September 19 – September 25The Week in Indiana History |
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“For the Farmers’ Day Parade (at the State Fair,) I was asked to drive a pony cart, an event that went fairly well until the high school bands leading the parade began to play loud, fast marches. What a day! I don’t know whether the pony or I was more scared and confused.” – – – Kathryn Louisea Heiliger Craig (1911 – 2001) Her husband, George Craig, served as Indiana Governor from 1953 to 1956. Did You Know?   Even back in the “Good Old Days,” there were state taxes. The book Indiana Past and Present by George S. Coffman, published in 1915, provides a look at the tax schedule for 1824. Property taxes were $1.50 per hundred acres for first-class land, $1.00 per hundred acres for second-class land, and 75 cents per hundred acres for third class land.  Each horse and mule was taxed at 37 1/2 cents. A two-wheeled carriage was charged $1.00. One with four wheels was assessed at $1.50. If you owned a brass clock, you paid a tax of $1.00. A silver watch was 25 cents, but a gold one was $1.00. There was also a poll tax of 50 cents for each male over 21 years of age “who was sane and not a pauper.”
ANSWERS: 1. b/ Single G     2. d/ Garfield   3. a/ Henry |
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HOOSIER HISTORY HIGHLIGHTS: A New Courthouse for Allen County
1937   The Mark Twain Roustabout Club of Indianapolis embarked on their annual river steamboat trip. The group, made up of business and professional members of the community, began their journey on the Ohio River at Cincinnati and traveled to West Point, Kentucky. Invited to join them on the riverboat S. S. Gordon C. Greene were Indiana Governor M. Clifford Townsend and Senator Frederick Van Nuys,.
1948   The Four Freshmen singing group made their debut at the 113 Club in Fort Wayne. The quartet, which began at the Jordan School of Music at Butler University, was made up of brothers Don and Ross Barbour, their cousin Bob Flanigin, and friend Hal Kratzsch. They created a vocal jazz harmony that won them a contract with Capitol Records. The group’s big hits include “It’s a Blue World,” “Mood Indigo,” and “Day by Day.”
1942   The first P-47 Thunderbolt fighter plane was produced by the Republic Aviation Company in Evansville. Equipped with eight 50-caliber machine guns, the P-47 was one of the most important planes used by the United States Air Force in World War II. By the time the war was over in 1945, over 6,000 Thunderbolts had been built in Evansville.
What a Summer!
What a Summer!
Contributed By Tim Fulton, Director of Sports Facilities, Evansville Sports Complex
With the August heat almost over, we take a few moments to reflect on the activity of the last couple of months. It was a long summer filled with the cheers of youth teams participating in league and tournament games at Deaconess Sports Park and Goebel Soccer and Lacrosse Complex. These welcomed cheers brought the feeling of normalcy back to the Evansville Sports Complex as we hosted larger than normal events nearly every weekend. The Tournament Organizers have gotten increasingly creative in their offerings, but at the end of the day, people were just happy to be playing again.
June and July, being the busiest months of the season, presented new opportunities for events like the Vette City Showcase by USA Elite Select. This event began with a player identification camp on Wednesday followed by showcase level softball games beginning on Thursday. “The Vette City Summer Showcase is a unique event in that only the top four finishing teams out of their seven team pools advance to the Championship Bracket. This makes for some very competitive pool play games as teams try to advance.†Said Lorenzo Walker, Tournament Director. This event attracted teams from the Midwest as well as Collegiate Coaches who were looking to recruit players. The event, hosted by One After 7 Events, was well received and plans to return in 2022.
