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"Hoosiers"

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Offline Boid Brain

As in the Gene Hackman movie that is....I loved that film, and was intrigued by the concept of a school with only 46 boys winning the state championship over other schools of 2,000 or more students!

How can that be??? But the film was "based on fact"....I got no answers from wikipedia except stuff like the fact that it was a Illinois H.S. and NOT an Indiana.

Years passed and after exhaustive research I now have the full details of how this really happened....the total combinations of circumstances boggles the mind!

But I won't bother to go into it now as nobody may be the least bit interested. Basketball is not much of a hot topic around here.

If anyone IS interested just let me know and I will gladly divulge.


Offline Stooges#1

I am very interested.

There are three things I know for sure - Derrick Rose is going to win the MVP, Michael Jordan is the Greatest of All Time and the Chicago Bulls have a real chance at winning this years championship.


Offline Boid Brain

I am very interested.

There are three things I know for sure - Derrick Rose is going to win the MVP, Michael Jordan is the Greatest of All Time and the Chicago Bulls have a real chance at winning this years championship.
I am shocked that the Bulls won 50 already! I was a HUGE fan of them in the 90's!
But Pippin was my man. (I hate MJ so much that I cannot be objective about him)

It's very late, but I will give you some info on Hoosiers and more tomorro.

The Jimmy Chitwood character was based on their 6th man, not on a superstar player. And yes, it's true that they trotted only 6 men on the court...it simply electrified the fans and reporters to witness their entrance and then go on to score 100 POINTS vs. good teams! 100 ponts in a high school game??! That's like 200 in the pro's!

The Dennis Hopper character was based on the big brother of the teams TWIN superstar brothers. He was not a drunk Daddy, but an alumni of the 1940 team that went to the state finals. He sat on the bench as an unofficial coach and would go ballistic when the refs blew a call. Far from being a drunken reprobate he was Major league pitcher with the White Sox.

His name was Judson. He was 11 years older than his twin sibs. He was 5'6" and a great player. The twins blew up to 6'3" between 8th grade and H.S. seniors, and lost NO SPEED or agility in the spurt. They were a fucking nightmare to defend. Like Pippin and Jordan they were awsome defenders as well as scorers. One of the kids had the knack of pinning the ball to the floor on a steal instead of swatting at it. He would then scoop it to his brother where ever he was on the court, they always knew where the other one was. They were the kings of the "no look" pass.

The other twin was a scary rebounder in the Rodman vein, out rebounding taller men. His vertical leap  was amazing....but they were only 2 of the players. The other 3 were shooters with no mercy. The teams feild goal ave. was .53!!! The team average! And bear in mind that most of the shots in those days were from the outside!

They had a little guard that inspired the manager/6th man in the movie. (You know, the kid that played bad) He was born with a birth defect....the right side of his face sagged, his right ear was the size of a quarter. As a result he all he cared about was practicing B ball. No social life at all. For years all he would do was come home, do his chores and shoot baskets at the rim hanging from the barn.

The team was known as the Green Giants. They were BIG. The center was 6'10". And he was a lefty that confounded with his shots near the basket. He had never even touched a basketball 'till the day the new coach litterally bumped into him in the hallway on his first day as the new B ball coach, teacher, athletic director and Principal at the school.

He looked at the then 6 foot 6 kid: "Do you play?" No sir was the answer. "I wish I had met you when you were a freshman...."I AM a freshman"....by the time the kid became a senior he was ready to play vs. any center in the state.

The Chitwood charactor quit the team for football when when he was not made a starter. He was good enough to start on ANY team. But somebody had to be the bench. But when the team started the '51 season 19 and 0, blowing out even the top rated teams he had to come back! He was a long range shooter. His pct. from past the key was better than most from around the foul line. Think of Steve Kerr, but a top notch defender as well.

There is more to tell...manyana. ;)


Offline Boid Brain

I am very interested.

There are three things I know for sure - Derrick Rose is going to win the MVP, Michael Jordan is the Greatest of All Time and the Chicago Bulls have a real chance at winning this years championship.



Offline shemps#1

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You're way off. The movie is based on the 1954 Milan High School Indians from Milan Indiana, who beat Muncie Central for the state HS basketball championship. Another piece of interesting trivia, during the tournament they also beat Crispus Attucks HS out of Indianapolis: a team that had none other than the Big O Oscar Robertson on it.
"Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day; teach a man to fish and he will eat for a lifetime; give a man religion and he will die praying for a fish." - Unknown


Offline shemps#1

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Here's a clip from some documentary. It really is a great story whether or you're into basketball or even sports in general or not.

[youtube=425,350]p6_Tk_FyoVE[/youtube]
"Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day; teach a man to fish and he will eat for a lifetime; give a man religion and he will die praying for a fish." - Unknown


Offline Boid Brain

You're way off. The movie is based on the 1954 Milan High School Indians from Milan Indiana, who beat Muncie Central for the state HS basketball championship. Another piece of interesting trivia, during the tournament they also beat Crispus Attucks HS out of Indianapolis: a team that had none other than the Big O Oscar Robertson on it.
Thanks for the film! Great stuff....but I don't think I'm way off. The movie is fictional. The Names of the players and coach's and the schools. It's an amalgum of the 2 teams. Milan had 130 students to 90 from Hebron, that won it in a larger state 3 years earlier. I take nothing away from Milan, but Illinois' Alden -Hebron was the best story. IMO

If the movie would have truly been about Milan, why change all the facts and names? I think because "Hoosiers" is a better title than the "Green Giants".

That stuff about sending only 6 boys out the there to win it all is PURE Hebron, not Milan. And then there was the lore: Hebron was the talk of the state due to the circus atmosphere of their presentation....the coach's 7 yr old would lead the team on the floor followed by the 6'10' Shultz and just 5 more players. The fans would go wild at the sight, and then be stunned at how bad they were beaten by the farm boys.

The press picked up on it, and they were the talk of the Illinois sports pages all year. Not to mention their style of play was exiting....none of that pre-stopclock stalling for thr Giants. The were pure run and gun.

Here is something I just found tonite searching around: http://www.ihsa.org/store/books/hebron/team.htm


Offline shemps#1

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I'm not going to argue a FACT that Hoosiers was based on Milan. Everybody but the most delusional would concur with me and you have no proof whatsoever that the movie is based on the Illinois team.
"Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day; teach a man to fish and he will eat for a lifetime; give a man religion and he will die praying for a fish." - Unknown


Offline Boid Brain

I'm not going to argue a FACT that Hoosiers was based on Milan. Everybody but the most delusional would concur with me and you have no proof whatsoever that the movie is based on the Illinois team.
Argue? I don't want to argue either. I just wanted to shed some light on how it was possible for a school so small to win State. There was no clue in the movie.

But you know, Shooter rants to the nurse that no school this small had ever went this far. Well, Hebron DID 3 yrs before. To reenterate. I think BOTH schools were the inspiration for "Hoosiers". But I really know very little about the Milan season. I'm gonna look them up 'tho.