Darlington High School Basketball: A Brief History
According to an article in the 1910 Darlington High School Yearbook, the first basketball game played in Darlington was organized by a small group of high school boys in the fall of 1906. These boys, having heard about the game of basketball, learned the rules and began to practice the skills of the game. They then organized a game with a group of boys from Bowers just six miles northeast of town. The Darlington boys beat the Bowers boys in that game which was played outdoors at Darlington. The next year (1907) the school hired a coach and an official Darlington High School team was organized.
Later, when high school teams began to adopt mascots, Darlington chose a Native American Indian as their mascot. The colors worn by the Darlington team were red and white. Although Darlington fielded competitive teams in the first half of the 20th century, the Indians’ first tournament championship was the Montgomery County tournament in 1954. They won the Montgomery County tournament three more times: 1968, 1969, and 1970. Darlington won the sectional tournament once in 1969. That year Darlington played in the Lebanon sectional not the Crawfordsville sectional in which they normally played.
Three men who played for Darlington are in the Montgomery County Basketball Hall of Fame: Bob Mullem (1958), Don Threlkeld (1969), and Rich Douglas (1970).
Read about the greatest Montgomery County teams