The City League is working on a documentary film project, telling one of Indiana's most important basketball stories.  It is the story of the Lockefield Dust Bowl.  A court/tournament born out of Indiana's first federal housing project, Lockefield Gardens in the late 1940s. The Lockefield Dust Bowl produced many of Indiana's legendary hoops figures - players like Oscar Robertson, George McGinnis, Hallie Bryant, Steve Downing, Willie Merriweather, Frank Kendrick, and Mike Woodson.  Indianapolis' Near West Side court was the place where the 1955 Crispus Attucks Tigers, the first all black high school team in the country to win a state championship, learned the game.   The players who learned game at Lockefield would go on to influence basketball and society on a national level. 

 

The story of the Lockefield Dust Bowl is being lost to time.  The City League is working alongside NextGen Productions, the Africana Studies Program at IUPUI, and the Indianapolis Recorder to ensure that this important part of Indianapolis' rich history is told for generations to come!