© Matthew A. Werner, 2025
Have you have heard that Michigan City Elston High School got its Red Devils nickname because it was built on an ancient burial ground? Or that LaPorte High School became the Slicers because the owner of the U.S. Slicing Machine Company loved basketball and sponsored the team’s uniforms? These stories are more folklore than fact. If you’ve ever wondered where these mascots originated, read on. This is the real story how the Red Devils and Slicers got their names.
RED DEVILS
Interscholastic sports in Indiana began around the turn of the Twentieth Century. Michigan City High School started with a baseball team and followed with football, and track. Boys and girls fielded basketball teams by 1911. That year, twelve teams participated in Indiana’s first boys high school state basketball tournament. Basketball became the king sport across Indiana and in 1924, 665 teams played in the statewide tournament.
At the time, most sports teams didn’t have nicknames. In Michigan City, the sports teams were called the Michigan City team, or the Crimson and White (their school colors). In LaPorte, they called the high school teams the Orange and Black. This was common practice across the state.
In the 1923-24 school year, Michigan City built a new gymnasium known as “The Barn.” It opened just before Christmas and the first basketball event featured two games: varsity boys and varsity girls versus MCHS Alumni on December 21, 1923. The gymnasium got its name “When the building was completed and Coach Andy Gill inspected it for the first time, his first words were: ‘It looks like a barn.’”[1] The Barn sat dead-center on the old city cemetery.
When Michigan City was plotted, one acre in the southeast corner was apportioned for a city graveyard. The graveyard quickly reached capacity, expanded to two acres, and then closed to new burials in 1864. A sand dune reclaimed part of the city cemetery and it fell into disrepair. Residents requested all the graves be moved to Greenwood Cemetery and that work was completed, more or less, in 1884. Construction projects in 1902 (sewer line), 1903 (water main) and 1909 (school building) exposed more skeletons that were relocated to Greenwood as well.[2] When the city needed a new high school in 1909, it was built on a corner of the vacant lot that once was the city cemetery.
The basketball team would be called Red Devils for the first time during the 1923-24 season—the first year of The Barn—however, it had nothing to do with the old city cemetery.[3] The nickname sprang up on the campus of Purdue University.
Photo courtesy of the Michigan City Historical Society.
Inside The Barn (photo courtesy of the Michigan City Historical Society).
The Michigan City basketball team finished its season with seven wins and four losses. Thirteen miles away, LaPorte High School finished with a 10-10 record.[4] LaPorte’s Daily Herald wrote that the Orange and Black was the favorite to win the local Sectional over arch-rival Michigan City. Irvin S. Nieman of the Michigan City News wrote that, “Michigan City should defeat LaPorte after a hard game”[5] and “Both clubs are evenly matched with no advantage on either side.”[6] The game between the two city schools was greatly anticipated as the teams hadn’t played each other in five years and the winner likely would win the Sectional.
Michigan City hosted the Sectional tournament in The Barn at the end of the regular season. Nine LaPorte County teams competed. Before 2,000 fans, the Crimson and White of Michigan City defeated the Orange and Black of LaPorte in the first round, 19 – 14. Michigan City then beat Westville and Stillwell to win the Sectional tournament. Monday’s sports page in the Michigan City News featured a giant headline, “ON TO LAFAYETTE!” The team advanced to the Regional tournament played on the campus of Purdue University.
Michigan City played the Green and White of Whiting on Friday night. Fifty Michigan City students in two buses planned to make the trip.[7] The team and a number of fans took a train on the Monon Railroad to Lafayette. Michigan City beat Whiting, 25 – 17, and the final score was announced in The Barn in Michigan City during the girls basketball game versus New Carlisle. A snake dance of happy fans wound through downtown streets in celebration.[8]
Saturday night, Michigan City defeated Veedersburg, 24 – 16. The team dressed in Crimson-colored uniforms. Nieman wrote, “By its flashy passing and team work the Michigan City quintet earned the title of ‘Red Devils.’ This name was attached during the first contest and stuck during the entire tournament.”[9] That was the first published reference to a Michigan City High School team as “Red Devils.”
As a result of its triumphs at Purdue, the Red Devils advanced to the State Finals for the first time in school history.[10] It would play Terre Haute Wiley High School at the Coliseum in Indianapolis Friday morning. To win State, a team would have to win 4 games in two days. [11] Terre Haute defeated the Red Devils, 35 – 21, and Martinsville High School won State.
1924 Red Devils (photo courtesy of the Michigan City Historical Society).
SLICERS
In the 1920s, newspaper sports writers adopted a flashy style of writing and concocted names for their local sports teams. These men (they were all men) referred to Elston’s team as Gillmen or Gillites after Coach Andy Gill. Michigan City News called Whiting’s team the Oil City Crew and LaPorte the County Seat Squad. The South Bend Tribune once called LaPorte’s basketball team the Leitzmanites after Coach Leitzman. The LaPorte Daily Herald-Argus referenced Elston’s team as the Prison City team or Harborites. Anything to sound catchy or clever. Also, a new feature sprouted across Indiana—the high school basketball column.
