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first game, lost the second, and that was the relatively unexciting start to Bird’s high school career. As the years went on, the ankle improved, his shot got better, and the height came in giant waves. When Bird was a sophomore, Jones estimates, he weighed in at about 135 pounds, and stood 6'1". By his junior year, he had put on 20 pounds and two inches. When he was ready to —Jim Jones in USA start his senior year, Jones, Today upon the coach’s who had then become the retirement. Jones school’s athletic director, coached Bird through his was staring up at a 6'7" junior year of high school player (on his way to 6'9"), at Springs Valley. with floppy blond hair and an ability to predict and adjust to other players’ moves on the court in ways Jones had never seen. “He has always had such a tremendous understanding of the game,” says Jones. He wasn’t quick. He wasn’t a jumper, but it didn’t seem to matter. “He could fit in because of his understanding and his anticipation. It seemed he had the game on another level, like a chess game—he could see what was going to happen … We talk about it a lot. He can’t explain it.” That year they won sectionals, but lost regionals. Even so, Bird had an incredible senior year, averaging 20.6 rebounds and 30.6 points per game, ending his career as the school’s all-time leading scorer—a record that still stands. He played with the Indiana AllStars, and Indiana University, Bob Knight, and those famous Hoosiers took notice.
He was about the skinniest, frail, 6'1", 135-pound sophomore you’ve ever seen, but he had a tremendous feel for the game.
Later, Spring 1974 Bird leads the Blackhawks to a sectional victory but falls short to the Bedford Stone Cutters in the regional final. Bird finishes his high school career with 1,125 points, becoming Spring Valley’s alltime leading scorer.
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LArry bird tribute issue • march 2014
But there must have been a lot going on in the mind of the young Larry Bird. He was growing up poor in French Lick, Indiana. His parents had divorced. His dad would later kill himself. Basketball, says Jones, was an outlet. And Jones helped facilitate that. “There wasn’t a lot to do in that small town,” says Jones. If the coach’s car was at the high school, that meant Jones was likely doing laundry. And the kids came in to play. “We’d talk basketball,” he says, “and they’d shoot around.” Jones was more than a coach to Bird. He admits that he became Bird’s guidance counselor and taxi driver, working with him through his college recruitment, entertaining the recruiters at his home, and eventually helping Bird decide to attend Indiana University in Bloomington with Bob Knight, and later—after he made the choice to walk away from the prestigious program— to ISU. Finally settled at ISU, Bird quickly eased his coaches’ and mentors’ fears about whether his skills would carry him smoothly to the college court. “When he got into college, we had that same question: Is he quick enough to play on the next level?” says Jones. “Each time he silenced that right away.” He silenced it all the way to the pros, three championship rings, and a gold medal. Jones still hangs out with Bird, whom he first met as an elementary student named “Mark’s Little Brother” and watched grow into an NBA All-Star and coach for the Pacers. Jones still heads out on fishing and golfing trips with Bird. Although he doesn’t cry when he loses, Bird—always the competitor—will challenge his former coach on the green or in the boat. Sometimes we look at Bird and think of the 1979 NCAA game. We think of the Magic rivalry and the three-point contests and the image of Bird and Dr. J with their hands around each other’s necks, and we forget where it all started. With a high school that now sits on Larry Bird Boulevard, and with a coach who taught a young skinny kid the basics—passing, dribbling, shooting—and, eventually, helped him master the game. “He’d find a weakness in his game, and then we would just perfect it,” says Jones. “But the great ones do that.”
September 1974
Spring 1975
Fall 1975
1977
Bird arrives at Indiana University on a basketball scholarship. After a few weeks on a campus with ten times as many students as there were people in French Lick, he returns home to work and attend Northwood Institute, a community college.
Bird’s mother slams the door in ISU coach Bill Hodges’ face when he appears at Bird’s home on a recruiting trip. Hodges drives around French Lick and finds Bird and his grandmother leaving a laundromat. Grandma convinces Bird to sit down with the coaches over tea, since they came all the way from Terre Haute.
Bird, who sprouted another two inches (reaching 6'9"), starts at ISU.
Bird and his American teammates beat Russia to win gold in the World University Games in Bulgaria.
November 28, 1977 Bird and two Indiana State cheer team members, Marcia Staub Murphy and Sharon Senefeld Ilkins, appear on the cover of Sports Illustrated. This would be the first of many covers.