About the Author

I grew up in the midst of rural Indiana high school basketball craziness of the 1950's and 60's. Every small town with a high school had a basketball team that became the pride of the community. Our Michigantown community in Clinton County was no different. We'd had winning seasons and also seasons that had more losses than wins, but every game of every season was approached with enthusiasm and hopefulness. Basketball was woven into the fabric of our communities. ​ 

After my career as an educator in Frankfort, Indiana, I worked several years in our local library's genealogy department. I became familiar with the resources available, and met many fascinating people who remembered the excitement of small-town Indiana basketball. Determined to keep the memories alive, I developed a book where I identified every graduate of the nine Clinton County high schools that closed to form the Clinton Central and Clinton Prairie consolidations in 1959 and 1962, respectively. I found photographs of the schools, recorded their school colors and mascots, and sought out the lyrics to their school fight songs. The passion that still existed among the graduates of those nine schools surprised me -- it was as if the schools had only closed last month.​ 

Assuming such enthusiasm still existed across Indiana, I decided to seek out the fight songs of every Indiana high school that closed due to consolidation. Indy Star reporter Dana Hunsinger Benbow wrote an article about my quest that gave me a great start; you can read it here. ​I quickly learned there would be 720 songs to find, and after a year of searching, I now have over 600 songs! ​

I am hoping to have at least 650 songs by May 31, 2025 and am getting closer every day!