HOOSIERS is based on the true story of a small high school winning the Indiana state basketball championship in 1954. Gene Hackman plays Coach Norman Dale, the once successful college coach who gets a second chance when he’s hired to coach high school basketball in the tiny town of Hickory, Indiana. It takes some time for Coach Dale to whip the talented, but undisciplined young men into a team, and it also takes a little time for local legend Jimmy Chitwood to decide that he will play basketball again. Chitwood had stopped playing prior to the arrival of Coach Dale, but after watching the way the coach goes about his business, he decides he’ll give it another go. After a rough start, the team starts playing good basketball and starts piling up wins as they make their way towards a potential state championship.
HOOSIERS was released when I was 13 years old, and it has been one of my favorite movies for almost 40 years. Why, you might ask? I’ll start by giving you a little Bradley Crain family history. First, basketball was my life growing up. My dad was a teacher and high school basketball coach. From the earliest days I can remember, my dad was teaching me how to play basketball. He taught me the proper techniques for shooting, and through lots of practice I became very good at it. I’m one of those people who could be referred to as a “gym rat.” The only things I wanted to do growing up were play basketball and go fishing. I have a brother who is one year and 5 days older than me, and he loved basketball too. The competition between the two of us made it difficult at times at home, but it also pushed us to get better. Second, I grew up in a small rural community in Arkansas known as Toad Suck, and I went to school in the small town of Bigelow, Arkansas. Bigelow was classified as a “Class B” school for sports purposes. This was the smallest classification that you could be in, and my class consisted of approximately 40 students. Finally, when HOOSIERS came out I was in junior high and my dream was to win a high school state basketball championship. Our teams were good, and I was still young and naïve enough to believe anything was possible. We even won the district championship my 9th grade year, which was the year after HOOSIERS was released. Alas, the chips didn’t fall our way, and even though we won a lot of basketball games over the next few years, there were no state championships. Now back to the movie!
One of my favorite things about HOOSIERS is the cast of young men hired to play the members of the team. So often in movies, the actors that are supposed to be good at basketball are clearly not. That’s not the case in HOOSIERS. These guys can act and are talented basketball players as well. And what can I say about the cast that includes a marvelous Gene Hackman as the coach, and Dennis Hopper as the friendly, but alcoholic dad of one of the players who “knows everything there is to know about the greatest game ever invented.” Hopper is phenomenal, and his work was recognized with an Oscar nomination. Finally, as the team is making its way towards the championship, each player is given a moment to shine and do their part to help the team. I liked that. It all makes for an exciting and heartwarming true story that pretty much anyone can enjoy. I still love the movie now just thinking about it!
Through the Shattered Lens 
My wife doesn’t care about live sporting events – but she LOVES sports movies, because she loves story. And she absolutely loves Hoosieres, what a great film! Terrific review and thanks for sharing your back ground!
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Thanks John. HOOSIERS was made at the perfect time in my life. My dad had so much in common with the Gene Hackman character in that he preached fundamentals above all else. Some of the best times of my early life was based on the game of basketball. There were also some really tough nights as well when we’d lose a heartbreaker. I still wouldn’t trade it for anything.
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This movie was based loosely on the Milan (Indiana) Indians, who won the Indiana state championship in the late ’50’s. I grew up around there and played against Milan several times in the late 60’s/early 70’s. The old gym is still in use.
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That’s so cool! I grew up playing in gyms in the 80’s in rural Arkansas not too much different than the gym in HOOSIERS. I’d love to see the gym in Milan.
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Can’t believe I missed this one first time around, Brad, here is a brief story about Hoosiers and Rudy. I was friendly for a long time in the ’70s with one of the guys who co-wrote and directed Hoosiers, David Anspaugh. The credited writer was his college classmate and fraternity brother, Angelo Pizzo who also wrote ‘Rudy’. Anspaugh directed ‘Rudy’. Anyway, Anspaugh was 30 and married and new to Los Angeles and folding towels and taking court reservations at a tennis club, while he worked for his big break. He got a job as a Production Assistant on ‘Supertrain’ for NBC, funny I even remember the network and the show was famous for being awful. I had the typical kid’s “opinion” that I thought should be respected, ‘that show is crappy, why do you want to work on it?” David Anspaugh gently educated me, saying that he had to work in order to get further work. He said that the job of the Director is to make the show come in on-time and on-budget. Always remembered that, and how it applies so widely. And, Anspaugh went on to work on St. Elsewhere and then Hill Street Blues with Mark Tinker, and I had some friends who worked with him there, too. He also shared with me that all opinions don’t deserve respect, but the RIGHT to an opinion does. He did this kindly, to a punk kid. Wisdom! 10 years later I saw him filling his tank on his Black MB S-Class, and we said our hellos and how happy I was for him to make his dream come true, and he was happy that I remembered his Hoosiers idea and liked his movie very much. He was happy to hear it! As I’m writing this, he’s teaching at University of Indiana, his alma mater. Always liked him, and proof that good guys don’t always come in last, and you never know where a good example and wisdom will turn up!
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That is so awesome, John. He had the right perspective and it paid off for him. Sounds like a great guy. But he would get so sick of me if I was in his class at Indiana. I’d want to stay late every day and talk Hoosiers.
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