Indiana at Mackey Arena: Early Years Weren’t Kind Until Bob Knight Built A Super Team

The first of a three-part series on Indiana’s history playing on the home court of arch-rival Purdue. Mackey Arena highs and lows through the years.

An undated file shot from Mackey Arena in its early days. Purdue began playing at what was then called Purdue Arena in 1967. | Purdue athletics

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – When Indiana’s men’s basketball team heads to No. 10 Purdue for an 8 p.m. ET game on Friday, it will be the 108th time the Hoosiers and Boilermakers have met in West Lafayette.

The first game between the two rivals played at Purdue occurred on March 15, 1901 – a 20-15 Purdue victory. Starting with the 1967-68 season, all of the games Indiana has played in West Lafayette have been inside Mackey Arena.

With the rivalry to be renewed in Purdue’s hallowed arena again on Friday, Hoosiers On SI looks back at Indiana’s adventures at Mackey Arena with a three-part series. We start with the “early years” at the facility, the pre-Gene Keady period from 1968-80.

The beginning

Purdue was one of several Big Ten schools in the 1960s – Indiana included – that decided their pre-World War II on-campus facilities were not adequate for the desires of modern fans and for the demands of a growing sport.

Illinois and Michigan built their current facilities in the same era that Purdue planned theirs. Indiana had plans for a new basketball facility on the table for years – and played in the “temporary” New Fieldhouse throughout the 1960s before Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall finally opened in 1971.

Purdue had played at Lambert Fieldhouse – still a functioning building on Purdue’s campus today much like Bill Garrett Fieldhouse is at Indiana and like most of the old fieldhouses still are at Big Ten campuses. Lambert Fieldhouse could technically seat as many as 10,000 but more comfortably sat far fewer fans. Official capacity was listed as 7,500-10,000.

That was too small for what Purdue needed, so construction began in 1965 on a new facility. What was then called Purdue Arena opened on Dec. 2, 1967, when Purdue hosted defending national champions UCLA in front of an overflow crowd of 14,400 fans.

Tough start for Indiana in Purdue’s new digs

Purdue's Billy Keller takes a shot from the top of the key in the 1969 Indiana-Purdue game at Purdue Arena. Keller scored 31 in Purdue's 120-76 victory, the second-largest margin of victory in the series. | Purdue Debris yearbook.

Purdue’s new arena coincided with one of the best eras in Boilermakers’ history – the Rick Mount years. It also opened when Indiana men’s basketball’s fortunes were at a pre-Bob Knight low ebb.

The first game Indiana played at Purdue Arena was on Jan. 16, 1968. Indiana had won five of the previous seven games against the Boilermakers, but that streak came to a screeching halt when Purdue won, 89-60.

It was even worse for the Hoosiers during Mount’s senior year in 1969 as the Hoosiers lost again, 120-76. Mount scored 41 and Billy Keller added 31 for Purdue in a contest that was the second-most lopsided in series history by either team in any venue.

Indiana’s first three trips to Purdue Arena all ended in double-digit defeats. It wasn’t until Bob Knight became Indiana’s coach in 1971 that the games in West Lafayette became more competitive.

Competitive, yes, but no less frustrating for the Hoosiers. In 1972, Indiana lost, 70-69. In 1973, it was a 72-69 defeat in a clash for the Big Ten lead as Indiana had 26 turnovers.

The Big Ten schedule was only 14 games in this era, and Indiana did not play at the renamed Mackey Arena in 1974. It wasn’t until 1975 that Indiana would walk off the Mackey hardwood with a victory.

Two hard-earned wins for elite Indiana teams

The 1975 matchup at Mackey featured the 25-0 Hoosiers against the 14-7 Boilermakers. A month earlier, No. 1 Indiana had mauled Purdue 104-71 at Assembly Hall. The Boilermakers were determined to avoid a repeat.

It was close throughout, partly because Indiana standout forward Scott May broke his arm in the first half. May’s injury would have ramifications for the Hoosiers in the NCAA Tournament a few weeks later, but the immediate problem was that the Hoosiers had to find a way to navigate the final 23 minutes without their star.

Up to the plate stepped Steve Green, a star in his own right. The senior played all 40 minutes – and what a 40 minutes they were. He was 13 of 15 from the field and scored 29 points in Indiana’s 83-82 victory.

“We didn’t get him stopped all day. He’s a pressure player who has excellent shot selection. I thought we made him shoot farther out on the baseline than he prefers, but he still made them,” Purdue coach Fred Schaus said after the game.

The Hoosiers defense also prevented Purdue from getting a potential game-winning shot in the final 11 seconds.

In 1976, No. 1 Indiana was undefeated again. Purdue had pushed the Hoosiers to the limit in a 71-67 Indiana win in Bloomington in January. The Boilermakers made it tough for Indiana in the February rematch, too.

May, injured in the previous game at Mackey, was not to be denied in his final game on Purdue’s hardwood. He scored 26 points, including the clinching free throws with two seconds left to secure a 74-71 victory for Indiana, one in which the Hoosiers rallied from a four-point halftime deficit.

Tom Abernethy also played a big role, scoring most of his 13 points in the second half. Bob Wilkerson had 10 points and seven assists.

“I doubt if at any time in my coaching career, however long that will be, if I will ever have as good a group of kids,” Knight said after the win.

His words proved prophetic. The 1976 Hoosiers are the last unbeaten national champions.

Purdue controls the rest of the 1970s at Mackey

The latter part of the 1970s and the 1980 season flipped the advantage back to Purdue inside Mackey Arena as the Boilermakers protected their home court in all of the games.

In 1980, Purdue took the Big Ten lead with a 56-51 victory at Mackey. Indiana would eventually win the Big Ten title that season, but the Boilermakers advanced to the Final Four at Indiana’s expense with a 76-69 victory in the Sweet 16 of the 1980 NCAA Tournament.

Lee Rose coached the Boilermakers in 1980, but he left for South Florida four days after the season concluded.

Purdue hired Gene Keady to replace Rose – and no one could have known that the Indiana-Purdue series was about to enter a two-decade battle of wits between two of the best college basketball coaches of all time.

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