Drawing friends and family, Evansville's Dust Bowl is more than just basketball

EVANSVILLE, Ind. — After getting caught in a storm driving down from Indianapolis, Lamar Hayden was just 30 seconds from forfeiting his first game of the Dust Bowl. That wasn't an outcome the Harrison High graduate was willing to accept. 

Hayden's brother, George Black, who'd always wanted to be a part of the Dust Bowl, was murdered in 2017. Competing this week was his way to honor him. Hayden said his brother, 28 at the time, was caught in the wrong place at the wrong time. Black had been playing a video game with a family friend when a group of men ran into the house and shot them both multiple times. Both men died. 

“I’m his big brother,” Hayden said. “I always wanted to make him proud.”

This year, he formed a team in honor of Black with their family members and childhood friends to compete in the tournament his brother always talked about.

The Dust Bowl is a week-long basketball competition hosted by the Evansville Police Department and Young and Established, Inc., drawing families and athletes from the Tri-State each year.

Hayden graduated in 2002 and left Evansville, eventually moving to Indianapolis. His brother stayed behind in their hometown of Morganfield. But basketball is what tied the brothers together.

“We played basketball together all the time — that was our thing,” Hayden said. “Whenever I would go home and visit, that's what we did.”

Hayden said because he and his brother always loved basketball and streetball, loving the Dust Bowl was a natural fit.

“The Dust Bowl has always been around since I was a kid,” Hayden said. “I even played in 2005. To come back and do it again was really important to me.”

The founders of Young and Established — who revived event in 2014 — recall similar childhood memories.

“I can remember watching the Dust Bowl with my family as a kid,” co-founder Alex Burton said. “It's good to keep up the tradition.”

For years, the Dust Bowl has drawn families and community members to watch basketball and interact with each other. This year is no different; while athletes warmed up, they laughed and dribbled basketballs with police officers and the young kids there to watch the action.

Other founder Courtney Johnson said the event needed a new positive meaning after a fatal shooting at the event in 2010. Now at the C.K. Newsome Center, the tournament has a police presence. But it isn't just about security. Officers also interact with the families and children attending.

“With everything going on across the country, this event truly seeks to change …  the relationship between the police department and the community,” Burton said.

Throughout the week, the Dust Bowl hosts music performances, vendors, community sponsors and family activities. Before the final competition on Saturday, there will also be a celebrity game.

“This is one of the few weeks of the year, outside of the Fall Festival, that really brings people together,” Burton said.

This year, 14 teams from all over the Tri-State are competing throughout the week. The first three days of the event were pool play leading up to the tournament beginning Thursday.

“Some people think it's all about basketball,” Johnson said. "It's way bigger than basketball.”

The Dust Bowl is 5-10 p.m. through Saturday at the C.K. Newsome Center and is free.