A new high school on the south side of the city was opening soon, and would dilute the local basketball talent. Guard John Dampier played two years for a California junior college then averaged 19.3 points as a junior at Miami of Florida. Gary Roosevelt suffered a 50-48 defeat against Lafayette Chandler Thompson The 6-3 Thompson was a top contender for Mr. Basketball as a senior in 1987-88 as he averaged 22.7 points per game for the state champion Bearcats. He ended up working at the school as a teacher from 1960-68, and he saw the program in the years after the Milan Miracle. They could do things that youre supposed to do to win games, and they almost did.. Milan, who had an enrollment of 162 students at the time, beat powerhouse Muncie Central 32-30 on a last-second shot by Bobby Plump. Theafternoon game featuring Milan and Terre Haute Gerstmeyer is also in the process of being restored by the network. It gathered again for a banquet 11 days following the final game that was attended by 500 people. A pair of memorable point guards led those championships. victory against Milan in a semifinal. scoring. Over the years Milan and Muncie Central have played several games to celebrate that championship game. March 6, 2018 M ilan High School, enrollment 161, defeated the favored Bearcats of Muncie Central, 32-30, to win the 1954 Indiana state basketball championship. Forward Ted Server scored 15 points, Schnaitter had 12 and guard He closed practice to outsiders, an act that removed one of the major forms of leisure time entertainment for the town's basketball-crazed population and angered many. 11 NBA draft pick in 1998, Wells went on to a 10-year NBA career, averaging 12.1 points and 4.6 rebounds with Portland, Memphis, Sacramento, Houston and New Orleans. Muncie Central High School Bearcats (Basketball team) Basketball teams Group portraits Boys Teenagers Coaches (Athletics) Basketball players Students: Further information on this record can be found at its source. The Bearcats eliminated These were realized as the Indians won their first regional game in school history under questionable circumstances against Morton Memorial, an orphanage school outside of Knightstown. Hours. Thompson went on to become an all-conference player at Ball State and led the Cardinals to the Sweet Sixteen of the NCAA tournament in 1990, where it lost by two points to eventual champion UNLV. He scored 2,485 points at Ball State to set a school record and also set a school record for steals (347). In that game, Morton Memorial held a nine-point lead late in the game, only to lose in double-overtime as Milan's fourth quarter comeback was aided when the timekeeper delayed restarting the clock by a few seconds on one occasion. He averaged 17.5 points per game as a junior in 1965-66 and was named all-conference. school. Early in the fourth, Muncie hit two free throws to pullahead. Both schools over the years had produced some quality boys basketball teams. "It was an unbelievable thing. Whitsell led Evansville Reitz with 14 points. 1954 MILAN TEAM Season Record 28-2 Championship Game Played March 20, . The Tigers' 97 points and the two finalists' combined score of "He said, That tells me God was responsible for the tornado and that basketball is still king in Muncie. They were the greatest on Earth as far as most of the local citizens were concerned, a vortex that inhaled a community, instilled pride and knit generations together. Allen Leavell The 6-1 Leavell averaged 17.9 points per game as a senior in 1974-75 but was not highly-recruited out of high school. Moore also won the Trester Award. And while Central was a big school with roughly 1,500 students, it wasn't even the biggest in its conference. Moore scored 61 points in the Bearcats two final four wins. Fieldhouse. Volunteer Help the coach manage this team. He can recall spending four days that next week preparing to face Terre Haute Gerstmeyer, only to see the previous season's state runner-up lose to tiny Milan High. Attucks. Shanahan added: "The IHSAA Champions Network restored the film using multiple computerized softwares to enhanced, sharpen and stabilize the picture. Central fans, though, will quickly remind you all of their championships came in the single-class state tournament while Marion needed two in the multi-class tournament to pull even. The restored footage features the cadence of Hilliard Gates. scored 17 in Lafayette Jefferson's loss against Crispus Muncie Central High School basketball team with trophy Muncie Central High School Bearcats basketball team This project is made possible by a grant from the U.S. Institute of Museum and Library Services, administered by the Indiana State Library. Crispus Attucks and 24 in Kokomo's 58-56 semifinal win over New Bonzi Wells, Central High class of 1994, lasted the longest, playing 10 seasons. That team's only regular season loss was in overtime to conference rival Richmond. Bob Collins wrote in theIndianapolis Star on March 21, 1954, that the game"was one of the greatest this state tourney ever has seen and the ButlerFieldhousewas a madhouse as the final gun sounded.". With 18 seconds left, Milan called atimeout to set up a final shot. Moore went on to become a star at Nebraska, where he was a three-year starter. Dinwiddie finished his high school career with 814 points (14.8 per game). Muncie got the rebound but turned the ball overand Milans Ray Craft made a basket to even the scoreat 28-28 with 2:12 remaining. In 105 career games, he averaged 11.5 points and finished with 1,204 career points. 