"I'll Make it"

The character Jimmie Chitwood says to his coach Norman Dale, “I’ll make it ”. Coach Dale says, “All right, Merle, get the ball to Jimmie at the top of the key”. If you saw the 1986 classic sports film Hoosiers you know that Jimmie the enigmatic kid with a pure jump shot holds the ball for about 7 agonizing seconds and then makes his move. He hits a 14 footer as time expires and the Hickory Hoosiers beat the South Bend Central High School Bears 42-40. Jimmie Chitwood was right, he could make it and he did.

I finished watching the film Hoosiers for maybe the 20th time and I still love almost everything about it. Many sports/film critics say it is the best sports movie ever made. In a USA Today poll it was rated the best inspirational movie of all time and AFI lists it 4th best sports movie ever made. The late George Steinbrenner (owner of the NY Yankees) once told reporters he’d seen the movie 250 times. Of course, George was never one to understate anything. The movie Field of Dreams has its admirers along with The Natural, The Pride of the Yankees, and let’s not forget Bang the Drum Slowly (one of Robert de Niro’s first films). I love every movie on this list but I have to tell you why Hoosiers is my all-time favorite.

Let’s start with the fact that the movie is based on a true (David and Goliath) event. The 1954 Milan (pronounced with a long I) Indians with a school enrollment of 150, won the Indiana State Basketball title by beating the powerful Muncie Central HS team. Muncie Central had an enrollment of over 2,000. At the time, this was the smallest school to ever win a basketball state title in US History. (Ironically one of the teams Milan defeated in the regionals was Montezuma HS with an enrollment of 79 total students. Milan’s win was by all accounts the most incredulous upset since a horse actually named “Upset” defeated the legendary Man-o-War in 1919. “Upset” was the only horse to ever defeat Man-o-War. Hence an upset is, well, an upset and Milan winning was one major upset.

Milan had reached the semifinal game the year before and many thought they could get to the semis again or maybe even the final game but no one thought they could consistently keep beating much larger schools. They did however, finishing 28-2 in 1954. In the final game, their star player Bobby Plump held the ball until he took a last second 14 foot jumper that won the game. That shot ensured Milan’s everlasting fame and fame for Bobby Plump. Today 56 years later Bobby runs a restaurant/bar in Indianapolis called “Plump’s Last Shot”.

The movie was essentially a mix of two seasons 1952-53 and 1953-54. For example in real life, Milan defeated South Bend in 52-53 and Muncie in 53-54 but in the movie they play South Bend in 53-54. The coach of Milan had only recently been hired (just like the movies Hoosier coach Norman Dale played by Gene Hackman) and he did have some unusual coaching techniques that caused the townspeople to wonder who this guy was. The Milan coach ran the 4 corner game (stall) which he called “Cat and Mouse”. That’s one of the reasons why the final game score (real one) ended up 32-30. Bobby Plump at one time held the ball for 4 minutes straight with no defenders. In the movie the Hickory team wins 42-40. I have no idea why they bumped up the score by 10 points except I don’t think they wanted to show a stall game in non-progress.

Four of the players on the real team had the same names as on the fictional Hoosier team. The final game in the movie was shot at the famed Butler University Fieldhouse (Now called Hinkle Fieldhouse) where Butler U. still plays. Essentially, the movie did what all movies “based on a true event” do and that is change a few things, have invented characters for dramatic effect (In the case of Hoosiers, the school teacher/love interest of Coach Dale, Myra Fleener, played well by Barbara Hershey and “shooter fly” Fludge played by Dennis Hopper) but after all is said and altered the basics of the true event are there. The Hoosiers win in the movie and Milan won in real life.

Beyond the facts, I love other angles this movie has taken.
The character Wilbur “shooter fly” Fludge, played by Dennis Hopper is the town drunk and n’eer do well but why? Turns out he played for Hickory in 1931 and whatever his overall accomplishments were that year (we never find out) he took the final shot in the Sectional’s final game. His shot was in his words “in and out”. He says he was fouled but the refs didn’t call it and Hickory didn’t win the game. That led to his 23 year run as a self-loathing town drunk. He embarrasses his son who coincidently is on the current team. He is tormented by his failure by missing that shot. Do I have to remind you of the South American goalie that committed suicide because he accidently knocked in a goal for the other team that cost his team a victory in an important match? In real life the cost of not” making it” in a crucial moment is evident many times over. In a gut wrenching scene near the end of the movie, he tells Coach Dale that he is sorry. Sorry that he has embarrassed the Coach and his son but if you hear the way he says it, he is really saying he is sorry about missing that shot 23 years ago.

