Year graduated
1954
Major accomplishments
Indiana All-Star; Named Terre Haute’s best high school basketball player in a local newspaper survey; Indiana Basketball Hall of Famer
Although fate handed Arley Andrews several cruel setbacks in his early life, the younger of Terre Haute Gerstmeyer’s famous twins didn’t flinch in the face of adversity and had a most remarkable athletic career.
“I’ve had some good things happen along the way,” said Andrews, who was a year behind his brother Harley in school because of a childhood accident that almost proved fatal. “Basketball, baseball, and my wife Carolyn have been especially good to me.”
Carolyn and Andrews have been married 51 years. “She was a cheerleader at Gerstmeyer when I played,” he said. “She yelled for me, and now she yells at me; same tone—very firm.”
Andrews was named an Indiana All-Star in 1954 along with Bobby Plump, he struck out Mickey Mantle twice in an exhibition baseball game as a flame-throwing left-handed pitcher in the Philadelphia Phillies organization, he led Indiana State in scoring (17.9 average) and rebounding (7.2) in the 1959-60 college basketball season before being declared ineligible for playing professional baseball, and he was chosen in a local newspaper survey Terre Haute’s best high school basketball player before consolidation in 1970 eliminated Gerstmeyer, Garfield, Wiley, Schulte, and State high schools. Andrews beat out such talented players as Clyde Lovellette, Terry Dischinger, Bob Leonard, his brother Harley, Charlie Hall, Jim Harness, and Howard Dardeen.
“Bobby Plump and I are friends, and I’ve played in golf tournaments with him over the years,” said Andrews, the only freshman to ever start four years for coach Howard Sharpe at Gerstmeyer—119 games without a miss. “I roomed with Bobby during All-Star week.”
Shortly before the 1954 All-Star game in Indianapolis, Andrews signed a Triple A baseball contract with the Phillies. He received a $4,000 signing bonus. Andrews had his career cut short by an auto accident at the end of his first season in the Three-I League. He was driving home to Terre Haute through Illinois when an elderly man driving a large grain truck turned left in front of Andrews’ car, causing him to hit the truck head-on, severely injuring his left shoulder. The following season Andrews had surgery on the shoulder at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. The pain in Andrews’ shoulder became so bad that he “couldn’t break a window,” and left baseball before completing five seasons. He never even made it to Triple A, but he pitched well in an exhibition game against the Yankees.
“I went five innings and gave up one hit. Yogi Berrà got a hit. I struck out Mickey Mantle twice. He’d either strike out or hit a home run against you.” Andrews says “without a doubt” he could have made it to the majors if he hadn’t gotten hurt. “I had one of the fastest fast balls—95 to 97 mph—in the organization.”
When Andrews first played baseball, he attended Indiana State in the off-season. After he left baseball, he joined the Sycamore basketball team. Once again it appeared as though he would have a brilliant college career, but fate brushed back Andrews again.
“I had laid out of basketball almost five years, and it was a little difficult coming back,” he said. “But I had a good year with Indiana State [which was in the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics at the time].
“The following year I was made ineligible. It was because the Olympics were coming up, and anybody that was a pro who had played against some of the other [college] basketball teams could be ineligible. Today you’re only pro in the sport you get paid in, and you can play in other sports.”
Andrews says he and his brother could have gone almost anywhere in the country to play college basketball. He visited Kansas, Illinois, and was offered a scholarship to West Point. He opted for pro baseball and says that the brevity of his career was a major disappointment.
“I gave up a lot to do it; going to a large university and playing basketball” he said. “It was a tough decision, but I always wanted to play baseball. I would have loved to play a long time. Still, it was a good experience. Off-season, I worked with Tommy John, teaching him how to pitch. He’s a Gerstmeyer graduate. I built a mound at my home in north Terre Haute. I built it for myself to rehabilitate a little bit. Tommy’s dad would bring him up. We’d work about every evening with him. I taught him quite a bit.”
John, a left-hander, too, went on to have an outstanding major league career before he had to have arm surgery that now bears his name. “Several people are having that [Tommy John] surgery and having good luck with it,” said Andrews. “I’m sure I could have been taken care of if they had the techniques they have today.”
Andrews began to face obstacles early. At age seven, he tripped over a rug on the third floor of the apartment building the family was living in at Chicago and flipped over the railing, suffering a blood clot in the brain when he hit the marble floor. He was laid up long enough that he lost his equilibrium and had to learn to walk all over again.
Perhaps Andrews’ most heart-wrenching incident occurred early in the 1953 high school championship game won by South Bend Central, 42-41. He was assessed a foul committed by Harley and fouled out with 5:27 to play, and Gerstmeyer ahead by six points. Andrews was wearing No. 34; Harley had 43. Sharpe had the twins rotate numbers every game.
“I was left-handed, and Harley was right-handed,” explained Andrews. “We felt if they scouted us, when we went to play them they would guard us to the right or to the left, and many times that left us an easy way to drive on an individual because they’d be playing the wrong position.”
Andrews says there was a mix-up between the referee and official scorekeeper, and he doesn’t know to this day whether it was the scorer who put the wrong number down in the book or the referee who signaled the wrong number.
“Sharpe called a timeout immediately and said the foul should have been on Harley,” said Andrews. “All the newspapermen on press row agreed, but there wasn’t any changing it. And that cost us the ballgame, no doubt about it.”
Carolyn remembers well the weeks leading up to the 1953 state tournament finals where Arley, Harley, and their Uncle Harold Andrews would be paired against Richmond, South Bend Central, and Milan at Butler Fieldhouse (now Hinkle Fieldhouse). Gerstmeyer beat Richmond, 48-40, and South Bend Central defeated Milan, 56-37, in the afternoon.
“State-wide all of the newspapers were carrying articles about the famous Andrews twins, and they were referred to as ‘Double Trouble,’ with pictures of ‘em in the newspapers,” Carolyn said. “Indianapolis had them in their newspapers all the time. One of the other newspaper pictures had the three boys, Arley, Harley, and Uncle Harold, saying we’re ready for a family picnic, getting ready for the finals.”
Asked if that meant Gerstmeyer planned to win it all in Indianapolis, Carolyn replied, “Well, that’s what the newspaper had captioned the picture as.”
Andrews smiled when his wife mentioned the family picnic picture while sitting in their home in east Terre Haute. “No, it wasn’t a picnic in the finals,” he said.
Do the losses in the 1953 and 1954 state finals still hurt? “It stays with you, not so much the Milan loss, because they beat us by 12 points,” said Andrews. “But the South Bend loss was a tough one.”
After his college basketball career ended, Andrews went into the oil industry He lived in Pendleton, but worked out of Anderson 11 years for City Service Oil Co. of Chicago. From there he went with Beam Longest & Neff, an engineering firm in Indianapolis, and was with them 33 years before retiring three years ago, Andrews, who had four bypass heart surgery in July, 2005, and Carolyn have two grown children, Danny and Julie Karn, and two grandchildren.
Harley believes Arley was the better basketball player. “I do think physically I’ve always been a little heavier and bigger,” said Arley. “I think I could do more in rebounding. But I think in shooting we were both the same. I scored a lot more points, but maybe I took more shots. I don’t know.”