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The Butcher and The Bird

On January 29 of 1974, Indiana basketball greats Jack Butcher and Larry Bird played what is remembered as one of the greatest regular season games in Indiana basketball history

On a late-January day in southwest Indiana, Jack Butcher and his Loogootee Lions boarded their team bus.

The bus was bound for one of Loogootee's chief rivals, Springs Valley High School, a conference foe with a starting forward who with each passing game was solidifying his place in Indiana mythos: Larry Bird.

In the previous three meetings between the teams, Jack Butcher's group had fared well against Jim Jones' team.