By Dave Kitchell
A trio of award-winning coaches, an outstanding two-sport athlete, one of the state’s premier golfers and Kokomo High School’s very first IHSAA state champion compose the seventh class of the Howard County Sports Hall of Fame.
And for those who would say the talent level of inductees hasn’t dropped off — you’re right. The class of 2009 stands with any that the committee has previously assembled.
For more than 100 years, our Howard County athletes have thrilled fans. Those talents have been molded by an array of frequently underpaid coaches who work long hours and too often have to deal with unrealistic parents and fans.
This induction honors three of our finest coaches.
Kathie Wise-Layden and Basil Mawbey have won a combined five IHSAA state basketball championships. At age 33, Layden, the Tri-Central girls basketball coach will likely be on the bench for years to come. Mawbey coached boys basketball 14 seasons at Kokomo (248-80), resigned from Lewis Cass after the 2007-08 season, but has left the door open for possible future coaching.
Keith Slaughter was Haworth High School’s first baseball coach and in 11 seasons, took the Huskies to the state finals twice while assembling a solid 202-111 record.
Former Wildkat Bobby Pettigrew is a two-time state shot put champion and gifted football player who has opted to return the favor — serving as an assistant coach in three sports for Kokomo schools.
Tim Miller has been a mainstay in area and state golfing for more than three decades and one whose career only accelerated when he reached senior status.
Emerson Applegate is likely the unknown of the group. Applegate excelled on cinder tracks throughout Indiana and was Kokomo’s first IHSAA state champion, winning two events in the 1910 track and field meet at Wabash College.
The six being inducted brings the total to 42 over seven years and the committee promises there are many more Howard County greats yet to be honored. Those who have submitted information on future candidates are reminded that those files are reviewed annually. Plaques of those inducted are on permanent display for the public at the Kokomo Event Center.
Here is the class of 2009:
Emerson Applegate
Kokomo High School has a rich athletic tradition that includes 19 IHSAA state team championships and as many as 79 individual state title holders.
And it all started with Emerson Lowell Applegate.
In what we proudly call “The City of Firsts,” Applegate was its first superstar.
A three-sport athlete at Kokomo in 1910-12, Applegate was a center on the basketball team and a running back in the school’s new sport — football. It was, however, track and field where he earned his state-wide recognition.
In 1910 at the IHSAA State Track Meet at Wabash College, Applegate won a pair of titles, the 100-yard dash (103/5 seconds) and long jump (20 feet). His point production carried his team to a state runner-up spot.
The following year, Applegate owned the sprints. He won the 100 (103/5 seconds), 220 (23 and 2/5) and 440 (54 3/5). To this day, no male athlete has ever accomplished a state meet sweep in those events.
Applegate’s three titles carried KHS to the 1911 state championship at what is now Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology in Terre Haute. One of Applegate’s coaches was Leroy Samse, Kokomo’s only Olympic Games medal winner, who was inducted into the Howard County Sports Hall of Fame in 2008.
Applegate lettered three years in track and field at Purdue before graduating in 1915. He served in World War I and was commissioned a second lieutenant before his discharge. He was superintendent of the Youngstown Sheet and Tube Company of East Chicago when he died in 1945 and is buried in a family plot at Kokomo’s Crown Point Cemetery.
Kathie Wise-Layden
Simply put, Layden is one of the elite few who could have been inducted as an athlete or coach.
A three-sport standout at Taylor High School, she played four years of basketball at the University of Evansville before making her mark as one of Indiana’s most successful hoops coaches.
And she’s accomplished all that at age 33.
Layden will tell you she loved her playing days, but she takes special pride in her coaching success at Tri-Central High School. In 10 seasons at TC, she has logged an impressive 156-82 record. In 2004-06, TC amassed a 43-17 record and captured three Class A state championships, becoming just the sixth program in the history of Indiana high school basketball — boys or girls — to win as many as three straight state titles.
“I feel lucky to have been a part of all that,” she said. “It was special to me because my dad [Dave] and brother [Mike] were on my staff and also because of how the community embraced us. Those fans were so proud of what we accomplished.
“I was very fortunate to be at Tri-Central during that time. We had a group of kids that always wanted to be in the gym — who always wanted to take their game to the next level.”
Layden was an outstanding three-sport star at Taylor, playing volleyball, basketball and tennis, where she played No. 1 singles four seasons, finishing with a 67-11 career record. As a senior, she led the Titans to sectional and regional titles and a spot among the Elite Eight in the one-class system.
The 6-foot-1 forward missed one start in four seasons of basketball, leading the Titans to a 66-15 record. During her junior and senior seasons, Taylor was 36-6, with four of those losses coming to Kokomo teams that were state champions and state runners-up those seasons. She closed her career with 1,007 points, the sixth highest total in school history.
Layden played 100 games over four seasons in Evansville’s basketball program. She scored a career-high 22 points against Drake and left the program ranked No. 5 in career steals (124) and No. 9 in assists (287). She was a Missouri Valley Conference all-academic selection as a senior.
The fifth-grade teacher and her husband, Jeff, are the parents of Madison (7) and McKenna (4).
