Kip Wesner was raised in Martinsville by his parents, Gene and Mary Lee Wesner. They attended home football and basketball games for the Martinsville Artesians. Kip’s mother, now 99, was always a BIG sports fan (and also very dedicated to the Weekday Religious Education program for elementary students for many years), especially when it came to the Artesians. I would see her at many Artesian sporting events. So Kip got it honestly!
His oldest sister, Judy (Warkentien), was a classmate of mine in ’69 and a varsity cheerleader in ‘69, so even after Judy went off to college, his parents continued to go to games.
Kip told me he can remember popping cups at the Glenn Curtis Gymnasium on Friday nights in the ‘70s. Kip’s other sister, Cindy (Dralle), and brother Tim also graduated from MHS in the ‘70s, so going to high school games is just what they did as a family.
I’ve reminded Kip of my days of working at Frisch’s Big Boy while I was in high school, and his parents would bring the family to the restaurant on Sunday after church. His parents would sit on one side of the booth and the three kids on the other side.
Kip was your typical kid growing up, playing all the sports — Little League, junior football and BiddyBall (now Lil’ Arties). As an adult, he’s been involved one way or another with the same sports.
For more than 30 years, I organized the Martinsville Church Softball League. I played on the Lutheran team, and Kip was a member of the Methodist team. Who’s the organizer now and has been for several years? My friend, Kip Wesner.
Kip has also been a leader of the Methodist Men’s Group through the years, and I know where he got a lot of his skills — he was one of those 10-year 4H kids.
He remembers the triple-overtime loss to Bloomington North in the 1983 sectional final. Still a very disappointing loss in his heart, now more than 40 years ago.
After graduating in 1987 from Martinsville, he attended Purdue University and studied building construction technology. He worked for Tidd & Sons Construction locally for a couple of summers in the late 1980s, and quickly realized that construction was not in his future.
His real passion was sports, especially basketball. He bought his first Hoosier Basketball Magazine in 1988, while at Purdue. The cover featured Richie Mount of Lebanon, and he was coached by his brother-in-law Dan Warkentien, sister Judy’s husband.
He said he was on the Lebanon bandwagon as Mount was a Purdue recruit and the son of Boilermaker legend Rick Mount.
The following year, Kip met his good friend Matt Bennet. He was from Marian with the Purple reign, including Jay Edwards and Lyndon Jones. He knew all about the Hoosier Basketball Magazine and its history, as well as the publisher, Garry Donna.
This broadened Kip’s interest in high school basketball statewide. That winter, Martinsville won their first sectional championship in a dozen years and the first regional since 1964. Kip was then totally infected in Hoosier Hysteria!
In the fall of 1991, Kip reached out to Garry Donna by mail and offered to help with the Hoosier Basketball Magazine in any way that Donna wanted. He never heard back! (But if you knew Garry Donna, you’d understand!)
Kip was rooming with his good friend Matt that semester, and he told Kip that Donna will probably be at the coach’s clinic at Mackey Arena that Saturday.
So Kip reprinted the letter that he had sent to Donna and decided to see if he could meet him. He spotted him at the clinic and introduced himself and informed him that he had written him a letter a few weeks earlier. Kip gave him a copy of the letter. Kip said
“He literally edited the letter in front of me,” an irritated Kip said. “What have I gotten myself into, this was a mistake!”
But Donna asked him if he wanted to stay and try to sell 25 magazines at the Purdue scrimmage. Kip did stay, and he did sell the 25 copies.
Later that year, Donna offered him a full-time position with his business, including a role in producing the annual Hoosier Basketball Magazine publication.
Several times over the years, I’d meet up with Garry at his office because we were off to a high school or college game somewhere in the state, and I would see Kip hard at work preparing for the next edition of Hoosier Basketball Magazine.
Through the years, Donna told Kip that he was his right-hand man and that he knew that he could do the magazine when he was gone.
Garry Donna was not married and had no family. True to his word, in 2017 when he passed away, he left Hoosier Basketball Magazine to Kip to continue. Garry Donna always talked with Kip about getting to the 50th anniversary issue, but he only made it to 47th.
“It was a great celebration in 2020 with a true sense of pride to know that Hoosier Basketball Magazine endured through 50 years of publications,” said now-publisher Kip.
Kip has really enjoyed his job, and he’s very passionate about the magazine.
His goal now is to see if he can make it to 75 years. It is currently in his 56th year of publication — so only 19 more publications to go!
Another goal Kip has is to visit every high school gymnasium in the state of Indiana — a four-year project, he anticipates — and then write a book on the history of the magazine. Kip believes the future is bright for the magazine.
Garry Donna used to tell Kip that working on the magazine is a “labor of love,” and in Kip’s opinion, no truer words have ever been spoken!
Kip, continue doing what you are doing! The basketball world loves it!
All for “The Love of the Game!”
