article contributed by Terry Trautman, CHS ’56
Tom Arnholt was a star basketball player for CHS in 1968. In a win against Anderson High School, he set a school scoring record dropping in 50 points (with no 3-point line) on Anderson. He was named an Indiana All-Star in his senior year.
Tom’s achievements as an Indiana All-Star earned him a scholarship to play basketball at Vanderbilt University. He was a starter in his first year of eligibility (in his sophomore year only because freshman could not play on varsity teams back then). But all major schools had freshman teams that scheduled other freshman programs.
In a freshman game during the 1968-69 season, Tom scorched the nets for 51 points against LSU. Tom did not know at the time but a spectator at that game was none other than a guy by the name of Pete Maravich who, as a LSU junior, was making national sports headlines as a prolific scorer. After the freshman game Pete sought out Tom and chortled, “Just wait ‘til next season, I’m going to smoke you!” In a perverse way that was a compliment to Tom that Pete not only watched the freshman game but realized Tom was no slouch scorer himself.
OK, so the next season rolled around, and sure enough Tom was assigned to guard Pete who promptly made good on his promise – lighting up the nets for 61 points against Tom! Tom’s comment at the time was, “He only scored 61 on me…” Fortunately for Tom, a few weeks later Maravich dropped 63 against a different opponent. Tom was quite relieved to no longer hold the dubious record of being the player who gave up the most points to Pistol Pete (as Pete had become known).
Tom was later named to the Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame!