Hoosier Hysteria - A '67 Griffith Panther Memoir - Rick Butler

This memoir focuses on Rick’s senior high school basketball team – the 1967 Griffith Panthers. This team made basketball school history winning their 1st ever state tournament sectional and ending with a record of 20 wins and 4 losses. The memoir chronicles Rick’s basketball experience starting in grade school and ending with coaching his granddaughter, Maya’s community basketball team. All of this represented Rick’s glorious ride through Hoosier hysteria especially his senior year.

In 1967 the Indiana state basketball tournament still had no classes or divisions based on school size. All schools played each other with small schools competing against the large schools and everyone else in between. Griffith’s 1967 basketball team was basically a state ranked team in spite of its very small size – an enrollment of 600. This ‘Cinderella team’ was revered by the town. Griffith had been waiting for a team like this forever and the 1967 team became their team of destiny.

If you liked the movie ‘Hoosiers’...