Best Day Ever: The Blizzard of ’61, Part II

Best Day Ever Part I

As the daylight waned late on Saturday afternoon, there was growing concern for the fans at the field house. We heard that my oldest brother had made it home safely. We learned that the final game would be postponed, probably until Monday. By the time dark fell, there were still more than 3,000 fans stuck there. Some walked out to a nearby motel, but most of them spent the night in the giant gym. There was food in the concession stands and a local grocery store brought in more. A kind of party atmosphere settled in. In later years, it became a local mark of distinction to have been one of the fans who spent the night of the blizzard in the New Castle field house. Once we heard that people were stranded there, the blizzard became an epic thing in my mind. I could picture farmland across Indiana and all the way to Omaha buried in snow. We might have to stay at the farm until Spring! No school and no church until March 21!