[10] Washington Post film critic Paul Attanasio praised the soundtrack, writing, "And it's marvelously (and innovatively) scored (by composer Jerry Goldsmith), who weaves together electronics with symphonic effects to create a sense of the rhythmic energy of basketball within a traditional setting."[11]. In reel life: Hickory is the ultimate Cinderella team, a classic underdog coming out of nowhere. Craft: They were going to defend the basket. Local Events I was just doing what the coach told me to do. Hoosiers was acknowledged as the fourth best film in the sports genre. It wasn't long after that he got in trouble (for a point-shaving scandal). Whit later apologizes to Dale and rejoins the team. It is about a band of brothers who still gather every year to share old stories and pictures of grandkids and great-grandkids. They were very good. With a fairly satisfactory farming community, Milan was a classic, quaint, and close-knit American town. In 2001, Hoosiers was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" due in part to an especially large number of nominations from Indiana citizens. His old friend, high school principal Cletus Summers, has hired him as the civics and history teacher and as head basketball coach. He wasn't a smooth ballplayer, but he was big and rough and did his job that game. Plump: Woody said, 'OK, here's what we're going to do. They entered the tournament with a 19-2 record. Why worry about what would have happened if the ball clanked off the back of the rim that night in Hinkle Fieldhouse? I laughed, I cried and when it was over, I felt good. Dale calls a timeout and sets up a play where Jimmy will be a decoy for Merle, who will take the last shot. Is Hickory, Indiana a real place? The town made famous in Hoosiers The press wasn't so sure about us. In 1954, Indiana conducted a single state basketball tournament for all its high schools. We hated them. Plump: That's what Marvin Wood said was our break. Drive through new Milan into the older downtown where the museum sits in an old bank building. So, "Hoosiers" isn't a true story? He was 6-4 or 6-5 and really strong. 'Hoosiers' remains the best sports movie, 35 years later - TODAY Milan High School, enrollment 161, won the Indiana state basketball title in 1954. We started three juniors and two sophomores. While it is true that it is unlikely that the Pacers will win a championship any time soon, basketball remains more than just a game in this section of the United States. Plus, the actual teams assistant coach was no alcoholic, as portrayed in the film. 1954 Milan High School basketball team - Wikipedia From a town of just 1,816 residents, the team remains forever an underdog, but one with a storied past that has them eternally frozen in their 1954 moment of glory. I remember I ended up in the arms of our 300-pound reporter, Tiny Hunt (from the Versailles Republican). The phrase "inspired by a true story" is more appropriate than "based on a true story" because the two teams have little in common. Then we just kept using it. In the first game of the semistate, Milan would face an even tinier school in Montezuma, located in Parke County on the west side of the state. Schroder: Versailles had a really good team and lost to us four times. White: It was a reminder that we still had a job to do. Plump: We stayed at the Pennsylvania Hotel because Woody wanted to keep us away from the fans telling us how good we were. I gave a little fake left. If anyone in America knows what a miracle basketball team looks like, it is the man who hit the last shot that won tiny Milan High School the Indiana state championship in 1954, which inspired. In the movie, Dale gets brought on to replace a coach who dies and who the two love. The movie was filmed in various places around Indiana. But it was Hickory, not Milan. Milan Miracle: 2 years before 1954, Milan fired coach Herman - IndyStar Another harbinger of things to come happened that night in the regional final against Connersville. So he finally went to interview and they offered it to him. So Milan called on Saturday and said they'd pay him $4,000 and he took the job. Craft: Marc became involved with the varsity because Marvin was bound and determined that we were going to be a man-to-man team. In introduced the real life team to a new generation of fans. That was the beginning of us getting more experience for the next two years. Milan also made it to the state championship game in 1953. Various publications have called it one of the best sports films ever, and AFI ranked it in 2008 as the fourth best entry in the sports genre, while AFIs 100 Years List of most inspirational films had it at thirteen. Bobby Plump (Milan 1954 graduate, starting guard): Mr. Grinstead scared the hell out me. Time went by and Marvin didn't call. He