Milan Hoosiers

[brownwho63]

Each time I watch the movie "Hoosiers" I think about all of the old towns, old schools, old roads, etc. in the old days. What great time travel!

 

Anyway, I recently watched a black and white of the actual 1954 IN state title game between Milan (aka Hickory) and Muncie, the larger school and greatly favored to win the game. I had previously thought that Milan just had a better team but I'm now convinced that Muncie was greatly outcoached and that cost them the game. For example, Milan ran what is now called a "motion" offense (aka a weave) versus the wide open run and shoot from 35 feet by Muncie. I was amazed that Milan took only "good" shots and I couldn't believe that Muncie never seemed to run any kind of inside offense and that most of their shots were from what would now be beyond the 3-point line. Milan did a great job of blocking out on defense and came up with most of the rebounds. Muncie never did catch on to this fact and played the game in a "playground" manner.

 

Bobby Plump (aka "Jimmy") was not the great shooter the movie made him out to be but he took only "good" shots and could shoot a decent jumper, a fairly new concept in 1954. As I recall, he scored less than 10 points in the game but did actually make the final shot as depicted in the movie. He didn't say "I'll make it" in the huddle like in the movie and was told from the beginning of the huddle by Coach Wood that he would take the last shot. He held the ball until the remaining 5 or 6 seconds, drove from the top of the key to his right, stopped and took about a 15 foot jumper that swished with no hands in his face. He said that Coach Wood was a soft-spoken man very unlike Gene Hackman in the movie and only had to slightly raise his voice to get everyone's full attention.

 

Would like to cruise to Milan one day and see the town and the old school but, man, it's in southeast IN waaaaay down there from STL......Bliss

 

[Chris Rowland]

Would like to cruise to Milan one day and see the town and the old school but, man, it's in southeast IN waaaaay down there from STL......Bliss

"In 1985 New Richmond, Indiana, was turned into Hickory, Indiana, for the filming of the movie Hoosiers"

 

Perhaps New Richmond might be a little less out of the way.

 

Chris

[roadmaven]

Actually, Milan would be sorta on the way back home from Cincinnati next month. As Chris mentioned, the main town scenes from the movie were filmed in New Richmond, which I believe is somewhere south of Lafayette. The school in the movie was actually in Ninevah and was replaced with a post office. The gym they played in is still standing and that's in Knightstown, a couple of blocks north of US 40. I've not been in it, but from what I understand, it still looks the same as it did in the movie. If you make it over next month for the cruise and we happen to not go over together, I'll give you directions to the Hoosier Gym in Knightstown.

 

Bobby Plump has a tavern on the north side of Indy in Broad Ripple called "Plump's Last Shot". Never been into the Broad Ripple scene, so can't really tell you how the joint is: Plump's Last Shot

We went through Milan last fall while doing a southeast Indiana orchard run:

[brownwho63]

Actually, Milan would be sorta on the way back home from Cincinnati next month. As Chris mentioned, the main town scenes from the movie were filmed in New Richmond, which I believe is somewhere south of Lafayette. The school in the movie was actually in Ninevah and was replaced with a post office. The gym they played in is still standing and that's in Knightstown, a couple of blocks north of US 40. I've not been in it, but from what I understand, it still looks the same as it did in the movie. If you make it over next month for the cruise and we happen to not go over together, I'll give you directions to the Hoosier Gym in Knightstown.

 

Bobby Plump has a tavern on the north side of Indy in Broad Ripple called "Plump's Last Shot". Never been into the Broad Ripple scene, so can't really tell you how the joint is: Plump's Last Shot

We went through Milan last fall while doing a southeast Indiana orchard run:

 

 

We'll definitely be there sometime for next month's cruise so maybe we can see one or two of these sites. Didn't know multiple IN towns were involved in the film. Keep me posted on the cruise. Thanks.....Bliss

[brownwho63]

Each time I watch the movie "Hoosiers" I think about all of the old towns, old schools, old roads, etc. in the old days. What great time travel!

 

Anyway, I recently watched a black and white of the actual 1954 IN state title game between Milan (aka Hickory) and Muncie, the larger school and greatly favored to win the game. I had previously thought that Milan just had a better team but I'm now convinced that Muncie was greatly outcoached and that cost them the game. For example, Milan ran what is now called a "motion" offense (aka a weave) versus the wide open run and shoot from 35 feet by Muncie. I was amazed that Milan took only "good" shots and I couldn't believe that Muncie never seemed to run any kind of inside offense and that most of their shots were from what would now be beyond the 3-point line. Milan did a great job of blocking out on defense and came up with most of the rebounds. Muncie never did catch on to this fact and played the game in a "playground" manner.