The USSSA Great Lakes World Series took place in mid-July and attracted nearly 200 teams from around the Midwest as well. Teams began to arrive on Sunday for the opening day activities on Monday. Games were played Tuesday thru Sunday and were played at three facilities in the area. In addition to the tournament, there was added value and excitement as the USSSA Pride professional women’s fastpitch team was also in town to play two games at Bosse Field. These games were a combined effort between the Evansville Sports Corporation and the Evansville Convention and Visitors Bureau and were both well attended with the Wednesday night game drawing a near capacity crowd. The USSSA Great Lakes World Series is set to return in 2022 with a more impactful announcement coming soon. Â
Ready for Fall…
As we look forward to Fall, the busy season continues at the facilities. As schools return, so do the Fall Sports. Soccer Teams resume their practices to prepare for tournaments around the area, including Goebel Soccer and Lacrosse Complex where the Indiana Fire Junior South host their annual V.I.T. events. The Junior Veteran’s Invitational Tournament is hosted at both Goebel Soccer and Lacrosse Complex and Price Park in September and the High School age VIT is hosted at Goebel in November. These events have become an annual tradition in the area and attract teams from around the Midwest to the tri-state. K.C. Bennett of Indiana Fire Juniors South had this to say, “The 20th Annual Veterans Invitational Tournament will welcome 180 teams over two weekends from Tennessee, Kentucky, Illinois, Missouri, Ohio and Indiana. Every year we look forward to hosting this event in honor and remembrance of our Veterans. We invite everyone in the community to drive through the park on November 6 to see the Veterans Luminary Celebration. The beautiful, creative and meaningful luminaries decorated by our players and their families honor the sacrifice of every soldier who has earned lasting gratitude for our freedom through their service to our country.â€
Deaconess Sports Park also hosts many events in the Fall season kicking off with the USA Softball Men’s and Women’s Northern National events on Labor Day weekend. These events run concurrently this year and attract teams from the midwestern states. This year’s event will be the fifth time that this event has been held in the area and there is already a commitment for 2022 in place. There are also multiple fastpitch showcase events scheduled for this Fall, so the facility will remain busy until early November.
Looking To the Future…
There are many changes coming to Evansville Sports Complex in the next few months. The plan to replace the existing infields with modern synthetic surfaces is moving forward with construction planned to begin in November. In addition to this, there are several facelift projects that will be taking place in the winter months. The infield upgrade will keep the facility competitive in the ever-changing tournament market by providing almost guaranteed play for the teams. With an increasingly competitive market where new facilities are being built nearly every year, it is important to stay ahead of the trends and initiate projects that keep you at the forefront.
“Since opening 2015, Deaconess Sports Park has hosted events that have contributed nearly $100 million in economic impact to the Evansville and Vanderburgh County area. With the planned upgrades, we are ensuring that the facility will remain a viable and competitive venue for years to come.â€, said Tim Fulton, Director of Sports Facilities. Â
Once armed with the necessary tools for expansion and facility improvements, Double Play Sports will serve as the namesake of the tournament operations arm of Evansville Sports Complex. The ESC Management Team is forming new and updated partnerships that will allow Double Play Sports to offer the highest quality events for high quality athletes. All existing and future events operated explicitly by the ESC staff will fall under this department.
“With the combined tournament operations experience and national level partnerships, Double Play Sports will be the arm of Evansville Sports Complex that will operate high quality events for high quality athletes. This will allow for an increased number of in-house events that attract athletes and teams from around the country to Evansville. As always, our goal is to bring visitors to the tri-state area and we believe that Double Play Sports will be the catalyst for increased economic impact to the City of Evansville and Vanderburgh County.†Said Cate Simon, Program and Events Manager of Evansville Sports Complex.
*Deaconess Sports Park is owned and operated by the Evansville Vanderburgh County Convention and Visitors Bureau and was developed using Tourism Capital Improvement funding derived from lodging tax assessed to local hotels.  The facility aims to attract sports teams and visitors to the area where they will generate an economic impact for the local economy.
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USI Falls to UIndy, 1-0
EVANSVILLE, Ind. – University of Southern Indiana Women’s Soccer dropped their second-straight GLVC match of the season, falling to the University of Indianapolis, 1-0. USI, which has lost back-to-back matches for the first time since 2019, drops to 2-2-1, 0-2-0 GLVC, on the season while UIndy improves to 3-1-0, 1-1-0 GLVC.
The Screaming Eagles went into halftime knotted up with the Greyhounds, but a second half goal secured the victory for UIndy. The Greyhounds took the lead in the second half, scoring at the 69:31 mark to go ahead 1-0 and kept the lead the remainder of the game.
The Eagles led the way in shots on-goal, outshooting the Greyhounds 6-4. After two shots in the last ten minutes of the game from freshman forward Alexis Schone (Galena, Ohio) and senior forward Katlyn Andres  (Louisville, Kentucky) just couldn’t get through for USI, the Eagles couldn’t equalize and send the game to extra time.
Sophomore goalkeeper Maya Etienne (Midland, Michigan) saved three out the four shots on-goal faced.
