By BOB SHRALUKA
WZBD.com
It’s been over 56 years now, but a Sectional basketball game for Ossian High School in the spring of 1967 still lingers in the memories of longtime hoops fans in this area.
Ossian was playing Bluffton High School and Ossian coach Art Windmiller (photos), known as a “colorful” coach, and referee Don Hurst got into a verbal battle late in the game, with the result being police escorting the coaches and team off the floor.
Leigh Evans, editor and publisher of the HickoryHusker, recently took a fresh look at the game and the resulting backlash, and saw a threat at the time to the pending consolidation which formed Northern Wells Schools.
Windmiller, by the way, died at his Ossian home on January 7, 2017 at the age of 91. He was born in Linn Grove, the son of Charles and Inez Windmiller.
Following is the story by Leigh Evans, reprinted with his permission:
Tiny Ossian High School in Wells County drew the attention of the entire state in the spring of 1967. Volatile head basketball coach Art Windmiller’s Sectional ejection was such that an entire school consolidation process was put into turmoil.
The fall of 1968 was set to begin the first semester of newly minted Norwell High School. It was to be a consolidation of four smaller schools – primarily Ossian and Lancaster, but also included hamlet institutions Rockcreek and Union Center.
However, the passions of an Indiana high school basketball Sectional the previous spring would place the entire process in limbo.
Colorful veteran coach Art Windmiller led the Ossian Bears in their farewell campaign all the way to the Sectional title game, going 17-5. Thanks in no small part to his son, Bob Windmiller, who would routinely torch the nets for 30+ points, be named an Indiana All-Star, and would later play at the University of Illinois.
The small school Bears of Ossian had enjoyed a rich basketball tradition, winning no less than six Sectional titles. Most recently in 1965 under Coach Windmiller. They even captured a Regional in 1939.
However, as the clock was just about to strike twelve on the 1967 Ossian Bears, things went sideways.
With just three seconds left on the clock and host Bluffton comfortably ahead, 56-46, another call went against Ossian. As referee Don Hurst made his way to the scoring table to signal the offending party, Ossian assistant Coach Gene Felton offered a few words of critique.
Referee Hurst, who had heard way too much throughout the contest and during the especially contentious fourth quarter, whistled a technical on the assistant.
At this, head coach Windmiller stepped on floor and said to Referee Hurst, “Call one on me.”
Hurst obliged him.
Coach Windmiller then stated, “Call two on me.”
Hurst obliged again and then instructed Windmiller to sit the rest of the game, or he would have to leave the gym.
Coach obeyed, but after free throws were attempted, Coach Windmiller reportedly stood back up and slowly clapped his hands in the face of the official and made further “unsportsmanlike” comments.
With three seconds left referee Don Hurst stopped the game after calling three consecutive technical fouls on bench, specifically citing “unsportsmanlike remarks” following foul calls.
Police were called to escort the Coaches and team from the floor to the locker room following the dustup.
Coach Windmiller already had a rich reputation for sideline antics. A previous incident that has been canonized in Hoosier basketball lore was so noteworthy, the IHSAA chose to include it in their decision against Ossian High School. In that instance, Coach Windmiller found himself on the sideline of a game not involving his Ossian squad. During a timeout, he reportedly scribbled some officiating advice on a piece of paper, folded it into an airplane, and sailed it onto the playing for the referees.
The end result was an odd one. Normally the basketball program would’ve been nailed the following winter, but this was an unusual circumstance. Ossian and a handful of other area schools (Lancaster, Union, and Rockcreek) were set to consolidate into newly formed Norwell that next fall.
Under this bizarre scenario, the IHSAA ruled that all Ossian sports were to be suspended from IHSAA play (pretty much immediately) from March 1967 through September 1968. Track, golf, and baseball ended forever that March for Ossian.
Amazingly the IHSAA Board of Control initially ruled to not only suspend Ossian for spring sports, but also all schools that were going to consolidate with them in the fall. Lancaster, Union Center, and Rockcreek wouldn’t be allowed to play spring sports either.
IHSAA ruling stated: If Ossian High School consolidates with another school(s), the school(s) involved and resulting school(s) will also be governed by suspension.
The reality was that schools melting into Norwell that spring, as well as new Norwell in the fall, would all fall under the punishment handed down to the Ossian basketball coaching staff from that March.
Ironically, the IHSAA, in their announcement of penalty, also specifically lauded the Ossian basketball players for maintaining their decorum during the incident.
The absurdity of praising the athletes, all-the-while unilaterally punishing them as well as all other small school athletes that just happen to be consolidating with that school was beyond bizarre even for an era of a ham-handed IHSAA.
Local school officials had planned to have a merged Ossian/Lancaster baseball team for a joint summer baseball team. Those plans were also changed after the IHSAA harsh stance.
That illogic was thankfully thrown out after it was announced in April that the embattled Coach Windmiller would not get a shot at coaching the new consolidation, and the unlucky consolidating schools were not subjected to the punishment of their partner.
The power play had worked, and an entire school consolidation was nearly put on hold in the process.
Norwell would go on to hire Coach Ron Sullivan, formerly of DeMotte, to lead their newly consolidated program – free of any IHSAA storm clouds.
Art Windmiller would pass away in 2017. He was a World War II veteran, a lifelong resident of his dear Ossian, and he was a career math teacher (40 years,) drivers’ ed instructor, basketball and baseball coach. He would actually go on to referee basketball.
NOTE: The schools and their nicknames involved in the consolidation were the Ossian Bears, Lancaster Central Bobcats, Union Center Badgers and Rockcreek Center Dodgers.
(Photos used with the permission of Leigh Evans.)
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