Throwback Thursday: Larry Bird Springs Valley High School highlights

You've undoubtedly seen footage from Larry Bird's National Championship match-up with Magic Johnson, but typically that's the extent of pre-NBA Larry Bird footage that is shown. We recently posted Larry's other Final 4 game from that 1979 college season and today we have some footage from Larry's high school days at Springs Valley High School in French Lick Indiana.

The footage of Larry in games looks like something from a 1930's Charlie Chaplin movie, but it works just the same. Larry's late growth spurt is probably one of the reasons he's such a great passer. I remember reading in the classic David Halberstam book "The Breaks of the Game" that one of the reasons why Bill Walton was such a great passer is because of a late growth spurt that forced/allowed him to be a guard growing up. When you see Larry in this high school footage or in an Indiana State game he totally looks like some extremely tall, lanky center, but who has the skills of a guard. Maybe not the speed of a guard, but all the other skills.

Fun fact: If you look up Springs Valley High School you'll find that their address received a tweak at some point:

326 S Larry Bird Blvd, French Lick, IN 47432

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