 

Bobby Plump (aka "Jimmy") was not the great shooter the movie made him out to be but he took only "good" shots and could shoot a decent jumper, a fairly new concept in 1954. As I recall, he scored less than 10 points in the game but did actually make the final shot as depicted in the movie. He didn't say "I'll make it" in the huddle like in the movie and was told from the beginning of the huddle by Coach Wood that he would take the last shot. He held the ball until the remaining 5 or 6 seconds, drove from the top of the key to his right, stopped and took about a 15 foot jumper that swished with no hands in his face. He said that Coach Wood was a soft-spoken man very unlike Gene Hackman in the movie and only had to slightly raise his voice to get everyone's full attention.

 

Would like to cruise to Milan one day and see the town and the old school but, man, it's in southeast IN waaaaay down there from STL......Bliss

 

 

 

Sorry for belaboring this small-town basketball thing but I remember the Hebron Cinderella story because I was a 50's hoops junkie who played the game at every opportunity; school team, back yard, playground, etc. The Sweet 16 IHSA basketball tourney held in Champaign, IL each March was absolutely the sports highlite of the year. IL didn't have a class system (some say we had no class) as they do now and it was simply winner take all.

 

Quincy, a large school about 40 miles from my small town dominated area and state basketball in the early 50's and were highly favored to win state in '52, especially because of their star player, Bruce Brothers. Hebron snuck up on we downstaters that year and found themselves in the championship game against the Quincy Blue Devils. Whoever heard of Hebron with its 98 students? It was exciting, though, and I was pulling for the Giants, especially because everyone in my area had such distaste for the Blue Devils. I listened to the game on our Zenith radio and was thrilled when Hebron won in overtime 64 to 59.

 

Hebron's stars, twins Paul and Phil Judson, went on to play at the Univ. of IL along with Brothers from Quincy. Brothers and Paul Judson were starters and Phil was a reserve for the Fighting Ilini. A newspaper blurb follows. (I promise that I won't post any more roundball stories.)....Bliss

 

 

Hebron's fame is eternal

Article from:Chicago Sun-Times Article date:December 17, 2001 Author: Steve Tucker | Copyright informationCopyright 2001 Chicago Sun-Times. (Hide copyright information)

 

Before Hoosiers" there was Hebron.

 

It was 50 years ago that the greatest story in Illinois basketball unfolded. Hebron, a district school with an enrollment of 98 won the boys state basketball tournament.

 

That was two years before the Milan, Ind. team that "Hoosiers" is based on, led by future Indiana (Note: He actually played 4 years for Butler) star Bobby Plump, won in Indiana.

 

 

[johnu11]

Some interesting trivia on this movie, which I've watched several times (and ... lawd, how I spot the plot flaws!!) and on the actual game, which I've seen on DVD four times (for reasons that do not escape me.)

 

1. Yes, I agree that the Bearcats were outcoached and that was clear from the very start of the game. How you beat the stall is easy against bad teams. But against Milan, not as easy. These kids had played together for 8 years and were very talented. Muncie's talent was less apparent to me in seeing the game. The shot selection was very poor.

 

2. Plump actually played THREE years at Butler. Frosh were not eligible in those days. I have met the man and he is a fairly pleasant fellow.

 

3. The people of Milan have taken on an air of arrogance in years since "Hoosiers" and are generally accused of being "We're Milan and that makes US important" to the rest of Indiana. To some, that's an unappreciative entitlement attitude.

 

The game, yes ... for a lot of people, they do not realize this game was played very much at the small-school level in the days of Milan. Tiny schools of 40 or 50 students had a team, mostly bad teams. A lot of history there lost on the doorstep of the consolidated county schools out in the beanfields that they call West Central or Eastern or just "Blankety County."

 

In that respect, "Hoosiers" captures so much of what really happened. As for the movie, they won the sectional, a game in the regional and then the state title. In truth, in those days, a team had to win 10 games to win the title. It was grueling emotionally and physically, even for kids from big schools. The smaller the school, the more the pressure by Semistate time and the courts got bigger. Little schools sometimes played in gyms with 30 x 70 foot courts. At Butler, it was full-size and believe me, that matters!!

 

Winning state was very difficult.

 

And the references to Hebron ... vastly overlooked. Illinois missed a moment there.

 

History sticks around, though, and I have some proof of that on my own blog.

I will add that link here about another town's glory lost to the weeds.

 

http://johnu1.blogspot.com/2009/08/why-thi...us-depends.html

 

John