By BOB SHRALUKA
WZBD.com
Saturday marked a special anniversary in Indiana: 70 years since Milan upset Muncie Central, 32-30, to win the state basketball championship on March 23, 1954.
Five players, including Bobby Plump, who made “The Shot,” attended a special celebration at the Milan school.
Other team members on hand were Roger Schroder, Gene White, Ray Craft and Rollin Cutter.
Two “Hoosiers” actors, Brad Long (“Buddy”) and Steve Hollar (“Rade”), along with screenwriter and producer Angelo Pizzo, attended.
Also on hand was Gov. Eric Holcomb .
“Hoosiers,” of course, is the movie which told the Milan story around the nation, even the world. Directed by Decatur native Dave Anspaugh, it is recognized as one of the greatest sports movies of all time.
An estimated 1,200 people attended Saturday’s celebration, some from as far away as North Dakota and Minnesota.
“This is the biggest event since 1954 when 30- or 40,000 people showed up here after the tournament when we came back,” said Plump, 87.
“It’s part of Indiana heritage,” Craft, a guard on the 1954 team, said of the Milan Miracle. “It’s just an amazing story. This won’t die.”
“This is something that none of us expected,” Plump said. “It’s such an honor that people would come from a distance. There are people I just met from Minnesota that drove in. That’s amazing. And they seem so happy to be here. I mean that’s a long trip.”
Video tributes from sportscasters Bob Costas and Jim Nantz were played for the crowd.
The Milan victory was brought to the floor of the U.S. Senate Friday by Sen. Todd Young (R-IN).
Standing beside a blowup of the Milan team, Young said, “The memory of Milan lasts because their team and town symbolizes what keeps our communities together … And it’s an inspiration still, across small towns, and struggling places, waiting on their own miracle, where the basketball team brings people together and makes them feel proud of the place they call home.
“That is why we still celebrate little Milan beating mighty Muncie Central 70 years on.”
2ND CELEBRATION: On the phone this week, Anspaugh laughed while talking about replicating the famous shot by Plump.
The movie’s championship game was filmed at Hinkle (then Butler) Fieldhouse and every attempt was made to accurately capture the final 18 seconds of the game.
Warming up for the scene, “Maris (Valaines, as Jimmy Chitwood) was throwing up bricks,” Anspaugh remembered. “He had been cut (by any team he ever played for).”
“Gene Hackman wanted to move him up, but I didn’t. We had Plump there to show us the right place (on the floor).”
Then the filming began and “it went in (on the first take) and everybody went crazy, running all over the floor, in the stands. They didn’t expect him to make it,” Anspaugh chuckled. “Neither did I.”
“Hillard (Gates, famed radio/TV voice who was in the movie) said it (the celebration) was every bit as good as when it happened.”