“I’m sorry I let you down coach”, “basketball meant so much to me”, “and I know how much it meant to this town”. He’s apologizing for missing that shot 23 years ago. The cruel irony is NO ONE in town even talks about it; they don’t even think about him that way at all. His drinking and loner(ism) was totally unnecessary. We are left hopeful he is finally going to forgive himself and sober up. After all the coach Norman Dale said it’s all right. He forgave him in a sense.

Now, for the “here it comes” moment: There is a short player on Hickory’s team, Ollie. Apparently, in the past he never even suited up let alone plays even a minute. According to Ollie “I ain’t no good, I suit up to be a body”. “Equipment manager is my trade”. Coach Dale suits him up anyway and he is prepared to play him. Why? It’s because to coach Dale every member of the team counts. All five players on the floor functioning as a single unit he tells them is a team that is hard to beat. Ollie works hard in practice, so Ollie suits up.

Well the best part is in a playoff game; Ollie is called upon to play in the game’s closing minutes. Ollie is stressed to no end but he really tries and sure enough, guess what happens? Yep, he takes the last shot and it goes in and out. Exactly what happened to Shooter Fly 23 years before EXCEPT that this time Ollie gets the call from the referee and he goes to the free throw line. Ollie, at least, has his fate in his own hands. Make them and you are a hero. He does make them and for Ollie, the next 23 years he’ll be the town hero. How capricious life is, how capricious the game is. Your fortunes can and often do turn on blind luck or right place at the right time. Get the call, you can be a hero, don’t get the call and you drink for the next 23 years. However, it’s not that simple. The message is it’s a game not curing cancer. Wilbur Fludge has to have a better self-esteem than he does. We all have to keep our victories and losses in perspective. There is no room for self-pity if you are to win at life.


Dennis Hoppers acting was so good. He is Wilbur “shooter-fly” Fludge. At no time in the movie did I find myself thinking its Dennis Hopper playing a part. Here is the interesting back-story: Hopper had long been considered one of Hollywood’s true great actors but years of drug abuse, run-ins with the law (he was the Charlie Sheen of his time) got him essentially blackballed from the industry. He didn’t work for many years. But he cleaned up, grew up, and wanted to make a comeback. This was his comeback movie and he nailed it. I saw him in this movie and even if the movie hadn’t been good, I would have been happy knowing Dennis Hopper was back and others would get to see his work.


There are tons more things I can talk about like the school teacher Myra that protects Jimmie Chitwood from those that would exploit him. Initially she hates basketball but eventually becomes (because of her love for the Coach) one that loves basketball and cheers as hard as anyone in the final game. There is the long time great (under 40 and you won’t know him) Sheb Wooley as the Principal and his performance is right on.

The costumes and location of the movie is spot-on accurate. The car caravans to away games (which they do still), the fall scenes, the old schoolhouse wood floors and the chalk boards take you back in time. But that aside, it’s the actual basketball scenes that are as authentic as you can get without just showing footage of a real game. The boys they hired to be players really could play. It’s refreshing to see real athletes playing the parts of athletes.

The movie Hoosiers is a good watch. The story is inspirational, the acting first rate and the atmosphere a trip back to a time when athletics was fun and not compromised.
One last ironic note is the character Jimmie Chitwood. This shy kid that could “shoot them buckets” was played by an unknown local Indiana boy named Maris Valainas. Maris was a shy kid attending Butler University when he wandered onto the set while they were auditioning kids to be players. A director liked his looks and asked him to shoot some shots. Turns out Maris Valainas had a picture perfect shot and he got the part. As for the shy part, his character Jimmie has only 6 spoken lines in the movie. Talk about type casting. Here’s the weird part, this 6’3” kids had been cut by his HS team 3 years in a row. It’s hard to believe.

He made the last shot in the movie on the first try. Gene Hackman was so impressed with his work that he encouraged Maris to go to Hollywood and be an actor, and he did. He was in 2 other films in small roles and then he walked away from acting just like the enigma Jimmie, in the movie, walks away from playing basketball. Maris ended up going into construction and has lived in Southern California since 1987. He has played for years in men’s leagues and the word on the street is that he still has that picture perfect shot.