They didn’t have Doppler Radar or any other kind of fancy tracking mechanism in 1961 when thousands of basketball fans became stranded inside New Castle Fieldhouse. The snow that came during a Saturday afternoon sectional basketball tournament seemed as much a surprise as a player going in for a back-door layup.

Last week’s column about the big snowstorm at the Fieldhouse during the 1961 sectional basketball tournament drew a couple of interesting responses from others who were there that day.

David Ratliff, at the time a rural Middletown resident and later a 1968 Shenandoah graduate, sent us some of his reflections via email.

“We left home that Saturday in a cold rain for Chrysler Fieldhouse and the semifinals of the basketball tournament,” Ratliff wrote. “During one of the games, there were some intermittent power issues that caused the lights to malfunction. However, there was no mention of a storm dumping several inches of snow while we watched the basketball games. When the two games ended, it was too late – no one was leaving the fieldhouse unless they lived in New Castle.”

Ratliff – a Department of the Army civilian at Fort Jackson, S.C., who served as a trumpet player, commander and bandmaster from 1972-2005 – said he was at the game that day with his father, Myron; his mother, Joan; his grandmother, Dalta Rutledge; and his brother, Jim.

“My grandfather, Ernest Ratliff, went to Muncie for the sectional,” Ratliff wrote. “For some reason, he was a lifelong Bearcat fan while we cheered for the Cossacks.”

While Ratliff’s family couldn’t get back to their rural Middletown farm, he remembers his dad did have chains to put on their vehicle’s tires. So while others were dependent on the concession stand’s food supply or items brought in from Eaton’s Market, the Ratliff’s were able to drive down the road to Ray’s Drive-In.

“The hamburgers were the best ever that evening,” Ratliff remembered.

But the snow was so bad – particularly out in county areas where the family lived – they had no choice but go back to the Fieldhouse for the night. It was memorable, for sure.

“There were ‘basketball games’ with paper cups being played and others sat around and talked,” Ratliff said. “Going to sleep was a problem, even with the main lights off. I was 10 years old and my brother was 5. Sleep was not a problem for him. He was on a bleacher seat using our grandmother’s fur coat as a blanket. At some point, he rolled off the seat and onto the concrete floor but never woke up.”

Another local resident, David Ruddell, also responded to last week’s article.

“I lived on Audubon Road, which was not too far away,” he wrote. “Several of us just hung around for the fun of it. It was a sight to behold.”

When Sunday morning came, the sun was shining, but getting home still proved to be difficult. Farmers like Ratliff’s dad worried about the daily chores going undone and took drastic action. They were aided by a Henry County trait ever bit as true as a jump shot swishing through the net.

“There was livestock that needed to be fed and cared for, but the roads were still blocked,” Ratliff wrote. “Around 9 a.m., my father and a neighbor who lived on the farm behind us set out to walk home. As they left the fieldhouse, a Henry County Sheriff’s Deputy said he would take them as far as he could. He got them to Highway 3 and U.S. 36 outside of Mount Summit. The two farmers began to walk and soon got another ride. In less than three hours, they had made it those seven miles and were home.”

After taking care of the livestock, however, Ratliff’s dad had another problem – how to get back and retrieve his family and vehicle. Again, neighborly teamwork – the kind sectional champions display – saved the day.

“Dad took care of the livestock and was planning on driving the tractor to New Castle to pull the car and us home,” Ratliff remembered. “By early afternoon, the roads were not totally impassable. Our neighbor’s son was in high school and he drove our car to Road 575W and U.S. 36. He got in his parent’s car so they could drive another mile west to their road. Mom drove down our road and almost made it to the driveway before getting stuck in a snow drift. Dad was just getting ready to leave for New Castle and pulled the car into the driveway. We had survived the storm and were home.”

The two letter writers chuckle at their memories today and say that Hoosier Hysteria and snowstorms will always be linked.

“It became a standing joke that tourney time meant getting stuck in the Fieldhouse,” Ruddell said.

“It seems you can always count on a snowstorm hitting sometime during the tournament,” Ratliff said.

(Darrel Radford is executive director of The Henry County Historical Society and a staff writer for The Courier-Times. The museum will resume its normal hours – 1 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday – beginning next week. Call 529-4028 or visit www.henrycountyhs.org for more information on the museum and its activities.)