Our 14-year-old grandson, Jon, was visiting us recently and since he had never seen my favorite sports movie, “Hoosiers,” Lin and I decided to pull out the DVD of the 1986 film and watch it with him.

If you haven’t seen it yet, (I urge you to rent or buy a copy) or don’t remember the story, “Hoosiers” is about a small town Indiana highschool basketball team that wins the state championship. The film is set in 1952 when all high schools in Indiana, regardless of school size, competed in one state championship tournament. That was the case until 1997.

In most states, high school athletic teams are divided into different classes, usually based on the number of students enrolled, and separate state championship tournaments are held for each classification.

Today, only Kentucky, Delaware and Hawaii continue to use the one-class system to decide the state high school prep champion.

Gene Hackman played the role of Hickory coach Norman Dale in the film, but there is no Hickory, Indiana. Some elements of the movie do match closely with those of the real story of Milan High School (MY-lun) which won the 1954 Indiana title. Milan was a very small high school in a rural town in the southern part of the state. Both schools had undersized teams.

There are a number of differences between the true Milan team and the fictional Hickory squad.

COACHING CONTROVERSY:

The volatile, middle-aged Dale, who was a bachelor, was criticized for his methods at Hickory and was about to be fired at a town meeting. 26-year-old Marvin Wood was the soft-spoken, highly-respected coach at Milan, was married, and had two children. He had directed his team to the state semifinals the year before so there was no pressure on him.

NUMBER OF PLAYERS:

Hickory had eight, including the student manager, who sank two free throws to win a playoff game. The best player, Jimmy Chitwood, refused to play at first, then announced he would only if Dale were retained, thus saving the coach’s job. Milan had 10, but the student manager never played. No star player was ever not on the team.

DRUNK FATHER:

In the movie, Dennis Hopper played a drunk father of one of the Hickory players. No such person was associated with Milan.

UNDERDOGS:

Hickory was depicted as a huge underdog in every contest, and won each tournament start by one or two points. Chitwood’s last second basket won the final game, 42-40.

Milan returned four starters and was one of the favorites to win the state crown. The closest any opponent came until the championship encounter was eight points. A field goal by Bobby Plump at the buzzer won the title game, 32-30.

CHAMPIONSHIP GAME FOE:

Hickory was pitted against South Bend Central High School, a predominantly black team, in the state finals. Milan faced Muncie Central High School, which had just three black members, to determine the Indiana winner.

Other “Hoosiers” Inside Comments…

Jack Nicholson was the original choice to play coach Dale, but had a schedule conflict.

Maris Valainis, the actor who played Chitwood, was told that whether he made the final shot or not, people were going to rush the floor because of the need for a wide shot of the court. Fortunately, he made it as shown in the film.

Valainis was the only player on the Hickory team who did not play highschool basketball in real life.

Remember the scene in the film when Jimmy and coach Dale talked while Chitwood shot baskets outside That was done in one take. Valainis said he wasn’t even listening to Hackman, but was concentrating on making shots,” and I made one and they kept going in.”

For the scene where Dennis Hopper walks onto the court drunk in the middle of the game, Hopper asked for a 10-second notice before the director called “Action.” At that point, he spun around in circles until action was ordered, allowing him to stagger onto the court in an awkward fashion in order to appear drunk. Hopper was nominated for an Academy Award. Hackman was not.

Actor Steve Holler, who was Hickory player Rade Butcher in the movie, was on the DePauw University basketball team at the time of the filming. The NCAA penalized him with a three-game suspension and Holler was charged 5 percent of his acting fee. If it had not been ruled he was acting and not playing, the penalty would have been stiffer.

In the locker room before the championship game in the film, on the blackboard were the last names of the players on the opposing team. Those were the real last names of the actors who played the Hickory team members.

New Richmond, Indiana served as the functional town of Hickory during filming.

“Hoosiers” was voted by the readers of USA TODAY newspaper as the best sports movie of all time.

The movie was renamed “Best Shot” in Europe because most people there would not know what a Hoosier was. Do you?

It’s said that the origin of the term “Hoosier” is not known with certainty. It’s been in use since at least 1830. Some of the possible meanings include: Citizens of Indiana, cotton stowers on the docks, Indiana farmer flat boatmen, woodsmen, rough hill people, poor farmers, and ignorant, rustic people. It’s the mascot for Indiana University athletic teams.