Northam ready for No. 56 (03/21/06)

And to think, she almost didn’t go.

Doris Northam has attended the IHSAA Boys Basketball State Finals for 55 consecutive years. This was going to be the year the streak ended.

But after some thought, the 87-year-old Portland resident decided to make the trip after all. So now, in her 56th and probably last trip to the tournament, she will get to watch her home team play for a state title.

“I would have been so disappointed if I had given up on going,” said Northam Tuesday, noting she has had her five tickets in hand for several weeks.

Unable to climb steps and worried she would not be able to handle the long drive which goes with the long day, Northam was ready to give it up. But after a conversation with her granddaughter, Candace, a 2002 Jay County graduate, and some discussions with other family members she worked out a “Plan B.”

Instead of making the long drive to and from Indianapolis Saturday — where she has tickets for all four title games at Conseco Fieldhouse — she’ll leave a day early and stay with her son, Maurice, who lives in Fishers, for the weekend.

And she’ll be there front and center when the Jay County Patriots run onto the floor to play No. 10 New Castle for the Class 3A state championship for the first time in the school’s history.

Northam’s interest in basketball started when she was young. Her mother died when she was just 3-years-old, and her father was a “hack driver,” or bus driver, who often took the team to games. Northam went along for the ride with the team from Arlington High School, which is now consolidated into Rushville.

“When I was a kid, you know, you went to church and you went to ball games,” said Northam. “And that was your entertainment. It was just natural to me.”

She married Charlie Northam, who started officiating games as soon as he got out of high school in the early 1940s, and the love affair with basketball continued.

The pair started attending the state finals in 1951, and Charlie was a referee when Indianapolis Attucks and South Bend Central won titles in 1956 and 1957 respectively.

Northam has been to all the venues — Hinkle Fieldhouse (her favorite), Indiana University’s Assembly Hall, Market Square Arena, the RCA Dome and Conseco Fieldhouse — as the tournament has moved throughout the years. And she has the tickets, at least one which Charlie collected from all 55 years, to prove it.

She was in attendance for the Milan Miracle, which inspired the movie “Hoosiers,” in 1954. Through more than a half-century of games, it still stands as the highlight.

“I was right there when Milan won,” Northam said. “I’m telling you, that was something else. Of course, then the next day we went to Milan to help celebrate.”

And they had reason to. Not only were they at the game, but the Northams had a connection to Milan coach Marvin Wood.

Wood was Northam’s sister’s, husband’s cousin, and that was enough.

“Of course I claimed him right away,” she said with a laugh.

Northam also recalls her amazement in 1990. It was the first of 10 years the finals were held at the RCA Dome, then known as the Hoosier Dome. About 40,000 fans packed the arena to see Damon Bailey and his Bedford North Lawrence team win the state title 63-60 over Concord.

She said it was disappointing, and even more surprising, in 1998 for the first year of class basketball in Indiana. The crowds were sparse, the dome looked empty.

As much as the games, she enjoyed spending the tournament day with Charlie and getting together with all the people they knew from his officiating.

“I was always known as Charlie’s wife, nobody knew me,” Northam said. “He knew so many people through refereeing. ... It was always a fun time to go and see them. A lot of them you wouldn’t see but once a year.”

Charlie, who died Nov. 5, 2004, had not attended with her for several years, and recently her interest had waned.

“The last two or three years I haven’t hardly seen anybody that I knew. ... But I feel like I’ll see some people I know this year,” Northam said, laughing again.

She had attended games at JCHS this season but has not been to any during the tournament run. Instead, she “listened to every word” of Jay County’s 53-52 overtime victory over Lafayette in the semi-state championship game Saturday on WPGW.

Northam, who moved to Portland from Winchester with Charlie in 1963, said she was often asked by friends why she went to the tournament every year. She always told them if she waited until Portland went to the state tourney she would never get to go.

She has never expected her hometown team to make it all the way.

But this Patriot team has turned that theory on its ear. And Northam believes the Patriots can win.

“I told everybody all year long that we’ve got a good team,” Northam said. “To me, they just seem so aggressive.”

Win or lose, this trip will be her last.

“It’s not the fun it used to be,” said Northam, adding that she had thought about ending the streak but was reluctant to after attending for so many years. “Thank God I didn’t this year. I’m sure I won’t be there next year.”[[In-content Ad]]