Year graduated
1956
Major accomplishments
Made the Warren Central varsity team as a freshman; Ranks 24th on the Bulldogs’ all-time scoring list with 1,117 points scored from 1957-1960; Played in three Hoosier Classics; Played in two NIT tournaments; Indiana Basketball Hall of Famer
Cameron Indoor Stadium on the campus of Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, was never a destination for Ken Pennington when he played for Butler University over 40 years ago. That changed in early 2005 when Pennington’s grandson, Josh McRoberts, a senior at Carmel High School, said, “Papa, do you want to go with me to see Duke play North Carolina in the last game of the regular season? It’s at Duke.”
Pennington, a former high school coach at Mooresville, Rochester, and Rushville, said, “Absolutely.” The two of them flew to Durham, where the 6-foot-10 McRoberts had become a prized recruit of Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski.
“I sure have become a Duke fan,” said Pennington, who stands 24th on Butler’s all-time leading scoring list, four spots below Josh’s father, Tim McRoberts, who scored 1,208 points as a Bulldog from 1980-1984. “I’ve always been a Krzyzewski fan, just because I think he does things really well in a quiet, discreet way. I like his mannerisms. I like his professionalism.”
The trip with his grandson provided Pennington his first chance to chat with Coach K. He told Pennington that he was happy to have Josh as a Blue Devil.
“I said, ‘There are two things I’m concerned about. Josh does not shoot the ball well. If he could shoot, there would be no limit to what he can do.’ And I said another thing is that in Josh’s life, he has never been pushed to his physical limit. I said he’s just been bigger than everybody and they haven’t pushed him, and he hasn’t worked hard.
“Coach I said, T’ll tell you this. We will work with his shooting, and you won’t believe the improvement on it in a year.’ And he said, ‘that second concern you never have to worry about it again.’”
Pennington, who was surprised how small and noisy Cameron Indoor Stadium is (it seats less than 10,000), said his grandson has reacted to his concerns in a positive way. “Josh says he’s never worked as hard as he did in his first year at Duke, and I believe it. If you watch him play defense, he hustles down the floor like I’ve never seen him hustle down the floor in my life. I’m really impressed with the effort he’s giving, and I know Coach I will make my grandson a better basketball player. I have no doubt about that.”
Blackie Braden and Tony Hinkle were two coaches who made Pennington a better basketball player than he ever thought he could be. Braden was Pennington’s coach at Warren Central before Blackie went to Indianapolis Southport High School after his Warriors team won the Marion County tournament in 1954. Hinkle became a legend as the Butler coach.
“The Bradens—Blackie and his lovely wife Barbara—took me under their wing when I was a very young kid,” said Pennington. “We got Mr. Braden a better job by winning the county tournament I always told him. I was able to play as a freshman on the varsity at Warren Central, and I felt I had a pretty good career there playing for Bob Meyers after Mr. Braden went to Southport. Mr. Braden went to Butler, and he encouraged me to go there. It was the greatest thing that ever happened for me in terms of my future. Mr. Hinkle got me into coaching.”
Pennington chuckles when he recalls how low-key Hinkle was about recruiting him. Braden set up an appointment for Pennington, who went by himself to see Hinkle. “Mr. Hinkle’s famous words were, ‘Whatever you can’t do, kid, we’ll do for you,’” said Pennington. “That was his offer of a full scholarship. He never called me ‘Ken’, it was always ‘kiddo’ or ‘Warren Central.’”
In Pennington’s estimation, the secret to Hinkle’s success was that he was not only conservative as a coach, but he also was humble and conservative in his lifestyle. “He was a fundamentalist,” said Pennington. “We did the same thing the last day of practice my senior year that we did the first day of practice when I was a freshman. It was so repetitive you really got bored or anxious, saying, ‘Man, I'll be glad when this is over, because every day it’s going to be the same thing.’ He made me a better player through the repetition I did on a daily basis.”
Seven-foot Mike McCoy, 1958 Mr. Basketball, can attest to what Hinkle did for Pennington. “I played against a guy in the summer leagues I had never heard of before,” said McCoy. “The guy was named Ken Pennington. The first time I played against him he grabbed my left leg, held it, twirled around me, and went in for a lay-up. That caught me off guard. Even though he was 6’5”, I could have blocked his shot; but the whole game this guy did things that just amazed me. I was talking to him later, and he said it was all Hinkle.”
In Pennington’s three varsity seasons under Hinkle, Butler was 14-20 in preseason play against the likes of Ohio State, Michigan State, Illinois, Wisconsin, Michigan, Indiana, Purdue, Notre Dame, Tennessee, UCLA, and Bradley.
“That was a tremendous opportunity to play against great teams and great players,” said Pennington. “The best team I ever played against was in my senior year when we played Ohio State, who won the NCAA national championship that year. That was the year [Jerry] Lucas and [John] Havlicek and [Mel] Nowell, and [Larry] Siegfried, and [Joe] Roberts, and of course [Bob] Knight were on the Ohio State team. Knight, [who had led Indiana to NCAA titles in 1976, 1981, and 1987], didn’t play any, but he was there. Their coach, Fred Taylor, was one of the nicest gentlemen I ever met in the coaching field.”
How did Pennington do against the Buckeyes? “The first game [in Columbus] I did really well,” he said. Butler won, 77-73, in overtime in the 1957-58 season. A year later Ohio State won, 81-69, in Hinkle Fieldhouse. In the 1959-60 season, the Buckeyes won, 99-66, at Columbus and 96-68. In my senior year Lucas guarded me at Ohio State, and I did pretty well. Then they played us back at Butler about a month later, and I didn’t know there was a ball in the game. Havlicek guarded me, and he wouldn’t even let me have the ball. I didn’t get the ball until late in the game after they were probably 20 or 30 points ahead. I had a different feeling for defense and Havlicek after that game. He was an outstanding defensive player even in college, and went to the pros and did the same thing [for the Boston Celtics].”
