Team Worth. What is team worth? For Huntington North High School basketball players who were lucky enough to be given a copy of Chuck Wohlford’s stat sheet following a Vikings’ game, it became the focal point — the last column in a conglomeration of handwritten stats, all written in black marker on a white mimeographed or copied sheet. The statistic was noted as a plus or minus number, based upon the stats from that game. A plus rating indicated you had played a positive role for the Vikings. A negative number meant your contribution was, well, less worthy.

Regardless of the interpretation of that one stat, the team worth of Chuck Wohlford’s contribution to all those who knew him, worked with him and loved him was a “plus kazillion.”

His worth to the people of Huntington County can be measured by his remarkable accomplishments and endeavors. He was a teacher for 42 years, beginning in 1950 in Whitley County, then in the Huntington County schools at Huntington Township and at Huntington North High School, before retiring from teaching in 1993.

One of Huntington North’s most popular teachers, Wohlford’s history and government classes always began with a discussion of current events from a collection of newspapers on his desk, and of course, a mention of a sports feat, especially the Cubs if they were playing. The newspaper also provided Wohlford with a crossword puzzle, another constant in his daily routine.

His involvement with Huntington North extended well beyond the classroom. He served as ticket manager for many years, a job that had its own difficulties given the fact that virtually every North Arena seat during his tenure was sold out. If you didn’t buy a season ticket in those days you didn’t get to go to the sectional, so Wohlford’s penchant for meticulous record-keeping was a perfect — and necessary — fit.

He also served as the school’s cross-country coach for a brief time. He was the head clerk at high school track meets and sectional events for the length of his career, including the years after he retired.

As a community member, Wohlford was involved in developing the Forks of the Wabash Historical Park, where he led volunteer efforts to help build the park as well as his service to the park as a board member and tour guide. He was a member of the Huntington Metro Kiwanis Club, the Indiana Historical Society, the Council on Aging Senior Center and the Huntington City Parks Board. He was named Huntington County Citizen of the Year in 1998.

A 1946 graduate of Roanoke High School, where he played four years of basketball, Wohlford gained a love and appreciation of what basketball meant to the people of Huntington County. He went on to play four years of basketball at Huntington College before embarking on his teaching career.

While coaching high school basketball, he first started his work in keeping stats as a way, in his words, “to keep his fanny on the bench and not to get violent with the referees.” He continued to keep stats for Township High School and then for Huntington North High School for more than 40 years. He was an unmistakable presence at North Arena, sitting in his familiar position on the front row underneath the basket with his supersized clipboard, his collection of multicolored markers, and his smile, often exchanging wisecracks with the officials during the playing of the game.

That love of Huntington County basketball led him to literally write the book of the sport’s local history. Game-by-game results were compiled into season stat sheets, and those sheets added into historical stat books. He researched results for every Huntington County school — including Huntington College and even those long closed high schools — and recorded them into a massive and comprehensive encyclopedia.

In a time before computer scoring programs produced crisp-looking stats in an instant, Wohlford’s records were all done by hand, in his hand. And still they were as accurate as anything produced on a laptop.

Those hand-written sheets went out to thousands — athletes, coaches, parents, press and fans. Wohlford’s county basketball history reached many others through the talks he gave on the history of Huntington County basketball.

He began collecting basketball stats for all of Huntington County schools early on. He spent hundreds of hours going through county high school yearbooks and microfilm in the Indiana Room at the Huntington library. He estimated that he had more than 45 years of work in putting together his historical data, including the stats of every player that played in the county since 1910. In addition to his annual stat books, Wohlford also authored “The History of Huntington County Basketball.”