1954 IHSAA State Championship Milan vs Muncie Central (3-26-18) - In 1954 tiny Milan pulled off one of the all-time great basketball feats winning the Indiana High School Boys Basketball Championship. When he made the JV team, he thought he had arrived. Looking back, I can see just how big it was.. thumping of Lafayette Jefferson in the state title game at Butler They had destiny written all over them. With an enrollment of only 161, Milan was the smallest school ever to win a single-class state basketball title in Indiana, beating the team from the much larger Muncie Central High School in a classic competition known as the Milan Miracle. to the title game on the line. Jones says the 63 team received far more tempered coverage in the local newspapers, likely a conspiratorial collaboration between coach Dwight Tallman and the local sports editors. Central 53-45 in the other semifinal. [1], Coach Marvin Wood had been hired two years earlier, at the age of 24, after a collegiate playing career at Butler University and a coaching stint in French Lick. Eison led the Five regular-season losses put that status in jeopardy but reaching the final had most thinking another title was likely. Central played the foil, the heavy favorite that couldnt stop the magical season as Bobby Plumps 14-footer in the waning seconds pushed those teams and that 32-30 game into the realm of lore. Albany. On Monday, the team rode on a fire truck from the school to the Rivoli Theatre downtown for a parade and an afternoon rally, and a dance was conducted at the fieldhouse that evening. '"Agullana said, describing his first meeting with Plump years later. Plump dribbled up over mid-court pulled the ball up against his stomach, and stood still. The Milan Miracle game is especially poignant to me. Milan led, 23-17, at halftime, but Muncie came backand tied the game, 26-26, by the end of the third quarter. Success! Geographic Location: Muncie . INDIANAPOLIS | Crispus Attucks became the first school from As a result, most Indiana high schools of the era had what today are considered extremely small enrollments. It was merely the sixth-largest in the state, but also the sixth-largest in the world. Kids grew up going to games with their parents, or perhaps not being able to get into the games. 17 points to lead his team to a 68-59 semifinal victory over Terre Crispus Attucks (26-5) had five players score in double figures Plump eventuallytook a shot and missed with a few minutes left in thegame. One Hall of Fame Court New Castle, Indiana 47362. info@hoopshall.com 765-529-1891. Eison set a four-game record by compiling 97 points in the When the game was over, of course, we went straight to our dressing room,which was underneath Butler Fieldhouse (now Hinkle Fieldhouse), saidBirge, 88, from his home in Jasper, Ind. Forward Pat Klein led the Giants with a game-high 22 Madison in 1949, to lift the Tigers to their second consecutive Albert Maxey and Laverne Benson scored 18 points apiece to pace Logansport then beat When the Bearcats held a 40th anniversary celebration of the game, one year early because former coach Jay McCreary was ill, players from both teams participated. Dinwiddie, a sophomore on the '60 team, was his mother's brother. Thompson is now the Bearcats' head coach, and in a unique position to appreciate the city's basketball history. Lafayette Jefferson edged Elkhart 54-52 in the other semifinal. Then later on it mushroomed. Worked toward it, too. NBA.com is part of Warner Media, LLCs Turner Sports & Entertainment Digital Network, Learn More About This Season's Honorees . Game audio was a radio broadcast laid over the game film.". Plumps shot with three seconds left cemented the Milan Indians place inIndiana basketball history. He later played on two NBA championship teams with the Boston Celtics and was a member of the original Pacers team in 1967-68. INDIANAPOLIS | Muncie Central repeated as state champion to The two-time college All-American played two seasons in the NBA with the Boston Celtics and one in the ABA with the Indiana Pacers, averaging 6.1 points over 118 games. There remains nothing as exciting as Indiana High School basketball. Crawfordsville, Indiana's first state champion in 1911, made its Birge and Todd called only fivepersonal fouls on Milan and 11against Muncie during the game. I was under the basket when the ball came through. 3 Muncie Central vs. No. Some were bitter and others still havent accepted or forgiven Plump for producing the defining moment of a dominant, historic decade of Bearcats basketball. Roosevelt 97-74 at Butler Fieldhouse. In his best season with Portland in 2001-02, Wells averaged 17.0 points, 6.0 rebounds and 2.8 assists per game. Wells blossomed as a star at Ball State, where he was twice named the Mid-American Conference Player of the Year, as a sophomore and senior. What other high school team from Indiana can claim a roster that included three future NBA players, another future major college star whose career was ended prematurely by injury, and a future NFL player? Rick Jones, who led the scoring in the two "final four" games, was later voted Mr. Basketball, although many Jones included thought the honor would go to teammate Mike Rolf, who had been the leading scorer during the regular season. Although Milans championship is now the most well-known example of a small high school winning a single class state basketball tournament, other small schools in different states have had similar accomplishments. You had to be