Year graduated
1945
Major accomplishments
As a junior, he was featured in a Look magazine article written about Indiana high school basketball in 1944; Named a Living Legend by The Indiana Historical Society for his baseball exploits
In his book, What I learned from Jackie Robinson, which was published in 1 March 2005, Carl Erskine of Anderson wrote about how basketball helped -?*, prepare him for his supportive role as a Brooklyn Dodger teammate for the man who broke Major League Baseball’s color barrier.
“What Jackie accomplished was incredible, but I had come from an area of the country where African Americans lived in my neighborhood,” wrote Erskine. “We went to school together. I had a childhood buddy, Johnny Wilson, who was African American, and so to me, [big league baseball being integrated] was life as usual. Life was about people’s souls, not their race or religion or anything else.”
Erskine said he learned this lesson early. “[Wilson] and I played together since grammar school. He and his three brothers and sister were raised by a single mother. The family was dirt poor but held themselves in high esteem. He went on to lead his high school team in Indiana to its state championship in 1946, and he was named Mr. Basketball in Indiana.
“…It was Johnny who taught me to be color-blind, and it was Jackie who taught me to be ‘better,’ not bitter, whenever adversity struck. Johnny Wilson prepared me for Jackie. And Jackie prepared me for my son Jimmy.” Jimmy Erskine, born in 1960, has Down syndrome.
Eleven years before Erskine helped pitch the Dodgers to a World Series championship in 1955, he dreamed of winning a state high school basketball title with the Anderson Indians and their superstar center, Wilson, who was Carl’s teammate on the Shadeland Elementary School basketball team that had won a city championship in 1939.
“Our 1943-44 Anderson team was rated No. 1 in the state,” said the man lovingly referred to as “Oiskin” by the Brooklynese—speaking fans in Ebbets Field. Erskine was one of their Boys of Summer in an outstanding 12-year Dodger career in which he played on six National League pennant-winning teams, won 20 games in 1953, logged two no-hitters, and struck out a record 14 Yankees in a 1953 World Series game.
“Because of that rating, Look magazine came out and did a big spread on Indiana high school basketball. They featured the Indians and I still have the article. I was in about three photos.”
As the 1944 state tournament approached, Erskine and his teammates, including Wilson, who had been dubbed ‘Jumpin’ Johnny by the media, were supremely confident.
“We thought we were going to win it all,” said Erskine, a 5-foot-9 junior guard who once shot two-handed. “We rolled through the sectional, regional, and semifinals [which is now called semistates].”
As so often happens in sports, the Indians suffered a bad break that shattered their state title dream. Wilson, a sophomore, was undercut on a fast break during the victorious game over Aurora (37-18) in the semifinal round and hurt his back. Anderson did qualify for the state finals by defeating Whiteland, 40-21, but Wilson was not at his best when the Indians traveled to the Indianapolis Coliseum for the final four, which included Evansville Bosse, Kokomo, and LaPorte.
“Butler Fieldhouse [now called Hinkle Fieldhouse] was being remodeled, so the finals were at the Coliseum,” said Erskine. “The Coliseum was so strange. The floor was sitting out in the middle of the building, and you didn’t have the fans close to the game like in most gyms.”
Anderson coach Charles Cummings had Erskine sit next to him during the first game between Bosse and LaPorte. “Bosse had a superstar guard named Broc Jerrel,” said Erskine. “I was pretty good defensively and Coach Cummings said, ‘You’re going to guard Jerrel.’ I did watch him, but I didn’t get to guard him.”
Anderson lost to Kokomo, 30-26, in the second afternoon game before Bosse won its first of two consecutive titles by defeating Kokomo, 39-35, at night.
“None of us played well against Kokomo,” said Erskine. “Johnny was stymied by his bad back.”
In Erskine’s senior year the Indians were beaten in the regional round of the state tournament. “We lost several players from the ‘44 team, and we didn’t have chemistry,” he said. Even though Erskine wasn’t a prolific scorer, he was offered a chance to play in the Big Ten.
“I never scored more than eight or ten points a game, but I could dribble with either hand, I was a good defensive player, and I loved to pass,” said Erskine. “Getting the ball into Johnny was an art in itself. When I was ready to graduate, Coach Cummings said, 'I’ve got you a scholarship at three places. They’re dual scholarships—for basketball and baseball—at Indiana, Purdue, and Ohio State.’ It was during World War II and I was 18. Uncle Sam invited me to the Navy.”
When Erskine got out of the service, his basketball-playing days were over, but his baseball career continued. His love for the Indians and their famous gym, the Wigwam, never dimmed, though—Carl and his wife, Betty, have had season tickets for Anderson High games for more than 50 years.
“We didn’t have anybody come to our Indians baseball games, but for basketball at the Wigwam, they’d pack the place,” said Erskine. “I remember coming home after a Dodger season, and someone would stop me on the street and say, ‘I remember that game …’I thought they meant baseball, but they’d say, ‘That game when you made that shot against Kokomo.’
“Getting that Indians uniform was just as much a thrill as getting my first Dodger uniform. I love to go to the Wigwam and walk down the halfways and look at the photos of the teams displayed there.”
Erskine had a most unusual introduction to high school baseball. As a 14-year-old freshman, he was called to the office of Archie Chadd, who, at the time, was the football, basketball, and baseball coach. Chadd coached the Indians to state basketball titles in 1935 and 1937.
“I was shaking in my boots,” recalled Erskine. “He had seen me play baseball in the park leagues. He said that since I was a mid-year student he wanted me to be with the baseball team as a freshman. I would practice and travel with the team, but I wouldn’t play. I had the privilege of being on the baseball team five years. I had never heard of red-shirting.”
As a sophomore, Erskine had another unusual athletic experience, this time in basketball under Cummings, who had replaced Chadd.
“He sat us down on the bleachers, took a chalkboard and said, Tm going to show you boys a new style of basketball, the fast break, in which you have an outlet pass to a player in the middle of the floor, and two players cut down on either side, and you trap the defense.’ Nobody in [the North Central] conference was playing fast-break basketball. Chadd had the old style: slow, deliberate, pass, and cut. Scores started to go up [with the introduction of the fast break] because there was more action and shots.”
After retiring from the Dodgers in 1960, Erskine returned to Anderson with Betty and their four children. He has had a successful career in banking, and has enjoyed working with his youngest child, Jimmy, in Special Olympics. Jimmy accompanies his father to the Dodgers fantasy camps in Vero Beach, Florida.
In recent years, Erskine has turned to writing. His first book was entitled Tales from the Dodgers Dugout, which is into a second printing. What I learned from Jackie Robinson is more of a social account of the parallels Carl saw in the personal struggles that Robinson and Jimmy faced in overcoming racism and the stigma of being handicapped, respectively.