It’s hard to imagine walking through the Athletic and Recreation Center (ARC) and having a Valpo without basketball, but flashback 105 years and you’d find a brand new gymnasium without a single athletic program.
It all started in 1917 when Valpo announced that they would have their first official track and field team. In the years before the first basketball team was formed, there were informal athletic teams ranging from baseball to basketball.
“There may have been intramural things or informal intercollegiate competitions before that, but yes, the late 1910s… is the first formalized intercollegiate competition that we have records of,” the assistant athletic director said for media relations, Aaron Leavitt.
Valpo’s first basketball coach was Sidney Winters who led the team for two years and finished his time at Valpo with an 8-4 record. The first decade of Valpo basketball saw six coaching changes, each staying no more than two years and each with varying degrees of success.
JM Christiansen was the first coach to stay in his position for a much longer period. From 1929, Christiansen coached until 1941 and had a record of 102-108. He was the first coach to reach the 100-win mark and would remain the only coach to reach this milestone until the arrival of Homer Drew in 1988.
During the later years of Christiansen’s tenure as head coach, the previous gymnasium was replaced by the Hilltop Gymnasium, which remains part of the campus today. Hilltop opened in 1939, making it one of the first facilities built, following the purchase of the university by the Lutheran University Association in 1925.
The next major event in Valpo basketball history took place during the 1944-45 season with the world’s greatest team. The team itself gained notoriety for its incredible success during the season, going 21-3. They were also the subject of several armed forces news reports as well as one of the many iconic photos in Valpo history, of the team standing in front of Madison Square Gardens.
“The Greatest Team in the World was probably, before the Sweet 16 team, the most famous Valpo sports team just because, you know, doing armed forces news. Think about how many soldiers fought in World War II. And these newsreels are broadcast all over the world and are seen. And then obviously, playing at Madison Square Garden is a big deal. They later also played at the Boston Garden, there is no photo of that one. So yeah, I would say before the Sweet 16, that was the most well-known Valpo athletics team,” Leavitt said.
After the incredible success of the world’s tallest team and the end of World War II, Valpo basketball continued to grow, increasing the number of games played in a season and eventually joining their first conference, the Indiana Collegiate Conference, in 1950.
In the 1960s, the team began to experience great success, with several Division II tournament appearances. They even reached the Elite Eight twice during the decade, once in 1962 and the next time in 1967.
After 18 relatively short years in the Indiana Collegiate Conference, Valpo joined Division I in 1979 as an independent team. After four years of independence, they again joined a new conference, the Association of Mid-Continent Universities, in 1982, the same year the conference was founded.
It was in the 1980s that serious progress was made in creating the sports facilities we have today. In April 1981, the Board of Trustees met and authorized the Building and Grounds Committee to negotiate with Daverman and Associates to prepare schematics and plans for the ARC. It took three years for the ARC to be completely built from that point on, and the groundbreaking took place on December 9, 1984.
The same year, Dot Nuechterlein, then a professor and former student of Valpo, became Valpo’s official scorer.
“I was the first woman in the NCAA to have it permanently. I’m sure there were people before that. But otherwise it was all men,” Nuechterlein said.
Nuechterlein was at Valpo when Homer Drew arrived in 1988, completely revitalizing the program. Although he had some early struggles during his first few seasons, it didn’t take long for him to start winning conference titles.
“His first year he did well, second and third years he won four, five games, something like that, for a few years, then it took a while. But eventually when his son started playing For [Valpo] that’s what really made the difference,” Nuechterlein said.
“And so he comes here and you look at his record, his first few years here weren’t good. And probably these days, especially with the prevalence of social media, there probably would have been more calls for ‘let’s move on,’ but you know, we gave it time,” Leavitt said.
In 1993, Homer Drew hired one of his sons, Scott Drew, who came on the scene and had a knack for recruiting key players.
“Scott came on the team and recognized that, hey, we might not be able to recruit the best players in America, but we can recruit good players overseas who just know that college basketball is college basketball, that it’s the 1990s, that the Internet is not a sport. thing, they [international players] I don’t know the difference between a Duke and a Valpo… Nobody else was recruiting those guys because there was no easy way to recruit them,” Leavitt said.
“And then, when [Scott] came back, I know he brought a lot of ideas about how they do things [at Butler] and brought them back for his father to decide and I think the international aspect came at that point,” Nuechterlein said.
Not only did recruiting international players help the team, but it also ensured that administrators paid attention to the quality of education these athletes received.
“The fact that we have so many international students has made a big difference. I think this has improved things and is above all a plus. And part of that means that even people in the administration, and certainly other faculty members, etc., need to pay attention to what kind of education these kids are getting,” Nuechterlein said.
Once Bryce Drew came to Valpo to play for his father, that was the final piece of the puzzle. Valpo won its first championship in the renamed Mid-Continent Conference in 1995, during Bryce’s first year. In the other three years that Bryce was at Valpo, the team had conference championship victories and advanced to the NCAA tournament. In 1998, Valpo reached the Sweet 16 thanks to the now famous photo taken by Bryce.
“See, this run starts in the mid-90s. And then, so you win all that stuff, obviously the Sweet 16. That’s the biggest one. But I mean, I think it’s important not to overlook the dominance in this stretch of winning so many titles in a row,” Leavitt said.
After Bryce Drew left as a player, Homer continued to coach for several years until 2002 when he resigned and handed the reins over to Scott. Scott only took on the head coaching role at Valpo for a single season until he was offered a coaching role at Baylor. Homer then returned for eight more seasons before handing over the head coaching position to Bryce. Before the coaching change, Valpo moved to the Horizon League.
The Drew dynasty at Valpo ended in 2016 when Bryce left for Vanderbilt. In total, the Drews have brought Valpo Basketball 13 regular season titles, 10 conference tournament titles as well as nine NCAA Tournament appearances.
After Bryce’s departure, Matt Lottich was promoted to head coach and Valpo subsequently left the Horizon League for the Missouri Valley Conference (MVC). Lottich managed to tie for a conference title in his first season in the Horizon League, but was unable to win any titles once Valpo moved to the MVC.
“I think you see that competitive success is common, you look at their efforts and again, those early years there is a gap like 2007 to 2010-11. No title. 2011-2016, it seemed like everyone won titles. We joined the [MVC ]a few years to acclimatize, last year football won our first title. So I think the hope is now you start to see that we’ve had this acclimation and now let’s move on and win some championships,” Leavitt said.
And now, of course, we have reached the modern era of Valpo basketball with the arrival of Roger Powell Jr. and a whole new coaching staff. Although people may hope that Valpo will dominate from the start, this is completely unlikely, but the preseason schedule could give Valpo some well-deserved wins.
“I like what [Powell’s] done so far in pre-season, the schedule is discreet. It doesn’t bring in a group of powerhouses, it gives us a chance to get off to a good start,” Nuechterlein said.
It’s hard to imagine walking through the Athletic and Recreation Center (ARC) and having a Valpo without basketball, but flashback 105 years and you’d find a brand new gymnasium without a single athletic program.
It all started in 1917 when Valpo announced that they would have their first official track and field team. In the years before the first basketball team was formed, there were informal athletic teams ranging from baseball to basketball.
“There may have been intramural things or informal intercollegiate competitions before that, but yes, the late 1910s… is the first formalized intercollegiate competition that we have records of,” the assistant athletic director said for media relations, Aaron Leavitt.
Valpo’s first basketball coach was Sidney Winters who led the team for two years and finished his time at Valpo with an 8-4 record. The first decade of Valpo basketball saw six coaching changes, each staying no more than two years and each with varying degrees of success.
JM Christiansen was the first coach to stay in his position for a much longer period. From 1929, Christiansen coached until 1941 and had a record of 102-108. He was the first coach to reach the 100-win mark and would remain the only coach to reach this milestone until the arrival of Homer Drew in 1988.
During the later years of Christiansen’s tenure as head coach, the previous gymnasium was replaced by the Hilltop Gymnasium, which remains part of the campus today. Hilltop opened in 1939, making it one of the first facilities built, following the purchase of the university by the Lutheran University Association in 1925.
The next major event in Valpo basketball history took place during the 1944-45 season with the world’s greatest team. The team itself gained notoriety for its incredible success during the season, going 21-3. They were also the subject of several armed forces news reports as well as one of the many iconic photos in Valpo history, of the team standing in front of Madison Square Gardens.
“The Greatest Team in the World was probably, before the Sweet 16 team, the most famous Valpo sports team just because, you know, doing armed forces news. Think about how many soldiers fought in World War II. And these newsreels are broadcast all over the world and are seen. And then obviously, playing at Madison Square Garden is a big deal. They later also played at the Boston Garden, there is no photo of that one. So yeah, I would say before the Sweet 16, that was the most well-known Valpo athletics team,” Leavitt said.
After the incredible success of the world’s tallest team and the end of World War II, Valpo basketball continued to grow, increasing the number of games played in a season and eventually joining their first conference, the Indiana Collegiate Conference, in 1950.
In the 1960s, the team began to experience great success, with several Division II tournament appearances. They even reached the Elite Eight twice during the decade, once in 1962 and the next time in 1967.
After 18 relatively short years in the Indiana Collegiate Conference, Valpo joined Division I in 1979 as an independent team. After four years of independence, they again joined a new conference, the Association of Mid-Continent Universities, in 1982, the same year the conference was founded.
It was in the 1980s that serious progress was made in creating the sports facilities we have today. In April 1981, the Board of Trustees met and authorized the Building and Grounds Committee to negotiate with Daverman and Associates to prepare schematics and plans for the ARC. It took three years for the ARC to be completely built from that point on, and the groundbreaking took place on December 9, 1984.
The same year, Dot Nuechterlein, then a professor and former student of Valpo, became Valpo’s official scorer.
“I was the first woman in the NCAA to have it permanently. I’m sure there were people before that. But otherwise it was all men,” Nuechterlein said.
Nuechterlein was at Valpo when Homer Drew arrived in 1988, completely revitalizing the program. Although he had some early struggles during his first few seasons, it didn’t take long for him to start winning conference titles.
“His first year he did well, second and third years he won four, five games, something like that, for a few years, then it took a while. But eventually when his son started playing For [Valpo] that’s what really made the difference,” Nuechterlein said.
“And so he comes here and you look at his record, his first few years here weren’t good. And probably these days, especially with the prevalence of social media, there probably would have been more calls for ‘let’s move on,’ but you know, we gave it time,” Leavitt said.
In 1993, Homer Drew hired one of his sons, Scott Drew, who came on the scene and had a knack for recruiting key players.
“Scott came on the team and recognized that, hey, we might not be able to recruit the best players in America, but we can recruit good players overseas who just know that college basketball is college basketball, that it’s the 1990s, that the Internet is not a sport. thing, they [international players] I don’t know the difference between a Duke and a Valpo… Nobody else was recruiting those guys because there was no easy way to recruit them,” Leavitt said.
“And then, when [Scott] came back, I know he brought a lot of ideas about how they do things [at Butler] and brought them back for his father to decide and I think the international aspect came at that point,” Nuechterlein said.
Not only did recruiting international players help the team, but it also ensured that administrators paid attention to the quality of education these athletes received.
“The fact that we have so many international students has made a big difference. I think this has improved things and is above all a plus. And part of that means that even people in the administration, and certainly other faculty members, etc., need to pay attention to what kind of education these kids are getting,” Nuechterlein said.
Once Bryce Drew came to Valpo to play for his father, that was the final piece of the puzzle. Valpo won its first championship in the renamed Mid-Continent Conference in 1995, during Bryce’s first year. In the other three years that Bryce was at Valpo, the team had conference championship victories and advanced to the NCAA tournament. In 1998, Valpo reached the Sweet 16 thanks to the now famous photo taken by Bryce.
“See, this run starts in the mid-90s. And then, so you win all that stuff, obviously the Sweet 16. That’s the biggest one. But I mean, I think it’s important not to overlook the dominance in this stretch of winning so many titles in a row,” Leavitt said.
After Bryce Drew left as a player, Homer continued to coach for several years until 2002 when he resigned and handed the reins over to Scott. Scott only took on the head coaching role at Valpo for a single season until he was offered a coaching role at Baylor. Homer then returned for eight more seasons before handing over the head coaching position to Bryce. Before the coaching change, Valpo moved to the Horizon League.
The Drew dynasty at Valpo ended in 2016 when Bryce left for Vanderbilt. In total, the Drews have brought Valpo Basketball 13 regular season titles, 10 conference tournament titles as well as nine NCAA Tournament appearances.
After Bryce’s departure, Matt Lottich was promoted to head coach and Valpo subsequently left the Horizon League for the Missouri Valley Conference (MVC). Lottich managed to tie for a conference title in his first season in the Horizon League, but was unable to win any titles once Valpo moved to the MVC.
“I think you see that competitive success is common, you look at their efforts and again, those early years there is a gap like 2007 to 2010-11. No title. 2011-2016, it seemed like everyone won titles. We joined the [MVC ]a few years to acclimatize, last year football won our first title. So I think the hope is now you start to see that we’ve had this acclimation and now let’s move on and win some championships,” Leavitt said.
And now, of course, we have reached the modern era of Valpo basketball with the arrival of Roger Powell Jr. and a whole new coaching staff. Although people may hope that Valpo will dominate from the start, this is completely unlikely, but the preseason schedule could give Valpo some well-deserved wins.
“I like what [Powell’s] done so far in pre-season, the schedule is discreet. It doesn’t bring in a group of powerhouses, it gives us a chance to get off to a good start,” Nuechterlein said.
