I enjoyed my school days at Edgewood Grade School. I met so many friends, some of those friendships continue on to this day. Perry Township had five elementary schools at that time. There was Southport, Glenns Valley, Bluff Avenue, University Heights and Edgewood. All of the buildings were packed full of students. The James Whitcomb Riley building was constructed on the Edgewood property to accommodate first and second grade students.
The five elementary schools held all eight grades of students. The first junior high school had not been constructed at that time. The schools had both boys’ baseball teams and boys’ basketball teams. I believe the teams were 6th, 7th and 8th grade students. We played against other elementary teams in Perry Township.
I have great memories of attending basketball games and watching 7th and 8th grade teams playing. I was probably in the 4th or 5th grade at the time. It was fun to watch the older guys play. One of the Edgewood boys’ teams had quite an advantage. That team had a player that probably had a strong growing spurt very early in his grade school life.
He was the tallest player on the court. I’m thinking he might have been a foot or foot and a half taller. From the bleachers, he looked twice as tall as his opposition. His name was Jesse Blackwell. I have a feeling that coaching that team was very easy. I can almost hear the coach telling the players to toss the ball to Jesse and then get out of his way. I’m positive that many of the final scores of games that Jesse played were around 20-point victories for Edgewood Grade School. He excelled at both offense and defense.
Jesse, a 1956 Indiana All Star, had a great four years at Southport High School. The teams that he played on were always very strong. Coaches Blackie Braden and assistant coach Everett Swank had very good teams. Jesse probably had to learn to play a bit differently as many of the boys slowly grew closer to his height. I’m thinking he went from being over a foot taller to playing eye-to-eye with the competition.
After high school, Jesse went to Butler University. He had a very good time playing for Tony Hinkle. I remember going to a few games during his time at Butler. I mostly listened to the games on the radio.
Jesse’s younger brother, Charlie, worked at our Sunoco Service Station on Madison Avenue for a while. I’m thinking that was when I got to know Jesse. After Jesse finished his years at Butler, he began a long teaching career. He also spent years coaching baseball, football and of course, basketball.
He is a resident of Florida and we have talked on the telephone a few times over the years. Several years ago, the Perry Township / Southport Historical Society developed a very special Basketball Hall of Fame. It is based on two blocks of Epler Avenue. To qualify, a player must have a playing experience at Edgewood Grade School or played for Frank Kautsky’s professional team. The next qualification is that they must have earned money playing, coaching or officiating games.
I talked with Jesse about this a few years ago. We installed our first group in the Hall of Fame in 2019. We haven’t done any more because of the pandemic. I was putting together my list and Jesse Blackwell was near the top. I was planning on giving him a call soon.
I got a text message from him last weekend. He explained that several years ago he had left some knee cartilage somewhere between Southport and Butler. He has knee surgery coming up this week.
We connected on the telephone later and had a great conversation. We discovered that at this time between both of us, we might have one fairly good knee. He said he would let me know how the surgery went and I’ll check with him about passing on the news.
Shonk is a 1960 graduate of Southport High School, a ’63 grad of Indiana Central College (now the University of Indianapolis) and a retired bus driver from Beech Grove Schools. He can be reached through email at fdshonk@aol.com.