NEXT UP FOR THE EAGLES:Â Â
USI returns to Strassweg Field on Friday September 24th as they welcome in the University of Illinois Springfield to continue the conference schedule. That matchup is set for a 7:30 p.m. kick-off. The Eagles go into the matchup with Illinois Springfield with an all-time record of 10-0-2. USI took the game in the spring, 1-0. and is riding a three-game win streak versus the Prairie Stars.
USI Women’s Runners fifth at Redbird Invite
NORMAL, Ill.—Senior Jennifer Comastri (Indianapolis, Indiana) finished 10th out of 144 competitors to lead No. 5 University of Southern Indiana Women’s Cross Country to a fifth-place finish in a 13-team field that consisted of 12 NCAA Division I programs Friday evening at the Illinois State University Redbird Invite.
Comastri finished the six-kilometer course in 21 minutes, 16.90 seconds, nearly 13 seconds faster than the 11th-place finisher and less than a minute off the winning pace of 20:20.70, set by Northwestern University’s Rachel McCardell.
Sophomore Hadley Fisher (Evansville, Indiana) aided the Screaming Eagles’ efforts, finishing 38th with a time of 22:28.50, while fellow classmate Cameron Hough(Olney, Illinois) was 48th with a time of 22:41.00. Freshman Allison Morphew (Evansville, Indiana) and sophomore Karlee Hoffman (Owensboro, Kentucky) rounded out the Eagles’ top five competitors with respective finishes of 54th and 57th, while sophomore Lauren Greiwe (West Harrison, Indiana) and freshman Katie Winkler(Santa Claus, Indiana) clocked finishes of 69th and 71st, respectively, to round out USI’s top seven.
As a team, the Eagles finished with 179 points to edge sixth-place Marquette University by two points. Host Illinois State was fourth with 134 points, while the University of Illinois (43 points), Northwestern (52 points) and Loyola University Chicago (62 points) had the top three team performances.
USI returns to action October 9 at 8:30 a.m. when it competes at the University of Alabama-Huntsville Charger Invitational in Huntsville, Alabama.
‘Better Books Book Sale’ runs September 20th – 24th
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Hot Jobs in Evansville Area
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Commentary: Tales Of Lingering And Listening
Commentary: Tales Of Lingering And Listening
By John Krull
TheStatehouseFile.com
STURGEON BAY, Wisconsin—So many of the best stories happen in small, even out-of-the-way places.
I learned that truth many years ago. The newspaper for which I worked gave me a beat that required me to travel around Indiana and the four states surrounding it in search of interesting tales.
I covered some fascinating stories.
Some were tragic, such as the story of a high school music teacher in a tiny town in Michigan. His leadership of the school band made it a powerful force. It began winning regional and national competitions.
The little town was overjoyed. They celebrated the band’s achievements and lauded the teacher.
Then some people in the community found out the teacher was gay. They mounted a campaign to drive him away.
Their effort split the town. People on both sides of the question were angry—furious even. The teacher was the rope in a community tug of war.
He and the school reached a settlement and he agreed to leave. But the struggle took a toll on his health.
Not long after he left the school, he had a heart attack and died.
He was only 32.
Other stories were bittersweet.
I traveled to Marion, Ohio. I talked with an old woman in a wheelchair.
When she was a little girl, national news photos of Warren G. Harding’s successful presidential campaign featured her. Harding, touting a need to return to “normalcy†in the turbulent days following World War I, ran a front-porch campaign.
The little girl who became the old woman had luxurious ringlets of hair that caught everyone’s eye. Her mother cut one of them and preserved it.
Harding won a landslide victory. For a moment, Marion seemed to be the center of the universe.
After Harding died in office, though, an avalanche of scandals involving his administration destroyed his reputation. And Marion began a hard slog as another struggling town in rust-belt America.
The old woman showed me her ringlet of hair, carefully preserved in a special box, a keepsake of a time when she was young and her hometown was at its zenith.
Still, other stories were uplifting.
I interviewed a man who left California to work on a tugboat on the Ohio River. His life in California, he told me, had melted down around him. He’d lost jobs, relationships, even hope. He’d even gotten to the point where he wouldn’t eat.
The hard work of pulling and pushing barges up and down the river helped him find his way. He sorted his life out and settled down.
When we stopped for lunch after I’d shagged a ride with him and the rest of the tug’s crew, he dove into his meal. I glanced at him, and he smiled.
“That river makes you hungry,†he said.
I think about those days and those stories now as I walk along the streets of this small community nestled along Lake Michigan.
It isn’t a large place. Around 9,000 people live here year-round.
