13 Nov HU Names Gym after Steve Platt

On November 10, the Merillat Complex gymnasium at Huntington University got a new name: Platt Arena. The christening honors Steve Platt, a Forester basketball legend.

After a storied career at 79-student Union Township school outside of Huntington, Platt took five years off to focus on farming and raising his young family, playing hoops only in industrial and church leagues. But then Huntington University coach Keith Spahr persuaded the 6-foot-5 Platt to give college ball a try.

Highlights from Platt’s basketball career:

• Platt was a four-time All-District Player of the Year.
• He led the entire nation in scoring two years in a row: in 1973 (36 points per game) and in 1974 (38 points per game)
• He and was featured in Sports Illustrated magazine (the article describes our denomination as the “United Brethren of Christ”).
• He was an NAIA All-American, and was inducted into the NAIA Hall of Fame in 1987.
• He remains Indiana’s all-time collegiate leader in scoring, with a career total of 3700 points, placing him seventh on the all-time list of collegiate scorers at any level (including NCAA Division I).
• He was drafted by the NBA’s Washington Bullets during the Elvin Hayes era, and was the last person cut from the team in the fall of 1974 (Washington reached the NBA finals 3 of the next 5 years).
• Platt was inducted into the Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame in 1996.
• He was recognized by Fort Wayne’s News-Sentinel newspaper as one of Northeast Indiana’s Top 50 Athletes of the Century.

Platt later returned to coach the men’s basketball team, leading the Foresters to 329 wins, including a runner-up finish at the 2006 NAIA Division II National Tournament.