The Ron Bonham Interview
By:
Michael D. McClellan
|
Tuesday, May 17th, 2005
There are those who say that Indiana is the cradle of basketball civilization, the epicenter of a hardwood explosion that reaches all corners of the globe. From Sydney to Slovenia, the NBA as we now know it reflects the far-reaching impact of the game’s legendary ambassadors, basketball gods known to the masses only as Michael, Magic and Larry, as nearly every team now has at least one foreign player on its roster. Many of those players, in fact, are stars: There is Yao Ming from China, Dirk Nowitzki from Germany, Manu Ginobili from Argentina, Tony Parker from France, and Pau Gasol from Spain. Impact players all, these men excel in a sport that gained its critical mass in high school gymnasiums throughout 1950s rural Indiana. Talk basketball lore with anyone form the Hoosier State, and it isn’t long before the story of Bobby Plump and tiny Milan High School enters the conversation. Plump, of course, hit that last-second shot to lead Milan to the 1954 Indiana state title, becoming an almost mythical figure in the process and later providing the inspiration for the movie Hoosiers. Simply put, Indiana basketball – Indiana high school basketball to be precise– is beyond passion, beyond obsession, beyond reason. It is a religion that spans generations, the game and its players worshipped unlike anywhere else in the country. And in the pantheon of all those Indiana high school greats, from Bobby Plump to Oscar Robertson to Larry Bird, few have stood taller than Muncie Central’s own Ron Bonham.
As a two-time All-State selection and as Indiana’s ‘Mr. Basketball’ in 1960, one might expect Bonham to have grown up with a basketball in his hands, his future as the Hoosier State’s hoops messiah cosmically preordained. In fact, nothing could be further from the truth; Bonham, born with a heart murmur, didn’t play organized basketball until the eighth grade. He was raised to appreciate the outdoors, and spent the early part of his childhood hunting and fishing in the Indiana countryside. His passion for wildlife stayed with him long after his playing days were done, as he has served more than thirty-five years as the superintendent at Prairie Creek Park, a 2,300 acre refuge for those looking to reconnect with nature.
“My dad was an outdoors person," says Ron Bonham, still a basketball legend in the basketball-crazed Hoosier State. "He more or less raised me on the river. We fished and hunted all the time. He taught me how to appreciate nature, and how to respect the environment.”
Arriving late to the basketball court, Bonham proved to be a prodigious student of the game; his ball handling and shooting skills were far superior to those of players with more experience, and his court presence, even at such an early age, was impossible to ignore. At Muncie Central, Bonham’s game only got better. He finished his junior season by being named All-State, before erupting for 28 points-per-game in leading Muncie Central to the state finals as a senior. Bonham finished his career as the leading scorer in the history of Indiana high school basketball with 2,023 points. Indiana coaches and sportswriters were quick to acknowledge Bonham’s on-court excellence, voting him ‘Mr. Basketball’ while touting him as the state’s brightest college prospect since the great Robertson. Bonham validated that praise by leading a contingent of Indiana All-Stars over its rival Kentucky counterparts, 101-64. Deluged with scholarship offers, Bonham packed off to home-state Purdue. He stayed just three days.
"I decided that four years is a long time to be unhappy," Bonham said at the time. He then went home to reconsider other offers. His final choice: The University of Cincinnati — the school that Robertson had carried to basketball fame.
Following Robertson to Cincinnati was not without its pitfalls, especially given the ‘Big O’s’ three-year run at the school; from 1958-60, Robertson – himself a ‘Mr. Basketball’ in the State of Indiana – set or broke 19 school and 14 NCAA records while leading the Bearcats to a 79-9 record and two straight NCAA tournament championship games (1959 and 1960). It was, in many ways, a daunting task for the school’s Next Big Name – a near impossible act to follow. However, the three-time College Player of the Year and national scoring leader at Cincinnati was instrumental in Bonham’s decision to attend college in the Queen City. Robertson’s presence had transformed the Bearcat program into a national power, and Bonham embraced the long shadow cast by Oscar’s dizzying list of achievements and accolades.
There was little doubt that Counts would play professionally, but his date with the Boston Celtics would have to wait, as Oregon’s favorite son was selected to represent the United States in the 1964 Olympic Games in Tokyo, Japan. Playing for another legendary coach, Hank Iba, Counts and his teammates shrugged off the underdog tag to finish 9-0, including a dominating 73-59 gold medal win over the previously undefeated Soviet Union.
