Franklin Wonder Five

The Franklin Wonder Five is a legendary basketball team of Indiana's "Hoosier Hysteria" during the 1920s. Basketball was king in Indiana and no team reigned more supreme than the team dubbed the “Wonder Five” from Franklin, Indiana. This small town about 20 miles south of Indianapolis produced a team that captured the Indiana State Basketball Championship three years in succession, 1920, 1921, and 1922. After their high school success most members of the team followed their coach, Griz Wagner, as he had accepted the job of coach of the Franklin College basketball team. At the time the enrollment of the college was around 400 students. The “Wonder Five” took on large universities including Notre Dame, Illinois, Purdue, and Wisconsin. The team went undefeated during their first college season of 1922-23. It wasn’t until February of the 1923-24 season that the team suffered their first defeat at the hands of Butler University.

The leading scorer on the Wonder Five was Fuzzy Vandivier. Coach John Wooden, of UCLA fame, considered Fuzzy the greatest high school basketball player he had ever seen. Wooden had seen Fuzzy play as a contemporary of his from nearby Martinsville, Indiana. After graduation from college, Fuzzy returned to Franklin High School as the basketball coach and led the team to a runner-up in the state basketball tournament in 1939. He retired from coaching in 1944 but continued to teach in the high school.

The team’s fame grew and they were challenged by the Omars, a professional team in Detroit, Michigan. The Omars had handed the then New York Celtics one of their four losses during the 1923-24 season. The Omars were one of the top pro teams in the nation. The Franklin Wonder five beat the Omars not only once but twice to prove that their win was not a fluke. Subsequently, Coach Wagner turned down an offer to play the New York Celtics, as his team was "just too tired". Very few games were lost throughout their high school and college years. In honor of coach “Griz” Wagner the Franklin High School team has carried the name of Grizzly Cubs and the Franklin College has been named the Grizzly Bears.

Ellett, Phillip "The Franklin Wonder Five: A Complete History of the Legendary Basketball Team" [Note: Only 200 copies of this book were printed in 1986, and it is now out of print. However, Amazon Kindle owners will be able to download a digital edition starting in August 2008.]