Hoosier Hysteria is the state of excitement surrounding basketball in Indiana or, more specifically, the Indiana high school basketball tournament. In part, the enthusiasm stemmed from the one-class tournament, in which a small town's David might knock off a large city's Goliath. The most famous example occurred in 1954, when Milan defeated Muncie Central to win the state title. The movie Hoosiers was inspired in part by the story of the 1954 Milan team and typifies the hysteria related to basketball in Indiana.
Hoosiers is a 1986 American sports film written by Angelo Pizzo and directed by David Anspaugh in his feature directorial debut. It tells the story of a small-town Indiana high school basketball team that enters the state championship. It is inspired in part by the Milan High School team who won the 1954 state championship.
Milan is a town in Franklin and Washington townships, Ripley County, in the U.S. state of Indiana. The population was 1,899 at the 2010 census.
New Palestine High School is a rural public high school located in New Palestine, Indiana, managed by the Community School Corporation of Southern Hancock County. As of the 2016–2017 school year it serves 1,137 students and employed 61 faculty members.
William Robert "Slick" Leonard was an American professional basketball player, coach and color commentator. He played college basketball for the Indiana Hoosiers, where he was a two-time All-American and a member of their national championship squad in 1953. After playing professionally in the National Basketball Association (NBA), Leonard coached the Indiana Pacers to three American Basketball Association (ABA) championships. He was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame as a coach in 2014.
Hinkle Fieldhouse is a basketball arena on the campus of Butler University in Indianapolis, Indiana. Completed in early 1928, it was the largest basketball arena in the United States until 1950. The facility was renamed Hinkle Fieldhouse in 1966 in honor of Butler's longtime coach and athletic director, Paul D. "Tony" Hinkle. It is the sixth-oldest college basketball arena still in use. Added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1983 and designated a U.S. National Historic Landmark in 1987, Hinkle Fieldhouse is sometimes referred to as "Indiana's Basketball Cathedral."
Damon Bailey is an American former professional basketball player. He rose to national prominence after being recruited by Indiana coach Bob Knight as an 8th grader, an unusual move at the time. Bailey went on to become Indiana's all-time high school leading scorer and would earn All-America honors playing for the Indiana Hoosiers. He became a cult figure during the late 1980s and early 1990s in Indiana. Bailey was an assistant coach of the Butler University's women's basketball team from 2014 to 2017.
Tom Carnegie, born Carl Lee Kenagy, was an American radio and television broadcaster, public-address announcer, sports columnist, documentary filmmaker, and educator from Norwalk, Connecticut. Carnegie's radio and television broadcasting career, which spanned from 1942 to 1985, included work at KITE radio in Kansas City, Missouri; WOWO (AM) radio in Fort Wayne, Indiana; and WIRE (AM) radio in Indianapolis, Indiana. Carnegie was also sports director for WRTV television in Indianapolis for thirty-two years, and broadcast the Indiana high school boys' basketball tournament for twenty-four years.
The Indiana Hoosiers men's basketball team represents Indiana University Bloomington in NCAA Division I college basketball and competes in the Big Ten Conference. The Hoosiers play at Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall on the Branch McCracken Court in Bloomington, Indiana on the Indiana University Bloomington campus. Indiana has won five NCAA Championships in men's basketball – the first two under coach Branch McCracken and the latter three under Bob Knight. For forty-six years and counting, Indiana's 1976 squad remains the last undefeated NCAA men's basketball champion.
Gene White was one of the original members of the 1954 Milan, Indiana championship basketball team that inspired the film Hoosiers.
New Castle High School is a public high school in New Castle, Indiana whose name is commonly abbreviated to NCHS. It is part of the New Castle Community School Corporation and has an enrollment of approximately 1,200 students. NCHS is the largest high school in Henry County.
Pierceville is an unincorporated community in Franklin Township, Ripley County, in the U.S. state of Indiana.
The 1954 Milan High School Indians won the Indiana High School Boys Basketball Tournament championship in 1954. With an enrollment of only 161, Milan was the smallest school ever to win a single-class state basketball title in Indiana, beating the team from the much larger Muncie Central High School in a classic competition known as the Milan Miracle. The team and town are the inspiration for the 1986 film Hoosiers. The team finished its regular season 19–2 and sported a 28–2 overall record.
The Indiana Mr. Basketball honor recognizes the top high school basketball player in the state of Indiana. The award is presented annually by The Indianapolis Star. The first Indiana Mr. Basketball was George Crowe of Franklin High School in 1939. The Indiana Mr. Basketball award is the oldest such award in the nation, predating the second oldest by over a decade; California would be the next state with such an award in 1950.
George Washington Community High School is a public school located in Indianapolis, Indiana, United States, serving grades 9–12.
Maris Valainis is an American construction consultant and a former actor, best known for his role in the 1986 film Hoosiers. He portrayed Jimmy Chitwood, a basketball player who makes a last-second shot to win the 1952 Indiana state high school championship. Bobby Plump accomplished that feat in 1954.
The Indiana High School Athletic Association (IHSAA) is the arbiter of interscholastic competition among public and private high schools in the U.S. state of Indiana. It monitors a system that divides athletically-competing high schools in Indiana based on the school's enrollment. The divisions, known as classes, are intended to foster fair competition among schools of similar sizes. A school ranked 3A is larger than a school ranked 1A, but not as large as a 6A-ranked school. Only football has 6 classes. Boys' basketball, girls' basketball, volleyball, baseball and softball are divided into four classes. Boys' and girls' soccer have featured three classes since the 2017–18 school year. All other sports compete in a single class.
The Indiana Collegiate Conference (ICC) was a college athletic conference in the United States from 1951 to 1978. It consisted solely of schools in Indiana.
The Indiana High School Boys Basketball Tournament, organized by the Indiana High School Athletic Association (IHSAA), is the oldest state high school basketball tournament in America. The tournament has often featured future NCAA and National Basketball Association (NBA) players. The Milan Miracle team in the 1953–54 season inspired the 1986 movie Hoosiers. In the early 1920s, the tournament was dominated by the Franklin Wonder Five, who won three consecutive state championships, followed by a college championship at Franklin College. They won several games against professional teams.
Raymond Province Crowe was a basketball coach, educator, school administrator, and Republican politician in Indianapolis, Indiana. He is best known as the head basketball coach of Crispus Attucks High School from 1950 to 1957, after which he served another decade as the school's athletic director. His teams won the Indiana state basketball championship in 1955 and 1956, becoming the first all-black school to win a state championship in the country, and the first Indianapolis team to win the Hoosier state title. Crowe coached numerous Indiana All-Star players, including Oscar Robertson, Hallie Bryant, and Willie Meriweather, and was inducted into the Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame in 1968.
