Bruce Dockery on Indiana Basketball HOF induction: 'It's really hard to put into words'

EVANSVILLE — Bruce Dockery had an illustrious tenure coaching girls basketball at Memorial High School.

He spent his entire 31-year varsity career with the Tigers, compiling 502 wins, eight Southern Indiana Athletic Conference crowns, 14 sectional titles, six regionals and the 2011 Class 3A state championship. When he retired in 2019, he had the sixth-most wins of any high school girls coach in state history.

Dockery, 71, can now one more accomplishment — the big one — to his coaching résumé: Indiana Basketball Hall of Famer. He's excited to be one of nine members in this year's Women's Induction Class, as well as the first inductee from Memorial. The ceremony is Saturday in New Castle.

"It's really hard to put into words," Dockery said. "I did what I loved for 31 years, and to be rewarded like this has been mind-blowing."

Dockery, 1969 graduate of Bosse High School, has already been inducted into the Memorial Hall of Fame in 2020 and, in 2021, he was honored with the Hoosier Basketball Coaches Association Hall of Excellence Award.

There are certainly many notable names in the Indiana Hall of Fame: Larry Bird, Bobby Knight and Gregg Popovich are a few that ring a bell. Dockery, however, is more looking forward to joining the friends he met through high school coaching.

"To achieve the same honor that they did is second to none," Dockery said. "You try not to look at the whole picture. You try to narrow it down a little bit. Otherwise, it would really be overwhelming."

Memorial head coach Bruce Dockery celebrates after the team's 58-50 overtime win over Benton Central during the Class 3A girls' basketball state championship game at the Allen County War Memorial Coliseum in Fort Wayne, Ind., on Saturday, March 5, 2011.
Memorial head coach Bruce Dockery celebrates after the team's 58-50 overtime win over Benton Central during the Class 3A girls' basketball state championship game at the Allen County War Memorial Coliseum in Fort Wayne, Ind., on Saturday, March 5, 2011.

Dockery attended Charleston Southern for a year and a half before completing his college degree at the University of Southern Indiana in 1978. That year, he was a student teacher at Plaza Park when the principal wanted him to help out with the junior high girls' team. His love for coaching took off from there.

He also started the first girls' AAU program in Evansville before taking over at Memorial for the 1987-88 season. The program he inherited was already rising after winning its second sectional title the year before he arrived. Dockery still took the program — and the local girls basketball landscape in general — to much greater heights.

He especially has fond memories of the state championship season. Memorial was riding high after defeating top-ranked Carmel in a tournament over Christmas break. But the Tigers ran out of gas later that day against Brownsburg.

Memorial Head Coach Bruce Dockery talks with Ryleigh Anslinger (20) as the Gibson Southern Titans play the Memorial Tigers for the Class 3A Sectional Championship in Fort Branch Saturday, February 2, 2019.
Memorial Head Coach Bruce Dockery talks with Ryleigh Anslinger (20) as the Gibson Southern Titans play the Memorial Tigers for the Class 3A Sectional Championship in Fort Branch Saturday, February 2, 2019.

The loss was Memorial's first and only that season on its way to a 58-50 overtime victory over Benton Central in the 3A title game at Allen County War Memorial Coliseum in Fort Wayne. That was despite Dockery undergoing an emergency appendectomy earlier in the week. His seniors redeemed themselves after losing in the semistate the previous season.

"For us to come back and make that accomplishment, it was really cool," Dockery said.

He also led Memorial to a 3A state runner-up finish in 2006 and had two stints as the school’s athletics director. But more than winning basketball games, Dockery enjoyed coaching his players. He didn't know how he was on the "right side of the moon" to have high-caliber, blue-chip-type players like Jill Hartman, Kate Endress, FahKara Malone, Mallory Ladd, Emily Sullivan and more.

"It just went on and on," Dockery said. "That's probably the biggest highlight of my career was to know that I coached players of that caliber."

Memorial Head Coach Bruce Dockery talks to his team before the start as the Gibson Southern Titans play the Memorial Tigers for the Class 3A Sectional Championship in Fort Branch Saturday, February 2, 2019.
Memorial Head Coach Bruce Dockery talks to his team before the start as the Gibson Southern Titans play the Memorial Tigers for the Class 3A Sectional Championship in Fort Branch Saturday, February 2, 2019.

The winning foundation Dockery built up for the Tigers remains intact. His successor, Lee Auker, has been with the program since 2012 and guided them to an 86-16 record over these last four years. They've won three more sectional championships and went 25-2 this past winter.

Dockery is looking forward to having Auker and his wife, Monica, celebrate with him this weekend in addition to his family. It's the cherry on top of a great career.

"There will be several coaches there that are involved in the Hall of Fame that are good friends that I look forward to seeing," Dockery said.

Courier & Press sports reporter Treasure Washington can be reached via her email, treasure.washington@courierpress.com, and on Twitter @Twashington490.

This article originally appeared on Evansville Courier & Press: Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame: Evansville Memorial's Bruce Dockery