Where was Jimmy Chitwood when we needed him?
And David did not smite Goliath. But they gave him a helluva scare. And the rest of us a great game.
Chitwood, of course, is the star player of the Hickory High basketball team in “Hoosiers.” I happen to believe “Hoosiers” is the best sports movie ever made. I’m not sure what it is, maybe you had to grow up in a small town, as I did. Or simply have spent an incredible amount of your high school life in gyms and locker rooms, surrounded by guys you came to know better than some family members.
The championship game in “Hoosers,” which pitted tiny Hickory against the powerful team from the city, was filmed in Hinkl1 Field House on the campus of Butler University in Indianapolis.
Which, of course, brings us to this year’s NCAA men’s hoops championship game last night.
Or, “Hoosiers II, the Remake.”
It pitted the little school against the giant. Butler, from the Horizon Conference, going against basketball royalty in Duke.
David against Goliath.
And David almost felled the giant.
But a last-second shot did not fall, unlike Jimmy Chitwood’s shot in the movie, and Duke survived.
I simply couldn’t watch that Butler team and not think of “Hoosiers.” I can imagine their 33-year-old coach, Brad Stevens doing his best Gene Hackman imitation before the game.
It is the single best scene in the best sports movie ever made. And it gets me every time. Hackman, seconds before his team takes the floor in the Indianapolis state basketball championship, admits the time for speeches is long past. He simply gathers his kids, sticks out his hand, invites them to place theirs on his in a show of unity, and says, “I love you guys.”
I tear up just writing about it.
Yeah, I spent a lot of time in exactly those kind of locker rooms in high school. I went to a tiny school, in a tiny hick town.
And I’d be lying if I wasn’t pulling for that shot to fall for Butler last night.
Where are your, Jimmy Chitwood?
And David did not smite Goliath. But they gave him a helluva scare. And the rest of us a great game.
Chitwood, of course, is the star player of the Hickory High basketball team in “Hoosiers.” I happen to believe “Hoosiers” is the best sports movie ever made. I’m not sure what it is, maybe you had to grow up in a small town, as I did. Or simply have spent an incredible amount of your high school life in gyms and locker rooms, surrounded by guys you came to know better than some family members.
The championship game in “Hoosers,” which pitted tiny Hickory against the powerful team from the city, was filmed in Hinkl1 Field House on the campus of Butler University in Indianapolis.
Which, of course, brings us to this year’s NCAA men’s hoops championship game last night.
Or, “Hoosiers II, the Remake.”
It pitted the little school against the giant. Butler, from the Horizon Conference, going against basketball royalty in Duke.
David against Goliath.
And David almost felled the giant.
But a last-second shot did not fall, unlike Jimmy Chitwood’s shot in the movie, and Duke survived.
I simply couldn’t watch that Butler team and not think of “Hoosiers.” I can imagine their 33-year-old coach, Brad Stevens doing his best Gene Hackman imitation before the game.
It is the single best scene in the best sports movie ever made. And it gets me every time. Hackman, seconds before his team takes the floor in the Indianapolis state basketball championship, admits the time for speeches is long past. He simply gathers his kids, sticks out his hand, invites them to place theirs on his in a show of unity, and says, “I love you guys.”
I tear up just writing about it.
Yeah, I spent a lot of time in exactly those kind of locker rooms in high school. I went to a tiny school, in a tiny hick town.
And I’d be lying if I wasn’t pulling for that shot to fall for Butler last night.
Where are your, Jimmy Chitwood?
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