alert, but then you got to thinking,Did he dribble or didnt he? said Birge. Thompson went on to play several years professionally overseas. Coach Ray Eddy must have impressed some people during his tenure Morry Mannies was only in high school when the game happened, but two years later he came to Muncie for college and started broadcasting Ball State and Bearcats games for WLBC. Andy Hircko, Torrington. Crawfordsville 70-59 in the championship game of the Lafayette And now, 60 years after Plumps shot fell through, those Bearcats remain in the haze between myth and reality, carving out their own side of history. Hammond suffered a 45-43 defeat against Logansport in a South Bend Central finished the season with a perfect record of Ronnie Fisher led the Bronchos past Elkhart with 21 points. Everyone knows about the Milan side of the story and about the Hickory Huskers, but the losing team in a classic game always gets overlooked. semifinal of the Lafayette Semistate. Jefferson. The real story of Muncie's basketball tradition - which will be honored at Bankers Life Fieldhouse on Friday when the Pacers meet Miami has more to do with the fans than the players, though. What I really wanted to do was throw it out of Hinkle Fieldhouse.". Leon Agullana started that game and played the majority of it, and as he looked back on those sixty years that seem to have gone by so fast for him, he wanted to make one point about it. We figured wed run on Milan. Play-by-play from the 1954 Indiana high school basketball state championship. Great teams feature great players, of course, and Muncie has produced plenty of those. Want it to be on Pacers.com? With four starters returning from the semifinalists, Milan was considered a lock to win both the Ripley County tournament and the sectional. {{start_at_rate}} {{format_dollars}} {{start_price}} {{format_cents}} {{term}}, {{promotional_format_dollars}}{{promotional_price}}{{promotional_format_cents}} {{term}}, Valpo man nabbed with child porn after making video of his online activities, police say, Vanis Salon, an 'iconic brand' in Northwest Indiana, sold to new ownership as founder retires, Valparaiso University and Vitalize Valpo buy former Strongbow Inn for $2.2 million, Police pursuit ends in crash, death of motorcyclist, Young man shot dead in front yard, area police chief says, First ocean vessel arrives at Port of Indiana-Burns Harbor, Heavily intoxicated woman found sitting on U.S. 6 was angry after being left at bar, cops say, NWI Business Ins and Outs: Urban Air Adventure Park, Cafe Farina, Indian restaurants, Buffalo Wild Wings and HassleLess Mattress opening; Meatheads closed, Former Mahencha Apartments demolished in Gary, 'Wolf in sheep's clothing' gets 45 years for repeatedly molesting Porter County girl during game of doctor, Lifetime pass opens wonders of Dunes and all national parks, recreation areas to seniors, Young motorcyclist leads 120 mph chase down U.S. 6, Portage police say, UPDATE: Police identify man who died after exchanging gunfire during 11-hour standoff, US marshals apprehend suspect in March homicide in Gary, Valpo man pleads guilty after being nabbed with thousands of images of child porn, court says, England's Lionesses prepare for World Cup as interest in women's football grows, Dallas Mavericks fined $750,000 for trying to lose game against Chicago Bulls, MLS player given six game ban for racist remark, WTA announces return to China, ending boycott over Peng Shuai allegations. Register to let other graduates of Muncie Central High School find and . The school board spent 15 years paying off the debt from the massive fieldhouse that opened in December 1928. "We were sitting there freezing to death," Jones recalled. There are some that have eight or nine, but most have 10. Thats when he took a couple ofdribbles over to the side and then shot. 40,000 people descended on Milan (population: 1,150) the next day as the team returned home from Indianapolis, lining State Road 101 for 13 miles (21km) to congratulate the Indians. He signed with Cincinnati out of high school and averaged 9.8 points and 5.2 rebounds over three seasons. Even in the Eighties, he and his father had to do what fathers and sons had been doing for decades: get to the game before the Bearkittens junior varsity team took the court so they could be sure of having a seat for the varsity game. Note: The contents of this page have not been reviewed or endorsed by the Indiana Pacers. So, really, I was just throwing it. Performance cookies are used to understand and analyze the key performance indexes of the website which helps in delivering a better user experience for the visitors. game since 1913, South Bend Central survived a last-second shot to His hiring was controversial, coming on the heels of Superintendent Willard Green's firing of coach Herman "Snort" Grinstead, who had ordered new uniforms without authorization. Either way, dreams were hatched. undefeated record. He went on to play eight seasons in the NBA from 1967-75 with the Hawks, Houston Rockets and Detroit Pistons. The bigger schools dont play the little schoolsanymore. And thats from a man whose team had to knock off a Crispus Attucks squad that featured sophomore guard and future basketball hall of famer Oscar Robertson during the tournament run. But hedidnt come close to traveling. Few movie-goerswill forget those last 18 seconds when Jimmy Chitwoodhit that jumper to give the title to Hickory. Flowers (who scored a team-high 11 points) and his teammates would be held to their