PENDLETON – Katie Hupfer (nee Hannold) grew up here in Pendleton, about two blocks from downtown, four blocks from schools, and five blocks from parks. Next door to her was a house with an empty lawn perfect for playing baseball, kickball, etc.
“As long as you keep mowing the lawn and keeping the grass down, you can still play sports,” she said.
There were 15-18 neighborhood kids joining Katie and her sibling mix (4 sisters and 2 brothers). Virgil Mabry, a graduate who is the same age as Katie, once told her oldest son, Kyle Hupfer, that his mother could throw harder and run faster than any of the boys. “Your mom probably did whatever she wanted in sports,” Mabry told him.
Mabry knew too. He was the basketball team's top scorer as a senior at Pendleton University. But for Katie, growing up in the 1950s and early '60s, there were few opportunities for girls to pursue sports. In high school, like other girls her age, she was limited to the athletic opportunities offered through the Girls' Athletic Association (GAA). It was better than doing nothing.
But not so much.
This was a decade before the U.S. Congress enacted Title IX, which ensures that federally funded educational institutions provide equal opportunities for men and women. Katie played her old-fashioned game of 6-on-6 basketball, which was popular in Iowa until the 1990s.
“They thought the girls were too fragile,” Katie said. “So before, all the girls didn't run up and down the court. There were two rovers at one end, two at the other end, and two rovers. Since then, basketball You can see how it has evolved and come a long way.”
Hupfer, 78, has always had a front-row seat. The 2024 IndyStar Mother's Day “Sports Mom of the Year” follows her four children, and now her grandchildren, “I want to know how many miles,” says daughter Angie Bosnak said, and traveled thousands of miles. These kids and their teammates know her as “Mee Maw” because she always gets her Rice Krispie treats on time.
However, Meemaw is not a kind person. Her husband Clarence calls her “her old school.” When it came to sports, she expected her children to have their own battles. She wanted her children to overcome their own struggles without parental intervention. One time her oldest son, Kyle, came home from a game and said, “Well, tonight was a disaster.” What was his mother's reaction? “Yes, that's right.”
“I think one of the mistakes that parents sometimes make is trying to make everything go smoothly for their kids,” Katie said. “I think it's good for kids to have things go wrong and have to face that. … It's all part of life. Things don't always go the way you want them to.”
Katie lost her father Fred in 1972 at the age of 53. One of his favorite pastimes was going to basketball games on Friday nights. His sons, Phil and Fred, were both outstanding athletes and went on to play basketball and track at Indiana Central University.
“He had a fancy radio so he could tune in to every game when his brothers played,” Katie said. “He wasn't going to miss any games. He would have loved to be here when my kids were playing.”
Katie also graduated from Indiana Central University in 1968. Her mother, Ruth, was an elementary school teacher in Pendleton from 1951 to 1982, and six of her seven children, including Katie, earned degrees in education. She taught math and physical education at Beech Grove as her first job after graduating college, but then she stepped back from her teaching career to raise her children.
Clarence got Kyle started playing basketball at an early age at Anderson, where he played in the Wilson's Boys Club league. One day, when Katie took Kyle to Anderson for practice, longtime coach Willie Turner asked Katie if she would enroll girls as well. Megan was in 6th grade and Angie was in 2nd grade.
“He looked at Megan and said, 'What about her?'” Katie recalled. “I said, 'What about her?' She was playing with 'Y' balls and stuff, and he said, 'You need to register her.' We didn't have that available, so we had to completely change the way we thought about women's sports and girls playing sports. It was almost by accident that we got her into it. ”
It might be a coincidence. But it's a wise move. Kyle, who went 6-7, averaged 26.5 points per game as a senior at Pendleton Heights in 1990-91. He signed with North Carolina Greensboro and moved to Manchester after one season to play under Steve Alford. Hupfer scored 1,152 points for Manchester, which led to a 33-1 record and a Division III national championship appearance in 1994-1995.
“My mom was never spoiled, she was always very encouraging,” Kyle said. Kyle later became a lawyer, business owner, and former state Republican Party chairman. “The coaches were always right. I think her mom was too, and that's where she took it from. But even though my daughter had access to training and dribbling and different things from an early age, I didn't start doing that until much later. She encouraged me when my time came, and that's what happened to me. I was on the “B” team in middle school. By his senior year of high school, he had become one of the top players. ”
Megan was just one year behind Kyle in school. Katie noticed that she didn't have the concession stand open at the high school girls game. “I went to (the administration) and said, 'I want to pitch my interests,'” she said. “They said, 'If you're going to do it, you've got to clean the gym.'
For eight years, Katie bought the rights to sell at the women's game. At the time, the Hupfer family lived across the street from the school.
