The dazzling films of Gene Hackman stand out for sports fan for one reason: His unforgettable role as Norman Dale, coach of the feel-good, state champion Hickory Huskers in “Hoosiers.”
hit hard in basketball-mad Indiana.
The movie — ranked as the by The Associated Press in 2020 — was released in 1986. Hackman starred as Dale, a man who was given a second chance at coaching after his first one ended after striking one of his players years earlier.
The tale follows the journey of the Hickory Huskers, a team that in took on big-city South Bend Central in the 1952 state championship game and won with Jimmy Chitwood hitting a buzzer-beater. The story is loosely based on the real-life story of small-school Milan winning Indiana’s 1954 state championship. Bobby Plump was the hero in the actual game.
“It’s about change,” Hackman once said. “It’s about what happens with change, how we deal with it, where we learn to give up our ideas about who we are as people.”
Since the movie’s release, tourists have stopped in Milan and other sites where filming took place.
Susan Cottingham, secretary and treasurer of the Milan ’54 Hoosiers Museum and lifelong resident of the town of 1,800, said Thursday she expected a steady flow of visitors over the next few days, though the place was quiet hours after news of Hackman’s death broke.
Cottingham said she’s watched the movie at least a dozen times — probably on the low end for Hoosiers aficionados — and has hazy memories of when Milan High made its real-life run to the championship. Other than to say, “Oh, my,” she couldn’t put into words what the team’s accomplishment and movie have meant to the town.
“I remember the excitement and the celebration and my parents heading to the games,” she said. “The celebration when they got back from winning state, there was between 30 and 40,000 people here. So even at 5 years old, that was pretty noticeable.”
The museum first opened in the early 1960s with displays from the 1954 Milan High team. The museum moved into its current location in 2013 and features the uniforms worn in the movie and the set from the hospital scene featuring co-star Dennis Hopper.
Hackman never visited the museum though he had a standing invitation. The movie’s writer, Angelo Pizzo, and a few of the lesser-known cast members have made several appearances.
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