Milan High School's improbable 1954 basketball state title changed the course of Indiana sports history. The state championship journey was the inspiration for the 1986 film "Hoosiers," which is considered the No. 1 sports movie of all-time. The classic 'David versus Goliath' narrative saw Milan, which had 161 students in 1954, defeat powerhouse Muncie Central (1,662 students) on March 20, 1954 in front of 15,000 fans at Butler Fieldhouse.
Milan, 45 miles west of Cincinnati, ascended to the pinnacle in a one-class basketball system that featured 751 other teams in the postseason tournament. The state championship became a defining moment in Indiana high school basketball, and it's a feat that will never be repeated. This is the story of Milan's Moment and the movie that made the players legends. You can watch the full 20-minute documentary at the top and bottom of this article.
'An earthquake that changed my life'
Bobby Plump's boyhood home never had running water. A telephone was out of the question.
The Milan High School guard who made the most iconic shot in Indiana high school basketball history went to his neighbors to call his dates.
Electricity wasn't in the household until Plump - the last of six children - was a teenager in 1949.
Life seemed simple in those days. College wasn't on Plump's mind until his junior year of high school in 1953 - a year before Milan's famous state championship. He figured he'd work in a factory like his father.
"We never went hungry," said the now-87-year-old Plump. "We had about three acres and we raised everything we ate in the winter time."
Those winters - in between Cincinnati and Indianapolis - were synonymous with Milan basketball.
"It was a vibrant little town," said Rollin Cutter, a Milan sophomore guard/forward on the 1954 team.
Milan had a real sense of community. There was really no need to leave the Southeastern Indiana town. It had a store, a bank and a hardware store.
"You know the only time I ever got out of Milan was when I went with dad when he took some hogs or something to Cincinnati to the stockyard," said Ray Craft, a guard on the 1954 team.
Basketball was a centerpiece of Milan, a town of 1,150 residents.
"It had a movie theater," Craft said. "But if we had a ballgame on Friday night then it closed. Nobody would be there."
A year after being a state semifinalist in 1953, Milan had just two losses entering the postseason. The team had a 15-point winning margin in the single-class tournament entering the state final.
The tournament started with 752 schools. Milan's path would encounter future back-to-back state champion Crispus Attucks High School and Oscar Robertson, arguably the greatest basketball player ever.
Milan, with an enrollment of just 161 students, faced the greatest odds of all against a true "blue-blood" program in Muncie Central (1,662 students).
State championship tickets on the secondary market outside Butler Fieldhouse went for nearly five times face value.
With 15,000 fans inside Butler Fieldhouse, the state championship game was an instant classic.
Plump's game-winning jump shot near the free-throw line toward the crow's nestend of the court lifted Milan past Muncie Central 32-30 on March 20, 1954.
"To say that it changed my life is a little bit of an understatement," Plump said. "It absolutely was an earthquake that changed my life."
That hysteria continued the day after the game - March 21, 1954 - when an estimated 40,000 people celebrated in Milan. The town burst at the seams.
"No small team like ours had ever won a state tournament," Plump said.
And Milan's magic will likely never be repeated: The game is part of a bygone tournament era. Today, Indiana is divided into four classes of basketball based upon student enrollment. Four state champions are crowned.
Maybe that's makes Milan's story perpetual. In many ways, the team's story had just begun that March night.
It was a moment no one in that building ever forget. Milan's journey would later be immortalized by Hollywood for a global audience.
"It's just been almost like a fantasy land," Plump said.
From Butler Fieldhouse to the big screen
The state championship journey became the inspiration for "Hoosiers" - the 1986 movie that many consider the No. 1 sports film of all-time.
"I wanted to honor what that team meant to the history and tradition of Indiana," said Angelo Pizzo, the film's screenwriter and producer. "I knew and we hoped that people would pick up that we were doing a story inspired by the Milan story."
Some say Milan's state title was a miracle. Craft knows better than to make such declarations.
The "Mighty Men of Milan," as coined by the Indianapolis Star, had a 28-2 record during the 1953-54 season.
"I don't think we were lucky because we played some of the best teams," said the 87-year-old Craft, who scored a game-high 14 points in the state final. "We had to beat some of the best teams. It wasn't that we drew the opponent that was the least talented."
The Milan seniors experienced a journey of their own well before that state final. That started when they were sophomores.
Plump said he and teammate Bob Engel were moved from the second team to the varsity starting five after then-Milan coach Herman Grinstead took the uniforms of seven seniors following a loss in the second game of the season.
"We beat Batesville, which was a five-time larger town than us - first time since 1946 - had the best season Milan ever had and the superintendent at the end of the season fired the coach," Plump said. "The townspeople got up in arms. They hired a 24-year-old and he changed our system just like the movie 'Hoosiers.'"
That 24-year-old coach was Marvin Wood. He was the real-life coach Norman Dale, played by Gene Hackman in "Hoosiers."
"Marvin Wood would be among the nicest people you would want to know," Cutter said.
And a coach who was ahead of his time. Wood implemented a new offense including the four corners system. The team went from a zone to a man-to-man defense.
He also closed practices to the public similar to the movie.
"The townsfolks when they saw us practicing - they used to come down and watch it - they didn't like what was going on," Plump said. "And he changed our offense from the run-and-gun, score more points than the other - to the Hinkle system which is an offense that had patterns to it."
Wood persevered through challenges outside of basketball.
The ousted Grinstead drank coffee with the residents in town. His wife had a beauty parlor. Wood didn't mingle with the residents as much. The town of Milan still preferred Grinstead.
