Legendary Delaware County basketball coach Myron Dickerson hated to lose.
The Indiana Basketball Hall of Famer didn’t do much of it during his legendary 26-year career, compiling a record of 380-158 between Royerton (now Delta), Connersville and Muncie Northside. Dickerson won many championships, including three Delaware County titles at Royerton, the 1972 IHSAA state championship at Connersville and a 1975 semi-state appearance at Northside.
For all the winning he did over nearly three decades, it was never Dickerson’s primary reason for coaching.
“The winning was really important to him, he was super competitive and hated to lose,” said Dave Shondell, who played for Dickerson at Northside. “But it was really all about building young men.”
Dickerson died at the age of 91 on Sunday, April 12, leaving a legacy of greatness in both his on-court accomplishments and his off-court influence on the men he coached over a quarter-century.
Decades-long coaching odyssey in Delaware County
A four-year letterwinner at Perry Central, Dickerson graduated from Ball State in 1956 and remained in Delaware County to begin his coaching career as an assistant for Royerton coach Gordon Stauffer. When Stauffer left in 1959 to move up to the college ranks, Dickerson took over as head coach. In 1961, Dickerson’s Redbirds went undefeated in the regular season but were upset by Muncie Burris in the sectional.
That 1961 Royerton team featured three future Division I players in Ron Pease (Indiana), Doug Piazza (LSU) and Jerry Peirson (Miami OH) — some pretty significant talent for a county school at the time. Despite all of the star power he had to work with, Dickerson treated every one of his players the same and built a culture around respect and discipline.
“He was a disciplined leader,” Peirson said. “He wasn’t a verbose, name-calling type of coach. He was very respectable of everybody’s space. He was respectable of each of our individual abilities, and I think he was able to apply that to a team concept very easily as a young coach.”
Dickerson left Royerton to take over at Connersville in 1966, where he won five sectional titles over the next six seasons. His time in Fayette County culminated in a 1972 state championship where the Spartans topped Jeffersonville in double-overtime in the semifinal, then came back on three hours of rest to shock Gary West in the state final back in the one-class era.
That run by Connersville may have shocked the state, but Dickerson’s former players weren’t a bit surprised to see it.
“Future success with Myron, it was anticipated without question,” Peirson said. “I wasn’t surprised. As a matter of fact, I had a chance to be an assistant coach with him on his first Connersville team, about the time I graduated from Miami and went back to be a graduate assistant but decided not to do that. When he won state, I was fortunate enough to see several of those games throughout the state tournament that year.”
After winning the 1972 state title, Dickerson took the head coaching position at Muncie Northside with the task of essentially building the program from the ground floor, as the school had just opened in 1970. Steve Shondell was part of the first full graduating class at Northside and was the starting point guard for Dickerson’s first Titans squad in the 1972-73 season.
“He was almost like a story right out of the movie ‘Hoosiers,'” Steve Shondell said. “He was very well-respected around the state for being an outstanding coach, but he was really an old school type of coach. He gave you 100% respect, but he was very demanding. He had a style of basketball that he wanted to play, kind of like Norman Dale wanted to do everything his way.”
With his championship pedigree and all-business attitude, Shondell and his teammates found themselves intimidated by Dickerson at first. The Titans were loaded with talent, though, including future Harlem Globetrotter Sam Drummer, future Notre Dame football star Luther Bradley, 6-foot-7 center Kirk McShurley and future Ball State men’s volleyball stars Shondell and Wes Lyon.
Just as he did at Royerton, Dickerson got the most out of Northside’s immense talent and had the team ranked in the top five of the state all season. However, the Titans fell victim to a magical run by Yorktown in the 1973 sectional tournament in which the Tigers beat all three Muncie city schools — Central, Northside and Southside — to clinch a second-straight sectional title.
“We had a tremendous season,” Steve Shondell said. “It’s too bad we couldn’t get back-to-back state championships for him because he was the type of person that deserved to have success. He had great success at Northside, just couldn’t win another state title, and there were a number of teams that had potential to do it but just came up a little short.”
