50 Fun Facts About Hoosiers (1986 Film)

Why did the NCAA suspend five Hoosiers cast members from their real college basketball teams?

They were paid to play basketball on screen, which the NCAA ruled made them ineligible. Each of the five sat out three games of his college season.

What did the lead actor of Hoosiers call the film during the shoot, convinced it would flop?

A career killer was his verdict on the low-budget shoot. The film went on to gross $28.6 million against a $6 million budget and earn two Oscar nominations.

What happened whenever Maris Valainis, the star shooter in Hoosiers, tried out for his high school team?

He was cut every time he tried out, yet the film's casting director spotted him sinking shots at an open-gym night. He was one of only two team actors who had never played high school basketball.

Which Oscar winner wanted to play Norman Dale in Hoosiers until his schedule ruled it out?

Jack Nicholson was given the script for feedback and fundraising advice, then asked for the lead himself. His brief attachment gave the unfunded project a burst of Hollywood publicity.

Which recorded sound did the composer of the Hoosiers score work into the music as extra percussion?

Bouncing basketballs, recorded hitting a gym floor, were mixed with orchestra and synthesizers. The modern sound was a deliberate contrast with the story's 1950s setting.

How did the makers of Hoosiers fill the stands for the state final when too few extras turned up?

They staged a real game: two Indianapolis high schools moved their fixture to the arena, and fans came in 1950s dress. The actors shot the finale at halftime and after the final whistle.

Which actor plays Norman Dale, the coach with a troubled past who takes over at Hickory High in Hoosiers?

Gene Hackman was among Hollywood's busiest actors at the time, starring in nine films between 1985 and 1988. He had already won a Best Actor Oscar for The French Connection.

Which Hickory star, who sits out half the season, hits the title-winning shot at the buzzer in Hoosiers?

Jimmy Chitwood scores from almost exactly the spot where the real 1954 Indiana final was won. Extras in the crowd had been told beforehand to storm the floor when the ball went in.

Which tiny Indiana high school's 1954 state championship inspired the story told in Hoosiers?

Milan had just 161 students when it won. Some 40,000 people lined the road for 13 miles to welcome the team home the next day.

How did the NBA's Indiana Pacers mark the 30th anniversary of Hoosiers during the 2015–16 season?

They wore Hickory uniforms, created with the film studio MGM, in selected games that season. It put a fictional 1950s high school team on an NBA court.

What is the nickname of the Hickory High School basketball team that Norman Dale coaches in Hoosiers?

Huskers suits a farm town, and their home court was a real small-town gym built in 1921. It had sat almost unused for 19 years before the film crew arrived.

Which actor earned an Oscar nomination as Shooter, the ex-player turned assistant coach in Hoosiers?

Dennis Hopper did not join the shoot until almost halfway through the schedule, and he ad-libbed at least two of his lines.

What must Hickory players do before taking any shot under Norman Dale's early-season rule in Hoosiers?

Pass four times, he orders, and when Rade Butcher ignores the rule in the season opener he is benched. Hickory finishes that game with only four players on the floor.

What past offence got Norman Dale banned from college coaching years before he reached Hickory in Hoosiers?

Hitting a player ended his college career, and teacher Myra Fleener digs up an old article about it. The coach in the real story behind the film was a soft-spoken 26-year-old.

What condition does Hickory's star player set for rejoining the team at the town meeting in Hoosiers?

The coach keeps his job, he insists, moments after the town has voted to fire Norman Dale. A second vote overwhelmingly reverses the first.

What does Norman Dale require of Shooter before making him assistant coach of Hickory in Hoosiers?

Stay sober at every game and practice is the deal. Shooter accepts on one condition of his own: that the head coach stops getting thrown out of games.

What sidelines Cletus Summers, Norman Dale's first assistant coach, during a brawl in Hoosiers?

A heart attack, a mild one, strikes him as Rade Butcher punches a rival who had jabbed the coach in the chest. His absence opens the bench seat that Shooter later fills.

Why has Hickory's best player given up basketball when Norman Dale arrives at the start of Hoosiers?

His old coach died, and the man had been a surrogate father to him. Teacher Myra Fleener then urges him to put his studies first so he can build a future beyond Hickory.

How does reluctant substitute Ollie McLellan win a tense tournament game for Hickory in Hoosiers?

Two free throws from the smallest player on the bench settle it. Ollie is really the team's manager, a reluctant stand-in on a squad with barely enough players.

Which football film later reunited the director and screenwriter of Hoosiers?

Rudy came about because its real-life subject was so inspired by Hoosiers that he tracked down the screenwriter. Angelo Pizzo at first had no wish to write another Indiana sports story.

Why does Norman Dale get himself ejected on purpose late in the Hoosiers season?

To put Shooter in charge and prove his worth to the town, and to himself. Forced to take over, the assistant draws up the play that wins the game on a last-second shot.

Which Hickory player in Hoosiers prays before every game, and sometimes in the middle of one?

Strap Purl is the preacher's son, and his father both drives the team bus and offers prayers of his own before games.

What does Norman Dale make his awed Hickory players do on first seeing the state finals arena in Hoosiers?

They measure the court, from basket to floor and along the free-throw lane. The screenwriter believes he borrowed the idea from a story he was told while scouting the arena.

Which actress plays Myra Fleener, the Hickory teacher who distrusts Norman Dale, in Hoosiers?

Barbara Hershey went on to win Best Actress at the Cannes Film Festival two years running, for Shy People and then A World Apart.

What feature of Indiana's tournament, kept until 1997, let tiny Hickory face city schools in Hoosiers?

