Larry Bird

I'm sure everyone has heard of the guy named Larry Bird. He's a basketball legend. Did you know he went to Indiana State University? This fall, a statue cast in bronze was erected in front of Hulman Center of Larry Bird. This statue, along with a huge scholarship dinner is what kept my jets burning in high gear this fall!

"Starting Line up" to kick off the evening!

So to bring you up to speed, the statue was a result of a student led initiative. What a better way to dedicate a statue than with a huge scholarship dinner the night before? Since I work at the ISU Foundation, our team was very, very involved in both the planning of the scholarship dinner as well as the statue dedication.

Dinner set for 680 people.

Task 1: Turn Hulman Center (the basketball arena) into a dinner venue and make it NOT look like a gym

Close up of the place setting.

After dinner was served, we went into the program portion of our event. Jackie MacMullen, former Boston Globe reporter, author of Larry Bird's autobiography Bird Watching: on Playing and Coaching the Game I Love and contributor to ESPN's Around the Horn was the emcee for the evening.

Bird and MacMullen

The show was broken into four "quarters" or segments representing different potions of Bird's career; High School, College, Professional and Executive.

Professional Career segment: Bill Walton, Joe Kleine, Bird, MacMullen and Quinn Buckner

Matt was invited to sit at a table for the event. I had to of course work. It was a wonderful night and an event that the Terre Haute and Indiana State community haven't seen before, or at least in a very long time and should be proud of. The picture to the left was taken at the end of the night - I met Matt out of a drink. Clearly, I'm exhausted and he's having a wonderful time!


The next morning was the statue dedication. This event was open to the public and boy did they come out to see it! We had absolutely gorgeous weather and a lovely turnout.

VIP Section ready and statue in hiding.

Covering coming down to revel the 17' 1 1/8" statue.

Bird making comments after the unveiling.

People lined the levels of the parking garage to get a better view of the dedication ceremony.

If you want more details on the dedication, you can read about it here or simply google search it! You can also watch the program portion of the scholarship dinner on youtube. Its almost 2 hours, but pretty entertaining for the most part!

Bill Walton sizing up to the statue.