The Franklin Wonder Five was a 1920s basketball team from Indiana's "Hoosier Hysteria" era. With basketball king in Indiana, the team from Franklin was dubbed the "Wonder Five". This small town about 20 miles south of Indianapolis produced a team that captured the Indiana State Basketball Championship three years in succession, 1920–1922. They became national college champions in 1923, playing with Franklin College and staying undefeated against teams from major universities. While they passed on a match with the New York Celtics, they twice defeated the Omars, a professional Midwest team.
Left to right: Burl Friddle, Ralph Hicks, Paul White, Robert "Fuzzy" Vandivier, Sima Comer, Johnny Gant, Harold Borden, Pete Keeling, coach Ernest "Griz" Wagner
Cover of the 1986 book, The Franklin Wonder Five: A Complete History of the Legendary Basketball Team. Team members pictured are Robert "Fuzzy" Vandivier and Carlyle Friddle (front row), Johnny Gant and Jimmy Ross (2nd row), Harry King, James Wendell "Ike" Ballard, Charlton "Butter" Williams and Hubert Davis (3rd row), and coach Griz Wagner in the back.
Robert "Fuzzy" Vandivier, Indiana native Hall of Fame basketball player, 1920s.
John Robert Wooden was an American basketball coach and player. Nicknamed the "Wizard of Westwood", he won ten National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) national championships in a 12-year period as head coach for the UCLA Bruins, including a record seven in a row. No other team has won more than four in a row in Division I college men's or women's basketball. Within this period, his teams won an NCAA men's basketball record 88 consecutive games. Wooden won the prestigious Henry Iba Award as national coach of the year a record seven times and won the Associated Press award five times.
The plaque in the gymnasium Dayton (KY) High School
Wooden with assistant coach Bill Putnam and trainer Ducky Drake, c. 1958