man of honor For two days in November 2013, thousands of alumni and Terre Haute community members gathered on campus to pay tribute to Larry’s legacy at the Honoring a Legend event. Here’s how the weekend added up. —Dave Taylor
400,000 Dollars raised for the Larry Bird Scholarship
Vintage Style?
5,000 Attendees at the dedication of the Larry Bird statue
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Number of students who started the Larry Legend Foundation
17
3,700
by the numbers
Limited edition Larry Bird bobbleheads ordered for events
NOv. 8 & 9, 2013
35
1,900 Weight of statue (in pounds)
Number of seasons between the Sycamores’ NCAA championship game against Michigan State and the dedication of the Larry Bird statue
1978
June 9, 1978
Bird is named a consensus All-American— his first of two such honors.
As a junior at Indiana State, Bird is passed over by five teams— including the Pacers— in the NBA draft, going sixth to the Boston Celtics. He opts to return to ISU to finish his senior year before going pro.
March 26, 1979 Bird leads the team to its first appearance in the NCAA tournament, taking them to the championship against Michigan State University, where they lose 75-64.
Spring 1979
April 1979
1984
Indiana State goes 33-1 in Bird’s senior year, finishing with 29 school records, including the top spot on Indiana State’s all-time scoring list. Bird graduates in May with a degree in education.
Bird officially signs a fiveyear, $3.2 million contract with the Celtics, making him the highest paid rookie in professional team sports at the time.
After winning the 1984 NBA Finals against the Lakers, Bird admits he “won this one for Terre Haute” to make up for his Indiana State loss to Michigan State five years earlier.
march 2014 • LArry bird tribute issue
lane stewart/getty images
Approximate height, in feet, of the statue (exact height of the statue is: 17', 1 and 1/8" tall)
Larry Bird has graced the cover of Sports Illustrated 16 times, but the first showed up the week of Nov. 28, 1977. In between ads for the Schwinn Deluxe Exerciser, a stationary bike (with built-in speedometer!), and a “telephone cable fiber as thin as a human hair” from GTE, sits a story that examines the history of the jump shot and its effect on the game. In the piece, writer Kent Hannon profiles then-current players like the “low-profile, but high-flying Bird” (shown above with former ISU cheer team members, from left, Sharon Senefeld Ilkin and Marcia Staub Murphy). Hannon takes on Bird’s first season, in which ISU went 25-3, and mentions Bird’s first shot of that season—a slam dunk. The shot, he says, “alerted long-suffering Indiana State fans that a new era was dawning.” —Maureen Harmon
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