Misconceptions About Hoosiers

Misconception Fact
The plot of Hoosiers is based on the legendary story of the 1954 Indiana state-champion Milan Indians. The screenplay was inspired in part by but not based on Milan’s famous victory. The story was inspired by and represented screenwriter Angelo Pizzo’s and director David Anspaugh’s love of Indiana high school basketball. The Milan story has very little in common with Hoosiers. See the FAQ for more details.
Jimmy Chitwood is the movie’s version of Bobby Plump, the Milan player who launched the shot that lifted the Indians to victory. Although both Chitwood and Plump made a state-championship-winning basket, and Plump is often called “the real-life Jimmy Chitwood,” no character in the movie represents a real person. Pizzo explained that the character of Jimmy actually was inspired not by Plump but by legendary Indiana University guard Steve Alford. When he played for IU from 1983–87, Alford became the team’s all-time leading scorer. When creating the Huskers for the screenplay, Pizzo asked himself, “What if there was a kid like Steve Alford, who was just a deadly shooter?”
Bobby Plump and Maris Valainis (Jimmy Chitwood), June 2012

Bobby Plump and Maris Valainis (Jimmy Chitwood), June 2012

Milan Indians Coach Marvin Wood had his players measure the distance from the basket to the court of Butler Fieldhouse, and also measure the free throw lane, as Coach Dale has the Huskers do in the movie. Wood and the Indians didn’t do this in real life. Screenwriter Pizzo doesn’t remember exactly where he got the idea for this scene. He said it may have been when he and director Anspaugh scouted Hinkle Fieldhouse as a possible filming location. As Pizzo recalls it, someone there told them about a team that had taken measurements before playing in Hinkle for the first time.
Hickory’s opponent at the state finals is an all-black team that is supposed to represent 1950s basketball powerhouse Indianapolis Crispus Attucks. The movie’s South Bend Central Bears are an integrated team who are somewhat reminiscent of the real-life 1954 state runner-up Muncie Central Bearcats.
Thousands of young men auditioned for the roles of the Huskers at the two-day open casting call in Indianapolis. Although no one knows for certain how many guys showed up at the auditions, a reasonable estimate is between 400 and 600 in total.
Jack Nicholson was offered the part of Coach Norman Dale. Director Anspaugh, who was friends with Nicholson, gave the actor a copy of the Hoosiers screenplay. Anspaugh and screenwriter Pizzo wanted general feedback on the screenplay, as well as advice on how they could raise enough money to make Hoosiers, which would be their first feature film. However, after reading the script, Nicholson told them he wanted to play Coach Dale. Ultimately, Nicholson’s schedule prevented him from doing so. But his early attachment to the film gave Hoosiers a much-needed boost of publicity in Hollywood.
Myra Fleener teaches English and/or is the assistant principal. Neither the movie nor the script specifies what subject Myra teaches. And schools as small as Hickory didn’t need assistant principals. In fact, a typical small-school principal in the 1950s had enough time during the workday to teach a class or two.
Myra and Jimmy are siblings. Myra says of Jimmy early in the movie, “I look after him. His mother’s sick, and his father passed away, and we’re neighbors.”
Hoosiers is set in a particular part of Indiana, most likely the southeast, and the film is inconsistent in the details of Hickory’s location. Hickory is a fictional town.
Hoosiers gets the nicknames of some real-life teams wrong, such as calling Linton the Wildcats instead of the Miners. The screenplay underwent numerous revisions. Some of the alterations involved changing the names of certain Hickory opponents. Originally the script had Hickory playing the Jasper Wildcats at the regional, but the team was changed to Linton.
The movie received little publicity during filming, and few people knew about the production. Hoosiers received plenty of media coverage, starting at the end of 1984. It was written about in dozens of Indiana newspapers, magazines, and other publications—and it got some national press as well. It was mentioned in at least 147 articles in 1984–85 alone and in over 140 more in the next two years. (See the bibliographies for lists of these articles.) Numerous Indiana residents contacted the Indiana Film Commission, which helped with the location search, to recommend their town as a filming site. Hundreds of young men showed up at the open casting call at which the Huskers and other basketball players were chosen. And hundreds more Indiana residents showed up at the auditions for background extras. Thousands appeared as extras in the crowd at the games.
The filmmakers had trouble attracting enough extras to populate all the scenes shot at the various gyms. The only game where not enough extas showed up was the state finals. The gyms were full on the other 16 gym-filming days.
Some scenes were filmed in Frankfort, Indiana. Parts of the 1994 college basketball movie Blue Chips were shot in Frankfort. No scenes from Hoosiers were filmed there.
Pizzo’s screenplay was nominated for an Academy Award. Hoosiers received two Oscar nominations: best supporting actor (Dennis Hopper) and best original score (Jerry Goldsmith).