“I'm going to take over all the concessions and set them up,” she said. “Other parents pitched in, too. After the game, the dads took brooms and stuff and cleaned the gymnasium. It's hard to imagine that now. But someone took that step. We need to step up and work hard to make it easier for the next group to come in.”
Angie recalled going to Sam's Club to buy candy bars and cokes to fill the concession stand. After packing everything after a volleyball game, she jumps into a minivan and ends up hitting her shin with the car. She looked down at her bleeding leg and said to her mother, “I think it's time to go to the hospital.” But first things first.
“We need to lift these concessions,” Angie recalled her mother replying.
By her senior year, Megan was one of the best players in the state. Megan, 5-11, averaged 21.7 points and 12.0 rebounds and became the first Pendleton Heights player to be named an Indiana All-Star. She set school records for career points (1,074), rebounds (638) and single game points (38 points).
“There was a healthy competition between my siblings at home,” said Megan McCloskey, who lives in Newport, Kentucky. I believed it would happen,” he said. If there was a problem with a coach, they wanted us to step in and deal with it and take responsibility for ourselves. ”
After Megan graduated from high school, it was the culmination of a divide and conquer for Clarence and Katie. Megan played four years of college basketball at Morehead State University in Kentucky, where she earned all-conference honors and had career averages of 13.6 points and 7.5 rebounds (she led the school with 1,444 points and 10 rebounds). (ranked 12th on the all-time scoring list)th .792 in rebounds).
By 1995, Kyle was a senior at Manchester University and Megan was a junior at Morehead State University. Angie was already a star as a senior at Pendleton Heights, and her youngest son, Ryan, was a freshman in high school. But through all the trips and trips, it was also a special time for Katie, often accompanied by her mother Ruth, who passed away in 2011 at the age of 95.
“Whatever comes to mind, she'll do it,” Katie said. “I remember driving with her through the fog that rose from Kentucky. She ate where you ate and stayed where you stayed. She never criticized anything. No matter what came to mind, she would fly there in 1995 when Kyle went to the national championships, as do my grandchildren now. I feel like I learned from her how to deal with things, not just in sports but in life. She's always been a good example for me.”
Angie is probably the biggest star of her four children in the basketball world, but Ryan is her “favorite,” she said. She was the team's Most Valuable Player throughout her four seasons at Pendleton Heights and led the program to her first three sectional titles in single class tournaments in 1994, 1995 and 1996. led to. She broke her older sister's all-time scoring record with 1,455 points and 798 rebounds in her career.
The 5-11 Angie played at St. Joseph's University, where she scored 2,510 career points and led the nation as a junior with an average of 30.6 points.
“Now that I have children of my own, I understand all the support my mother gave us,” said Bosnak, who has three children and lives in Greencastle. “Dad too. But her mother mainly drove us and made sure we went everywhere. I understand better the time and effort she put into everything. .”
The 6-7 Ryan was also a standout basketball player at Pendleton Heights, averaging 19.9 points as a senior in 1997-1998 before playing at the University of Indianapolis, where he was named Scholar Athlete of the Year for the first time. He became the player selected. His photo is displayed in Nicoson Hall by the Great Lakes Valley Conference.
The sports genes were passed down to his grandchildren. Megan's oldest daughter, Madison, was a top high school athlete at Newport Central Catholic and was a four-year scholarship student at Division II Ashland University (Ohio). Her younger sister, Riley McCloskey, won a state championship in 2022 as a junior at Notre Dame Academy (Kentucky) and was runner-up last fall. She is a University of Memphis commitment. Mason McCloskey played football and soccer for four years at Newport Central Catholic, where she plans to graduate this year. He plans to play football on scholarship at Division II St. Thomas More (Kentucky). And Riley's twin, Reece McCloskey, also a three-sport athlete, is also likely a collegiate athlete and a member of the National Honor Society.
Closer to home, Kyle's daughter Ada is a 6-3 freshman who averaged 10.6 points and 11.3 rebounds this season. She received her first Division I offer from IU Indianapolis late last month.
“I always stressed to my kids that they were lucky to be able to play,” Katie said. “I called it their 'day in the sun.' There are a lot of people who don't get anything.”
That includes Katie. More than a decade after her high school graduation, Judy Warren led Warsaw to its first girls basketball state championship and was named Miss Basketball. From her children's generation to her grandchildren's, those opportunities will only increase. But what she was most proud of was what her children were able to do after athletics. All four children excel academically and have successful careers.
“I think the important thing is to have expectations,” Katie said. “So many people worry about keeping their kids happy instead of having expectations of what they should do. They can't put a value on playing sports. …But , you can see that the way they deal with life situations comes from teamwork and fulfilling their duties.”
Colestar reporter Kyle Neddenlieb (317) 444-6649.
