In Indiana Anyone with an investment in sports – players, coaches, and fans – rely on him for scheduling, results, rankings, and more.
Basketball Enthusiast Harrell Heading for Hall of Fame
Local basketball enthusiast Harrell is heading for the Hall of Fame thanks to his innovation and effort. Huntington native John Harrell is pictured with a plaque presented to him by Huntington North High School Athletic Director Chris Tuch. In recognition of his status as a 2016 Indiana Fever runner-up, the award is presented by the Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame. The award recognizes outstanding contributions to high school basketball by individuals who are not players or coaches. Harrell, a longtime sportswriter, received the plaque during a basketball game at HNHS on Feb. 26. He will be inducted into the Hall of Fame at a ceremony in Indianapolis on April 30.
A basketball fan, John Harrell has only attended a handful of basketball games. Harrell, a Huntington native, is too busy to maintain his website, which he launched in 2000 as a collection of stories about high school and girls basketball.
Harrell’s Work on This Site
That, combined with his long career as a sportswriter, has put him on the brink of induction into the Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame. Last December, Harrell received news that he had been selected to receive the 2016 Indiana Fever Silver Medal, a Hall of Fame award given to the most notable contribution to Hoosier Hoop made by someone other than a player or coach.
One coach and a team have qualified for the 2016 women’s induction class, and they will be honored at a ceremony at Primo Ballroom in Indianapolis on Saturday, April 30.
Harrell will join a Hall of Fame that includes basketball giants Larry Bird, a French player who played for the Boston Celtics, and legendary men’s basketball head coach Bobby Knight. Indiana University It’s something Harrell is still having trouble wrapping his head around, months later.
“The Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame. I mean, that’s what I do,” he says, incredulous, from his Bloomington home. “(It’s) for people who really make a difference. A really great player. Something like, ‘Great coach.’”
But he believes the Hall of Fame should recognize people who have excelled in both reporting and school administration and other roles. It made an impact on basketball without me ever stepping foot on the court.
“They did it,” Harrell said of the sport. “You need players and coaches. But you need every broadcaster to be enthusiastic.”
Harrell’s love for basketball began at a young age. He recalls watching Milan High School’s Cinderella team win the state championship in 1954, which inspired the film “Hoosiers.”
“I was 8 years old when they won, and we didn’t have TV, computers, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth or a lot of gadgets. “But everyone was talking about it,” he said.
Harrell’s connection to basketball deepened when he attended Huntington High School and witnessed the most successful boys basketball team in school history.
“Huntington won the Marion Regional championship all four years I was in high school. “And I made the final four my senior year,” he said. “So it’s all still a work in progress.”
During his senior year, in November 1963, he began his journalism career in Huntington. After graduating from Huntington College in 1968, he worked in the city and was a sportswriter for The News-Sentinel. In Fort Wayne that fall Two years thereafter He moved to Bloomington. He took a job at The Herald Telephone, now known as The Herald Times, where he worked for the next 40 years.
As a sportswriter, Harrell regularly dealt with statistics. Using these statistics, he wrote and compiled stories. In 1980, he began collecting scores and records for men’s basketball and football. First in an office, then on a home computer. He began working with a fellow Bloomington statistician and colleague, Jeff Sagarin. At the time, Sagarin expressed interest in applying his scoring system to Indiana high school sports, and Harrell helped him achieve that. The goal: to give him results.
By 2000, Harrell became interested in distributing the information to those who could benefit from it. After collecting 20 years of basketball and men’s football data, one day he came across a website that tracked high school basketball in north-central Indiana. The website was run by a man named Earl Mishler and was what inspired Harrell to create his own site.
Not Just One Region
Harrell launched his site in December. Men’s Basketball and Football Information The site also lists women’s basketball, which he began following that same year.
“I just threw something in there, and it was really gross,” he said with a laugh. “I wish each team had a separate page, but all the A-L scores are on one page.”
“And it takes forever to load. It’s 2000; everything slows down so much.”
But the site’s audience grew just as slowly, and it caught the attention of Jim Russell, who worked for the Indiana High School Athletic Association. Russell liked what he saw, and he posted a link to Harrell’s site to the IHSAA. It turned out to be a major event in the site’s history.
“The athletic directors and coaches were able to find a place for me,” Harrell said. “And that really helps make our lives better today.”
Harrell has juggled his duties for years, working at The Herald Times while covering three sports for the site.
“It was tough,” he said. “It was a long, long night.”
But Harrell left the paper in 2011. Now, the site is his sole focus.
“I can spend more time on this,” he said.
What Harrell enjoys most about running the facility is the relaxed nature of it. Stay in front of your computer in the evening. Wireless interfaces don’t tie you to a place.
“Scoring on a Friday night, and it was so fast, was fun,” he said.
Harrell’s goal each season is to have all the points scored in the state by the end of a game. The pursuit of that goal reminded him of his beloved newspaper, the pressure to meet deadlines.
“When you’re feeling really bad, ‘That’s when it’s really fun,’” he said. “You’re pulling my hair out. But when it’s done, it feels good.”
“A lot of people can’t work until the deadline.”
The social networking site Twitter has been a huge asset to Harrell, allowing him to get results faster than he ever imagined, especially in the early years of the site.
“Twitter is the biggest thing,” he said. “When I started in 2000, 2001, newspapers didn’t have websites. Schools didn’t have websites. It was the dark ages. You didn’t have to go anywhere to get points or anything like that. You just had to rely on a few other lines or websites.”
Twitter has changed everything
“More and more schools are using Twitter,” he said. “Every year, it seems like 100 more schools are joining Twitter, and it’s getting me points faster.
“This is cool.”
While Harrell enjoys racking up points while running the site, he wasn’t thrilled about hosting a scheduled basketball game that was postponed due to inclement weather this winter.
“If you have two or three weeks of severe weather, “You just think you’re never going to drown,” he said. “That was one of the hardest things for me, to reschedule.”
No matter what the job, nothing can stop Harrell from taking care of the facility. When he and his wife, Martha, went to see their children, he also took his laptop with him. Even being hospitalized on opening day of a football game a few years ago didn’t faze him.
“I called my daughter, and she brought my laptop. “And I was able to get out of the hospital bed and not miss a beat,” he said. “I was released really late. In fact, I probably stayed in there longer than I should have. But they’re going to release me.” “I had everything but maybe one point, so I was like, ‘Whatever.’ Now it’s 15 minutes to get home.”
It was a big deal for Harrell to move his site up a notch or two on his priority list. Huntington North asked him to do it during his final season of men’s basketball. The athletic department invited him to attend the Vikings’ regular-season finale, and plans to celebrate his upcoming Hall of Fame induction with a halftime ceremony.
At first, Harrell was hesitant to accept the invitation. He didn’t want to delay the site’s results. But the athletic department helped ease those fears. And Harrell is glad to be back in his hometown.
“They gave me a laptop there, Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth for PC. “And I scored after the game,” he said. “I was there for about 45 minutes after the game. They’re sweeping the floor. But I’ll still be waiting for the news.”
This Is What You Want in Retirement
Harrell recently turned 70, so the question of how long he plans to run the site is a familiar one for him. For the site’s future, he knows a lot of people rely on the content on the site, so he’s confident someone will take over. But if Harrell goes his own way, it won’t be for long, since the upcoming Farmers Hall is still too much fun.
“I think I get more out of it than the people watching it,” he muses. “It was fun for me. It keeps me going. Let me do something. I think this is what you want in retirement.”