Musicians praise heritage of Bowman Gym
An expansive basketball court that was six feet longer than NCAA regulation 94 feet.
A bandbox with a seating capacity of just 2,000.
A product of a bygone era where even the local kids could play pickup games with the university's varsity team.
Basketball fans and players alike have colorful and varied memories of Bowman Gymnasium, which stood on the DePauw University campus from 1916 until the mid-1980s.
Local musicians, however, recall a different side of Bowman Gym, a rich musical heritage that in the 1960s and 1970s in particular featured greats of rock, blues and R&B.
"They used to have some tremendous concerts over there," Rod Kersey said this week while recalling seeing Jimi Hendrix play with the Isley Brothers at Bowman.
Kersey and longtime bandmate Steve Michael were both at that Isley Brothers and Booker T and the M.G.'s show in October 1965, but it's far from the only notable show the two men recalled.
Others included Ike and Tina Turner, the Four Tops, the Temptations, Kansas and the Kingsmen.
"They had some amazing bands in that old building," Kersey said.
"DePauw was having all the Motown stuff like the Four Tops and the Temptations," Michael recalled. "DePauw just had it hand over fist and we were right there in the midst of it."
Although too young to have attended the 1965 concert featuring Hendrix, Sandy Williams, a future bandmate of Kersey and Michael in Average House Band, has previously recalled growing up near campus and hanging around outside Bowman Gym for a chance to interact with stars.
Besides learning from local musicians, his memories also include carrying equipment into Bowman for Ike and Tina Turner as well as blues legend Albert King.
"I'm basically self-taught, but I'm somewhere between a musical stalker and ambulance chaser," Williams said in a 2011 speech for the Putnam County Museum.
A local musical heritage that's richer than many residents would acknowledge is indebted to a number of things. Credit goes to homegrown musicians and transplants (think Tad Robinson and Steve St. Pierre) alike.
But credit should also be given to DePauw, its school of music and even an old gym that stood on Hanna Street between Locust and College for 70 years.
"When you get the chance to see the full Motown Orchestra live -- I was so fortunate to grow up in Greencastle in that day and age and to take advantage of all that DePauw had to offer," Michael said. "It's something they still do today."