Basil Mawbey
A proven winner at every stop along the route, Basil Mawbey is simply the most decorated high school basketball coach to have ever coached in Howard County.
Inducted into the Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame in 2002, Mawbey, with a record of 645-246, stands No. 7 on the all-time victory list among Indiana boys basketball coaches.
Mawbey coached 38 seasons at the varsity level and said that his involvement with basketball is actually about 55 years when his time as a player and coach at the freshman and junior varsity levels is included.
Mawbey won an IHSAA state championship at Connersville in 1983 and also at the Class 2A level with Lewis Cass (26-0) in 2003. Between those two stops, he coached 14 seasons at Kokomo, amassing a 248-80 record, twice taking the Kats to the Final Four in the single-class system.
The Ball State University graduate says there are many reasons for his success.
“My philosophy has always been to play as a team,” he said. “We always tried to be hard to defend by using an offense that allowed many players to score. We tried to have strong defenses that didn’t allow easy baskets and we wanted to control tempo. Our goal was to play as fast a tempo as we could until it became our advantage to spread the court for easy shots.”
Mawbey’s first high school coach at Deedsville was John Ellers, a retired teacher from Kokomo.
“John created a lot of interest in the program and told a lot of stories about the Kokomo basketball program,” Mawbey said. “[Muncie Central coach] Bill Harrell also had a lot of influence in my coaching. I’ve been blessed with great assistant coaches along the way — people like Dwain Wall and Ben Bowles. I’ve also been pleased with the success my assistants have had. Four [Charlie Hall, Kokomo; Wayne Allen, Castle; Al Rhodes, Warsaw; Don Harter Lake Region Union, Vt.] have gone on to coach state championship teams.”
Mawbey has much of which to be proud.
“I’m honored to have the most victories of any Indiana coach who has won a state championship,” Mawbey said. I feel good that I finished with 32 consecutive winning seasons. That says a lot about the consistency of the programs. My biggest disappointment was not getting a state championship at Kokomo, but we were very competitive.”
Mawbey and his wife of 41 years, Eileen, reside on Lake Manitou in Rochester.
Tim Miller
Playing at the top of your sport at any given moment means something special — playing at the top of your sport for three decades means you have earned Hall of Fame status.
The name of lifelong Kokomo resident Tim Miller has been associated with golfing greatness in Indiana since the mid-1970s. His eight Howard County championships are three more than anyone else. His 13 Kokomo Country Club stroke play titles are second only to fellow Hall of Fame golfer Jerry Jackson. The span of those 21 championships was 1973-2004.
Miller, 62, learned the game at the grassroots level.
“My dad used to drop me off at the American Legion course when I was a kid and I’d play all day with guys like Tom Cooprider and Dan May,” Miller said. “I had a couple lessons but they never stuck. I read books on how the game should be played and luckily golf just came natural to me.”
Miller was a member of three North Central Conference championship teams while at Kokomo, but shelved the game for a few years while in college and the military. He won his first KCC title in 1973 and was on his way.
He’s had a storybook career with a particularly strong final chapter. Shooting 4-under-par for the tournament, Miller won the 2001 Indiana Golf Association Senior Open. Three times he qualified for the prestigious USGA Senior Amateur. He was the 2008 Florida State Senior champion and in 2005, was Golfweek Magazine’s National Player of the Year from a field of some 400 seniors. Over some 35 years, he’s won scores of local, state and national tournaments and played with some of the world’s best players, including legendary PGA pro Tom Watson.
Miller, who has hit four holes in one, said it was difficult to single out one round as his best ever, but did note a 61 he shot from the KCC’s gold tees and a 59 he registered this year from the closer white tees. He said he learned much about competing from former KCC pro Mal McMullen and added his appreciation for Jackson as a friend and competitor whose mere presence on the course made Miller a better golfer.
“I’m most proud of being able to compete at a high level for a number of years,” Miller said. “I’ve been able to play great courses like Augusta National and have met some wonderful people.”
Miller and his wife Janie reside in Kokomo, just a chip shot away from the KCC course.
Bobby Pettigrew
In the 100-year history of Howard County’s involvement with the IHSAA, only 19 athletes have captured as many as two individual (non-relay) state championships.
Kokomo High School’s Bobby Pettigrew is one of the select group. That achievement, coupled with an outstanding football career, made him a shoo-in for selection.
Pettigrew is best remembered for winning back-to-back state shot put championships. His first title, in 1994, was instrumental in Kokomo winning its first state track championship in 57 years.
Pettigrew says fellow Hall of Famer and three-time state long jump champ Frankie Young was responsible for the birth of his shot put career.
“I had planned on playing high school baseball but when I didn’t make my Babe Ruth All-Star team after eighth grade, I gave it up,” Pettigrew said. “Frankie told me I should throw shot in high school — that it would be an easy way to get a letter that I needed for my jacket.”
Pettigrew got much more than a jacket.
With the assistance of coach Craig Bennett and an older, more experienced thrower, Benji Prifogle, Pettigrew learned quickly. In his first season throwing, he advanced to state, but didn’t place.
