Two high-profile coaches — Indiana State’s Matthew Graves and Sullivan High School’s Jeff Moore — are headed for induction into the Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame, but both began their resumés as standout players.
Graves and Moore are among the 18 members of the Hall’s men’s class of 2025, announced Tuesday morning by the shrine located in New Castle. The group also includes two Indiana Mr. Basketball winners, Bryce Drew of Valparaiso in 1994 and Troy Lewis of Anderson in 1984, as well as eight other players, seven coaches and one administrator, Greg Humnicky of South Bend, who will receive the Indiana Pacers/Indiana Fever Silver Medal for contributions other than as a player or coach.
The Hall’s 63rd induction class will be honored with ceremonies scheduled for Wednesday, March 19, 2025, a news release stated.
“I am truly honored and grateful to be selected to the Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame,” Graves said Tuesday afternoon. “The game of basketball has given me so much and to be recognized in this fashion is a dream come true. I am so appreciative of everyone who has helped put me in a position to be inducted into the Hall of Fame.”
Graves scored 1,804 career points in four seasons at Switz City and then White River Valley high schools, leading his teams to three sectional titles and two regional crowns during high school. He was a 1993 Indiana All-Star. Graves then played parts of five seasons at Butler University, where he and the Bulldogs advanced to the 1997 and 1998 NCAA Tournaments.
Moore was a two-year starter at Scottsburg High School, where the 1979 graduate averaged 16.8 points per game as a senior. He helped lead his teams to records of 22-5 and 18-8, with both winning a sectional and a regional. Moore later played briefly at Averett College (Va.) and Lees Junior College (Ky.), before graduating from Indiana University Southeast.
Of course, Graves and Moore continued their basketball endeavors through the coaching ranks.
Graves twice has served as a NCAA Division I head coach — at South Alabama, where he compiled a 65-96 record from 2013-2018; and now in his first season atop the Indiana State program, where his Sycamores are on a 3-3 start. Graves also has served as an assistant coach at Butler, Evansville and Xavier, and in the high school ranks at Indianapolis North Central and Ben Davis.
Moore has spent his entire coaching career at Sullivan, where he entered the 2024-25 season with a 531-286 career record. That’s a .650 winning percentage in 34 years of leading the Golden Arrows varsity. Moore’s SHS teams have won 13 conference championships, 11 sectionals (1991, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2003, 2010, 2011, 2021, 2022, 2024) and four regionals (1998, 1999, 2001, 2022).
Moore sees the Hall honor as “very humbling, as you can guess.”
“No coach receives an honor like this unless he has surrounded himself with great people,” Moore told the Tribune-Star on Tuesday morning. “I have a list that would be very long. School board members, Administrators, assistant coaches, players, and parents that have worked in my Feeder programs over the years. I greatly appreciate the support and hard work I have received from these groups. The basketball program has been community built.
“I have been blessed to have spent my entire varsity career at Sullivan High School,” he added.
In addition to Graves, Moore, Drew, Lewis and Humnicky, the other inductees include Don Chambers (Smithville, 1920), Wilbur Cummins (Frankfort, 1925), Ron Hecklinski (South Bend St. Joseph’s, 1974), Scott Hicks (Cathedral, 1983), Dan Howe (Fort Wayne South Side, 1958), Erv Inniger (Berne, 1963), LeRoy Johnson (Mishawaka, 1957), Floyd Kerr (South Bend Washington, 1965), Lloyd Kerr (South Bend Washington 1965), Dave McCullough (LaVille, 1975), Jim Shannon (Anderson, 1978), Daryl Warren (Linden, 1971) and Jake Weber (Plainfield, 1937).
Chambers, Cummins, Howe, the Kerrs, and Weber are deceased, the Hall announcement stated.
Chambers, who earned a master’s degree from Indiana State in 1952, was chosen for the Centennial Award, which honors an inductee who graduated high school 100 years or more ago. The Paoli Junior/Senior High School gymnasium was named the D.E. “Swede” Chambers Gymnasium on Feb. 6, 1976, in his honor.
Hall of Fame bios
• Matthew Graves totaled 1,804 career points while leading White River Valley to three sectional titles and two regional crowns during high school. A 1993 Indiana All-Star, Graves averaged 16.0 points (354), 3.8 rebounds and 4.3 assists as a freshman at Switz City Central in the final year before the school consolidated with L&M and Worthington into White River Valley. He then netted 15.8 points (411), 3.2 rebounds and 3.5 assists for a sectional winner as a sophomore, 20.5 points (535), 5.4 rebounds and 4.2 assists for a regional winner as a junior and 20.2 points (504), 5.4 rebounds and 3.9 assists for another regional winner as a senior. He was voted 1993 AP first-team All-State after being selected 1992 AP high honorable mention All-State and 1991 AP honorable mention All-State. He also was all-tournament in the Hall of Fame Classic in December 1992. Graves matriculated to Butler University, averaging 8.8 points and 1.7 rebounds with a career 84.6 free throw percentage over five seasons (playing just six games in 1994-95 because of injury). He averaged 9.9 points as junior and 12.0 points and was Midwestern College Conference all-tournament as senior as the Bulldogs qualified for the 1997 and 1998 NCAA Tournaments. Graves began a coaching career in 1998-99 at Indianapolis North Central, which was the 1999 Class 4A state champion. He assisted the next two seasons at Ben Davis before returning to Butler for 12 years, 2001-03 as director of basketball operations and 2003-13 as an assistant (or associate head) coach. On the sidelines, he helped the Bulldogs earn seven NCAA Tournament berths and national runner-up finishes in 2010 and 2011. Graves went 65-96 in five seasons as head coach at the University of South Alabama. He then was an assistant coach for one season at the University of Evansville, two seasons at Xavier University and three seasons at Indiana State before being named this past April as the Indiana State head coach for 2024-25.
• Jeff Moore enters the 2024-25 campaign with a 531-286 ledger and a .650 win percentage in 34 seasons at Sullivan, the only school where he has been a varsity coach. During his time with the Golden Arrows, his teams have won 13 conference titles, 11 sectional trophies (1991, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2003, 2010, 2011, 2021, 2022, 2024)and four regional crowns (1998, 1999, 2001, 2022). He has been selected conference Coach of the Year 13 times, the Terre Haute Tribune-Star area Coach of the Year four times and was the 2021 IBCA District 3 Coach of the Year. He was an Indiana All-Star assistant coach in 2011 and coached the South team in the 2014 North/South Indiana All-Star Classic. His teams have produced eight 1,000-point scorers, including 2022 graduate Randy Kelly (1,687), 2012 graduate Rhett Smith (1,534), 1999 graduate Joey Davidson (1,274) and his son, 2004 graduate Jeffrey Moore (1,133). The coach is a 1979 graduate of Scottsburg, where he was a two-year varsity starter for teams that went 22-5 and 18-8 and both won sectional and regional. He averaged 16.8 points, was named all-Mid-Southern Conference and won team free throw and J.A. Mohler awards as a senior. He played briefly at Averett College in Virginia and later at Lees Junior College in Jackson, Ky. Moore completed his bachelor’s degree in 1986 at Indiana University-Southeast. He started his career in coaching as a student-teacher at Seymour, guiding the Owls’ freshman team to a 9-1 mark in 1985-86. He then directed the Brownstown Central JV to a 52-28 record from 1986-90 before moving to Sullivan. Moore enters 2024-25, his 35th season as a varsity coach, as Indiana’s 32nd all-time winningest coach.
