Hoover High to Celebrate Gym’s 50th Year

Not much has changed inside the Hoover High School gymnasium in the 50 years since Johnny Babick, Rupe Crosthwaite, Bob Gremmett, Percy Hussong, Roy Muelchi and Jack Siegel had their names announced before the start of a high school basketball game.

The rectangular wooden backboards have been replaced by glass, the school has added a couple of championship banners, and murals grace two of the inside walls.

But a step inside the Hoover gym is otherwise like a step backward in time.

Tonight, Babick, Crosthwaite, Gremmett, Hussong, Muelchi and Siegel will again be taking another walk to midcourt before the start of Hoover’s City Central League game against Madison. This is fitting; they were part of the first Hoover varsity team to trot out after the gym was built for the 1939-40 season.

The group will be honored along with other players who participated in that first game on Nov. 28, 1939, as Hoover celebrates the building’s 50th anniversary before tonight’s 7:15 tipoff.

Others to be honored include Max Fitzenmeyer, Charlie Hampton, Ray Minor, Bob White and Walt Woodbury, all of whom played on the alumni team that defeated the Hoover varsity in that first game. Hampton, who later coached the Cardinals for 11 years, led all scorers with 10 points.

But the Hoover gym has been more than just the site of 2,000-plus high school games. Hoover has also seen the air balls of recreation leagues and slam dunks of NBA players. The Boston Celtics, Atlanta Hawks and Cleveland Cavaliers have practiced there, along with several foreign teams in training for the 1984 Olympics. And all--one estimate is 50,000 games--have been played on the same oak floor.

The original floor was an inch thick, nearly twice the depth of those installed today. An eighth-inch was sanded off after it was damaged by a 1980 flood.

The gym has proved a great investment, considering the number of games it has staged. It was built for $185,000--or a little less than the average price of a new home in the county today.