Storytelling Arts of Indiana and Indiana Historical Society are teaming up to present his story as part of their Sharing Hoosier History Through Stories Series. “Chuck Taylor Converse All Star: The Man Who Made the Shoe” told by Indiana University faculyt member David Matlack will be performed in front of a small audience at Eugene & Marilyn Glick Indiana History Center, as well as livestreamed via Zoom, on Sunday, May 2.

Charles Hollis “Chuck” Taylor was born in Brown County, Indiana in 1901 and went on to become a semi-professional basketball player, long before the NBA was formed. When the game ended for him, he started working for Converse in 1922 as a sneaker salesman and marketer.

Taylor was a player and coach for the company’s industrial basketball team, the “Converse All-Stars,” which was also the name of a style of sneakers he would help redesign. The company thought so much of his contributions, it added his name to the ankle patch in 1932. Nearly a century later, it remains one of the best-selling basketball shoes of all time.