Before the Rookie: Branch McCracken

Everybody in Indiana knows Branch McCracken the coach, the "Hurryin' Hoosiers," two NCAA championships, 450 wins, his name on the court at Assembly Hall. But Springfield didn't enshrine the coach. The plaque reads PLAYER, class of 1960. His Indiana career ended in 1930, and he played pro ball for years after that. His rookie card is a bookmark, from a series that began the year he turned sixty.

There are no pre-rookies. No cards from his playing days exist. The earliest card he ever received is the 1968-74 Basketball Hall of Fame Bookmark, a tall, blank-backed sliver of blue duotone the Hall's bookstore once sold. It's the same issue that stands in for his era-mate Chuck Hyatt. Later cardboard followed, including a pair of 1987 Bank One Indiana Greats II cards, but the bookmark is where his record starts.

The bookmark's own résumé is a marvel of understatement. It reads "ELECTED 1960-COLLEGE PLAYER." Then come the numbers. Three straight years leading Indiana in scoring. A Big Ten record 147 points in conference play in 1930, breaking Stretch Murphy's year-old mark. And the line that stops you cold: "in playing career scored 32% of all points scored by his team." Nearly a third of everything.

The coaching career everyone remembers began while he was still playing. He was hired at Ball State in 1930, coached eight seasons there, then took over at Indiana at 30. He won the 1940 NCAA title at 31, still the youngest coach ever to win the tournament 86 years later, won it again in 1953, and finished 450-231 across the two schools. In 1947 he recruited Bill Garrett, who on December 4, 1948 became the first Black player to start for a Big Ten team. And his pro teammate on the Indianapolis Kautskys? John Wooden. Twelve NCAA titles between the two of them.

No pre-rookies, a bookmark for a rookie card, and a plaque that says player. The coach gets the court. The player gets the cardboard, decades late.

Images: 1968-74 HOF Bookmarks front; 1968-74 HOF Bookmarks back; portrait detail; résumé detail.