probably got as many rebounds as Shelbyville did. Produced by Hemdale Pictures, in cooperation with De Haven Productions, Hoosiers mainly garnered favorable reviews, with many praising its utilization of the underdog formula to great effect. Mary Lou Wood: I wouldn't say Marvin felt pressure, but he knew he had material and a good team. To help fill the stands, they invited two local high schools to move a game to the Fieldhouse. Plump: It was sometime in the 1970s and Ken Windelman, Glen White, Bob Engel and myself were sitting there having a beer. During the season opener, Rade disobeys and repeatedly makes baskets without passing first. Milan '54 Hoosiers Basketball Museum | Milan IN From the top of the key, Plump faked left and drove right, stopping on a dime as defender Jimmy Barnes rushed to stop him from getting to the basket, his momentum carrying him away from his man. The shot went in after all, didn't it? The Indians got the ball back again and Craft who scored a team-high 14 points had a chance to ice the game when he drove to the basket with a minute left. Marvin never attended those get-togethers in the coffee shops. But by the time the Milan Indians were playing their championship season, he had won the town over. Milan defeated Aurora 46-38 to earn another trip to Indianapolis for the semistate. They meant the world to him. They always wanted to be involved in the cheering. Here's a scouting report on what Fland could bring to Indiana if . Or, it mostly is, but sort of isn't. At Butler Fieldhouse you had to walk by the other locker room and I remember them all look at us as they walked by. Cutter: Every year, a small school is compared to Milan. 0:00. Here they were behind and holding the ball. With a fairly satisfactory farming community, Milan was a classic, quaint, and close-knit American town. Wood left Milan for bigger New Castle after the season. Well, it sort of is, but mostly isn't. ', Craft: Gene said he didn't say that. When you hear your name you feel proud. When somebody has a problem, we know it. Cutter: They weren't going to give up a layup. "I was a very shy kid," Bobby Plump told the Washington Post in 1995. They had big players. 7/7/2023, 7:35am, Softball By the time they took a timeout, it was decided. 2 reviews of Milan '54 Hoosiers Museum "Over 60 years ago, a high school basketball game was played that excited a state. At the first practice, Dale dismisses Buddy Walker for rudeness, causing another player, Whit Butcher, to walk out in protest. I think Marvin and the staff learned a whole lot about preparing and handling a team that could go back to the state finals. FILM STUDY: What could Boogie Fland bring to Indiana? To compare, the character played by Gene Hackman, Norman Dale, is a former college coach in his forties, while Gene Hackman was fifty-five when filming commenced. Plump: We'd never won a regional game in the history of the school and there we were all of a sudden with a new coach, 25 years old, and we were going to the Final Four. Call Star reporter Kyle Neddenriep at (317) 444-6649. In real life: The head coach, Marvin Wood, was 26 years old when he coached Milan to the title, and it was his second year as head coach of the team. The Milan Miracle: The Town that Hoosiers Left Behind Language links are at the top of the page across from the title. The team and town are the inspiration for the 1986 film Hoosiers. Programs. Craft: That was a big difference in the coaches. In the final, the team would defeat the significantly larger school, Muncie Central High School, 32-30 to clinch a historic title. A Muncie Central turnover gave the ball back to Milan and Craft scored to tie it, 28-28. But while they had heard and been inspired throughout their lives by the story of the tiny 1954 Milan High team that shocked everybody by winning the state championship, Pizzo discovered they. At the time, the town only had a population of 1,114. Milan High School (Michigan) - Wikipedia This article is about the 1986 film. Milan, which lost in the sectional in 1952 to Batesville in a game Plump missed with the flu, returned several key players and hopes were high. Since winning a state title in 1954, Milan has won three regional titles in 1973, 1999 and 2001. Then we outscored them 12-2 and they didn't take a timeout. Schroder: I wasn't in the game but I think everybody had confidence what coach Wood was doing was right. He was gone. They ended up performing well in most of the games. Fans of both schools came out in period costumes to serve as extras and to supplement the hundreds of locals who had answered the call. He had turned and I was pretty wide open. The coach of 1954 Indiana boys state champion Milan, the most famous high school team in the United States, immortalized by the movie "Hoosiers." More: They added