Year graduated
1962
Major accomplishments
Mr. Basketball; Ail-American three years; Indiana Basketball Hall of Famer
After the spotlights came on for the introduction of the Madison High School Cubs in the late ‘50s and early ‘60s, coach Bud Ritter’s teams played nearly perfect basketball.
“We were ahead of our time,” said Larry Humes, star of the 1959, ‘60, ‘61 and ‘62 Madison teams that went 97-5 with only one regular-season loss. “One of the polka-dot uniforms that we wore is in a case at Conseco Fieldhouse in Indianapolis. It’s mine. I wore 44 in high school. They didn’t have a 44, so they put a 14 in there. And now all NBA teams use spotlights to introduce their teams.”
Ritter’s teams were not only ahead of time basketball-wise, they were ahead of time socially. A white coach who moved to Madison from Peru fully integrated the team when Humes arrived at high school as a freshman.
“I was very fortunate,” said Humes, who became Mr. Basketball after the Cubs lost their only game of the 1961-62 season to the eventual state champion, Evansville Bosse, 79-75. “Bud Ritter came to town three or four years before I got to high school. He saw talent in me, and worked with me specially. I’m grateful he did, because he’s the reason I played basketball.”
As a youth Humes played only in his backyard and the parks. “Blacks got the gym one hour a week on Tuesday night” he said. “I did some history, and there was one black that practiced with the team when Madison won the state championship in 1950, but they never dressed him. He never got a ring, and they said he was just as good as the guys on there. A few years later they had a guy they dressed but he played very little. He had a younger brother who played some.”
Ritter, says Humes, didn’t see color in his players, only talent. “Bud Ritter had open eyes, and he was going to play the best players and have the best teams possible. I was the first black to play all the time. I started all four years and I owe that to Bud Ritter. Basketball was very, very good to me. That was a way I could have better things and learn about the world and people in general, and turn negative things into positive things.”
Five of Humes’ seven brothers played basketball after him at Madison. Howard, known as “Bugsy,” was an Indiana All-Star in 1965, and went to Indiana State. Willie Humes went to Idaho State.
In Humes’ freshman season, the Cubs went to the semistate in Butler Fieldhouse. “That was really something,” he said, “because I was scared to death. Coming from a small town like Madison, Butler Fieldhouse was one of the biggest places I’d ever seen. I had 19 points against Crispus Attucks. We lost, 82-80, in overtime.”
A year later Madison advanced again to the semistate in Butler Fieldhouse. The Cubs defeated Rushville, 74-60, but lost to Muncie Central and Ron Bonham, 73-64, in the championship game.
As a senior in 1962, Humes finally got a semistate victory. The Cubs defeated Connersville, 73-64, and Anderson, 91-81. That sent undefeated Madison to the state finals in Butler Fieldhouse. East Chicago Washington, Kokomo, and Evansville Bosse were the other finalists.
“We beat Bosse during the regular season, 59-51, then they came back in the tournament and upset us, 79-75,” said Humes. “Bosse was on our regular schedule all the time, because Bud Ritter was from Evansville and went to Bosse. Evansville Bosse was the fourth team picked to win the title. It was a very big disappointment that we lost, because all young kids want to win the state title. We just didn’t play quite up to our capabilities. I was one game away from getting a silver or gold ring, and never got it. But after that disappointment, I got Mr. Basketball, which helped it a little bit. As a team you want to win the state finals, and as an individual, Mr. Basketball is the highest honor you can get.”
Humes was captain of the Indiana All-Star team that split with Kentucky. He was named Star of Stars.
“I had many choices of college” said Humes. He narrowed his list to Purdue, because Ray Eddy was the coach and he was from Madison and had coached the Cubs; Cincinnati; UCLA; and Evansville College (now the University of Evansville).
