"...that never had the chance to get here."
That's the famous line from the movie "Hoosiers", Mario Puzzo's screenplay, loosely based on Bobby Plump and the Milan High School Miracle of 1954. (If you're not from Indiana, look it up!!!)
And it was on a sign seen Saturday Night in the famous and historic Hinkle Fieldhouse, in Indianapolis, where thousands who couldn't get (or afford) tickets to the Final Four watched the Butler-Michigan State game on huge TV's tonite. (Butler will open Hinkle again tonite for folks to watch the game, for free.)
The Butler Bulldog's coach is from Zionsville, the star is from Brownsburg (Where some "Hoosiers" scenes were shot), suburbs of Indianapolis. It has all the makings of another Hoosier fairy tale. There are more people at Duke today, than there are living Alumni of Butler University. Coach K has been coaching for almost as many seasons as Butler's coach Brad Stevens has been alive. Duke spends more on basketball player's expenses than Butler spends on it's entire basketball program.
It's a story ready-made for Hollywood....
Oh wait...
If you don't live in, or aren't from Indiana, you probably won't understand this. This is important to us....
It's a much-needed distraction from the horrible economy, unemployment running out, the repo man coming for your house and your cars, and you don't have to listen to the endless political debates for a while. If you grew up in rural Indiana, memories of raucus nights in bright gyms offered a glimmer of excitement in an otherwise dreary and dark winter landscape. It's as much a part of our culture as beaches or ranches are to others.
Only people who have played the game can know and understand the feeling of looking up in to the crowd, and seeing all those folks cheering for YOU, and the hometown team. And knowing that you have to do your best, FOR THEM. After all, literally half of the population of your town has driven through a near-blizzard to see you play in the Semi-state at Hinkle.
OF SUCH THINGS DREAMS ARE MADE....
While many people, especially the team themselves, are trying to play down the Butler-Milan similarities, they are inescapable. David vs. Goliath stories often are.
Bobby Plump, the star of the the 1954 Milan Miracle Team, (Butler University Star, and Hall of Fame Player) and his 8 surviving teammates were invited guests of Governor Mitch Daniels at Lucas Oil Stadium, and will be again tonite.
As AP Notes:
Plump's buzzer-beating jumper in the '54 championship game inspired "Hoosiers," and the climatic scene of that 1980s movie was filmed in Butler's fabled Hinkle Fieldhouse. Plump has been a popular figure all week, entertaining fans and well-wishers at his restaurant and at Hinkle.
Reached after the game, Plump said his voice was gone.
"I was sitting with Gov. Daniels and another gentleman and I was jumping around so much, their arms are probably black and blue because I kept punching them," he said. "Honestly, I think I would have enjoyed the game more if didn't care so passionately about it."
This Butler team is made of of types you don't hear about much in college sports anymore, STUDENT-ATHLETES. They aren't in college auditioning for the NBA, and they spent the last week in CLASS, instead of surrounded by the hype. They played good-ol' fashioned smash mouth team basketball against the toughest team in the smashmouth Big Ten, and won. And they did it with class.
If you are a Duke fan, you have my condolences. You are the team everyone loves to hate, and tonite, you'll be facing a story that has the potential to be another one for the ages.
The scene from "Hoosiers", based on Bobby Plump's famous winning shot, and filmed on the floor at Butler's Hinkle Fieldhouse, where it actually happened, has long been the dream of every young Hoosier that has ever picked up a basketball, even before "Hoosiers" came out. Everyone knows the story.
Sometimes you win, and sometimes you lose, but in the end, it's what you put in to it that matters. And it's a lesson that will stay with you the rest of your life.
As Gene Hackman's line from Hoosiers says:
"If you put your effort and concentration into playing to your potential, to be the best that you can be, I don’t care what the scoreboard says at the end of the game, in my book we’re gonna be winners."
Good Luck, Butler...
MAKE HISTORY....
SIDE NOTES:
The "Hickory" Gym is actually the old gymnasium at Knightstown High School, now preserved as a museum and community center. It still appears as it did in the movie. As a young man, I played many games on that floor.
The "Town" with the single flashing light shown in the movie is actually my own hometown.