"Marvin Wood ran into really a rattlesnake country, man," Plump said.
But, it didn't last long.
Wood led Milan to a five-game win streak to start the 1952-53 season. The critics were silenced. Ultimately, Wood led the team to a regional title and the 1953 state semifinals in his first season.
South Bend Central, the eventual 1953 state champion, soundly defeated Milan in a state semifinal. But, the foundation was set for the following season with several key players returning on the roster.
"I think that kind of showed us that if we wanted to win it we got to get better and maybe change things - not only the players but I think the coaches," Craft said.
Milan returned to Butler Fieldhouse in 1954 for a state championship journey under Wood's leadership.
"(Wood's) the reason we won the tournament," Plump said. "There is no question."
Milan defeated every team by double digits except one entering the state final. Milan proved itself against one of the greatest basketball players ever with a victory over Crispus Attucks and Oscar Robertson in the semi-state round.
Robertson, a Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Famer, led Crispus Attucks to back-to-back state titles in 1955 and 1956.
"Oscar Robertson - you have to put him among the best that ever played," Plump said. "He made every player that he played with better. That's a mark of a good player."
"Hoosiers" paid tribute that Crispus Attucks team in the film.
Crispus Attucks coach Ray Crowe and Robertson's brother, Bailey Robertson, were the head coach and assistant coach, respectively, on the South Bend Central team that plays Hickory in the "Hoosiers" state final.
Drag the slider below to see Butler Fieldhouse then and now.
'This won't die'
Bobby Plump kept his dribble with his right hand and went back and forth as the clock ticked down on an opportunity of a lifetime. A teammate to his left raised both hands to call timeout.
Only 18 seconds remained in the 1954 state final. Milan and Muncie Central were tied at 30. The crowd noise seemed to rise to a crescendo inside Butler Fieldhouse.
The players jogged to their respective bench areas.
The teams and the 15,000 fans knew who was going to take the final shot. It was just a matter of how and when No. 25 (Plump) was going to shoot the basketball.
The most iconic moment in Indiana sports history may have also been the most ironic. Plump was having his worst game in two years of state tournament play up until that point.
Wood calmly drew up a play in the huddle. Craft was supposed to take the ball out of bounds and pass to Plump. Wood told the team that Plump would dribble for five to six seconds and in case of a miss, the team could possibly tip it in.
Starting center Gene White advised the rest of the team to stand on the left side of the court to clear a path for Plump. Wood agreed.
"That gave him a right-handed guy half of the court to work with," 1954 guard/forward Rollin Cutter said.
Click on the icons below to learn about specific moments in the historic game.
But, the script didn't go as planned. Hearts had to be racing. Nerves may have gotten the best of Plump, who passed the inbound. But, he received it back for the final play.
With six seconds left, he dribbled several times with his right hand, made a quick motion fake to the left and took a few more dribbles past Muncie Central defender Jimmy Barnes. Plump lifted for a jump shot from 15 feet. Like it was written for a movie, it was nothing but net.
"I knew it was going in the basket when it left my hands," Plump said nearly 70 years later.
With three seconds remaining, Muncie Central inbounded the ball...
"There wasn't any shouting, and all that," Plump said. "We were ready to go back on defense and stop them.”
But the buzzer sounded before a desperation shot attempt.
Pandemonium erupted at Butler Fieldhouse. The Milan Miracle was born. The folklore had begun. The stories would be told countless times over the decades.
"I think everybody appreciated exactly what happened and how it changed their lives," Plump said.
The Milan players have reunited every year since 1955. Nobody gets fatigued of Milan's Moment.
"In the past 70 years we've had a lot of appearances together," Plump said. "It's amazing it lasted this long. It's remarkable."
That's why members of the Milan team will converge on Milan High School for the 70th anniversary of the state title on March 23. Admission is free and open to the public starting at 11 a.m.
Six Milan players, including Plump, Craft, Cutter, Gene White, Bob Wichmann and Roger Schroder are scheduled to be in attendance. "Hoosiers" actors Brad Long ('Buddy') and Steve Hollar ('Rade') along with screenwriter and producer Angelo Pizzo have also committed to the reunion.
Following the formal ceremony, Milan players and "Hoosiers" actors will sign autographs at the school gymnasium.
Memorabilia from the team and movie are housed at the nearby Milan '54 Museum, which will be open during special hours March 23. Visitors from all 50 states have walked up the museum entrance steps for a glimpse into Indiana basketball history.
"It's part of Indiana heritage," Craft said. "It's just an amazing story. This won't die."
Legacy is a word that is tossed around a lot in sports. But, for Plump and his teammates, they have gained a life perspective from a seven-decade journey since that state final.
"I'd like to be remembered as a good basketball player but more importantly as a good person," Plump said.
"Hoosiers," like the real-life Milan state title, is interwoven into the identity of the Milan players and community.
"I just think it's a story that will never go away because of all the pieces that have created it," said Brad Long, who played 'Buddy' in the movie and is on the museum board of directors.
"A young group of guys against all odds beat a bigger school - a much bigger enrollment school - then they go on in their walks of life successful."
Long, 61, is a grandfather who wants to make sure the Milan story is never forgotten.
"Everybody thinks about what they've done in their life, what people maybe they've touched, what left that they could do to leave the world a better place," Long said. "And so as I get older I suppose it's just a thing that I realize as time goes on and these guys are getting older we need to be sure that their legacy continues on."
