A month ago, I was part of a once-in-a-lifetime event at historic Hinkle Fieldhouse celebrating the 50th anniversary of the American Basketball Association. The highlight of that day’s festivities included a special ring presentation ceremony. Every player in attendance received a specially designed ring celebrating their individual service in this fabled league. There were players present who played all nine seasons in the league alongside players who saw limited action in the ABA. Length of service didn’t matter. Every player/alumni there that day received the same ring.
During the day, as part of my official duties, I spoke with most of the players. One conversation took place between myself and ABA Pacers great Darnell Hillman. Dr. Dunk is an Indiana institution and a fan favorite. While talking about the rings I informed him that the ring had been my idea. He smiled and said, “Well, I’m gonna stick with the information I was given that the ring was Slick’s idea.” I stood there nonplussed, smiled, and simply said “Okay, we’ll go with that. But it really was my idea.”
After all, Dr. Dunk’s thought was not entirely off the mark, just incomplete. At that moment I realized I needed to set the ring record straight once and for all. So, here it is, the true and accurate story of the ABA 50th anniversary rings. It is a story about dreamers, legends, injury, intrigue, loss and redemption. And it needs to be told.
Back in late 1996, I was involved in the production of a documentary film for HBO called “Long Shots.” Created by George Roy and Black Canyon Productions, many of the interview scenes were shot at a downtown Indianapolis hotel. My role was that of a historian for the film. When you view the scenes with players, they are posed in front of original ABA memorabilia, much of which came from my collection. The filming took place over 22 years ago. It was during that filming when I first met ABA Pacer great Bob Netolicky.
Long story short, Neto and I eventually met to discuss the prospect of Indianapolis hosting the 30th ABA reunion at the Hoosier Dome back in August of 1997. Original Pacers founder and longtime league counsel Richard Tinkham joined the effort and together, we three pulled it off. That event culminated in a banquet inside the Convention Center that was hosted by Bob Costas. Over time, tales from that reunion became as legendary as the league itself.
Flash forward 20 years. In the spring of 2017, Neto and I met with local attorney Scott Tarter and filmmaker Ted Green at the Lincoln Square Pancake House to discuss a proposed 50th anniversary event to be held at Banker’s Life Fieldhouse. Scott and Ted (along with local Dr. John Abrams) were the guys who formed the Dropping Dimes Foundation, an organization created to benefit former ABA players in need. The discussion was informative as Neto and I offered advice and special insight based on what we had done two decades before.
I really didn’t think much more about it until the winter of 2018 when Neto and I once again met with Dropping Dimes co-founder Scott Tarter for an update. It was at this second meeting that we were asked to plan a Saturday event for the fans and players. At that meeting, I informed Scott that I would gladly volunteer my services without compensation under one condition — that we do something special for the players. Scott smiled, extended his hand, and said, “You know in all the months that we’ve been planning this thing, you are the first person I have talked to who has wanted to do something for the guys rather than for themselves.” Well, with sentiment like that, I was in.
However, that “something special” had yet to be defined. It must be noted that this meeting was less than two months away from the event so we didn’t have a whole lot of time to work with. Over the next few days I tried to figure out how we could best honor these heroes of the hardwood. Then it hit me, “Iron. All players want iron.” Most of these guys never had a chance to play for a ring. Not in high school, college or in the pros. The best way to honor these guys would be to give each of them a ring.
Neto and I scheduled another meeting with attorney Tarter. But first, I discussed the idea with Bob Netolicky, a man who knows a little bit about ABA rings. Neto loved it. When presented with the idea, Tarter was incredulous, preferring instead to focus on the Saturday event. When Dr. Abrams joined the conversation, he was intrigued but suggested that the only way we could pull it off was if we could find a ring sponsor.
Meantime, Netolicky was off and running. Neto immediately contacted his old coach Bobby “Slick” Leonard. Turns out that Slick was the state rep for the Herff-Jones company for a decade, including his first couple of years as Pacers head coach. Not surprisingly, Slick was Herff-Jones’ top salesman back in the day, so obviously, he knows his way around the ring business.
In early January of 2018, Slick and Neto took a trip up to Elwood, Indiana to visit his old colleague Johnny Strack, Sr. of the J. Lewis Small company. Within a few days, Slick and Neto had designed a ring to rival all others. Then, about a week after New Years, Slick took a nasty fall on the ice, breaking his leg in several places. The injury sidelined the Hall of Fame coach for several weeks and kept him out of the Pacer’s announcer’s booth and stifling the calls of “Boom Baby” indefinitely. But the ring plans trudged on and by late January, we had a full-color mock-up of the ring. It was a thing of beauty.
The ring’s crown is framed with the words “American Basketball Association 50 Year Anniversary 1967-2017.” One side features the classic George Mikan Era ABA logo and the other side features the official Dropping Dimes 50th anniversary logo with the April 7, 2018 event date and Indianapolis name inset. Most importantly, each ring has each individual player’s name imprinted on the side. The original ring featured a Royal Blue backing stone with a cz diamond stone inset.
Neto and I made a follow-up trip to Elwood to iron out a couple minor details and make some adjustments to the text. Changes in hand, the folks at J.L. Small worked their magic. Johnny Strack, Jr. made up a ring sample (and a matching pendant sample) and produced it the day after Valentine’s day. Much to my surprise, he had the samples made up with the Hunter name inset. That was an unexpected thrill.
The next day, Neto and I dropped by Slick Leonard’s Carmel home. Nancy Leonard greeted us at the door and invited us into the living room where she had created a makeshift hospital room set-up to aid her husband’s convalescence. Slick loved the ring and even asked Nancy to retrieve his Naismith Hall of Fame ring to compare it with. “You know Bobby, I think I like the ABA ring better,” he remarked to Neto. Slick, Nancy and Neto spent the next few minutes comparing rings. Yes, Nancy (known as “N.L.” by Pacers insiders) has a championship ring of her own that she wears every day. She certainly earned it. In my opinion, Mrs. Leonard nearly single-handedly saved the Pacers franchise from folding back in the late 1970s. That, however, is a subject for another column.
Nancy was delighted with the design and remarked that she already had the perfect chain picked out for her 50th anniversary pendant. Slick suggested that the backer stone be red instead of blue and noted that his Hall of Famer ring had a red stone backer. Slick, one of the greatest players in the history of Indiana University, pointed out that red would be a perfect tribute to I.U. as well. Not to be outdone, Neto pointed out that ring’s current blue stone backer was the color of his alma matter Drake University. For my part, I was perfectly content to go with the majority rule of these legends who together had more basketball award rings than anyone else in the state of Indiana.
Neto and I traveled back to Elwood, samples in hand, to finalize the design. At first, Neto told the designers that the center stone needed to be bigger. The designers informed us that if the stone were made any larger, in time, it would crack the blue backing stone. It’s easy to tell when Neto’s thinking hard about something. He furrows his brow, stares intently and rubs his chin for several minutes before announcing his opinion. He had decided that the ring was just not “blingy” enough. He suggested that instead of the large blue backing stone, we should switch to a shiny sterling silver backer flecked with more stones inset. At that, the ring design was finalized. But the story of the rings was just beginning.
Al Hunter is the author of the “Haunted Indianapolis” and co-author of the “Haunted Irvington” and “Indiana National Road” book series. His newest books are “Bumps in the Night. Stories from the Weekly View,” “Irvington Haunts. The Tour Guide,” and “The Mystery of the H.H. Holmes Collection.” Contact Al directly at Huntvault@aol.com or become a friend on Facebook.
