Year graduated
1975
Major accomplishments
Made the Evansville all-semistate team in 1974; Averaged 17 points as a senior; Made the all-tournament team in an Indiana State holiday classic
The “Miracle Man” has never been saluted the way “Larry Legend” and “Magic” have been for their part in the famous 1979 NCAA championship game that is considered by many as the contest that lifted college basketball into the national spotlight. Yet it was Bob Heaton’s second miracle shot of the season that catapulted unbeaten (33-0) and top-ranked Indiana State and Larry Bird into a monumental showdown with Michigan State and Ervin “Magic” Johnson.
The right-handed Heaton, playing in his first season at ISU after transferring from the University of Denver, sank the winning basket with his left hand as time expired to give the Sycamores a 73-71 victory over Arkansas and a berth in the Final Four. Had Heaton missed that shot, the game would have gone into overtime, and perhaps the Bird-Johnson matchup would never have taken place.
In 1995, Heaton was at the Final Four in Seattle. While there, he and Billy Packer, veteran CBS college basketball analyst, reminisced about Bob’s second miracle basket and Heaton’s roommate that season, Bird. “Packer made a comment that that shot against Arkansas kinda changed college basketball a little bit” said Heaton, “because it led to us going to the Final Four and, of course, Larry and Magic getting hooked up. He said, ‘Bob, that was a real big basket in looking back.’”
If it hadn’t been for the quick reaction of Heaton’s grandfather, there might not have been a “Miracle Man.” On that wintry day 39 years ago, 11-year-old Heaton was helping store corn on the family farm just outside Cory, Indiana. When he went to pick up an ear that had fallen to the ground, his left shirtsleeve got caught in the corn hiker. His Grandfather turned the machinery off in an instant, but not before Bob suffered a broken bone between his left elbow and shoulder. He was taken to Clay County Hospital in Brazil, where a pin was placed in the arm. It took around 60 stitches to close his wounds. He spent almost two weeks in the hospital and the pin wasn’t removed until eight months later.
“It’s amazing how God works,” said Heaton. “If it wasn’t for my grandfather turning off the machinery as fast as he did, there might not have been the left-handed shot that Packer talked about.”
Heaton always could shoot well, something he learned while practicing on the 18-foot-by 24-foot, four-inch thick concrete slab his father put down on the farm in November, 1966. “I never will forget the time my older brother John was being recruited by SMU and one of the assistant coaches came up [from Dallas],” said Heaton. “My dad told him about his $100 concrete slab investment, and the coach said, ‘Forrest, that’s probably going to be the best $100 you ever spent.’ John did not go to SMU. As it turned out for me, I had a full-ride scholarship and my folks never had to pay anything.”
As a junior at Clay City High, which had 290 students in grades nine through 12, Heaton’s basketball team wound up 24-2; losing to Jeffersonville, ranked No. 2 in the state, 52-46 in the semistate at Evansville. “With less than two minutes to go we were up by one,” said Heaton, who made the Evansville all-semistate team after logging 19 points and 16 rebounds against the Red Devils. “They were getting ready to shoot a free throw and I looked up, thinking, cGosh, we’re ahead of these guys. We might beat ‘em.’ They scored seven straight points and we never scored again. It was truly Hoosier Hysteria back then. We had a lot of people at the game, and they still remember it down home around Clay City.”
In Heaton’s senior season of 1974-75, he averaged 17 points a game. Clay City was 19-1 during the regular season, but lost to Terre Haute North in the regional final. Although Bob didn’t make the Indiana All-Star team,
Denver coach Al Harden, a former Indiana University star from Covington, Indiana, recruited him. He played there two seasons.
Bob probably would have remained at Denver two more years, but the private school became low on funds and decided to drop from Division I to Division II. That prompted Heaton to transfer to ISU. The Sycamores were aware of him because of his outstanding career at Clay City, and the fact he scored 21 points for Denver in a 78-65 loss to ISU in its holiday classic, making the all-tournament team along with Bird.
If there had been a “Sports Center” in 1979, Heaton would have received almost as much airtime as Bird for making his two miracle shots that enabled the Sycamores to nearly complete a perfect season. After making along shot at New Mexico State on February 1 that sent the game into overtime before ISU won, 91-89, he saw himself on ABC national news the next morning in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and he thought, “‘Wow, a lot of people just saw what I saw and that was on national TV,5 so right then it kinda hit me, like, ‘Boy, this is big time.’”
There had been only three seconds left, and ISU trailed, 83-81, when Brad Miley grabbed Greg Webb’s missed free throw on a one-and-one free-throw situation. Miley passed to Heaton, who had decided to station himself at mid-court rather than at the Sycamore end of the court following a timeout. He turned and shot.
“I always remember the shot as 52 feet,” said Heaton. “As the ball was about halfway there it looked like it was going to go over the backboard. My reaction was, ‘Oh, no.’ The rest is history. The ball banked in and just then I looked over to my left and here comes Mel Daniels, [former Indiana Pacers center who was an ISU assistant coach at the time]. He gives me a big bear hug. What made that shot so satisfying is that we won the game in overtime [Bird, Carl Nicks and Alex Gilbert had fouled out in regulation]. I remember their fans kept yelling’18 and 1,’ with three seconds left, because we were 18-0 at the time.”
That shot earned “Miracle Man” his name. Of his second miracle shot, the 6-foot-5 Heaton said, “It happened so darn quick. Of course, we wanted to work the ball to Larry, but he was guarded pretty close by Sydney Moncrief. Steve Reed had an open 18-foot jump shot, but I was a little closer and he passed me the ball. I thought one of the Arkansas players, Scott Hastings, who’s like 6-foot-9 or so, was fairly close to me. I was thinking if I go up with my right hand, it might be easier for him to block the shot; but if I come with my left hand and use my body to kinda be between the ball and him, then I might have a chance to score. After I did, people said, ‘Well, the Miracle Man again.5”
Heaton, who has been in financial services in Terre Haute since his graduation from ISU in 1980, considers himself one lucky guy to have had a dream season with one of college basketball’s most dominant players. “The thing about Larry was the work ethic he exhibited,” said Heaton. “I remember the day after the season ended Larry was going to start his student teaching at West Vigo High School and was helping out with the baseball program. By golly, come 7:30 he was up and taking off to do his student teaching.
“You’d think today’s college superstars who are going to be the No. 1 NBA draft pick wouldn’t be worried about going to do their student teaching. They’d be focusing on what tryouts to go to. Well, to Larry it was a big thing to get that degree, and he had to do his student teaching to get that degree. That was the southern Indiana guy he was, pretty simple, but with the work ethic that it takes.”