Longtime Indianapolis Sportswriter Bill Benner Shares His Memories of George McGinnis
INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. — By incredible good fortune, I had somehow weasled my way into the sports department of The Indianapolis Star in 1968. I was 19 and attending the IU Extension campus (now IUPUI) during the day and working the sports desk at night, taking sports results over the phone and writing and editing two-paragraph “stories.”
But the executive sports editor at the time, Cy McBride, would toss me an occasional assignment outside the office. And so I found myself at an Indianapolis Washington High School football press conference in the fall of ‘68. And it was from there I got my first glimpse of this young man — emphasis on man — named George McGinnis.
He was playing tight end for the Continentals in a city championship game against parochial power Cathedral. And pardon the cliché, he was a man among boys. At that time, the fall of his senior year, he measured 6-foot-7 and weighed in around 220-plus.
Cathedral won the game, completing an unbeaten season. The Irish simply had the better team. But George won the spectacle, an individual presence on that field who stood out, literally and figuratively.
Then came basketball season. And then came George again, this time alongside Steve Downing, Louie Day, Wayne Pack, Jim Arnold and Coach Bill Green. They romped and stomped all the way to the greatest State Finals in Indiana high school basketball history: unbeaten Washington, unbeaten Marion, unbeaten Vincennes and once-beaten (though to a Chicago team) Gary Tolleston.
The Continentals edged Marion in the afternoon — George was, of course, dominant, but is also remembered for a foul he received in the scorebook that was supposed to be Downing’s fifth on the floor — and then came back that night to beat Tolleston in the title game. In the final four wins leading to the championship, McGinnis averaged 37 points a game.
Playing with a chip on his shoulder, George McGinnis scored 53 points and grabbed 30 rebounds during an Indiana-Kentucky high school All-Star Game. (USA TODAY Sports)
I, like so many, was captivated by his ability, his strength, his agility and his shooting. He was the complete package and soon to be, without question, Indiana’s Mr. Basketball.
Which led to the next McGinnis memory. In the Indiana-Kentucky All-Star series, McGinnis shot poorly but Indiana won the opening game at Hinkle Fieldhouse in Indianapolis. Afterward, a Kentucky player said he thought McGinnis was overrated.
Well …
The next week, McGinnis merely put in the most outstanding performance in the history of the series: 53 points, 30 rebounds and, oh, he blew out one of his Converse basketball shoes in the second half.
Overrated, indeed.
Two years later, I was now attending IU on the Bloomington campus. McGinnis and Downing now were on the Indiana roster. The Star used me as a “stringer,” and so I was again fortunate to do some sidebars on Hoosiers games and witness in person his prowess in leading the Big Ten in rebounding and scoring.
Because of the accidental death of his father, Burnie, George decided to turn professional after that one year and join the hometown ABA Indiana Pacers. There always has been speculation about McGinnis’s ability to play for Bob Knight, who came to IU the year after George’s departure. I’ve always believed that George would have prospered under Knight and surely — had he stayed as Downing did — Indiana would have won that NCAA title in 1973 when it lost to UCLA in the Final Four.
But it’s a moot point: George did what George believed he had to do for his mother Willie, and sister Bonnie.
Of course, he immediately rose to stardom under Bobby “Slick” Leonard and the Pacers, who already had won one ABA title. The Pacers won two more championships in the next three years and, in doing so, created the momentum and public sentiment for the construction of a downtown venue that would become Market Square Arena.
Yes, you could say, it was the house that George built. Or at least helped erect the pillars. And I was again fortunate to be designated as the Pacers’ beat writer, which enabled me to personally witness McGinnis’ night-in, night-out brilliance.
He was co-MVP (with Julius Erving) and nearly led the Pacers to another ABA title. It was a season to remember. Sadly, though, it was not a season to be repeated. A bidding war ensued and the Pacers, hardly flush with cash, could not match the money offered McGinnis by the NBA's Philadelphia 76ers. And so, our hometown hero was gone.
I was personally disheartened and, admittedly, professionally critical of the decision. But his motive was pure: he did what he believed was best for his family.
George McGinnis won two ABA championships with his hometown Indiana Pacers. (USA TODAY Sports)
McGinnis, though, would return to Indy. He achieved All-Star status both with the 76ers and Denver Nuggets, but by the time he returned to the Pacers, he was coming off an Achilles injury and was not the same George McGinnis. He retired in 1982.
The good news is that, his playing career over, I began to know George McGinnis the person. I came to know an incredibly kind man and one who was generous – and literally generous to a fault. I came to know the George McGinnis who would marry his high school sweetheart, Lynda. I came to know George McGinnis the businessman, who started and guided to success his own company, GM Supply. I came to know the George McGinnis who was incredibly loyal to his friends and, especially, his former teammates.
And I came to know the George McGinnis who dealt so admirably with his own adversity: severe back issues that surgeries and therapies could not repair, and that left this once-stalwart man stooped over; and the passing of his wife, Lynda, after a protracted battle with cancer.
George McGinnis with his wife, Lynda. (USA TODAY Sports)
Through it all, George maintained this marvelous demeanor and the ability to make others feel that they were far more special than him. I would occasionally run into him as he enjoyed cheeseburgers and chatter with his former teammates at the Workingman’s Friend, a pub on Indy’s westside not far from Washington High. We would hug and high-five. I will never forget those embraces with the man that he is, and not the basketball star he once was.
It was with great honor and pleasure that in my last professional role in corporate and community relations with Pacers Sports & Entertainment that I helped facilitate travel and logistics for his 2017 induction into the Naismith Memorial Hall of Fame.
George embraced that enshrinement with grace and class, ever the gentlemen, ever the ultimate representative of his parents, his wife, his friends, his coaches and yes …
... of Indiana basketball.
Related stories on George McGinnis
- GEORGE McGINNIS DIES: George McGinnis had one of the best single seasons in Indiana program history before enjoying a Hall of Fame career in the ABA and NBA. Most recently, he was inducted into the Indiana Athletics Hall of Fame in 2023. CLICK HERE
