CHARLOTTESVILLE — A lot has changed in the game of basketball over the past 45 years, but some of the names remain the same at Eastern Hancock High School.
When the Royals take the floor at Knightstown High School for their Sectional 42 semifinal game Friday against No. 2 Shenandoah, a Gray and an O’Neal will be prominent players for the Royal Blue and White.
In 1974, a 6-foot, 6-inch senior center named Bud Gray and 6-1 sophomore Richard O’Neal led the Royals to, what was then, the school’s second sectional championship and first in six years. The Royals first crown came in 1968 and they have added sectional titles in 1981, 2003 and 2008. The 2003 team, under current coach Aaron Spaulding, went to the Final Four.
The 2019 version boasts 6-foot-7 Peyton Gray, Bud Gray’s son, and sharpshooting 5-foot-10 freshman guard Landon O’Neal, the grandson of Richard.
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“It’s kind of the same because that was my grandpa’s first year on varsity,” Landon O’Neal said. “Back then, freshmen didn’t play on varsity. He said Peyton’s dad was a big mentor for him and Peyton has been a big influence on me and how to adapt to the changes of playing varsity.”
In 1974, in front of 9,000 fans at Chrysler Fieldhouse in New Castle, the Royals upset the home team in the sectional championship game. Richard O’Neal had a key bucket late in the 63-62 win and Bud Gray was the dominant player in a head-to-head battle with the Trojans’ 6-9 Terry Ross, who went on to play at the University of Dayton.
“Bud completely outplayed him,” Richard O’Neal recalled.
Peyton Gray wears No. 43, the same number his dad wore. It has been his number of choice since it was made available in seventh grade. It’s not the only similarity in dad and son’s Royals career. Bud was a junior varsity player from his freshman to junior year. His senior season was his only year on varsity.
He averaged 19.8 points and 9.6 rebounds and was named the Daily Reporter Hancock County Player of the Year.
Peyton calls himself a late bloomer, too.
“I was on JV just my freshman year and he didn’t develop until his senior year,” Peyton Gray said. “That’s what I’ve experienced. I averaged four points my junior year and sat out half the season as a sophomore because I broke my hand.”
In 1974, Bud Gray led in scoring and Richard O’Neal was close behind, averaging 13 points and 4.4 rebounds. He joined Gray on the 1974 All-County team.
In 2019, Gray and O’Neal are the leading scorers again. Gray tops the Royals at 12.3 points per game and O’Neal averages 11.7.
While the path and game are similar for the Grays, there is a little different game-style when it comes to the O’Neals.
The elder O’Neal played a little more around the basket. Richard said he’d step out and shoot a 15-footer now and then, but most of his work was underneath. That’s not the case for Landon, who hit a school-record nine 3-pointers in a recent win against Union (Modoc). In that game, the Royals set a team record with 21 3-pointers.
“We’re completely different players,” Richard O’Neal admitted. “Ryan (Landon’s father, who started for the Royals and graduated in 1995) could hit pretty good from the outside. Landon is a shooter, you give him some room he has a good chance of hitting.
“He was unconscious that night (against Union). One year at Waldron, with a six-minute running clock, he had 29 at halftime.”
The O’Neal’s are quite a basketball family. Richard and his father, Gene "Tink" O’Neal, are Hancock County’s only father-son combo to be in the 1,000-point club. Gene scored 1,000 points for then-Eden High School in 1945. Richard graduated in 1976 with 1,100 points. He’s hoping Landon will continue to grow as a player and join them in a couple years.
"Basketball is everything to us," Landon said.
Bud Gray and Richard O’Neal enjoy reminiscing the past. They have a lot of great memories, the big upset of New Castle and the excitement it brought with the small town school knocking off one of the big boys of Indiana high school basketball. Even more than the old stories, they like talking about the Royals of the present — especially their son and grandson.
“It’s been pretty exciting and fun to watch,” Bud Gray said. “It was fun then, but it is more exciting now to watch my son play.”
Richard O’Neal said there’s not much more to say about 1974; the stories have been told and the memories will be there forever. Now, he’s savoring the new memories created by watching Landon and the current Royals.
“With this team, every game has been exciting,” Richard O’Neal said. “You look at this team and there’s freshmen, sophomores, juniors and seniors. Last year’s team was mostly seniors, so they came in with inexperience and youth. They have had to learn as they go. I can see improvement from the first game to now late in the season."
The youngsters would love to create some of those same 1974 memories. Then, it was small school vs. big school in the pre-class basketball era. Now, though the enrollments are similar in Class 2A, there is no doubt Friday’s opponent, Shenandoah, is one of the classification big boys.
The Raiders are two-time defending sectional champions and own a 22-1 record. Their lone loss is to a Hancock County school, Class 4A New Palestine. They have won 16 in a row, including a Feb. 19 triumph against the Royals.
“We played with them all but eight minutes,” Landon O’Neal said.
The Royals trailed just 25-20 at the half, but the Raiders exploded for a 22-2 advantage in the third.
“Your goal coming in every season is winning the sectional,” Peyton Gray said.
Peyton is reminded every day of the successful teams in the past. He has a photo of the 1974 championship team in his bedroom. Plus, he and his teammates see the photos in the gym and the athletic offices that celebrate Eastern Hancock’s championship teams.
“It’s pretty neat,” Peyton Gray said. “I have those pictures and it’s pretty neat to see that 1974 sectional banner in the gym. It’s incredible thinking my dad was a part of one of those times that Eastern Hancock has won a sectional. I hope to make it another time and they can put 2018-19 up there, too.”