A single class meant every high school in the state, whatever its size, chased the same title. Most states split their tournaments by enrollment, as Indiana has since 1997.

Which real arena, site of the 1954 Indiana state final, hosted filming of the Hoosiers championship game?

Hinkle Fieldhouse was the largest basketball arena in the United States until 1950. On screen it goes by its 1950s name, taken from the university whose campus it stands on.

Which heavily favoured school does Hickory face in the state championship game that ends Hoosiers?

South Bend Central was a late change, since the original script had Hickory beating Gary Roosevelt. The real school won Indiana state titles in 1953 and 1957.

Which real-life player hit the last-second shot in 1954 that the Hoosiers finale recreates?

Bobby Plump was voted the outstanding senior in Indiana high school basketball that year. He has said the final 18 seconds are the only part of the film's title game that matches the real one.

Which future NBA legend's team lost to the real 1954 champions behind Hoosiers on their title run?

Oscar Robertson was a sophomore guard for Indianapolis Crispus Attucks, beaten 65–52 in the semi-state. His school then won the next two Indiana titles.

Which David Lynch thriller, released the same year as Hoosiers, also featured the actor who plays Shooter?

Blue Velvet cast him as the terrifying villain Frank Booth and revived his career. It was the gentler part in Hoosiers, though, that brought his Oscar nomination that year.

In the final timeout of Hoosiers, which Hickory player does Norman Dale first choose to take the last shot?

Merle Webb was meant to shoot while the team's star acted as a decoy. The players' uneasy silence, and the star's quiet confidence, persuade the coach to change the play.

Besides coaching basketball, which subjects is Norman Dale hired to teach at Hickory High in Hoosiers?

Civics and history are his classroom duties, arranged by an old friend who is the school's principal and, at first, his assistant on the bench.

What is the name of the play Hickory sets up during the last timeout of the Hoosiers title game?

The picket fence is the plan, with the team's best shooter used only as a decoy. In the real 1954 final the coach simply told his star to take the shot himself.

Which Hickory player is the son of Shooter, the assistant coach hired midway through Hoosiers?

Everett Flatch is embarrassed when his father first joins the bench, a choice that baffles the whole town. By the end of the season Shooter has won back his son's respect.

At the town meeting in Hoosiers, what does Myra Fleener do with the article exposing Norman Dale's past?

She stays silent about it: having walked to the lectern to read it out, she instead asks the town to give him another chance. The crowd votes against him anyway.

Which veteran composer earned an Oscar nomination for his part-electronic score for Hoosiers?

Jerry Goldsmith also scored Alien, Chinatown and five Star Trek films. He rejoined the same writer and director seven years later for their next sports film.

What helped Hoosiers win a place in the Library of Congress's National Film Registry in 2001?

Letters from Indiana fans poured in after a film critic at the Indianapolis Star urged readers to nominate it. Only 25 of almost 1,000 nominated films were chosen that year.

Which US vice president called Hoosiers the greatest sports movie ever made while in office?

Mike Pence, a former governor of Indiana, gave his verdict to reporters on a flight from Indonesia to Australia in April 2017.

What did the star of the real 1954 champions behind Hoosiers do for over four minutes of the final quarter?

He stood holding the ball for more than four minutes, a deliberate stall ordered by his coach. The film's final is far higher scoring: 42–40, against the real game's 32–30.

Which 1958 novelty hit was recorded by Sheb Wooley, who plays the Hickory principal in Hoosiers?

The Purple People Eater made him a pop star, but he was also a busy Western actor, with roles in High Noon and the TV series Rawhide. He is believed to have voiced the Wilhelm scream sound effect too.

Which Indiana-born television director made his debut as a feature film director with Hoosiers?

David Anspaugh was born in Decatur, Indiana, and his hometown's name turns up on a scoreboard during the film's montage of games.

Which Indiana city's powerhouse high school lost the real 1954 state final that inspired Hoosiers?

Muncie Central was about ten times the size of the winners and was chasing a fifth state title. It lost 32–30 to a last-second shot.

Which Indiana town is home to the Hoosier Gym, the real 1921 gymnasium used as Hickory's home court?

Knightstown's old school gym supplied about a third of the film's scenes. It was later saved from demolition and turned into a museum and community center.

Which police drama won the Hoosiers director two Emmys as a producer before he made the film?

Hill Street Blues also gave him his first chance to direct. He has said that 22 hours of demanding television drama were what prepared him to make a feature.

Why do some television versions of Hoosiers credit a fictitious director called Jack Nemo?

He disowned the TV edit, a shortened cut made without him so the film and its commercials would fit a two-hour slot. The made-up name replaced his own in the credits.

Why does Buddy Walker, thrown out of the first Hickory practice, reappear in Hoosiers without explanation?

His subplot was edited out when the distributor demanded a running time of no more than two hours. In the deleted scenes he transfers to a rival school, then asks to come back.

What real-life link to the 1954 Indiana state final does Hoosiers cast member Hilliard Gates have?

He broadcast it as one of the game's original announcers, and three decades later he lent his voice to the film's fictional final.

Under which alternative title was Hoosiers released in some countries outside the United States?

Best Shot was also the name on the soundtrack album for years, because the complete score was not released on CD in the United States until 2012.

Which jazz pianist's score for Round Midnight beat Hoosiers to the Oscar for Best Original Score?

Herbie Hancock took the award, leaving Hoosiers with no wins from its two nominations. The other had gone to the actor who played Shooter.

In what kind of campus organisation did the Hoosiers director and screenwriter first meet at Indiana University?

A fraternity, Sigma Nu, brought them together, and both later studied film at the University of Southern California. They spent two years shopping the script before finding backers.