William F. Fox, one of the first six inductees into the Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame, began writing a high school basketball column, Shootin’ ‘Em and Stoppin’ ‘Em, in The Indianapolis News in 1921. Hoosiers across Indiana consumed Fox’s words. Other newspapers followed until nearly every newspaper in Indiana had a basketball column. There was Hittin’ Em and Missin’ Em, The Daily Republican (1923); B-B Shot, The Marion Daily Chronicle (1923); Floor Burns, Michigan City News (1923); Just Courting, Wabash Times Star (1924); Basket Bawls, LaPorte Daily Herald-Argus (1924); and Duneland Dribbles, Gary Post-Tribune (1926).
When the LaPorte Daily Herald-Argus launched Basket Bawls on Monday, December 15, 1924, its author, Ray Smith wrote that, “It will be devoted to basketball gossip in hope that more interest will be created in the game in LaPorte.[12] To conclude the first Basket Bawls’ column, Smith announced a contest: “Why not a nickname for the high school athletic teams?” He pointed out that Muncie was the Bearkitties, Kokomo the Kats, and Gary Emerson the Golden Tornado. LaPorte should have a nickname too.
Smith encouraged everyone to send in a suggestion. Submissions were due to the Basket Bawls desk by 5:00 pm Friday. The name would be announced at Saturday night’s basketball game versus Warsaw, giving the judges—Coach Sewell Leitzman, Superintendent E.B. Wetherow, and Principal O.G. Ludlow—one day to pick the winning nickname. The three best submissions would win a year’s subscription to Basket Ball World, but only one name would be connected to the basketball team.
Friday night, the temperature dropped to five-below-zero as LaPorte defeated the Golden Tornado of Gary Emerson in Gary. On Saturday, December 20, 1924, in LaPorte’s new gymnasium, the high school announced the basketball team’s nickname: Slicers. Dr. H.H. Martin, local physician, submitted the winning name. Michael Fitzsimmons suggested the runner up nickname, the Threshers.[13] The entire process to determine the Slicers name took five days.
1925 LaPorte Slicers.
The nickname wasn’t original. Employees of the local U.S. Slicing Machine factory played in area volleyball, basketball, and baseball leagues, as did workers from other companies including the Advance-Rumely tractor manufacturer. A Daily-Argus article, “Slicer Volleyball Team Wins From Threshermen,” described a game between the two factory teams. The article observed, “amid a great demonstration from the fans, the team appeared in the Slicer colors, cardinal shirts and blue trunks, with the inscription ‘Slicer’ across the face of the shirts.”[14]
Meanwhile, the Red Devils moniker remained fixed to the 1924 Michigan City basketball team as the Michigan City News reverted to calling its basketball team the Crimson and White.
EVERLASTING CHANGE
LaPorte High School had a great basketball team the season they became the Slicers. They had won eight games and lost three when they hosted the Michigan City Crimson and White in January 1925. It was the first time the two schools played during the regular season since 1920. Michigan City’s best players from its state-bound team had graduated. The Slicers handed Michigan City its worst defeat, 51 – 17, even though LaPorte’s Coach Leitzman played many reserve players in the second half.
When LaPorte and Michigan City played again two weeks later in The Barn, Nieman had a new nickname for his home team. He wrote, “the Crimson Flash firsts are going to give LaPorte a bad beating. A victory by two or three points will be considered a bad beating because Laporte’s club has been nicknamed the ‘Slicers.’ A flash can annihilate a Slicer without much trouble.”[15] The Slicers beat the Crimson Flash, 27 – 22.
LaPorte Slicers finished the 1924-25 regular season 14-5, won the Sectional on their home court upon beating the Crimson Flash in overtime in the final game, and won the Regional to advance to the State finals in Indianapolis. Like the Red Devils had done the previous year, the Slicers lost the first game at State.
The following year, Robert Coffeen of the Herald-Argus wrote, “Old as the old, oaken bucket—almost—and colore[d] and ripened with as many legends and traditions, competition between LaPorte and Michigan City has always a sharp edge. The fever heat stage has now been reached by the teams and fans alike of both cities.”[16] In the 1925-26 basketball season, Michigan City struggled to amass wins while the LaPorte Slicers had another great team.
