martin & the mountaineers

Just around a soft curve on Indiana 65, nestled in between standing timber & plowed fields sits the little gem of Mt. Olympus, the former home of the Mountaineers.  As a basketball team their high water mark took place in 1929 when they finished the regular season 23-0 and Gibson County Tourney champs.  They would go on to win three more games to claim the Owensville Sectional title and carry a 26-0 record into the Regional against powerhouse Vincennes. Although their roundball journey would end there, it would not be the low point of the year.  On October 29, a day that came to be known as Black Tuesday, the New York stock market crashed, sending an economic tsunami around the world and ushering in the Great Depression.  At the same time, the family owned guitar making shop of CF Martin, based in Nazareth Pennsylvania, began production of what would become one of their most famous models - the 14 fret small body, steel stringed OM.  The intrepid reader might wonder what this has to do with an Indiana basketball gym?  Well, upon entering Mt. Olympus, having walked past the abandoned limestone steps of the old school, I was immediately struck by the beauty of the floor - the worn maple seemed to show tally marks from every game ever played and when it had been "refinished" the age & marks had not been removed.  A month after our shoot, as I was working on the photos for this post, I began to see similarities between the Mt. Olympus floor and an old looking Martin guitar that I own - ironically one modeled after the OM that was first built & played the same year that the Mountaineers had reached their heights.  A visual stretch you say.  Well, as the cliche goes, I guess finding gyms like Mt. Olympus is music to our eyes & ears.  CGS.