By Terry Trautman, CHS ‘56
For whatever reasons, the current Columbus North football field and Memorial Gym were built before the main classroom building was constructed. That wasn’t the case in 1923 – when a new gymnasium was built across the street from the Columbus High School buildings on 7th Street. There were two classroom buildings in use by 1916 — and a third was under construction when the gym was completed in 1923. The new gym also housed a swimming pool in the basement.
For the record, in the first basketball game at the Pearl Street gym our Bull Dogs blasted the Seymour Owls 50 – 10!
Let’s take a stroll back to the days when that facility was overwhelmingly active. To begin with, it had its share of idiosyncrasies compared to today’s standards. It didn’t take long for folks to give it a nickname – The Cracker Box. Cracker Box, you ask? It was a tight fit no matter where you were in the gym. The north and south sides stacked two levels of seats. The west side had an inset that served as a stage when a basketball game wasn’t being played. The east side was the entrance with three levels of zigzagging stairways leading to the second level as well as to the basement swimming pool and lockers. It was a very noisy place to play basketball.
On the south, east, and west sides of the gym floor there were, generously speaking, maybe two feet of space between the inbounds line and fans’ feet. It can be confirmed that some fans were known to pinch, shall we say, the gluteus maximus of opposing players trying to inbound the ball to a fellow teammate! Why yes, you are correct, those fans were students.
The west side, on each side of the stage, featured mattress-like padding hung on the wall to prevent a player driving for a lay-up from bashing into solid bricks. Columbus players quickly learned not to drive straight to the basket but, rather, to drive at an oblique angle.
The east entrance allowed much more room beyond the inbounds line but presented its own somewhat ominous danger. If you drove straight to the basket and continued out of bounds you had better stop soon or face the distinct possibility of falling head over heels down the stairway.
Some fans didn’t have it so great either. Fans in the top few rows of the second floor on the north and south sides could not see part of the gym floor. During an inbound pass in that unseen area, fans in those rows did not always know whether the inbounder was one of ours or one of theirs until they saw which team caught the ball.
On the east end above the stairways was a balcony, the worst seats in the gym. Why? Students sitting there could not see the east end basket. They could barely see the free throw line. For obvious reasons, this section was relegated to Freshmen.
But the loudest complaining came from adult fans. Once student seats were allotted, seating available for non-student fans was so limited that to get season tickets your only choice was to sign up for the lottery. So yes, Cracker Box was a fitting nickname, and those complaints may have had something to do with getting Memorial Gym built in 1954 (prior to the classroom building).
About that pool. It served two purposes; it was shared by Physical Education classes and the school swimming team known then as the Bullfrogs (one word!). The pool, located under the stage in the west end of the basement, was six lanes wide and 20 yards long with a one-meter diving board … or it might have been a one-yard diving board. It was not an enjoyable pool for swimming classes. The pool area was always cold – and the water was colder.
Eager freshman boys put their swimsuits in their assigned lockers for safekeeping. At the end of our first Swimming class of the semester we stuffed the wet suits in our lockers. Arriving for our second class, our suits were still wet and didn’t smell too good. Arriving for our third class … yes, still wet, and really stunk of mold. Fourth class forward, we swam nude. Problem solved. (“We” is used purposely here as the author is writing from personal experience.)
The swimming teams fared much better! Note that even though Memorial Gym was completed in 1954, it did not contain a swimming pool. The North Natatorium wasn’t completed until 1982, which meant that the swimming team continued to practice and hold meets in the Pearl Street pool (even though the old high school was now a junior high).
Divers using the short board had to temper their pre-dive spring to avoid hitting the pool ceiling! A quote from John Munn, a diver from the ‘50s. “It was the worst diving board ever built! Too short, too stiff, and too slick!” The 20-yard length was five yards shorter than state meet (IHSAA) regulations. The swimmers were undaunted though. Starting in 1959 under the guidance of head coach Duane Barrows, the swimming team won six out of seven state championships!
One last comment coming from Ken McDermott, a champion Butterfly Stroke swimmer on the 1959 team; Mr. Barrows nickname was “Shig.” Very early on, swimming team members were well aware that use of that moniker was limited to peers and other teachers only! Ken noted that, “No swimmer who wanted to continue to swim on the team ever addressed him by that name. He was greeted with dignity and respect only as “Mr. Barrows.” Mr. Barrows could have easily moonlighted as a tavern bouncer. Did I say respect?