But, attracted by the water and the clear northern skies, the population swells to 36,000 in the summer months.
I learned a long time ago that the key to coming to know something about a place involved two “l†words—linger and listen.
What I find here confirms what I already know.
There are tales of pain and desperation and sorrow in this little place.
The local district attorney tells me the town and the surrounding county battle with drunk driving, domestic violence and methamphetamine use. These are all scourges that roam across much of America these days, but each tale of this kind is its own tragedy.
There also are stories of striving.
Of joy.
When I stop at a local coffee shop, two women greet the man behind the counter—presumably the owner—and ask if they now are talking to a PhD.
He is, like me, a man of mature vintage.
He ducks his head sheepishly and acknowledges that he now has his doctorate.
“I doubt it will help me sell any more coffee, but I’m glad I did it,†he tells them.
When I pay him for my scone, I thank him and say, “Congratulations, doctor.â€
His smile almost splits his face.
So many of the best stories happen in places like this.
FOOTNOTE: John Krull is director of Franklin College’s Pulliam School of Journalism and publisher of TheStatehouseFile.com, a news website powered by Franklin College journalism students.
MVC Schedule Announced For UE Men’s Basketball
MVC Schedule Announced For UE Men’s Basketball
Aces Set To Build On Last Year’s SuccessÂ
One of the top turnarounds in Missouri Valley Conference history saw the University of Evansville men’s basketball team make a 7-game improvement last season while clinching one of the top six seeds. The Purple Aces look for more as they head into the 2021-22 campaign.
On Tuesday, the MVC announced the league portion of the schedules. Conference play opens for UE on Wednesday, December 1 with a contest against Southern Illinois inside the Ford Center. It will mark the earliest MVC contest in program history, surpassing a Dec. 8 contest in 1999 at SIU.
After wrapping up its non-conference slate, the Aces open the New Year on January 2 with a visit to Northern Iowa. The Panthers have had a solid mark against Evansville inside the McLeod Center, winning the last seven matchups with the Aces last win in the building coming on Jan. 9, 2013. UE remains on the road to take on Indiana State on the 5th. The Hulman Center is another facility where the Aces look to end a streak with the Sycamores winning the last 10 games in Terre Haute.
The first home game of the new year will see the Aces welcome Illinois State on 1/8. In last year’s scheduling of back-to-back games, UE split a home series against the Redbirds. A stretch of three out of four games on the road will conclude on Jan. 12 with a trip to Bradley.
Following the trip to Peoria, UE will host the top two conference squads from last season – Drake and Loyola. The Aces face the Bulldogs on the 15thinside the Ford Center before taking on Loyola three days later. Drake made the NCAA Tournament last season with a 26-5 overall and 15-3 league mark. Taking on former conference foe Wichita State in the tournament, the Bulldogs picked up a 53-52 win. The Ramblers were 16-2 in the MVC while going 26-5 overall. They advanced to the Sweet 16 in the NCAA Tournament with wins over Georgia Tech and Illinois.
UE returns to the road on the 23rd for a trip to Redbird Arena to face Illinois State before finishing the month at home against UNI (1/26) and on the road at Missouri State (1/29). Evansville swept a 2-game series from the Panthers at the Ford Center in 2021 while splitting its series versus the Bears to complete the 2020-21 regular season.
February opens at Valparaiso on the 1st. It will mark the first trip to Valparaiso since January of 2020 as Valpo was one of four trips (UNI, MSU, Illinois State being the others) that the team did not make last season due to the COVID scheduling. Two home games follow with the Aces facing Bradley (2/5) and Indiana State (2/9) before the team travels to Southern Illinois on the 12th. In the last trip to Carbondale to open the 2020-21 MVC schedule, the Aces halted a 19-game conference skid against the Salukis. Four days later, the squad returns to Iowa to take on Drake.
Two of the final three regular-season games will take place at the Ford Center with the Aces playing host to Valpo on Feb. 19. UE faced the Beacons in a pair of home games last year, taking both contests. The road finale will see the Aces head to Gentile Arena on 2/23 to face Loyola before hosting Missouri State on Feb. 26 to close the regular season.
Season tickets for the 2021-22 season are on sale now and can be purchased by calling the UE Athletics Ticket Office at 812-488-2237. Individual game tickets go on sale on Monday, October 11, and can be purchased at the Carson Center Ticket Office, Ford Center, or on Ticketmaster.com.
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