Indiana State Still Bird Land

March 15, 2000 / 4:51 PM EST / CBS/AP

Larry Bird left a generation ago. Yet, Indiana State is still his team. Terre Haute is still his town.

When the Sycamores were awarded a spot in the NCAA tournament, memories of their 1979 run swept this basketball-hungry city of 75,000 near the Illinois border.

"It's taken on almost folklore status," coach Royce Waltman said. "It's a part of our history the guys are part of, and we use it as a touchstone in recruiting. Everybody knows about that, but we really don't apply it much to our own team."

In 1979, when most of the current players weren't even born, Bird was college basketball's player of the year. He led Indiana State to an unbeaten regular season, the nation's No. 1 ranking and into the NCAA tournament for the first time.

The matchup of Bird and Indiana State against Magic Johnson and Michigan State remains TV's highest-rated NCAA tournament game. Bird's final college game, a loss to the Spartans for the title, was in Salt Lake City in the same arena in which the 12th-seeded Sycamores will play fifth-seeded Texas on Thursday.

"We don't really talk about it. We're just trying to take it game by game," Indiana State sophomore Djibril Kante said. "The first time in the tournament, we can't think about going as far as the Bird team. We have to take it game by game."

The Sycamores had a winning record the year after Bird left, but did not even break even let alone play well enough for NCAA tournament consideration until 1998 after Waltman arrived.

Indiana State went 16-11 in Waltman's first year, 15-12 last year and 22-9 for first place in the Missouri Valley Conference this season. A loss in the conference tournament gave the NCAA's automatic berth instead to Creighton, leaving the players and the town on edge when the pairings were announced Sunday night.

"Everybody was sitting there watching, and they went through the East and Midwest and South and finally got to the West," said Adam Rouse, a sophomore who watched the NCAA selection show from his dorm room. "Just on hearing it you could hear students yelling and screaming."

There already were signs in town in support of the Sycamores. Once the selection was announced, others began popping up. The celebration spread across the state to Bird's new home in Indianapolis.

"Obviously, I'm very happy for them," said Bird, the coach of the Indiana Pacers. "They've had a very good year. They've got a chance to win some games.

"I have sort of an atachment to the town more than anything. The people there always treated me great, so I go back to Terre Haute quite a lot."

The city, on a high bluff on the east bank of the Wabash River, is about an hour west of Indianapolis, and the 11,000-student university is the area's biggest employer. Bird, who returns at least once a year as host of a Boys Club golf tournament, is still the biggest attraction.

At least until the Sycamores can add a few more NCAA victories, that is.

"Obviously, in the back of everyone's mind, Larry Bird is there. But we're a new group," senior forward Ben Anderson said. "Obviously, since we're in the tournament for the first time since Bird was here, talk comes around again."

Michael Menser, a junior, saw Bird play only once, when the Celtics visited the Pacers. But like most Hoosiers, he knows what Bird's legacy means.

"Larry Bird brought great tradition to this team and we're appreciative of what Larry did," he said. "But we want to make our own name."