I've blathered on and on over the years about the iconic
Sports Illustrated article from my youth that baptized me into the world of Indiana High School Basketball, and this being the Internet means of course I have that very article at my fingertips anytime I want it now after not seeing it for 35 years. The article introduced me to the beyond-bananas story that was the Milan Miracle; its delivery to me was perfectly timed for when
Hoosiers came out a few months later. A lot of the Milan story is about race doing the heavy lifting - they had to beat a sophomore Oscar Robertson's Crispus Attucks team that would go on to become the state's first black school to win the title
(and would repeat the next year), and in the movie they make it obvious "lookit these helpless little bunny rabbit collection of boys vs. a Goliath heap of boy-men black monsters on the other team!!" But I never remembered reading this part:
In September 1984 Milan High enrolled the first black pupil in its history. There are no blacks on the Milan basketball team.
What? 1984? I know this is a state famous for the KKK but 1984...just one year before
Hoosiers came out to preach its triumphant story?
I mean I don't really have another other to say other than that's amazing, and it's also amazing how much the real Milan game was so much crazier than the one in the movie - I mean, Coach Marvin Wood wrote the perfect script by having Bobby Plump hold the ball on his hip while an entire state melted down but hey that's Hollywood for you. Grrrrr.
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