Picture it. Indiana. 1951.

Hoosiers (1986)

Rated: PG

Runtime: 115 minutes

Stars: Gene Hackman, Barbara Hershey, Dennis Hopper, Maris Valainis

Director: Angelo Pizzo

Awards: Nominated: Best Actor in a Supporting Role (Dennis Hopper), Best Music/Original Score

Plot: Norman Dale (Gene Hackman) is the new head coach for the Hickory High School Huskers. He also is the history/civics teacher, coached at a college in Ithaca, New York and spent the last 10 years in the Navy. Myra Fleener (Barbara Hershey) is the acting school principal, doesn’t approve of Coach Dale right away, and looks after the Huskers star player ever since his mom got sick and his dad passed away. Jimmy Chitwood (Maris Valainis) is that star player. He spends his time being mysterious and shooting jump shots in the school’s small gym. He doesn’t talk much, never misses a shot, and was really close to the last coach of the team. After that coach died, Jimmy decided not to play basketball anymore. Shooter (Dennis Hopper) is the town drunk and father of one of the players on the team. The previous year’s team was 15-10 and has all their boys back but 1. But without Jimmy, the team of seven players (there are only 64 boys in the whole school) will have a hard time winning. Coach Dale brings a style of coaching to the town that many people don’t agree with ... and possibly a dark secret from his past.

Rating—out of 5 basketballs: 5 basketballs. 1 for my recommendation, 1 for the awesome music/score, 1 for the based-on-a-true-story/amazing journey of the team all the way through the season to the state championship, 1 for the fact that each member of the team and not just one star player played an important role in the team’s success, and 1 because this movie makes me think of all my former teammates and coaches and I remember why I started playing basketball when I was 8 years old.

Tournament seed: 1—The favorite to win the championship. Has performed at a high level all season and shows no weaknesses. If the team plays to its potential it should be the one to cut down the nets and hoist the trophy above their heads.

Growing up, I owned 3 movies on tape: E.T., Who Framed Roger Rabbit, and Hoosiers. I probably watched Hoosiers about 500 times as a kid, so I have a lot to say about it. So stick with me on this one. The score for the movie is perfect. At least 10 times I found myself thinking “this score is amazing!” The students have some cool cheers as well. The basketball action is authentic and exciting. The team consists of eight of the most different players you could ever find on one team. But Buddy, Everett, Jimmy, Merle, Ollie, Rade, Strap, and Whit all play major roles as the season progresses. Gene Hackman gives a great performance as the head coach. He has some fantastic lines throughout: “Nobody’s irreplaceable”, “My practices aren’t designed for your enjoyment”, “There’s more to the game than shooting; there’s fundamentals and defense”, “The five players on the floor function as one single unit ... team, team, team ... no one more important than the other”, “Most people would kill to be treated like a God, just for a few moments”, “Welcome to Indiana basketball”, “Break ‘em down and build ‘em back up”, and “Don’t talk about the next step until you’ve climbed the one in front of you”. At his first practice, he kicks two kids out for not listening, leaving him with only five players. As Jimmy watches practices from the shadows, Coach Dale puts the team through a series of dribbling, defensive, passing, and rebounding drills, but no shooting. Then he throws in a little foot-fire and makes the team run some suicides. Whit (one of the boys tossed out of practice) apologizes his way back onto the team, so now they have six! All these drills remind me of my Varsity days ... yeah that’s right ... Salty played himself a little bit of the leather ball/iron hoop game.

After a while, Coach Dale turns his attention to Jimmy. He talks to him while Jimmy knocks down jumper after jumper and tells him “I don’t care if you play on the team or not.” Myra tells him to leave Jimmy alone. She really doesn’t like him. Before the first game, the crowd chants “We want Jimmy!” Coach Dale instructs his team to pass four times before they shoot, and they struggle with the new offense in the beginning of the game. The locals want the team to run and gun ... and on cue, Rade ditches the offense and starts gunning. Coach Dale is not happy, so he takes Rade out of the game. One of the Hickory players fouls out, but Rade is told to sit back down by Coach Dale. The Huskers play the rest of the game with only four players against the other team’s five. We then find out that Myra’s mom loves basketball and that Myra went to college but had to come back to Hickory after her daddy died and her momma got sick. Shooter drops by late one night to give Coach Dale some tips about the next opponent and he recognizes a picture of an old team Coach Dale used to coach. Coach Dale is surprised and asks him if he knows about ... but Shooter cuts him off. We now know Coach has a past that he might not want people to know. Good ol’ Shooter won’t tell! At the next game Everett is embarrassed by his drunken father, Shooter, and Rade gets benched for speaking during a time out. Oh, and Buddy is back on the team. Whooo! Now there are seven players on the team. Coach Dale gets a technical foul, Rade stands up for Coach and punches a kid, and one of the Huskers’ assistant coaches has a little heart attack. Coach Dale now needs a new assistant. I wonder who he will ask. Shooter! Only, Coach Dale sets a few rules: Shooter has to clean himself up, shave, show up at games and practices on time, wear a shirt and tie, and be sober. Shooter wonders, “What does my drinking got to do with my knowledge about basketball?” and he kicks Coach Dale out of his house. But Shooter shows up at the next game all suited up. Everett talks to Coach Dale and says he doesn’t think his dad deserves a chance, but before they can discuss it further, Myra walks into the room. She tells Coach about a petition that’s been issued for his removal as basketball coach, and it will be voted on at a town meeting on Saturday. Before the meeting, Myra reveals to Coach Dale that she has discovered his secret: he received a lifetime suspension from college basketball for physically assaulting his own player. That can’t be good for his chances of remaining head coach. At the meeting, Coach Dale apologizes for nothing and says he is proud of the boys. Myra says it would be a big mistake to let Coach Dale go. The team waits patiently for the vote, when a mysterious figure appears from the shadows. It’s Jimmy! What is he doing there? He tells the crowd it’s “time for him to start playing ball.” But, oh, there is one other thing ... ”I play, coach stays. He goes, I go.” WHAAAAAT????? The vote is 68-45 in favor of dismissing the coach, but they have a revote ... coach stays! Cue the “team starts kicking ass with Jimmy back” montage!

