incredible four years with 1,384 points, exploits. I hope to do which was remarkable in credit to Jake in this arti- those low scoring days. And cle, and hope I can con- led his Quaker teams to four vey to the reader how re- consecutive sectional cham- gretful I am that I did not pionships. Consider that In- get to talk to him about diana had already boasted his marvelous career in the likes of great players such what became a forgot- as Stonebraker, Wooden and ten era, having been several other truly outstand- so overshadowed by ing players around the state, the horrors of the Great when considering that scoring Depression and the im- record. pending World War 2 for But as good as Weber was, all of us who endured it, he was unable to get out of when Jake had such a remarkable career. the Regional where Anderson, under the great Born in Rushville in 1918, but moving to Plain- Hall of Fame coach Archie Chadd, held sway. The field for his high school years, Jake was big as a Indians had won the state in 1935 and then again 6-3 freshman and was a starter on the varsity team were standing in the way of all comers in 1937. from the beginning. He became a giant, the tallest And they were hosting the tournament! Nonethe- player in Indiana high school hoop at the time, at less, Jake led all scorers in the regional, scoring just under 6-7 by his senior year. At that time six 18 in the first game against Indianapolis Tech, but feet was still the standard for “tall,” and most peo- could not get past the home team who would go on ple assumed players that big just couldn’t keep up to win the state title again. Many said that the dif- 22 ference was the home court. He was recognized Canada. In that first game Jake Weber jumped as All-State a second time and played on the first center for the Knicks with his big number 11 on Indiana All-Star team in 1937. his back before a crowd of 7,090 fans in the Ma- This would be a pretty good story, if it were to end ple Leafs Garden hockey arena. The Knicks won there. But there is much more. Jake went to Pur- that game 68-66 and they went on to finish 33- due after graduating as an honor student to play 27 in that initial season. Still, the audience for that for Hall of Famer Piggy Lambert. While one would game has grown dramatically since the produc- expect that Weber’s high scoring ways would have tion of a television show that presented a History continued in a Boilermaker uniform, that was not of the NBA. In fact you can be one of the millions the case. Still he played for three seasons on out- of fans to subsequently see Jake on the open- standing teams that went 46-16 and won the Big ing NBA tip at website: https://www.youtube.com/ Ten in 1939-40, his junior year. He gained enough watch?v=AgkCrYZBT34 for one. attention apparently through his defense and re- Jake was sold to the Providence Steamrollers bounding, for which Purdue has no records for that a few weeks into the season and he played the era, to be named to the International News Ser- rest of that season there. Again, they did not keep vice Big 10 All-Star team. He caught the eye of track of anything but the shooting percentages, the professional teams of the day, but then the US scoring, and assist statistics, so players like Jake entered into World War 2. who rebounded and defended inside did not reg- Weber started his professional career with the ister much in the way of stats. While he averaged Indianapolis Kautsky’s in 1945 after the War end- only 3.5 points per game each with the Kautskys, ed, having lost some of what would have been Knicks and Steam Rollers, there wasn’t a lot of four productive years had it not been for the War. scoring going on for anyone. The league shot The next year saw the start of the Basketball As- 28% from the field and no player on the Knicks sociation of America, which is what the NBA now averaged as much as double figure points in the claims as its initial season. The Kautskys wanted 1946-47 season. In fact only 20 of the approxi- to be in the BAA, but they did not allow teams to mately 150 players who played at least a game in be named for a business and so the application the league that year were able to average as many was withdrawn. This left Jake without a team, but as 10 points. he had been noted. Wikipedia states that “with no Certainly Jake lost good years of playing time college draft in the league’s initial year, there was since the War precluded professional basket- no guarantee that the Knicks or the league itself ball between 1941 and 1945, plus there was would thrive.[14] Consequently, teams focused little money in it. By age 29 after the 1947 sea- on signing college players from their respective son the Webers had started a family and so Jake cities as a way to promote the professional league.[13] The Knicks held their first training camp in the Catskill Mountains at the Nevele Country Club.[15] Twenty-five players were invited to attend the three-week camp. Players worked out twice a day and the chemistry between the New York natives was instant. [16]” But, as it turns out, the starting center would not be a New Yorker, but one Forest “Jake” Weber from Purdue Uni- versity and Plainfield, Indiana. The initial game in the NBA was scheduled to be played out- side of the country, as strange as that seems now, in Toronto, 23 returned to Indiana where he went to Columbus since the rosters have been expanded to allow to teach and do some coaching, then to Indiana as many as seventeen under contract. In Jake’s University to teach in their ASTP program to help time there were eleven teams from major cities students avoid the issues associated with alcohol. from Totonto to St. Louis with rosters of 12. So From there he went to Greencastle High School to the chances for anyone to play at the start of the teach and finally back to Plainfield where he man- NBA were infinitesimal for a kid from small town aged the Consumer Coal Company that his father Indiana, especially one too big to play basketball. had started. By 1951 he used his contacts from And did I mention that he also was an outstanding Purdue and Lafayette to build the National Homes tenor singer? in Plainfield as noted earlier. He later worked as an engineer for Paul Cripe Engineering and went into Del Harris, 2018 partnership with John Hart Development to build apartment buildings. He was an outstanding com- https://www.youtube.com/ munity leader in Plainfield, belonging to the Opti- watch?v=AgkCrYZBT34 is the youtube that has mists, Lions, Masonic Lodge, Murat Shrine, Murat been watched by over 2 million people and he Highlanders (yes, with a kilt), and the Indianapolis is number 11, jumping center for the New York FOP and PAL as well as the Retired Professional Knicks that shows the first game and first basket Basketball Players Association. that was scored in the NBA as the Knicks beat Thus, this was quite a life of accomplishment for the Toronto Huskies, ironically played in an arena one person, especially one who was too big to play outside of the United States, but appropriately in basketball in his day. In the current era there are the home country of the inventor of the game, Dr. now 510 spots potentially available on NBA teams .

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