Before the first rivalry game between the schools, Nieman announced an everlasting change in Floor Burns. He wrote, “We are starting on the final week before the big LaPorte game, which takes place at LaPorte on Friday night, of this week. To start off with today we want you to know that the Crimson Flash is no longer. Instead the old name, given to the Michigan City High School team by Floor Burns when the team journeyed to the state tournament, of Red Devils will be used. Forget about the old flash and get behind the Red Devils.”[17]
The “reason for changing the name of the Michigan City team from the Crimson Flash to Red Devils was that [Floor Burns] hoped a change of luck would come with it.”[18]
The day the Michigan City team arrived in LaPorte, Basket Bawls wrote, “WELCOME RED DEVILS, TO THE FAIR CITY OF LAPORTE—THE HOME OF THE BEST TEAM IN NORTHERN INDIANA.”[19]
Luck didn’t come for the Red Devils that Friday night. The Slicers beat the Red Devils, 47 – 21. The Red Devils redeemed themselves a month later in The Barn and defeated the Slicers, 37 – 25. Then LaPorte beat Michigan City in the Sectional championship game, 25 – 21, and advanced to the State Finals, where they again lost the first game.
HOOSIER IDENTITY
During the 1920s, LaPorte won 14 head-to-head games while Michigan City won four. The basketball upper hand ebbed and flowed between the two city schools over the next 100 years.[20]
Initially Red Devils and Slicers applied only to the basketball teams. Over time, the monikers represented other sports teams as well, boys and girls. The nickname appeared on football, baseball, track and field, and volleyball jerseys. Eventually, the entire student body and decades of alumni called themselves Slicers and Red Devils. It all originated from a couple sports writers looking for something fun to call their hometown basketball team.
Basketball runs deeper in the Hoosier identity than most of us realize.
[1] LaPorte Herald-Argus 12/19/1924.
[2] Strezewski, Michael. Ellen We Miss Thee At Home: Archealogical Investigations at the Michigan City Old Graveyard, LaPorte County, Indiana. Fort Wayne, Indiana: IPFW Archaelogical Survey, 2003.
[3] There is no known account of graves turning up when The Barn was constructed.
[4] LaPorte High School opened a new gymnasium the last week of the 1923-24 season.
[5] Michigan City News, 2/25/1924.
[6] Michigan City News, 2/28/1924.
[7] Michigan City News, 3/4/1924.
[8] Michigan City News, 3/8/1924.
[9] Michigan City News, 3/10/1924.
On March 11, Irvin S. Nieman wrote, “The fighting “Red Devils” of Michigan City, nicknamed at the regional tournament, are ready for the opening whistle and expect to give the downstaters a tough argument.”
A photo of the 1924 Michigan City basketball team appeared in the November 19, 1988 News-Dispatch. It included a caption that said the Red Devils “name was suggested by a Purdue University coach.” There is no evidence to support that.
On January 19, 1926 in the News-Dispatch, Irvin S. Nieman wrote, “The old name, given to the Michigan City High School team by Floor Burns when the team journeyed to the state tournament, of Red Devils will be used.”
[10] The IHSAA didn’t start the Semi-State tournament round until the 1935-36 season.
[11] In 1924, there was no Semi-state tournament. Sixteen teams advanced to the State Finals and competed for the title of State Champion.
[12] In that initial column, Ray Smith also wrote, “The Herald-Argus is the first newspaper in Northern Indiana to use this feature.” January 2, 1925, Irvin Nieman wrote in the Michigan City News, “Smith apologized after learning that Michigan City News had conducted Floor Burns for the past two seasons.”
[13] The third place submission was Little Spartans (George Allesee). Other submissions included Little Rebels, Wasps, Beavers, Scrappers, and Terrors.
That same week, a Washington, Indiana, sportswriter named his local high school team the Washington Hatchets.
Notre Dame got the moniker “Fightin’ Irish” during that same time period: https://blog.history.in.gov/integrity-on-the-gridiron-part-one-notre-dame-opposition-to-the-klan/
[14] LaPorte Daily Argus, 3/26/1924.
[15] Michigan City News, 2/16/1925.
[16] LaPorte Herald-Argus, 1/21/1926.
[17] Michigan City News, 1/19/1926.
Nieman also wrote, “And we think that LaPorte will be calling the players more than Red Devils, along about 10 o’clock next Friday night. LaPorte will be using all kind of ‘Devilish’ names. The Devils promise to make things ‘hot’ for LaPorte. The Red Devils always did cater to Orange and Black, orange resembling smouldering fires and black resembling fuel to feed the fires and the Red Devils to keep the fires in hand.”
[18] LaPorte Herald-Argus, Basket Bawls, 1/23/1926.
Nieman and Smith seemed to have fun publishing barbs back and forth in their respective newspapers, but they respected each other. On January 22, 1926, Smith wrote in Basket Bawls, “Win or lose, we’ll have to celebrate tonight. Floor Burns of the News at Michigan City admitted us into the Honorable Association of High School Columnists and Journalists. Floor Burns originated the association a short time ago.”
[19] LaPorte Herald-Argus, 1/22/1926.
[20] In head-to-head games from 1911 – 1995, Michigan City Elston won 94 and LaPorte won 88. Two games Michigan City won (1932 & 1990) were later forfeited and are not counted here.