deleted scenes back to. Tucked away in the northwest corner of Montgomery County, Wingate's 1910 population was 446. Plump: I was at a luncheon in the 1980s and a guy came up and told me he was the timer that night. I knew we had them beat. It tells the story of a small-town Indiana high school basketball team that enters the state championship. Hershey is 73 years old and recently had a role in the "Paradise Lost" TV show. Butler had a guard-oriented system and that went well. The team's home gym was in Knighstown, Indiana, home of the Hoosier Gym. The other four Milan players were on the left side of the floor near the sideline and baseline. The home gym was a sports hall in Knightstown, and the town scenes got filmed in New Richmond. There are many. ', Cutter: People were saying, 'Where is Milan? Things were really prejudice back then. Coach McCreary took me out in the second quarter. Mary Lou Wood: I remember people didn't realize it was sudden death. Butte: Who knows how many reunions we have left? In 1954, Attucks, with sophomore Oscar Robertson, was one of the teams Milan beat on the way to its famed state title. He was kind of a homebody, plus we had two little ones at home at that time. Cutter: He did say it. During the final quarter, with Milan trailing 28-26, coach Wood ordered a stall. Milan High | Home Those guys were special to Marvin. He enlisted the help of Marc Combs, the junior high coach to help him install the zone defense. High School boys' basketball team won it all when the small-town team claimed the Indiana state basketball championship in 1954. He said, 'Man, he got me at 3:30.' At a meet-and-greet, Dale tells the townspeople he used to coach college basketball. Milan 1954 basketball team that inspired film "Hoosiers" issued as The whole crowd would get into it. 1 sports movie of all time by the sports staff of The Associated Press. About UIBS / Faculty Members. Those guys are great to me. He said, 'My watch says five minutes after 1.' "From the time the ball was in bounds after the final timeout, the movie was accurate.". The answer to this question is in multiple places around Indiana. But that line always stayed with me. That was one lesson Marc Combs taught them: never underestimate the enemy. Hinds made two free throws to start the fourth quarter and give the Bearcats a two-point lead. . But it would be Grinstead's final season. B-ball has deep roots in the land famous for corn and as the birthplace of Mark Spitz. The real Coach of the championship team, Coach Marvin Wood, was only 26 when Milan won the title. As the smallest school to win state since Thorntown in 1915, Milan's story had captured the imagination of the state. In 2012, Intrada Records released Goldsmith's complete score, marking the first time the soundtrack has been released on CD in the United States. This practice continued until 1997. But the second year it was more serious. INDIANAPOLIS, IN - DECEMBER 11: Former Milan High school basketball star Bobby Plump and other members of the movie Hoosiers honored on the court during the mens college basketball game. Milan won a regional game each of the next two seasons, more than any Milan team before '53 had accomplished, but those teams were mostly lost to history after the '54 championship. Plump: I know my life would be different than what it is now. But we wondered if they'd lost their minds. White: Our scouting report on Oscar Robertson listed him last. As discussed, the Hinkle Fieldhouse was the location of the state championship match. Kempley wrote, Even though we've seen it all before, Hoosiers scores big by staying small."[17]. He thought the boys concentrated better that way. Furthermore, both teams won the state championship game by only two points difference, with the final few seconds on screen closely following the events of Milans 1954 championship match. We could do it, but that's wishing for an awful lot. Courses Milan High School offers a variety of courses in the general and advanced levels. Nonetheless - inspired by a true story may have been more fitting, as the events depicted in the movie do not mimic tit-for-tat those of the Milan High School's basketball team's 1954 run. Milan 60 years later: 'We didn't realize what we'd done. And - IndyStar I give him a lot of credit for developing that team. Milan was the smallest school to play in the Final Four two years in a row since Wingate in 1913 and 1914. In real life: Milan's manager, Oliver Jones, stayed on the sidelines and didn't make any heroic buckets. Wood sensed the game was starting to slip away. The fictional Hickory Huskers basketball team, based on a team from Milan, Indiana, gathers around coach Norman Dale . Dale instructs the Huskers to pass four times before shooting.

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