During the 1940s, downtown Hammond was the place to go — whether it was to shop, see a show, or grab a bite to eat.

On March 31, 1940, the usual weekend crowd increased from a few hundred to tens of thousands of people.

The occasion for the gathering along Sibley Boulevard near the Monon Train Station was to welcome home the Hammond Technical-Vocational High school basketball team who had just won the Indiana State Basketball Championship.

“The Depression was just ending and people were ready to have something to celebrate,” said Dave Mueller, current owner of Paul Henry’s Art Gallery. The gallery was formerly P.H. Mueller Sons Hardware, which was on the people-watching route. “My grandfather’s business was across the street from where the team came in. It was amazing, thousands of people were there.”

Mueller, who is a graduate of Hammond High School, felt this moment in history should be immortalized in a unique way.

A few years ago, he was given two pictures of the throngs of people that converged in the downtown area to welcome home their famous Hammond Tech Tigers. At that time, it was thought to be the biggest crowd of people ever to gather in Hammond, although no official count was ever taken.

The idea of combining the two photos into a large mural gave way to the large canvas that now hangs in Mueller’s gallery.

Chicago artist Sara Peak Convery did the honors. It took two years to complete the colorful 8-foot-by-18-foot mural.

The gallery recently held two events — one for the unveiling of the mural, and another to welcome Hammond Tech alumni and families associated with the basketball team members.

“Two of my uncles were on this championship team,” said Dan Mason of Dyer, who looked up his uncles’ names on the large sign posted in the gallery.

Hammond Tech alumnus Dan Pasternak of Munster admired the workmanship of the mural, as he socialized with other former high school students.

“This (mural) acknowledges Hammond’s past, as well as recognizes this very talented basketball team,” he said.

Hammond Historical Society president and local historian Tony Diaz addressed the crowd at the March 31 reunion.

“I love this mural, this was an important day in Hammond history,” he said. “And hanging it in Paul Henry’s Art Gallery is the perfect place for it to be.”

Appropriately so — as those thousands of people in that long-ago crowd stood only a short distance outside the building where it is now displayed.

Sue Ellen Ross is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.