LEESBURG — When Maple Leaf Farms purchased the former Leesburg High School building in 2010 to turn into its corporate headquarters, most of the structure was renovated into a modern business facility.
But not the gym.
The old wooden bleachers from the Leesburg High School gym are still intact and mostly unchanged from when fans watched games 1939-1966.
Today, the 85-year-old court still stands mostly unchanged from the days the Leesburg Blue Blazers battled against a handful of other schools in Kosciusko County.
Some alterations can’t be ignored, though.
The Blazer logo once emblazoned on the hardwood has now been replaced with the crest of Maple Leaf Farms, the largest duck producer in North America. The bright blue paint that once covered the walls and rafters is gone. The locker rooms beneath the wooden bleachers have all been updated.
Instead of ball players and raucous crowds packing the roughly 300-seat gymnasium on Friday nights, it’s now mostly used as an event space for the community, company meetings and international customers who travel from as far away as China and Hungary.
Scott Tucker, co-president of Maple Leaf, said the decision to buy the school made good financial sense. The building was still in solid shape and it provided a major step up from the former headquarters.
The old Leesburg High School gym is now owned by Maple Leaf Farms, the nation’s largest duck production company. Here, the facility is set up for a business event.
But leaving the gym mostly as-is wasn’t a business decision. For Tucker, it was personal. His father and father-in-law both played basketball at other schools in Kosciusko County and had fond memories of competing against the Blazers.
“It was just kind of a nostalgic thing,” he said. “That’s what cemented it for me that we’re gonna keep it the way that it is.”
With that, the company saved and preserved one of the most beloved facilities in Leesburg.
After its construction in 1939, the gym became the center of town life. The new court was part of a major expansion to the small school building erected in 1922 and marked a major upgrade from where the high school teams formerly played inside a reconstructed factory.
The exterior of Leesburg High School and gym in 1951. The gym was added in 1939 to the original school, on the left, built in 1922.
Local citizens pooled their money to add a regulation-size hardwood court to the factory-turned-community-building in 1923, but the “lighting was poor and the acoustics worse,” according to a history of Kosciusko County schools.
It didn’t take long for the new high school gym to become a hotbed for Hoosier Hysteria. Michael Arnolt, who graduated from the school in 1960 and played on the varsity team his junior and senior year, said it was “mini pandemonium” on Friday nights.
“The spectators were just into the game,” the 80-year-old said. “The cheering was incessant.”
1954 basketball action in the Leesburg Gym.
That was especially true when Leesburg played its archrivals from Milford. The Blazers made sure to utilize their secret weapon during those games: a dead spot on the north side of the court, explained Robert Bair, 81, who played on the varsity team in 1960.
“We avoided the area and if we couldn’t, we’d bounce the ball just a little bit harder so the return was higher,” he said.
The clear standout player on the 1960 team was Glen “Chet” Kammerer. He was inducted into the Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame in 2019 and has now become almost synonymous with the Leesburg court.
After scoring 886 points during his high school days, he sealed his reputation at Grace College with a record-breaking 2,504-point career that still tops the college’s all-time scoring list.
That led to a 27-year collegiate coaching career that included 10 years at Grace. Kammerer then landed a job as assistant coach with the Los Angles Lakers from 1992 to 1994 before becoming a scout for NBA teams.
From 2002 to 2018, he worked as the Miami Heat’s vice president of player personnel. The team won three NBA championships during his tenure. Kammerer is now the senior advisor of basketball operations for the Heat, according to the team’s website.
Glen “Chet” Kammerer played for Leesburg High School 1956-1960. He went on to coach college ball for decades before a long career working for the NBA’s Miami Heat. He was inducted into the Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame in 2019.
Carolyn Burk, who graduated from Leesburg in 1960 and was a cheerleader her senior year, said Kammerer was the player they all revered, but that had more to do with his manner than his basketball acumen.
“His attitude and his sportsmanship really stood out,” she said. “He was just a very good student and a good person.”
Kammerer might be the most recognized name, but the most unforgettable team came in 1966 — the final year for the small-town high school before it consolidated with Warsaw Community Schools.
Despite injuries and illness, the Blazers earned their first real winning season since 1953. A 12-game winning streak landed the team in the northeastern high school basketball ratings for the first time, according to the school’s 1966 yearbook.
Senior Larry Bishop led the team, setting a school record with 41 points in a game against Wawaka, located in Elkhart County. He also had the fourth-best field goal accuracy in the state that year.
Legendary Indiana Coach Jack Ford helped guide the Blazers to their stellar final season. Ford coached at 11 high schools, leading five of them to their best seasons ever, including Leesburg. He even wrote a book about coaching called the “Fundamental Five” that’s still available to buy.
The record-setting season in 1966 gave the gym a celebrated send off before consolidation. The next year, the building became an elementary school and basketball games were moved to the central high school in Warsaw.
The 1966 Leesburg Blue Blazers led the school to its best season in history before it consolidated with Warsaw Community Schools the next year. Coach Jack Ford sits in the middle.
When Leesburg Elementary School closed 57 years later in 2010, residents never had to wonder about the fate of the gym. Maple Leaf Farms purchased it the same year and today still hosts basketball games there a few times a year.
For former players like Arnolt, walking into the facility these days and knowing it’s still used by the community is like seeing an old friend who still makes him grin.
“There’s just a warm glow about walking into a renovated Leesburg high school gym,” he said. “It brings a smile to your face and touches your heart to see that gym that’s actually better than when you left it.”
