Today, Larry Bird is known as one of the greatest NBA basketball players of all time.
The 12-time All-Star and Hall of Famer had a blessed career, amassing three championship rings. But things could have easily gone differently for him, as has been depicted in HBO's show "Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty."
Before he was a star at Indiana State and the no. 6 pick in the 1978 draft, Bird faced tremendous adversity in continuing his basketball career.
His struggles with poverty and familial crises almost stopped him from becoming the Larry Legend that we know today.
Why Larry Bird dropped out of Indiana University
Bird was born in the small town of French Lick, Indiana, whose population on Wikipedia is listed at only 1,807 people. His hometown earned him one of the greatest NBA nicknames of all time, "The Hick from French Lick."
French Lick was one of the poorest towns in Indiana at that time, per Larry Schwartz of Sports Illustrated. Schwartz wrote that Bird's mother worked two jobs waitressing to support him, his four brothers, and his sister.
Bird's poverty put constant stress on him and was part of the reason why he dropped out of Indiana University after only 24 days on campus. He had saved money for a year to attend college and play under legendary coach Bob Knight, but "it wasn't enough," as he told Michael Rubino of Indianapolis Monthly in 2015.
"My decision to leave wasn't that I wanted to leave, it was that I felt like I had to leave."
Bird also faced a culture shock in moving from such a small town to the much larger campus at Bloomington, Indiana.
Larry Bird's family tragedy and financial struggles
Bird returned home to French Lick and faced even more obstacles in his journey to play college basketball. His father, an alcoholic who suffered from depression after a traumatic time spent in the Korean War, committed suicide when Bird was 18 years old.
Needing a job to help his mother out, Bird worked for the town of French Lick. He painted curbs, cleaned parks, mowed grass, and went home to home collecting garbage. Despite its lack of glamour, Bird told Sports Illustrated years later that he "loved that job."
"It was outdoors, you were around your friends. Picking up brush, cleaning up. I felt like I was really accomplishing something. How many times are you riding around your town and you say to yourself, Why don't they fix that? Why don't they clean the streets up? And here I had the chance to do that. I had the chance to make my community look better."
Bird thought that if his college plans never came to fruition, he would go into construction.
"It’s hard work. It’s tough work. But I like that," Bird told Rubino.
How Larry Bird enrolled at Indiana State University
Bird did try to return to college hoops after dropping out at Indiana, practicing with the Northwood Institute team nearby. That lasted only six weeks before he dropped out again.
Facing somewhat dire financial and personal circumstances, Bird wasn't interested in returning to college. He did find time to play basketball though with the kitchen staff of a restaurant while earning money for his family. That's where Indiana State assistant Bill Hodges found him, as documented by The Indy Star in a 2021 article.
Bird was sick of college recruiters trying to convince him to enroll, and so Hodges waited in the bushes behind the basketball hoop before approaching him. Hodges had a talk with Bird, telling him an anecdote about a buddy who was the best player he had ever seen. Nobody knew who he was though, because he didn't go to college. Hodges warned that the same might happen to Bird and walked away.
Two days later, Hodges returned to French Lick. He found that Bird had changed his mind and was willing to commit to Indiana State. The rest, as they say, is history.
Did Larry Bird really wear jeans to an Indiana State practice?
One urban legend that has arisen from the HBO show "Winning Time" is that Bird showed up to Indiana State's gym and dropped 43 points in a scrimmage while playing in boots, jeans, and a flannel shirt. The show includes a graphic that states, "Yes, he really played in jeans."
There is no mention of Bird wearing jeans to a practice in Jeff Pearlman's book "Winning Time," which HBO's show is based on. But it is possible — Bird was somewhat notorious for wearing jeans in unusual situations throughout his lifetime.
Bird was once photographed playing golf in jeans, work boots, and a mesh hat. And per Sportscasting, upon receiving his 1984 MVP Award at a banquet filled with designer suits, he chose to wear a short-sleeved shirt and jeans to the dismay of some.
Bird may have reached the highest peaks of fame and stardom, but he has never strayed too far from that identity as the small-town kid from French Lick.
