State champion coach and former Wayne prep standout part of 62nd induction class
Al Gooden, a longtime fixture of basketball across the Hoosier State, has been elected to the Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame.
Gooden is one of 17 men chosen as part of the Class of 2024, the hall announced November 28. Induction is scheduled for Wednesday, March 20, 2024.
Gooden was a standout basketball player at Wayne High School, helping the Generals to an outright Summit Athletic Conference championship as a junior and back-to-back sectional titles as a junior and senior. He earned All-SAC and honorable mention All-State honors in his final two seasons with the Generals.
Gooden played college basketball at Ball State University. Gooden averaged 10.1 points and 4.5 rebounds per game in his BSU career, earning 2nd Team All-Mid American Conference recognition twice. Gooden still owns the Ball State records for single season field goal percentage (60.6) for career field goal percentage (58.0). Gooden led the Cardinals to their first MAC regular season championship, their first MAC Tournament championship, and first berth in the NCAA Tournament in 1981.
Gooden’s coaching career spanned more than 40 years in Allen and Marion counties. He won 523 games in 35 seasons as a head coach at Heritage, Harding, New Haven and Indianapolis Lawrence Central. Most of those victories—321—came at Harding, where Gooden coached the Hawks to four SAC championships, ten sectional titles, six regional titles, five semi-state titles, and a state championship in 2001.
Harding Hawks win 2001 IHSAA 2A Boys Basketball State Championship
(courtesy IHSAA)
When Harding closed, he moved to New Haven, winning another 54 games and a sectional title in 2013.
Gooden then took over at Lawrence Central in 2015, winning 133 games and a sectional title. He retired at the end of the last season.
Gooden’s first head coaching job came at Heritage, where he was the first black coach in the Allen County Athletic Conference. He won 17 games in two seasons with the Patriots.
Prior to that, Gooden spent six seasons as an assistant coach at Wayne and Elmhurst, and Harding (where he added another sectional title in 1985).
Gooden joined the Ball State Athletics Hall of Fame in 1991 and the Wayne Athletics Hall of Fame in 2016.
The 62nd men’s induction class will be honored with a reception on the afternoon of March 20 at the Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame Museum in New Castle, followed by a banquet that evening at Primo Banquet Hall in Indianapolis. To see all the inductees and their bios, click here.