One year later, Pettigrew won his first state title with a school-record toss of 62 feet, 21/4 inches. In March of his senior season, Pettigrew won the Indoor National Scholastic Meet in Syracuse, N.Y., at 63-feet. He followed that with his second state title, a throw of 63-61/4 that was then the third-longest winning mark ever in state meet competition that began in 1904.
Pettigrew produced his best throws at state in each his junior and senior seasons.
“I loved competing, after all that’s why you’re in sports,” he said. “You have to be ready to show up when it’s show time. That’s when the best athletes are on center stage. You have to want to seize the moment.”
Pettigrew did that in football as well. Known for his versatility, he was a two-way, three-year starter, claiming MVP honors as a senior. After playing quarterback as a freshman, he moved to a variety of positions — playing wherever needed. On the defensive side, he played linebacker much of his junior and senior seasons. He began his senior campaign as an offensive guard, but after three games was moved to fullback where the 6-foot-1, 240 pounder was a lethal blocking back. He also rushed for eight TDs with an 8.1 per carry average; threw a TD pass and caught four passes for a 19.8 yard average.
Pettigrew, 32, works for Kokomo schools and assists with the varsity football and girls track, also coaching seventh grade girls basketball.
Keith Slaughter
This well-liked and respected baseball coach has proven that a lengthy coaching career isn’t necessarily the ticket to Hall of Fame status.
Keith Slaughter served as head coach of the Haworth High School baseball program for just 11 seasons. It was what his teams accomplished during that stint that turned heads.
The Huskies assembled a 202-111 record from 1969 through 1979. As members of the Olympic Conference for eight of those seasons, Haworth won or finished runner-up six times. Haworth was particularly potent in the postseason, winning seven sectionals, four regionals and two semistates. Twice the Huskies were in the single class IHSAA state baseball championships and twice they lost semifinal games to Evansville Memorial — the latter game to a squad led by future Yankee great Don Mattingly.
Slaughter downplays his success, noting the importance of his talented players and longtime assistants Bill Shive and Bill Bostwick.
“I had a couple of former players mention to me several years ago that I belonged in the Hall of Fame, but it wasn’t on my radar screen,” Slaughter said with a laugh. “I look at the coaches who have been inducted and see their state championships and know that’s where the glory is. I’m not in that company.”
Slaughter moved from Greentown to Kokomo before his senior year in 1953 and participated in basketball and baseball. A left-handed pitcher, Slaughter was a starter in eight of 11 Kokomo games that season, but at Indiana Central (now the University of Indianapolis), he pitched out of the bullpen.
Slaughter didn’t expect to participate let alone excel in coaching. After a six-year stint at Sharpsville High School, he returned to Kokomo as a teacher in 1963, coached freshman baseball two seasons before joining Joe Platt’s varsity staff for three more years. It was in 1968 that Haworth opened its doors and Slaughter was given the opportunity to direct the program.
Success came quickly.
“Winning the school’s first sectional championship [1969] was memorable,” Slaughter said. “I don’t know if that win over Kokomo was our biggest ever, but it was the most significant. It seemed to kick-off Haworth’s baseball’s program.”
Slaughter said he left coaching at age 44 for the right reasons.
“My son Dave was beginning his sophomore year for Northwestern’s baseball team and I wanted to watch him play,” Slaughter said. “I couldn’t do that and coach. That was a decision I never second-guessed.”
A 1986 inductee in the Indiana Baseball Hall of Fame, Slaughter retired from teaching in 1995. He and his wife Bonnie, who reside in Kokomo, have been married 54 years.
Tickets are on sale
Tickets for the Howard County Sports Hall of Fame induction to be held at the Kokomo Event Center Nov. 7 are on sale.
Priced at $25, tickets are available at the athletic departments of Kokomo and Tri-Central high schools as well as the sport departments of the Kokomo Tribune and Kokomo Perspective. Tickets are also available by contacting Ron Barsh at (765) 453-4739. Reserved tables of eight, priced at $200 can also be arranged through Barsh.
A social hour is scheduled Nov. 7 for 5 p.m., followed by a catered meal and program. Inductees include Bobby Pettigrew, Basil Mawbey, Kathie Wise-Layden, Tim Miller, Keith Slaughter and the late Emerson Applegate.
Also in the hall
2003
Don Johnson
Jim Ligon
Jim Rayl
Pat Underwood
Tom Underwood
Rut Walter
2004
Eddie Bethea
Steve Butler
Charlie Hall
Chet Hill
Ron Hughes
Jerry Jackson
2005
Walter Cross
Ezra Hendrickson
Cary Hungate
Tiffany Longworth
Bruce Rose
Tom Warne
2006
Chuck Cone
Fred Elliott
Mike Fulk
Carl McNulty
Joe Platt
Frankie Young
2007
Tico Brown
Gene Conard
Debbie Benziger
Tony Gabriel
Bob Hamilton
Tom Schwartz
2008
Mal Cofield
Don Lowry
Mike McCroskey
Rick Roberts
Larry Ruch
Leroy Samse
