HIGH SCHOOL

Passing it down: Zionsville teammates are grandsons of Indiana basketball Hall of Famers

Kyle Neddenriep
Indianapolis Star

ZIONSVILLE – One of Kyle Reasoner’s first memories of Indiana high school basketball after moving from Jacksonville, Fla., came in 2014. It was the 60-year anniversary of his grandfather, Pete Obremskey, playing in the Indiana All-Star game.

“That was a special moment,” Reasoner said. “I got to meet Bobby Plump, who I had come to know from the movie ‘Hoosiers’ so that was super exciting. That was my first real introduction to Indiana basketball. That and hearing (my grandpa) talk about how he scored 43 points in a game with a broken toe.”

Kyle Reasoner (left) and Dylan Ritter (right) are Zionsville seniors. Both are grandsons of Indiana Basketball Hall of Famers. Reasoner’s grandfather, Pete Obremskey, was an Indiana All-Star at Jeffersonville in 1954 and played for Branch McCracken at Indiana. Ritter’s grandfather, Julius “Bud” Ritter is a member of the Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame after winning two state titles as a player at Evansville Bosse in 1944 and ’45 and coaching at Peru and Madison for many years.

Reasoner is one of two Zionsville basketball seniors with grandfathers in the Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame. Obremskey, a star player at Jeffersonville and captain at Indiana for coach Branch McCracken, was inducted in 1993.

That was 18 years after Reasoner’s senior teammate, point guard Dylan Ritter’s grandfather Julius “Bud” Ritter, was inducted into the Hall of Fame. Bud Ritter was the starting center on Evansville Bosse’s back-to-back state championship teams in 1944 and ’45 and started at Purdue before going on to a long and successful coaching career at Peru and Madison, leading the latter to three consecutive undefeated regular seasons from 1959-61, winning 61 consecutive regular-season games.

Bud Ritter died in 2001 at age 74 after battling Alzheimer’s disease. Dylan did not get to know his grandfather personally. But he takes pride in learning about his grandfather’s legacy through the stories from his father, Chip, and others who watched Bud Ritter’s Madison teams who were led by names like Jack Waters, Buster Briley and 1962 Mr. Basketball Larry Humes.

“I moved here from (Naperville), Illinois in third grade,” Dylan Ritter said. “I never really understood why my grandpa was such a big deal. Then going down to Madison to visit my grandmother (Irene Ritter died at 92 in 2019) so many times, I met with so many family members and random people who would say, ‘Oh, you’re a Ritter, let me tell you something about your grandfather, Bud.’ I was like, ‘Oh, this again.’ But it showed me how important he was in the community and what he meant to all the players and their families. And then moving to Zionsville from Illinois taught me first-hand what Indiana basketball is all about.”

Bud Ritter in the locker room of a Madison Cubs game.  His motto was “You Gotta Believe."

Bud Ritter’s motto as a coach at Madison from 1954-77 was “You Gotta Believe.” But after winning 333 games at Madison, he was pushed out along with 16 other Madison coaches by the school board in the spring of 1977. About 500 supporters came out in support of Ritter and 150 high school students staged a walkout. “We knew before we went into that meeting we were beaten,” Ritter told the UPI wire service at the time. “Everything was decided behind closed doors. We could have had John Wooden, Adolph Rupp and Jesus Christ on our side and still lost, 5-zip.”

But Ritter, who led Madison to four regional titles and a state finals appearance in 1962 (Madison lost to Ritter’s alma mater, Evansville Bosse, 79-75), stayed involved in basketball and started the Hall of Fame Classic in 1977, which was then played at Hinkle Fieldhouse and years later is still a highlight on the basketball schedule every season at New Castle Fieldhouse.

“My dad was a real entertainer,” said Chip Ritter, one of Bud and Irene’s six children. “He was a motivational speaker across the state of Indiana. Coaching was kind of a side job for him. He had fast-food businesses all over the state and he had his pilot’s license so he could fly to them. He was still pretty young, in his 60s, when got Alzheimer’s. No one really knew what it was back then. He had a hard time functioning or remembering anything after that.”

