Franklin basketball coach Brian Bales said that when he first arrived six hours before tip-off, the theme music from the movie filled the gymnasium, and he could feel the goosebumps immediately. Before the game even started, you could see just about everyone coming down down near the floor to get the perfect picture.
Then, just before halftime, when I looked around to see so many people enjoying themselves, I thought, “This must be the way a little girl feels when she meets Cinderella at the Magic Castle.”
This was more than just another Wildcat basketball game that I witnessed tonight. It was instead a moment that will long be frozen in history, the night that small town Franklin met the mythical small town of Hickory, Indiana, (located in the real town of Knightsville, Indiana) the setting from the legendary 1986 movie, “Hoosiers.”
It was a great night regardless of the final score (69-44 ‘Cats, by the way).
The souvenir shop sold T shirts, sweat shirts and posters, all bearing the Hickory name. The display cases featured the day Larry Bird, Magic Johnson, and LeBron James all came to the Hickory gym, and banners everywhere paid homage to the players who were cast in the movie. And just in case you had never seen the movie, a TV in the front lobby played it over and over and over again.
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| Coach Bales addressed the team just before tip-off: "Now is the time to do what we came here to do." |
When I walked through the front door to the gym, I knew this was where Gene Hackman burst through in one of the opening scenes of the movie and immediately started kicking some serious butt. Oh, the power...
In the 99-year-old locker room down below, which still features random pipes going every which ways and shower stalls that would make an new Army recruit raise an eyebrow, Coach Bales went through the customary scouting report just moments before the Wildcats took the floor.
And then he had to get really serious for a moment. “I know we’ve had fun,” he said. “But now’s the time to do what we came here to do.”
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THE IDEA FOR THIS GAME originated this past summer, when Coach Bales heard that the Hickory gym is borrowed all the time for area teams to come in and enjoy its ambiance. He made a phone call, and a man named Bob — a volunteer worker who grew up in Miamisburg — was more than happy to help Coach Bales get the game scheduled.
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| After a first quarter that was close, the 'Cats quickly pulled away. |
As a 1995 Franklin graduate, Coach Bales has memories of “Hoosiers” from his childhood. But while this scheduled event was a thrill for him, his staff and the team’s parents, it wasn’t an immediate hit for any of the guys on the team, who weren’t even born when the movie became such a hit.
So, a week ago last Thursday, the team got together to watch the movie and to see what they were in for -- the history, the atmosphere, and the lesson that there is always a David for every Goliath.
I always chuckle when I hear Dennis Hopper call a play late in one of the games. “We’re going to run the picket fence,” he says. “Now don’t get caught watchin’ the paint dry.” I have no idea what that means.
But that’s small town rural Indiana for you, circa 1954.
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LIKE HICKORY, FRANKLIN IS a small town that is full of families that are second, third, and fourth generations. The names are familiar. Attending a Wildcat game is like going to a town reunion, where everybody knows everyone else.
I like that feeling. That must be why a movie like “Hoosiers” resonates with me, and why it was so special to witness a game in the Hickory gym like the one there tonight.
I suppose it will put a new spin on “Cinderella,” too, if one day I have a granddaughter who will want to watch it. That smile, that opportunity, that magical moment?
Yeah, I get it now.
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| My daughter Chloe and her boyfriend, Cole Blevins. |