No history of Indiana is complete without mention of the basketball team at Crispus Attucks High School, once the only high school for Black students in segregated Indianapolis.
For instance, how many schools do you know that belong to the National Register of Historic Places? Or connected to a museum? Attucks is.
Thus the 2025 Attucks Tigers upheld a tradition like no other — 70 years after Attucks became the first all-Black school in the nation to win a state title. That Oscar Robertson was a few thumbstrokes away brings it full circle in the Circle City.
“They built their own legacy,” said coach Chris Hawkins, who has exchanged texts with the Attucks great since last summer. “We felt like this team could really do something special.”
In the end, in the Class 3A boys state championship game March 29, the Tigers lost. They don’t have a first-place trophy. They don’t need hardware to accent hardship.
Other schools tried to recruit their players. They shared one gym with the girls program, freshmen and junior varsity. The boys often were at school from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., assembled at study tables after classes, so the girls could practice first. They lost their best player to injury at midseason, then trailed by 11 points to start the fourth quarter of their first postseason game.
So no apologies. Maybe one regret: Attucks’ 22-7 record was not 29-0.
“I feel if I hadn’t got hurt this year, we could have been undefeated, the group we had,” said Dezmon Briscoe, a 6-foot-9 center and one of the four finalists for Indiana’s Mr. Basketball.
Crispus Attucks ‘deeply personal to so many people’
Playing basketball at Attucks is, well, not like playing elsewhere in this state. Indeed, to be a student there is not like it is elsewhere.
Principal Lauren Franklin said teachers try to instill what the school has meant to Indiana and Indianapolis. It was built near Indiana Avenue, the business and cultural center of the city’s Black community, and opened in 1927. The red brick building occupies just two square blocks, requiring some sports teams to leave campus for practice and games.
Because of declining enrollment, Attucks was converted to a junior high in 1986 and a middle school in 1993. It reverted to a high school in 2006.
Franklin said the school is “deeply personal to so many people.” Her own parents met at Attucks, and all four grandparents attended there.
“You’re hard-pressed still, in 2025, to find Black folks in the city who don’t have some connection to Crispus Attucks,” she said. “Whether it’s ‘my grandmother went here, my great-grandmother went here, my uncle went here, my grandfather played with this person or played with that person.’”
Hawkins and Franklin credited alumni with coming out to support the Tigers, especially in the championship game at Gainbridge Fieldhouse, where South Bend Saint Joseph ended Attucks’ 12-game winning streak, 56-52.
“They’re incredibly invested in how our students perform and how the games go. And then academically as well,” Franklin said.
Attucks’ graduation rate is 97%, she said, compared with a statewide average of 90%. The school population is 58% Black, 35% Hispanic and 4% multiracial.
An unusual characteristic of this year’s basketball team is that it featured nine seniors. All nine will attend college on scholarship, according to Hawkins. They will be in Divisions I or II or III, NAIA or junior college.
“We try for excellence across the board. Not just in basketball,” Franklin said.
Crispus had ‘never-say-die attitude’
For Briscoe, this season was like an heirloom to be protected. His brother, Derrick, was on the Attucks team that beat Twin Lakes 73-71 for the 3A state championship in 2017.
That was Attucks’ first state championship since 1959. Except for Tech in 4A boys basketball in 2014, it was the first for Indianapolis Public Schools in any sport since Broad Ripple in boys basketball in 1980.
Hawkins’ second season as Attucks coach was in 2017. He remembers young Briscoe as a “fat, chunky, 2-liter Pepsi drinker.”
As the youngster grew, so did the attention. Briscoe said he had “a lot” of coaches try to lure him to other schools. He said his stepfather wanted him to go to North Central. But as early as fourth grade, Briscoe told people he would enroll at Attucks.
“I just knew it was going to be the best fit for me. You can see the legacy I had here,” he said.
Briscoe became such a local celebrity that when he stepped off the bus to play tennis for Attucks last fall, those on the other team recognized him and asked for autographs.
He was city player of the year as a sophomore and junior. As a senior, he averaged 15.8 points, 9.4 rebounds and 5.1 blocked shots in 19 games. He committed to Iowa before a coaching change, then switched to Kent State.
An ankle injury kept him out of four of Attucks’ losses, three to elite opponents: La Lumiere, a perennial prep school power; Fishers, the 4A state champion in 2024 and runner-up in 2025; Jeffersonville, the 4A state champion that ended Fishers’ 43-game winning streak.
Briscoe didn’t sulk or become detached. Hawkins said Briscoe sat by him on the bench and stayed engaged. Moreover, the Tigers continued to play with a chip on their shoulders, the coach said.
While they did not win a sectional in five seasons while in 4A, the pairing in 3A against Cathedral was daunting. Not only had Cathedral beaten Attucks 71-63 for the city championship, Cathedral was No. 2 behind Fishers in statewide computer rankings, irrespective of class.
Cathedral led 48-37 after three quarters in a sectional opener before a comeback sparked by Briscoe resulted in a 59-54 victory. He finished with 20 points.
“Our players had a never-say-die attitude, just stayed together,” Hawkins said.
Chris Hurt named city player of the year
After getting past Cathedral, the pathway to state became easier.
Attucks beat Shortridge 71-55 in the sectional, Northview 57-46 in the regional, No. 6 Princeton 61-55 and No. 3 New Palestine 67-49 in the semistate.
“With this group, it was real competitive,” Hawkins said. “There were no days off. The competitive juices, I think, helped this team grow in certain situations.”
Point guard Chris Hurt grew as much as anyone. He became city player of the year.
He was so quiet as a freshman, the coach implored him to talk more, on and off the court. The Tigers couldn’t get Hurt to attempt 3-pointers, either, and he shot 39% from the arc this season.
“Being able to open up, talk, really helped me,” he said.
Six seniors averaged five or more points per game: Briscoe, Hurt (14.1), Kayden English (9.8), Imon Cousins (8.1), Che Brownlow (7.9), Ronsione Thomas (5.7).
Hawkins said he pushed the 6-foot-4 Thomas, in particular, because of unrealized potential. Not only did Thomas “step up big in a lot of games,” the coach said, but this year finally recognized his role and trusted himself.
“I think I came a long way, for sure,” Thomas said.
Saying goodbye is hard
The downside to all this?
Not that the team didn’t win a state title, but that it can never be a team again. Not like this.
The players won’t congregate in a corner on the school’s second floor, doing what they do: joking, dancing, shadow boxing. When players are that close, Hawkins said, those coalesce into the best teams.
Losing a final game didn’t change any of that.
“Being there, on the big stage with them, being able to fight that last game together, it felt good,” Hurt said. “I didn’t really feel down. I did, but I also felt excited for us because we were able to compete all season, have fun with each other for our last year.”
Hawkins said he will miss the players’ togetherness. Said he will miss seeing them daily.
Briscoe said he will miss practices. Said he will miss everything. “We’re always winners around here.”
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David Woods is a Mirror Indy freelance contributor. You can reach him at dwoods1411@gmail.com. Follow him on X: @DavidWoods007.
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