Larry Bird was an Indiana University, coach Bob Knight basketball dropout. He was back home in French Lick working as an 18-year-old garbage truck driver.
He was behind the French Lick Springs Resort shooting hoops with the cooking staff that spring day in 1975. Out of college ball, that’s where Bird got his basketball fix, practicing his game with the kitchen crew.
A cluster of bushes grew back by that basketball goal. And, unbeknownst to Bird, there was a man in those bushes watching, a man named Bill Hodges.
Hodges was a college basketball coach down on his luck. He was coming off a job as an assistant at Armstrong State in Savannah, Georgia. His dreams of being a big-time coach seemed unlikely at best. Until he concocted an idea: Larry Bird was available.
Hodges packed a suitcase, tossed it in the back of his rundown Dodge Dart and turned to his wife, Connie. “If I don’t make this work, then you have my word,” he told her. “No more basketball. I’ll sell insurance, or cars, or whatever it takes to keep a roof over our heads.”
He drove from Georgia to French Lick to find Bird, to try to convince him to play for Hodges, who would be an assistant at Indiana State.
It happened once Hodges got to Bird in French Lick. Bird was talking to Hodges about a buddy who was the best player he had seen in high school, who ended up not going to college, how nobody knew about him now.
“Bill looked Larry in the eyes,” Wood said, adding that he’s paraphrasing Hodges’ words. “‘You don’t go to college, Larry? That’s exactly what people are going to say about you.’ Bill said at that moment, as Larry looked at him, he thought, ‘That’s when I knew I had him.'”
Hodges gave Bird some time to think about what he’d said and then came back two days later.
Yes, Bird told him. Yes, he would play at Indiana State.
And the rest was history,Larry bird was the best thing to happen to NBA.