Late in one of the games, Coach Dale gets thrown out of a game for asking a ref, “You got pigeon shit in your eyes?” Now it’s up to Shooter. He designs a defensive strategy late in the game with the score tied to steal the ball, and then he “runs the picket fence at ‘em” and tells the boys, “don’t get caught watchin’ the paint dry.” The play work and the Huskers win! Hickory makes it to the State Sectional Finals, but Everett is distracted because Shooter is not there. Shooter shows up drunk during the game, stumbles onto the floor, protests a call, and gets a technical foul. Everett starts playing rough, which results in him punching a player on the other team and getting slammed into the trophy case and cutting his shoulder. Jimmy hits a shot late to put the Huskers up by 2, and Buddy steals the ball to clinch the victory. The next morning, Coach Dale and Everett find Shooter in the woods, and they bring him to the hospital for an extended stay so he can get clean. Next up is the State Regional Finals. The Huskers get down by 12 in the second quarter and still trail by 4 in the third quarter. Coach Dale tells Buddy to play better defense; so good that by the end of the game he knows what flavor of chewing gum he is. Rade fouls out. Everett gets hit in the shoulder and his stitches get pulled. Strap goes in and with the help of the Lord he hits two shots. Buddy fouls out and tells Coach the kid was “Dentyne”, and Ollie is the only one left on the bench that can take his place. But that’s ok; the Huskers lead by 3 with only 55 seconds left. Ollie then dribbles off his foot and the other team scores. Now there are 19 seconds left and the Huskers lead by 1. Ollie gets fouled. He air-balls his underhand foul shot and the other team scores. Yikes, only 10 seconds left, and the Huskers are now down by 1. Of course, the ball gets tipped to Ollie and he shoots and misses with 3 seconds left. But he was fouled! Strap says a little prayer and Ollie makes both free throws. Huskers up 1! The other team misses a shot at the buzzer and Ollie gets carried off the court. The Huskers will play for the State Championship but not before Coach Dale and Myra go for a walk and talk about the Coach’s “incident”. And then they share the most awkward kiss. Ever.

The Huskers will face, gulp, the South Central Bears and their frontcourt players that measure 6’4”, 6’5”, and 6’5”. Everett takes some time to visit his dad and tells him that he loves him, and Shooter tells him to “Kick their butts.” Time for the game of the century, a true Cinderella story! The team wants to win for all the small schools that never had a chance to get there, and for Coach, who got them there. And Everett wants to win for his dad. The team prays before the game and something about “David and Goliath” is mentioned. A barbershop quartet sings the National Anthem, and the Bears come out and pretty much dominate. Jimmy misses a few shots early and Coach Dale calls a timeout. Coach Dale gives the “Maybe they were right about us, maybe we don’t belong up here” speech. The team responds with the “I think Jimmy can take the guy that’s guarding him” speech. Jimmy delivers the “Shake my head yes” speech. I wonder what could be next ... yep ... the “Jimmy takes over” montage! The Bears are still tough, but the Huskers scrap their way back. The score is 40-34 with 2:10 left in the game and Jimmy shoots and scores. The Bears try to run out the clock and take an unnecessary shot and they miss. Buddy misses a shot, but then he steals the ball and passes it to Jimmy underneath the hoop for a score. 40-38! 33 seconds left. Jimmy steals the inbound pass and lays it in to tie the game at 40-40! Rade then steals the ball and calls a timeout. Coach Dale wants to run the picket fence for Merle, but the team looks at Jimmy and he says “I’ll make it.” Coach Dale looks at Jimmy and gives him the “You better fuckin’ make it” look. With 19 seconds left in the game, Jimmy has the ball at the top of the key and the team clears out. Jimmy runs the clock down to 5 seconds, dribbles towards the basket, crosses over and lets it fly ... goooood! The crowd rushes the court, Shooter celebrates in his room, Myra hugs her mom, the South Bend players are shocked, Jimmy is hoisted into the air, and a South Bend player says (about Jimmy) “That boy can play.” Coach Dale spots Myra in the crowd and they share a “We are totally going to make out later” look. The movie ends with a framed photo hanging in the gym of the team surrounding the championship trophy and Coach Dale’s voice saying “I love you guys.”

I think I pretty much covered all the great lines from the movie so I will end this review with two of my favorite scenes. One is the team before a playoff game giving the slow ... clap. I don’t think I have to explain that gem any further. The other is when the team arrives at the arena before the championship game. Coach Dale has the team take measurements of the free throw line to the baseline (15 feet) and the rim to the floor (10 feet). Those are the same measurements as the gym back in Hickory. It’s just a great way to show that no matter the size of the gym, it’s the size of the heart of the team that matters.