Hoosiers

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This page is about the movie "Hoosiers". Hoosiers is also the nickname of Indiana University athletic teams; see Indiana Hoosiers. For information on the word itself, see Hoosier.

Hoosiers

Directed by	David Anspaugh
Produced by	Carter DeHaven Angelo Pizzo
Written by	Angelo Pizzo
Starring	Gene Hackman, Barbara Hershey, Dennis Hopper, Sheb Wooley
Music by	Jerry Goldsmith
Distributed by	Orion Pictures
Release date(s)	November 14, 1986
Running time	115 min.
Language	English
IMDb profile

Hoosiers is a 1986 movie about a small-town high school basketball team that wins the state championship, set during a time when Indiana had only one state champ in basketball regardless of varied enrollments. It stars Gene Hackman as a new coach with a spotty past, Barbara Hershey, Sheb Wooley and Dennis Hopper as a basketball-loving drunk, a performance that's brought Hopper his only Oscar nomination for acting.

The movie was written by Angelo Pizzo, who co-produced the underdog sports movie Rudy, and directed by David Anspaugh, who directed Rudy. It was nominated for Academy Awards for Best Actor in a Supporting Role (Hopper) and Best Music, Original Score (Jerry Goldsmith).

Hoosiers was recently the choice of the readers of USA Today newspaper as the best sports movie of all time. In 2001 the United States Library of Congress deemed the film "culturally significant" and selected it for preservation in the National Film Registry.

A museum to commemorate the real life achievements of the 1954 Milan Team has been established — information regarding this project can be viewed here: Milan '54 Museum.

Tagline: They needed a second chance to finish first.

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

1 Based on a True Story
- 1.1 Differences
- 1.2 Similarities
2 See also
3 References
4 External link

[edit] Based on a True Story

The film is loosely based on the story of the 1954 Indiana state champions, Milan (IPA ˈmaɪlən; MY-lun) High School. In most states, high school athletic teams were divided into different classes usually based on enrollment, with separate state championship tournaments held for each classification. At the time, Indiana conducted a single state basketball championship for all schools, and continued to do so until 1997.

Some elements of the film do match closely with those of Milan's real story. Like the movie's Hickory High School, Milan was a very small high school in a rural Indiana town, although Milan's enrollment of 73 boys exceeded Hickory's total enrollment of 64. Both schools had undersized teams. Both Hickory and Milan won the state finals by two points: Hickory won 42-40, and Milan won 32-30. The final seconds of the Hoosiers state final hold fairly closely to the details of Milan's 1954 final; the final shot in the movie was taken from virtually the same spot on the floor as Bobby Plump's actual game-winner. The movie's final game was even shot in the same building that hosted the 1954 Indiana final, Butler University's Hinkle Fieldhouse (called Butler Fieldhouse in 1954) in Indianapolis.

[edit] Differences

The rosters – In the movie, Hickory has eight players at most, and has a roster as small as six; Milan had a roster consisting of 10 players. (Of the 73 boys who were enrolled at Milan High in 1953-54, 58 tried out for the team.)
Coaching controversy? – The controversy surrounding the coach and his methods, an important element of the movie's story, was completely absent in Milan—at least by 1954. Milan had fired its previous coach, Herman "Snort" Grinstead, after the 1951-52 season for ordering new uniforms against the superintendent's orders. Years later, Plump would tell an ESPN interviewer that Grinstead had been "the most popular coach in Milan's history." While Grinstead's successor, Marvin Wood, would initially make some waves in Milan, he was never the target of a town meeting to have him fired (unlike the movie). In his first season as coach in 1952-53, he would lead Milan to the state semifinals, defusing any remaining criticism.
Town drunk – The town drunk character in the movie, nicknamed Shooter, is briefly Hickory's assistant coach. He has no Milan counterpart.
The previous coach – In the movie, Hickory's best player initially refuses to play, devastated by the sudden death of his previous coach. This has no parallel in the Milan story; as noted above, Milan's previous coach had been fired two years before their championship.
The manager – Hickory's manager, Ollie McClellan, plays in one game when the Huskers have no other players left, and sinks two free throws (granny-style) to win a key game. Milan had a manager with a similar name, Oliver Jones, but he never played.
Underdog status – Hickory is depicted as a massive underdog throughout the movie. Milan entered the 1953-54 season as one of the favorites to win the state title, as it returned four starters from the state semifinalists of 1952-53.
Close tournament finishes – In the movie, Hickory wins each of its tournament games by two points or less. In 1954, Milan won seven of its eight tournament games leading up to the final by double-digit margins, and the other by 8 points.
Head coaches – Wood, who died of bone cancer in 1999, could hardly have been more different from Hickory coach Norman Dale (the Gene Hackman character). Dale is a middle-aged former college coach with a shady past and a volatile temper, and had a romantic relationship with a fellow Hickory teacher. Wood was only 26, and married with two children, when Milan won the state title, and had coached the Indians to the 1953 state semifinals. By almost all reports, Wood was a soft-spoken man of high integrity who often practiced alongside his players.
The championship game – In the state championship scene, the movie portrays Muncie Central (South Bend Central in the movie; Milan had lost to South Bend Central in the 1953 state semifinals) as a predominantly black team. The real Muncie Central was a predominantly white team with three black members. The movie probably borrowed from the actual history of the 1954 state quarterfinals, in which Milan defeated the segregated Crispus Attucks High School in Indianapolis led by all-time great Oscar Robertson, then a sophomore. In the movie the Muncie/South Bend coach is played by Ray Crowe, who coached Crispus Attucks in 1954 and would lead the team the next year, 1955, to become the first all-black team to win the state championship. The Attucks team, with Crowe as coach and Robertson as floor leader, would repeat as state champions in 1956.
The fact that the movie's South Bend Central team was mostly black and that it makes poor decisions in the last minute of the title game was criticized by Spike Lee, who felt the end of the movie catered to racial stereotypes.

[edit] Similarities

There were other connections between the movie and real life. The announcer of the championship game in the movie was Hilliard Gates, whose voice was familiar to Indiana high school baseball fans of the 1950s and 60s. The legendary announcer Tom Carnegie played the role of the public address announcer during the final championship game at Hinkle Fieldhouse. Milan's senior guard Ray Craft also has a role in the film, welcoming the Huskers to Hinkle Arena as they get off the bus for the championship game.