She is strikingly beautiful as the sunlight catches the soft curls of her hair. Her blue eyes actually twinkle as she talks about her happy college days on the campus at Indiana State. She loved going to school at the college, she loved the campus and today she loves remembering.
She came up to Terre Haute to go to school all the way from the tiny hamlet of St. Meinrad not far from the Ohio River tucked in Perry County in southern Indiana. It was 1947 when she enrolled in college, which at that time was called Indiana State Teachers College. That was perfect because she wanted to be a teacher. She was called "Peggy" in those days -- her given name was Patricia Ruth. But at Indiana State, all her paperwork showed her enrolled as
Patricia -- so everyone called her 'Pat' – and she says from then on, she was Pat Denning. She wanted to be involved in extracurricular activities so she started going to basketball games her freshman year. There was no question whether it was men's basketball or women's basketball. Women's basketball didn't become a college sport until much later. So it was simple. She went to the men's basketball games. And she never stopped -- not for seventy years! Yes, you read that right –
seventy years. She still goes to the games!
So let's back up for just a minute to that first season. Pat decided she would go to all the games. She knew the Sycamore basketball team was really good and had a great coach – John Wooden. Yep –
that John Wooden.
The year before Pat arrived on campus the Sycamores won the Indiana Intercollegiate Conference title and received an invitation to the National Association of Intercollegiate Basketball (NAIB) National Tournament in Kansas City. But Coach John Wooden refused the invitation, citing the NAIB's policy of segregation banning black players from the tournament.
One of Indiana State's player's, Clarence Walker, from East Chicago, Indiana, was African American and Coach Wooden said the entire team plays or nobody plays. And they stayed home.
It was an unbelievably courageous act from the young coach in his very first year of employment at Indiana State. Such a bold move by Wooden could even have put his very life in danger. But Coach Wooden stood his ground.
And the next year, with Pat in the stands cheering on her beloved Sycamores, Indiana State won that Conference title again. And once again Clarence Walker, the lone black player was on the team. This time the NAIB recalled the pressure from Indiana State's Coach Wooden and reversed its segregationist policy.
Proudly, Clarence Walker of the Indiana State Sycamore Men's Basketball team became the first person of color to play in a game of collegiate sports. Indiana State had broken the racial barrier in the world of collegiate sports!
Pat Denning had already recognized that basketball was worthwhile! And by that time, she recognized something else. A young student manager of the basketball team named Mark LaGrange – a very good student manager and very good looking. They were the same age, but he enrolled in college a year after her because he had been in the army serving at the Pentagon. He was now taking advantage of the G.I. Bill to pay for his education. Pat liked him – and he liked Pat. He was already smart!
They became an item on campus. They liked the same things – especially basketball. Mark even wanted to become a basketball coach and he being a student manager for Coach Wooden's team was great training. And though Clarence Walker may have played in the national championship game, segregation wasn't over. When the team had to travel on the road, it was Mark LaGrange who went with Clarence to find a hotel.
Pat graduated from Indiana State Teachers College and sure enough, became a teacher. But to get a job as a teacher, she needed new clothes -- and she had no money -- and no place to live. Her only option was to head back to Perry County to reside at home with her parents and get a job teaching secondary education there. But she knew it would only be until she could get enough money together to get on her own two feet. And when Mark LaGrange graduated things would be different.
Pat and Mark were married and their whirlwind life together was wonderful. They were both teachers. Mark coached boys and girls at the high school level and he coached multiple sports -- basketball, baseball and golf. And Pat taught elementary school, always adored by the little ones. Their teaching careers brought them back to Terre Haute where they felt much at home. Pat retired from Fuqua School and Mark from Schulte High School and Terre Haute South Vigo.
Though teaching was a great love for the couple, no love was greater than the love they had for each other and for their five children, Connie Mukherjee, Candy McCord, Neil LaGrange, Terry LaGrange, and Louis LaGrange, and five grandchildren, Misha, Lincoln, Mitchell, Adam and Emily.
In 1963, their passion for sports and a great spirit of adventure led them to open Mark's Par 3 Golf Course on the east side of Terre Haute. Initially opened as a nine-hole course, today it is 54 years after the opening and the popular spot flourishes as an 18-hole course, still lovingly owned and beautifully maintained by the LaGrange family.
Over the years, Pat and Mark LaGrange bought dozens of pairs of season tickets, ever loyal to Sycamore men's basketball. It was a wintertime ritual for the couple. Rain or shine, they were always there together. Even on that icy Monday night, December 1, 2008, they were headed to a game. The Sycamores would be playing Central Arkansas. Their daughter, Candy McCord was driving and Mark and Pat were riding. The weather was not good and the roads were pretty bad. They were not far from their home near the golf course when another driver lost control of his car and slammed into the LaGrange vehicle. Mark and Pat were both horribly injured and immediately transported by helicopter to an Indianapolis hospital. A passenger in the second car died at the scene. Sadly, Mark's injuries proved fatal and the Wabash Valley and Indiana State lost a great friend, alumni and supporter.
Pat suffered the loss of the love of her life as well as sustaining tremendous physical injuries. She spent weeks and months in recovery and indeed is still impaired today. But she is a strong and resilient human being, filled with wonderful memories and a great love for her family and affection for this community that has now so long been her home. She is well loved and respected.
And just as she did way back there in 1947, Pat Denning LaGrange, a beautiful woman with a good heart and a lovely smile, bought her season tickets to the Indiana State Men's Basketball 2017-18 season and she'll be right there in the stands with her daughter, Candy, when the guys tip it off on the hardwood against Marian on Friday, November 3rd, just like she's been for the last seventy years!