Obremskey, a trial lawyer who made his home in Lebanon, attends Zionsville games when he is able and watches the games he is unable to attend through streaming. As a player for McCracken’s “Hurryin’ Hoosiers”, Obremskey has a style of play that he prefers — and makes known to his grandson.

“If I get on to him about anything, it’s to shoot,” Obremskey said. “You can’t put the ball in the basket if you don’t shoot. So that’s what I tell him sometimes: ‘Kyle, shoot the damn ball.’ But that kind of goes to the philosophy of the game now. In particular when I was at Indiana, it was get the ball up and down the court. The faster we got down the court, the faster we shot it. Now you have players passing it around the horn, whipping it around the outside. It drives me nuts. The players are bigger, faster, stronger, but the philosophy has changed.”

Pete Obremskey, #31 of Jeffersonville 1955-56 with Indiana Basketball.

Obremskey, 84, was a three-year starter at Jeffersonville, leading the team in scoring and rebounding as a junior and senior. Both years, Jeffersonville lost in the semistate to Terre Haute Gerstmeyer. His philosophy on shooting actually started there, playing in front of 5,000 fans at Nachand Fieldhouse, the home of the Red Devils from 1937-71.

“We had a pretty good group of players,” Obremskey said. “Bob Potter and Jack Bedan were really good players. Bob Potter would complain, ‘When I pass the ball to you, I never get it back.’ I told him, ‘Well, I looked around and saw who else was out there and figured I better take the shot.’”

Obremskey went on to be a standout player under McCracken at Indiana, where he averaged 12.6 points and 7.7 rebounds as a senior in 1957-58. The Hoosiers were co-champions of the Big Ten during his junior season and won it outright when he was a senior, a team that was led in scoring and rebounding by Archie Dees. Obremskey was second in both categories.

“I did what I was told,” Obremskey said. “I didn’t want to get growled at by coach McCracken. He used to say, ‘Obremskey, you are triple threat — fumble, stumble and fall.’ But we all respected him. He was really helpful to me. After I finished, I went on to graduate school and he made me the freshman assistant extended my scholarship for three years. So that paid my way through law school.”

Kyle Reasoner, whose parents are Tim and Katie (Obremskey) Reasoner, said he appreciates having his grandfather at his games.

“He loves basketball,” Reasoner said. “He’s intense. I hear him yelling, ‘Drive it and shoot it.’ He wants to see me score.”

Reasoner has basketball in his blood on both sides of the family. His father played at Franklin Central — Tim jokes it was “the worst Franklin Central team in the school’s history” — and his grandfather, Rich Reasoner, played at Franklin Central and Indiana Central (now the University of Indianapolis). Oscar Robertson’s older brother, Bailey Robertson, was one of his teammates.

Madison, 1962. Coach Bud Ritter, left, watches as his Madison Cubs celebrate their 59th straight regular season victory Feb. 17, 1962.

Dylan’s father, Chip Ritter, still has a lot of memorabilia from his father’s basketball coaching days. Madison was well-known for its uniforms, which were considered top-of-the-line.

“My dad’s best friend worked for Wilson Sporting Goods so he’d get them custom-made,” Chip Ritter said.

Ritter rode the bus with his father and sat either on the bench of behind it at Madison games and attended every Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame banquet for many years.

“Bob Knight used to sit at our table,” Chip Ritter said. “I got to meet Phil Eskew, Don Schlundt, Howard Sharpe, Bobby Plump. It was just unbelievable exposure to Indiana high basketball. We always had half-court seats at the state championship games. It’s still our favorite thing, so it’s fun to see Dylan getting to be part of high school basketball now with his teammates. It’s the best thing about being home in Indiana.”

That feeling is shared by Dylan, who has a more complete picture now why his grandfather is so highly-respected by those who knew him in Madison.

“What resonated with me is all the stories I heard about him off the court,” Dylan said. “He treated all of his players like family. I remember hearing he would have the whole team over for dinner after games. He just treated them like family. When I hear from his former players talk about what kind of man he was and kind of coach he was, it’s important to me to have a grandfather like that.”

Call Star reporter Kyle Neddenriep at (317) 444-6649.