Northside’s 1975 semi-state team was the closest Dickerson got to returning to state. The team was flushed with future college athletes, as 11 players on the 12-man roster went on to play Division I athletics. This included future college basketball stars like Drummer (Georgia Tech), Kim Younkin (Abilene Christian), Greg Dobbs (Valparaiso), Tom Hinga (Colorado) and Eric Eckelman (Nebraska).
However, the Titans were stunned by Rushville in the first round of semi-state. Dickerson made the team stick around and watch the next game before getting on the bus back to Muncie. On the way back, Dave Shondell — a junior on the team — started cutting up and laughing with his friend and future IU player Phil Isenbarger. Dickerson, who seldom raised his voice, came back to where they were sitting and ripped them a new one.
“Myron came back and just jumped into both of us about the fact that losing is the worst thing in the world, and if he’s not going to feel good about it, he doesn’t want us to feel good about it,” Dave Shondell said. “We were the people that were going to be leading the team in the future and that we need to take it serious. That was one of those moments I’ll never forget.”
While Dickerson grilled his guys when he needed to, it was extremely rare for him to yell or get angry. A devout Christian, Dickerson tended to remain patient and level-headed, whether in practice, on the sideline or in the classroom. He started chapters for the Fellowship of Christian Athletes at all three of his coaching stops and always had his teams pray together before taking the court.
“We always said a prayer before the game, and he gave me the honor of saying it before almost every game,” Steve Shondell said. “He was a really strong Christian, very seldom raised his voice, very well-respected, well-liked by everybody. I never heard him swear one time.”
Faith wasn’t the only fashion in which Dickerson set a strong example for his athletes. He was also a devoted family man to his wife, Nancy, his daughter, Sally, and his son, Mike. Former players described Nancy as “the ideal coach’s wife,” and the Dickersons’ door was always open to the players. The family especially loved to host celebrations for championships or other team accomplishments.
“(Nancy) loved that role of being the wife of the coach and taking care of the players,” Dave Shondell said. “Anytime somebody got 20 rebounds in a game, which was unheard of, she would bake him a cake. Sam Drummer had a couple of cakes, for sure.”
More than just a coach
For all of the on-court accomplishments Dickerson shared with his players, their fondest memories with him were those made off the court. Peirson remained close friends with Dickerson and his family well beyond their years at Royerton, and Dickerson even supported Peirson during the latter’s own induction process to the Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame.
“There were several favorite moments. Most of those were directed at family functions, mini birthday celebrations, that type of thing,” Peirson said. “We had a lot of good, big reunions in the last several years where we all got together and reminisced and talked about the games and visited with Coach. Those were all very memorable and will always be cherished in my heart.”
Even a player like Steve Shondell, who only spent one season playing for Dickerson, maintained a lifelong bond with the coach. A few years after Shondell’s graduation from Northside, Dickerson invited him on a fishing trip to Canada and taught him how to fish for walleye and Northern pike. The trip still stands out as Shondell’s favorite memory with his old ball coach.
“I really got to know him more on that trip than I felt like I did playing for him that one year that went by so quickly,” Steve Shondell said. “It’s a little bit different when you’re playing for a coach and when you’re knowing him as a friend.”
The Shondells were particularly close to the Dickersons, as they lived right across the street from one another. In an era without open gyms, Steve Shondell recalled putting up extra shots on his driveway hoop during the offseason because he knew there was a good chance his coach would see it.
Of course, the Shondell name is synonymous with another sport, as Steve and Dave followed in their father’s footsteps to have legendary coaching careers in the volleyball realm. Steve Shondell won 21 state titles and four national titles at Muncie Burris, while Dave Shondell won four state titles at Muncie Central before embarking on his current venture at Purdue, where he just completed his 23rd season as the Boilermakers’ coach with his fifth NCAA Regional final appearance.
The sons of Dr. Don Shondell were certainly not lacking a coaching role model, but they were fortunate enough to have an additional one in Dickerson.
“He just treated every player with respect and was just a great coach to play for because he was such a great role model for his teams for the way he conducted himself on and off the court,” Steve Shondell said.
Contact Cade Hampton via email at cbhampton@usatodayco.com or on X, formerly known as Twitter, @CadeHamp10.
This article originally appeared on Muncie Star Press: Remembering legendary Muncie-area basketball coach Myron Dickerson
Reporting by Cade Hampton, Muncie Star Press / Muncie Star Press
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