“I went to Evansville,” Humes added. “I was young and I really didn’t know. Bud Ritter thought Evansville would be the best place for me. He was from there, and basketball was great there. The school had great education, and Arad McCutchan was a great coach. Bud Ritter knew Mr. McCutchan, so I took Ritter’s word for it and went to Evansville. I haven’t regretted it since. It’s probably the best move I’ve ever made. The other schools were bigger, but what I accomplished, the people I came in contact with, and the things I learned just in life itself—it probably was the best place for me.”
Humes didn’t disappoint his high school coach. He wasn’t eligible for the varsity as a freshman, but he won NCAA Division II championships as a sophomore and junior. The Purple Aces defeated Akron, 72-59, in the championship game of 1964, and beat Southern Illinois, 85-82, in overtime in the ‘65 title game. Humes was an All-American three years, and he holds just about all of the school’s offensive records. That includes season points (941); career field goals (865); season free throws (227); career scoring average (26.4); and season scoring average (32.5).
The Purple Aces were 26-3 in 1964, and 29-0 in ‘65. “Those two years I really think we were one of the top teams in the country, Division I or II,” said Humes. “We played a lot of Division I schools in the preseason: New Mexico State, Arizona, Iowa, Purdue, Columbia, Northwestern, Notre Dame, George Washington, Louisiana State, and Massachusetts.
“Our preseason was a lot tougher than our conference season. Jerry Sloan was a very good defensive player, and I was the offensive player. We really meshed.” Sloan had an outstanding career with the Chicago Bulls, and is the longtime coach of the Utah Jazz in the NBA.
A few years ago, the top 15 players in Evansville history were named, and Humes was ranked No. 1. His jersey has been retired and hangs from the rafters in Roberts Stadium, along with the jerseys of Gus Doerner, Sloan, and Don Buse. Humes is also in the Evansville and Indiana Halls of Fame.
If the Madison uniforms were different, so were the Purple Aces’. During Humes’ tenure in Evansville he wore No. 50 emblazoned on a T-shirt, and when he went to the bench, he put on a robe, not a sweat shirt.
“Back then the gyms were very cold, not like they are now,” he said. “So the robes were very, very nice, because once you came out you were very warm, and the robes helped you stay warm. I didn’t like the T-shirts at first, but once I got there I liked them, because they kept you very warm. And they didn’t bother your shooting. About five years ago, they went to the regular jersey, and I’m sorry they did. They should have kept that tradition.”
After being drafted by Chicago in 1966, Humes survived until the final cut before the season began. He would have made $10,000 if he had made the team, but he did receive a $2,000 bonus. “I thought that was a lot of money, and back then it was decent,” said Humes. “It was very disappointing, not making the team, but it probably was the best thing that ever happened to me.”
Soon after his basketball days ended, Humes embarked on a teaching and coaching career in Indianapolis that spanned 40 years. He retired in 2005. Humes taught one year in a middle school, then spent five years each at Shortridge High School and Howe High School as a basketball assistant.
Humes’ next move was to his alma mater as a basketball assistant. He worked at scouting and recruiting through the summer of 1977, then fate smiled on him. The Crispus Attucks high school job opened up and he took it. “I had never been a head coach, and I said, ‘Well, I’m going to see how I do as my own boss.’” Not long after he accepted the job, a plane carrying the Purple Aces team and coaches to a game crashed, killing all onboard.
Humes coached at Attucks for 10 years. Then the school was made a middle school. He went from Attucks to the University of Indianapolis, and spent six years there as an assistant. When Bill Green was let go as the Greyhounds coach, Royce Waltman was hired. Humes said, “I’d been there long enough, so I went back to IPS (Indianapolis Public Schools).”
Humes and his wife, Cecele, have a son, Larry Jr., and a daughter, Shannon. Larry Jr. works for the Marion County Health Department and Shannon manages a pharmacy in Dallas. Cecele is secretary at an Indianapolis middle school.
Evansville didn’t give rings when Humes helped the school win consecutive NCAA titles in the ‘60s. “They gave us watches,” he said. “I still have one watch. I had one watch made into a necklace for my wife. I do have my Mr. Basketball ring,” and a lot of wonderful memories.