Pennington played against Indiana and Purdue three years in the Hoosier Classic at Hinkle Fieldhouse before huge crowds. Notre Dame was the fourth team in the double-headers on successive nights. Butler was 3-3 in those three Hoosier Classics. The Bulldogs played in the National Invitation Tournament twice during Pennington’s three seasons. They lost to St. John’s, 76-69, in 1958; and to Bradley, 83-77, in 1959.
Pennington was born in Berea, Kentucky, and he loved the Wildcats. He became a Hoosier in the eighth grade when his father bought a trailer park on the east side of Indianapolis.
“Basketball was kinda in our family,” said Pennington. “I had an older brother who went to Georgetown College on a basketball scholarship. My mother wouldn’t let me play football. She said it was too rough for somebody like her baby boy. I was very interested in basketball and the Wildcats, then we moved to Indianapolis and Blackie Braden took me in.”
Pennington received letters from the Los Angeles Lakers and Cincinnati Royals of the NBA asking him to try out, but he knew he couldn’t play in the middle at 6’5”, and he wasn’t a good enough ball-handler to play outside, so he went another direction.
“I really wanted to coach,” said Pennington, who retired in 2000 after spending 13 years as a coach and administrator, and the last 11 years as the Pike Township transportation director in Indianapolis. “I thought, ‘You know, I can start out at $6,000 a year and man, I’ll really be wealthy.”
Pennington owns a 452-acre farm near Frankfort, Kentucky. He and his second wife, Mary, spend summers there or in Indianapolis, where they have a condo. In 2005 they purchased a condo in Bonita Springs, Florida.
Pennington says Josh only gets four tickets for games in Cameron Indoor Stadium. Jennifer McRoberts, Josh’s mother, and his grandmother Carolyn, Pennington’s first wife, made good use of those tickets in Josh’s freshman season. They rented a condo in Durham, and often spent several days there when the Blue Devils played mid-week and on Saturdays at home.
Papa didn’t miss any of his grandson’s action in the 2005-2006 season. “Having somebody to follow at this time in my life has inspired me. Every game that Duke played in the regular season was on some form of TV: CBS, NBC, ESPN, Fox. I was in Florida, and you know at my age I really enjoy sitting right here in the sunny South watching those games.”
ABOVE: From inside or outside, Lebanon’s Rick Mount could always score, as “The Rocket” shows on this layup attempt. Photo courtesy of Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame
RIGHT: Indianapolis Washington’s George McGinnis put up some awesome numbers in the second All-Star game of 1969-53 points and 31 rebounds. Photo courtesy of Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame
LEFT: “The Miracle Man,” Clay City’s Bob Heaton, makes the left-handed shot that sent Indiana State to the famous 1979 NCAA Final Four. Photo courtesy of Indiana State University Archives Athletic Photograph Collection
RIGHT: Before Carl Erskine began throwing strikes for the Brooklyn Dodgers, he threw beautiful passes to Anderson High teammate “Jumpin”’ Johnny Wilson as a 5-foot-9 guard. Photo courtesy of Carl Erskine
Bill (right) and Dave Shepherd (below) of Carmel are the only brothers ever to wear the No. 1 Mr. Basketball jersey in different years-Billy in 1968, Dave in 1970. Photos courtesy of Dave Shepherd
LEFT: After Mike Warren helped Hoosiers native John Wooden in two of his record 10 NCAA titles at UCLA the South Bend Central product’s coach said Warren was the smartest player he had ever coached. Photo courtesy of Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame
RIGHT: Twins Arley (34) and Harley Andrews teamed with their uncle, Harold Andrews, on the 1953 Terre Haute Gerstmeyer team in forming one of the most famous family combinations in Indiana high school basketball history. Photo courtesy of Harley Andrews
RIGHT: Although he was just 6-foot-2 as Indianapolis Washington’s center when the Continentals won the 1965 state championship, Ralph Taylor was never outrebounded that season. Photo courtesy of Ralph Taylor
LEFT: Not only did 7-foot Eric Montross help Indianapolis Lawrence North win the 1989 state championship and become an All-Star in 1990, he was an NCAA champion with North Carolina in 1993. Photo courtesy of Lawrence North High School
LEFT: At 5-foot-7, Monte Towe (shooting) was called “The Flea” while at Oak Hill High in a, werse; then he became known as the “Little Big Man” while helping North Carolina State win the 1974 NCAA championship. Photo courtesy of Oak Hill high School
RIGHT: Chuck DeVoe became the first of three brothers from Indianapolis Park School to play basketbal and tennis at Princeton, where he won the Bunn Trophy as the Tigers’ basketball MVP as a senior in 1952. Photo courtesy of Chuck DeVoe
Ron Bonham, nicknamed the “Blond Bomber,” had plenty of practice cutting down nets as a product of Muncie Central and the University of Cincinnati. Photo courtesy of Ron Bonham
RIGHT: Huntington’s Mike Trester Award after the Vikings, who were known as the ȜClean Cuts,” lost to Lafayette Jeff in the 1964 state championship game. Photo courtesy of Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame
LEFT: After leading Evansville North to the 1967 state championship, Bob Ford moved on to Purdue where he scored often for the Boilermakers in Mackey Arena. Photo courtesy of Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame