Brought to you by WBIW News and Network Indiana
Last updated on Tuesday, November 29, 2011
(ODON) - 68-year-old Larry “Bud” Graham has been elected to the Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame.
Graham is the first Odon bulldog to take place among the greats of Hoosier Hysteria during the hall of fame's annual induction ceremony on March 21 in Indianapolis.
Graham was the star of the 1959 Odon squad which fell just short during a sudden death overtime loss reaching the IHSAA State Finals. A three-year starter for the Bulldogs, Graham is Odon's all-time leading scorer with 1,387 career points while also pulling down 929 rebounds in his career.
Graham averaged a career double-double for Odon at 17.4 points per game and 11.8 rebounds per game. He was named to the all-sectional, all-regional and all-semistate teams during the 1959 state tourney, and was the MVP of the North/South All-Star game after his senior season in 1960.
Graham is thrilled to be inducted into the Hall of Fame. He's honored to be named along side of players like Larry Bird and Oscar Robertson.
Odon High School one of the schools which disappeared with the opening of North Daviess in the fall of 1968. With Graham's selection, the school will now be represented forever in the Hall.
Graham, who is semi-retired, still teaches basketball and physical education classes at Lindenwood University.
Graham still has one sore spot from that 1958-59 season, namely the double overtime "sudden death" loss to New Albany in the championship game of the Evansville Semistate. IHSAA rules then provided that the first team to score in the second overtime of a game was the winner. New Albany got the opening tip in the second extra session and scored to end Odon's run in what would prove to be the final game decided by sudden death before overtime rules were changed in 1961.
Graham has avoided driving through New Albany for many years, until just recently.
After his playing days at Odon, Graham starred for two years at Vincennes University, averaging more than 20 points per game in two seasons for the Blazers, then finished his collegiate career by topping double figures in both seasons for Texas Wesleyan before beginning a successful coaching career.
As a high school basketball coach at three Illinois schools and one school in Missouri, Graham won a total of 394 games, including the 1977 and 1981 Illinois Class A state titles at Madison High School. He was the Illinois Coach of the Year in Class A in both 1977 and 1981, and in 2007 was named one of the "100 Legends of Illinois High School Basketball Tournament." Graham also won 412 games as a college coach at four St. Louis area colleges, including eight seasons as the coach at Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville.
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