{"id":14267,"date":"2024-03-25T08:26:32","date_gmt":"2024-03-25T12:26:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/?p=14267"},"modified":"2024-03-25T08:26:34","modified_gmt":"2024-03-25T12:26:34","slug":"milan-marks-70-anspaugh-recalls-the-shot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/2024\/03\/25\/milan-marks-70-anspaugh-recalls-the-shot\/","title":{"rendered":"Milan marks 70; Anspaugh recalls the shot"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By BOB SHRALUKA<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

WZBD.com<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Five players, including Bobby Plump, who made \u201cThe Shot,\u201d attended a special celebration at the Milan school.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Other team members on hand were Roger Schroder, Gene White, Ray Craft and Rollin Cutter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two “Hoosiers” actors, Brad Long (\u201cBuddy\u201d) and Steve Hollar (\u201cRade\u201d), along with screenwriter and producer Angelo Pizzo, attended.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Also on hand was Gov. Eric Holcomb .<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHoosiers,\u201d 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

An estimated 1,200 people attended Saturday’s celebration, some from as far away as North Dakota and Minnesota.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“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.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“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.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Video tributes from sportscasters Bob Costas and Jim Nantz were played for the crowd.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Milan victory was brought to the floor of the U.S. Senate Friday by Sen. Todd Young (R-IN).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Senator Todd Young on the floor of the United States Senate. <\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Standing beside a blowup of the Milan team, Young said, \u201cThe memory of Milan lasts because their team and town symbolizes what keeps our communities together \u2026 And it\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThat is why we still celebrate little Milan beating mighty Muncie Central 70 years on.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2ND CELEBRATION: On the phone this week, Anspaugh laughed while talking about replicating the famous shot by Plump.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Warming up for the scene, \u201cMaris (Valaines, as Jimmy Chitwood) was throwing up bricks,\u201d Anspaugh remembered. \u201cHe had been cut (by any team he ever played for).”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cGene Hackman wanted to move him up, but I didn’t. We had Plump there to show us the right place (on the floor).\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then the filming began and \u201cit 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,\u201d Anspaugh chuckled. \u201cNeither did I.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHillard (Gates, famed radio\/TV voice who was in the movie) said it (the celebration) was every bit as good as when it happened.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By BOB SHRALUKA WZBD.com Saturday marked a special anniversary in Indiana: 70 years since Milan upset Muncie Central,<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[41,14,15,26],"class_list":["post-14267","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports","tag-basketball","tag-decatur","tag-featured","tag-sports"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14267","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14267"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14267\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14267"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14267"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14267"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}