Golden Bear Golf Benefit honors Gary Long

Gary Long still betrays the presence of an accomplished, superior athlete. His humble demeanor notwithstanding, the 1957 Shelbyville High School and former Indiana University standout continues to exude the grace and fortitude reminiscent of his youth; those earlier years that earned him the distinction as one of the Shelbyville High School’s greatest athletes.

Long’s remarkable record of professional, personal, and athletic achievement was honored Saturday at the 2025 Golden Bear Golf Benefit which benefits the Shelbyville High School boys’ basketball and football teams.

“Gary Long is a legendary figure in the Shelbyville community,” stated Golden Bear head basketball coach John Hartnett Jr. “He has demonstrated tremendous loyalty to and great support for SHS. He comes to most of our home games and always has a word of encouragement. He has an amazing athletic and professional resume. This is the least we can do for him.”

Long’s journey to excellence began on the asphalt courts of Shelby Township Elementary School.

“We didn’t have a gymnasium so we played all our games on the road,” said Long.

Despite the less-than-optimal facilities (more accurately, no indoor facilities), a young Gary Long was inspired to someday be a Golden Bear.

“Everyone talked about Shelbyville basketball when I was growing up,” said Long. “I remember watching the games and I remember standing in awe downtown as we watched the 1947 team come home on fire trucks after when they won the state championship.”

Long’s development was fostered through an intense family competition with first cousins who were also exceptional athletes. Jerry Bass (Morristown), Dave Ross (Morristown) and Ronnie Richardson (Shelbyville) were of a similar age and the constant familial rivalry was a source of consistent development.

“We really pushed each other,” said Long. “It definitely made us better because we were always playing. We were improving and we didn’t even realize it.”

Gary Long played on excellent Shelbyville basketball teams that recorded 14-9 and 18-5 records during his junior and senior seasons in 1956 and 1957.

“I was privileged to play with very good players like Jack Krebs and Jack and Jim Tindall,” said Long. “Our football team was .500 as well.”

Long laments that his teams never captured a sectional championship.

“We lost a two-point (48-46) game in the championship to Columbus at Columbus,” recalls Long. “We won the fourth quarter with a nice comeback, but it just wasn’t enough.”

Long was named to several all-state teams after the season, however that loss in the 1957 title game remains an unpleasant memory.

“It continues to haunt me,” he said.

The Shelbyville native continued his basketball career at Indiana University under renowned coach Branch McCracken. Long became a three-year letterman (freshmen were ineligible for varsity play during his college days) and a two-year starter who scored at a 12-points-per-game mark as a senior.

His IU teams posted a cumulative three-year mark of 46-25; 35-14 his junior and senior seasons.

The 1960 Hoosiers squad finished 11-3 in the conference and 20-4 for the regular season. Ohio State closed out the Big Ten at 13-1 and 20-2, respectively.

IU handily defeated the Buckeyes late in the season. Ohio State edged Indiana 96-95 earlier in the year at Columbus on a last second basket by Larry Siegfried.

“I was guarding Siegfried and when he let it go, I thought it was off,” said Long. “But it bounced off the rim a couple of times and went in. We would have gone to the NCAA tournament instead of Ohio State because they only took one Big Ten team back then. We would have had identical records, but we would have won the season series and gotten the spot. That was heartbreaking.”

That Ohio State team went on to capture the NCAA championship that year and boasted future NBA players Siegfried, Jerry Lucas, John Havlicek and eventual IU coach Bob Knight.

Jerry Lucas later said that the best college basketball team in the country that year stayed in Bloomington during the tournament.

Long is also the answer to an IU basketball trivia question: Which Hoosier player was the leading scorer in the game that IU scored the most points in its history?

“That was my sophomore year in 1959,” recalls Long. “Walt Bellamy (a future Naismith National Basketball Hall of Fame member) was on the bench in foul trouble so I was getting more opportunities to score. I wound up with 29 points and am the answer to that trivia question. People would obviously guess that someone like Bellamy or Jimmy Rayl would have been the top scorer in that game, but it was me.”

After graduation, Long coached the IU freshman team while pursuing an MBA. He was part of a four-man IU coaching staff and coached future NBA players Tom and Dick Van Arsdale.

Gary married his wife, Nancy, began work at Eli Lilly and settled in the Center Grove area of Johnson County. He was offered a position in sales at Jostens, a company that manufactures school memorabilia such as class rings, year books and graduation items, but was dubious about accepting at first. He had doubts because he had never worked as a salesman. However, two elements would weigh in his favor.

“Playing at IU gave me excellent name recognition,” said Long. “That was a definite advantage. You still had to close the sale but that recognition was a huge advantage.”

Secondly, He found that sales was similar to athletics in that you were forced to routinely confront adversity.

“In sports and sales, you have to get back up when you fail and try again,” said Long. “You learn that in both sports and sales.”

The recent Indiana graduate’s fears were unfounded as he went on to enjoy tremendous success for many years as a Jostens representative.

Long continued to play competitive basketball until his late 40s. He became a star in the plethora of men’s leagues and tournaments that were available during those years.

Gary Long (center) and his sons, Mike (left) and Brad (right), attended the Golden Bear Golf Benefit which honored the playing career of former Golden Bear Gary Long.

In 1985, Brad Long, one of Gary’s sons, won the role of “Buddy,” one of the Hickory Huskers in the classic film “Hoosiers.”

The movie’s screenwriter, Angelo Pizzo, grew up in Bloomington and would often wander onto the IU campus to rebound for the Hoosier players during Gary’s time as a player.

“Angelo remembered me and told Brad he wanted to give me a small part,” said Long. “I played the Linton assistant coach. I had one line. I was supposed to say, ‘Foul the runt,’ (instructing his movie charges to foul the hapless Ollie, played by Wade Schenck, who was actually a very good player).

“I was supposed to stay seated but I did what a coach would have done when shouting a command,” he continued. “I stood up and I think I moved out of the camera shot. Whatever the problem, my line was cut. You can see me in two or three quick scenes from a distance. The whole thing was a wonderful experience.”

Among his numerous accolades, Long was inducted into the Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame in 1994 and the Shelbyville High School Alumni Hall of Fame in 2017.

He has been retired for many years and enjoys playing golf and supporting Golden Bears Basketball. He moved back to Shelbyville following his wife’s passing in 2020. He treasures family time with his three sons, Brad, Mike, and Scott and his grandchildren.

Saturday’s event was a special day for Gary, his family, and the entire Golden Bear family. Gary was presented with a commemorative plaque acknowledging July 19, 2025, as “Gary Long Day” at the Golden Bear Golf Benefit.

Gary’s sons were in attendance, Brad and Mike, next presented their father with a family plaque to celebrate the occasion.

Finally, IU alumnus and fellow SHS Alumni Hall of Fame member Joe Harlan read and presented Gary with a letter signed by Indiana athletic director Scott Dolson and incoming Hoosiers men’s basketball coach Darian DeVries that recognized Gary’s contributions to Indiana University and the school’s rich basketball history.

The correspondence lauded him as a “critical piece” of Indiana’s basketball legacy. The letter concluded that Gary Long is “one of Indiana University’s own.”

“I had no idea and would never have guessed that anything like this would be for me,” said Gary. “I do not really deserve anything like this, but I am grateful beyond words.”

To repeat and paraphrase an earlier statement: This is the least we can do for Gary Long.

 The Shelby County Post is a digital newspaper producing news, sports, obituaries and more without a pay wall or subscription needed.