South Bend Central: The School Closed. The Pride Stayed.
An undefeated championship team, alumni who made their mark far beyond South Bend, and a school building that still has a place downtown.
Look closely at the old Central shirt in the display case. Arched lettering. A number inside an oval. South Bend Basketball across the front. Nothing fancy, but you can picture it in a gym long before anybody called it vintage.
That shirt helped inspire our new Central collection. It also sent us back into the story of a school whose name still means something around here.
A school at the center of the city
Central’s roots reach back to South Bend’s early public high school years. The familiar brick building on West Colfax Avenue was built in the early 1910s. Generations passed through its classrooms before the last high school class graduated in 1970.
Its importance went beyond school boundaries. IU South Bend’s African American Landmark Tour identifies Central as the city’s most racially integrated high school and notes that many of South Bend’s Black leaders were educated there. That is a major part of its legacy: students from different backgrounds sharing classrooms, activities, and teams while segregation still shaped opportunities elsewhere in the community.
Central also hosted evening classes that became Indiana University South Bend. The building served both teenagers starting out and people continuing their education. Its influence reached into the city’s working life as well as its school life.
1957: Thirty wins. No losses.
Central won boys basketball state championships in 1953 and 1957. The first came with a 42–41 victory over Terre Haute Gerstmeyer. Four years later, coach Elmer McCall’s Bears finished 30–0, beating Indianapolis Crispus Attucks 67–55 in the championship game.
This was Indiana’s single-class tournament. One state champion. Central’s unbeaten season put South Bend at the top of it.
The newspaper in the display case captures the moment with a headline announcing South Bend’s win over Attucks. Beside it are the faces, uniforms, and equipment that make an old score feel close again.
People who carried Central with them
Mike Warren, a 1964 Central graduate, became a two-time national champion at UCLA under John Wooden. He later reached a different audience as an actor on Hill Street Blues. Before either career, he was a Central Bear.
John Brademas, class of 1945, served 22 years in the U.S. House of Representatives and later became president of New York University. His work in education took a Central graduate from South Bend classrooms to national leadership.
Elijah Anderson, class of 1962, became a nationally recognized sociologist whose research examines urban life, race, and community.
Billy “Stix” Nicks carried Central’s story into music. The drummer earned his nickname while attending the school and went on to perform widely and teach generations of young musicians.
And then there is John Wooden. He was a Central teacher and coach, rather than an alumnus. He arrived in 1934, taught English, and coached basketball and baseball before his later college career. South Bend was an important stop on the road to his ten NCAA titles at UCLA.
More than a basketball school
Basketball gets much of the attention, but Central’s identity stretched across other sports and school activities. The old baseball illustration below has its own personality: a player reaching high, baggy uniform, striped socks, and SB across his chest. That drawing became the starting point for our Central baseball tee.
The building is still here
You can still find Central on West Colfax Avenue downtown. The former school was converted into 106 apartments in a redevelopment completed in 1995, and it remains in use today as Central High Apartments.
The conversion retained features of the old school, and the property still highlights details such as gymnasium hardwood floors and historic architectural elements. The building has a different daily purpose now, but South Bend did not lose it.
Bringing the old designs back
Our Central shirts draw from the details in these references: orange and navy, old athletic lettering, the familiar school marks, and artwork with a history behind it. Each of these three designs is printed on a Next Level 3600 tee.
South Bend Central Bears 1957 State Champions Tee
A tribute to the undefeated 1957 Bears, with the C and interlocking SB, a basketball hoop, and vintage championship lettering.
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South Bend Central Vintage Basketball Tee
Inspired by the number 12 shirt in the display case above, with the original-style oval and straightforward gym-shirt lettering.
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South Bend Central Vintage Baseball Tee
The old reaching-player illustration brought back in navy and orange, with Central and South Bend Baseball lettering.
Shop this tee →For alumni, these designs might bring back a face, a game, or a hallway. For younger South Bend families, they are a reason to ask about a school whose name they have heard but never attended.
Have a Central photo, an old shirt, or a story worth sharing? Send it our way. We would love to hear what Central meant to you or your family.
