Lake Central's Thiery closing in on 100 years of high school sports

ST. JOHN | The legs moved slower than they did in a different day, but move they did, slip, slip, sliding along the tile floor at Lake Central High School.

A twinkle in the eyes met a curious stare on Jan. 10 around 9 p.m. The distant, golden past came face-to-face with the pulsating present in the brush of a gentle handshake.

The wrinkled fingers of Nicholas F. Thiery reached out for the hand of Glenn Robinson III, instantly making a connection spanning just shy of a century.

"It was crazy," said Robinson, the Lake Central senior who will play at Michigan next year and is the Indians' all-time leader in scoring. "It was a pleasure to meet him. He told me he was on one of our first sectional teams. To talk to a man of his wisdom and age was an honor."

The former basketball star told Robinson that 84 years earlier he had played in the first game between Crown Point and a school that would one day be swallowed up by Lake Central. Robinson was in awe.

Thiery's game started at the county school in Dyer in 1928, a rural farm school that would one day become Dyer Central. That was a few years away.

"We played in the Gary Sectional," said Thiery, who was born on March 29, 1914. "The drive was too far so we stayed in a hotel during the sectionals.

"My dad's family lived in Chicago. My father would plan for a month in our Model T before we went up to visit. Those were different days."

Chapter one

Thiery grew up in Chicago. He was a North Sider. His life story reads like a history textbook -- but more colorful with a clearer, pounding pulse.

Long before CNN, instant messaging or the 10-minute news cycle, Thiery remembers an event that shook the world. It was on Nov. 11, 1918.

"My dad and I were in a store on Armistice Day," Thiery said of the day that ended World War I. "I went outside and banged on a drum. I was four years old. I didn't like it. It was too loud."

He was once let into Wrigley Field by Hack Wilson. Skipping class for a ballgame wasn't frowned upon as much then. Talking to Civil War veterans wasn't either, which he did, up there in the bleachers.

His family moved to Dyer in 1920. The Roaring Twenties were all about sports for Thiery. He earned nine varsity letters at Dyer, playing basketball and baseball and running track. His nickname was "Speed."

He played point guard in an era when there was a jump ball after every basket. His Hoosier Hysteria is unrecognizable today.

At 5-foot-8, Thiery was the second-tallest player on the team. He said a couple of the taller guys in his school chose to attend Hammond High or Hammond Tech instead.

Thiery wore No. 13. He was in the principals' office one day when the IHSAA called about Dyer's first sectional appearance.

"They asked our principal what our mascot was," Thiery recalled. "We didn't have one. We talked about it. So we called ourselves the Dragons. The Dyer Dragons."

Dyer had an early version of the double round robin schedule that the Duneland Athletic Conference has now. Only the girls basketball team played in the same gym on the same night as the boys.

"The girls were called the Dragonettes," said Thiery, whose wife, Nellie Rodenburg, also played hoops for Dyer. "It was different than it is now."

The girls played 6-on-6 in a halfcourt game, much like the version of the game that was wildly popular in Iowa a generation ago.

That isn't the only difference. The Dragons played a game in the bottom of a swimming pool, with the baskets hung up on both ends. They played in a gym that was so small only four players on each team competed.

There was only one official. He was also the timekeeper and scorekeeper. Usually there would be two or three balls in the gym before tipoff. There was nothing official about the leather sphere that Thiery said sometimes looked "like a rag."

"The official would roll the balls and whichever one rolled the straightest is the one we used," Thiery said. "One time we played a game that was in a gym that was so small and the crowd was so big that very few people could get in to see the game.

"So whenever there was a break the official would walk out and tell people what the score was."

He played baseball at Dyer, too, but the Dragons were one uniform short and Thiery lost the "lottery."

"So my mother made me one," he said. "I've been involved in high school sports here since 1926."

Real life

The Great Depression hit in 1929 and took away Thiery's opportunity to go to college. He worked many jobs, one at a gas station in his hometown.

"Al Capone's guys used to stop in to buy gas," he said. "None of them had any names. They all had nicknames. They let me hold one of their machine guns once."

He got a job at Shell because of his baseball prowess and worked other industrial gigs. He played industrial basketball for many years and even battled George Mikan once. His slick ball handling and passes behind the back before highlight reels became the vogue earned him a nickname in those blue-collar all-star games.

"They called me the Bob Cousy of Indiana," Thiery said with a smile.

In time he became a custodian at Kahler Middle School and his interest in Indians' sports grew again. Many of the students he saw in the hallways eventually wore the L.C. Blue.

"He shows us how important high school memories are and how that can affect someone's life," said Lake Central boys basketball coach Dave Milausnic, who was a school mate of Thiery's grandson, Kurt Snearly, at Highland.

"This guy's seen it all. He has seen so much in his life and one of his great loves is still Indiana high school basketball. His story lets people know how important basketball is in this state."

Indians' girls basketball coach Leslie Iwema remembers Thiery back in the 1990s, when her last name was Rossa and she led the basketball and softball programs to state championships before winning the 1995 Miss Softball award.

"I remember games when it was 35, freezing, six people in the stands and my mom was there and she didn't want to be," Iwema said. "Even I didn't want to be there it was too cold. But there was Mr. Thiery. He'd be smiling, waving, telling us to play hard and have fun.

"He was at every conceivable game. He was a staple. I tell our kids all the time that if you have the chance to play high school sports it's the time of your life. It's different and better than college in many ways. You'll never forget how you felt when you were 16 and playing in a big game.

"Guys like Mr. Thiery are a big part of that."

Thiery had four children and has 30 great grandchildren. He is a great artist and taught it to young people at 40 different schools for many years. He was the Fire Chief of St. John for 25 years.

Thiery was inducted into the Lake Central Hall of Fame in 1992. He was given a "Gold Pass," which gets him into any L.C. athletic event for free. It has saved him thousands of dollars through the years.

He was a huge fan of the 1984 boys basketball team that made it to the Final Four. He followed the state championship girls basketball and softball teams. He also backed Lake Central's marching band.

Getting to events has been harder the last two years since he stopped driving. But his daughter, Eileen Thiery-Snearly, took him to Thursday's boys basketball game against Valparaiso.

Seasons change, speed slows, but one thing remains, at least in these parts.

"The game changed as I was a spectator," Thiery said. "I miss it. I will always be a fan. I love our girls team and I hope they go far. Our boys team is good enough to go all the way. They just have to be ready for every game.

"I love it, just love it. This has been my life."