J.D. Blacker

By Bob Whalen

     John was born in Tippecanoe County Indiana. He moved to the Wingate area at an early age and graduated from Wingate High School in 1914. He was a member of the 1913 and 1914 Wingate State Champion basketball teams. John was a starting guard for both of these teams. He never scored in either of the final four games in either year. He was the play making guard.

     After he graduated from Wingate he entered Wabash College but stayed only one year. He was married in 1915 to Marian Moser. He finished his higher education at Central Normal and Butler. He starting coaching basketball at Wingate in the 1916-17 season. He coached at Wingate for two years and then moved to Crawfordsville where he coached for three years. His Wingate basketball team won the sectional title in both 1917 and 1918. In both of these years Wingate
advanced to the sixteen team finals at Indiana University but lost in their first game both years. The Crawfordsville basketball team advanced to the final four, in his first year as their coach, before they lost to Lafayette a team they had defeated twice in the regular season. Bloomington won the state title in 1919 and C'ville had beaten this team by Twenty Three points in the Regular Season. C'ville ended the season with a 30 WON and 4 loss season. This was the most wins a C'ville team EVER had in one season. The 1919-20 season was the year that the IHSAA declared both C'ville and Wingate ineligible. C'ville finished the season with a 29 and 2 record. The 1920-21 season was John's last season at C'ville and they again won the sectional but lost their
first game in the Regional. They ended up with a 15-14 record. This made their three year record under John at 72 and 20 or a 798 winning record. This was the BEST winning percent of any C'ville coach who coached for three years or longer at C'ville.
      John started coaching at Waveland in the 1921-22 season and remained their coach for ELEVEN seasons. While coaching at Waveland his basketball team NEVER won a sectional. They did finish as runner in the 1932 Montgomery County Tourney. When John left Waveland he went to Gilboa Twp.in Benton County. This school is now part of Tri County High School
which is located in the West Central White County near Wolcott, Indiana. John stayed there for five years before leaving. His teams at Gilboa Twp. NEVER won a sectional.
     To the best of my knowledge he didn't coach in the 37-38 season. At the start of the 1938-39 season John became coach at Eden High School. Eden is in Hancock County and is now part of
Greenfield Central High School. He was coach there for SIX seasons. Again his teams NEVER won a sectional. He left Eden and went to Romney at the start of the 44-45 season. He remained Romney's basketball coach for TEN seasons. Again his teams NEVER won a sectional. I read that John coached for a total of THIRTY SIX years but if you add up the numbers at each school you come up with Thirty Seven. Maybe he coached one year less at either Gilboa or Eden.
     No matter whether it was 36 or 37 years his teams after winning four sectional titles in his first five years of coaching NEVER again WON a sectional Title. I am NOT sure what his total record is for all of these years, but I would guess that his teams won somewhere between 275 and 325 games in all.

     After John retired from coaching he remained a teacher for a few years. At the time of his death he was survived by his wife, two sons and a brother. John is buried in the Greenlawn Cemetery which is located at the north edge of Wingate.