Hammel: The Leonard Rocket Was Launched Right Here

Special to IUHoosiers.com

In the magnificent 2013 documentary Bobby Leonard: Heart of a Hoosier, Ted Green tied together the many colorful phases of the basketball life of William Robert Leonard, who died at 88 Tuesday. That was Green's job, and he did it professionally, passionately, and well.

The Bobby Leonard of Indiana University basketball legendry will always be remembered differently by senior members of that long-memoried group called "Hoosier Nation" – a group aware of, and proud of, the kid whose first basketball stardom came under a colorful coach named Howard Sharpe at Terre Haute Gerstmeyer … who made his mark as a solid pro in the NBA, upped his fame as the most flamboyant and…