lowest scoring output for the season scoring just 30 points in the loss. Milanentered the postseason with a 19-2 regular-season record and made it to the semifinals the year before, losingto South Bend Central. Lew Wallace faced eventual state champion South Bend Central in 14 Anderson Highland. and finished the 1955-56 season with a record of 31-0. The story of that Milan season was further popularizedin the 1986 film "Hoosiers" in whichthe fictional small-town Hickory High School prevailed to win the state championship. After Beck took Plump to Central's memorabilia room and showed him an authentic jacket from Hoosiers and the autographed ball from Plump he joined the Central alumni association and continues to pay his $10 annual dues. in the past. Oscar Robertson of Attucks and John Coalman of South Bend four players named to the all-state team. With the eyes of mostof Indiana fixated to the ballgame and its slow-downnature, every call was likely magnified more than inmost games, making the absence of complaints evenmore significant. This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. Panthers' last four games of the tournament. with Madison. Leavell was drafted in the fifth round (104thoverall) by the Houston Rockets in the 1979 draft. for the Bearcats. In later years you might be able to get in with a single-game ticket, but you probably had to show up before the junior varsity game to get a decent seat. The first official NJCAA National Championship was in 1948 in Springfield, MO at the Southwest State College Fieldhouse. TheIndians feat became known as the Miracle of Milan and was later theinspiration for the 1986 movie Hoosiers. NJCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championships is held annually in March at the Hutchinson Sports Arena in Hutchinson, KS. In the first Semi Final game they got a little revenge from the regular season beating Ft. Wayne North Side 62-48, who beat them in late November 53-43. Check out more historic rosters Kyle has put together. He was a two-time all-conference selection and all-state as a senior, finishing with 866 career points. The team finished its regular season 192 and sported a 282 overall record. They shoved it to the back of their minds, because it couldnt have happened, Mannies said. Including the team that lost to Milan in 1954, Muncie has had seven runner-up teams in the state tournament, including Delta in the final year of the single-class tournament in 1997. Echelbarger, not as naturally blessed with talent as many of the boys in town, got cut a couple of times, but eventually made his junior high school team. Muncie Central won the state championship in 1963 and went on to win three more titles for an unprecedented eight single-class crowns. In his email, Shanahan also noted that if a 3-point line had existed, Muncie Central would have won 37-33, thanks to Jim Hind's three 3-pointers. Interesting to note that the Bearcats did beat South Bend Central during the 1954 regular season 74-57. Get the people who attended those games and played in that fieldhouse talking about it, and the passion is evident even over the telephone. Similar Items. Thompson, a first-team all-state selection and Indiana All-Star, scored 1,060 career points at Muncie Central. Rolf averaged 13.3 points and 5.8 rebounds as a senior in 1966-67. That led to the peculiar 4-minute stretch of Plump holding the ball with his team down two points and necessitated the iconic shot he eventually took. lead Milan to a 60-48 win over Terre Haute Gerstmeyer with a trip I walked past her and I just stood there in front of him. Muncie Central had won state titles in 1928 and 1931. Attucks. Center Jim Davis starred collegiately at Colorado and then played eight NBA seasons for St. Louis, Atlanta, Houston and Detroit. Muncie Central roll to a 51-41 victory over Lafayette Jefferson Thompson also had met Bonham, who lived in Muncie until he passed away in 2016, and was a teammate with Rick Jones' son, Eric, at Ball State. Robby General covers East Central Indiana high school sportsat The Star Press. Indianapolis Tech at Butler Fieldhouse. level, Crispus Attucks edged Madison 82-80 in overtime and Muncie Film from that gamehas beenrestored by IHSAA Champions Network. Expectations were higher in the 19521953 season. Agullanas Bearcats held a slim lead into the final three minutes of that game, before back-to-back Milan baskets put them in a hole. chance to win. Lafayette Semifinal, which would be officially named the Lafayette There must have been enough to go around, though, because Central won titles again in 1978 and '79, becoming the first state school to win back-to-back titles twice. He remembers Marion coming to town with Jovon Price and James Blackmon, New Castle coming with Steve Alford, Anderson coming with Troy Lewis. He scored more than 40 points once and more than 30 five times that season, but was overshadowed by future Hall of Famer Rick Barry. Milan cruised through the rest of the schedule before suffering a late-season upset to Aurora, who were also coming into a successful period in their basketball history.[3]. Ray McCallum led the 1979 championship, scoring 26 points in the afternoon game of the finals and 18 in the title game. The team and town are the inspiration for the 1986 film Hoosiers. victory. first-year coach Lawrence "Jay" McCreary. You have permission to edit this article. Beckner and his Bearcats (26-4) ended a 20-year drought for their 16 points. The people who lived through that felt it so badly. He went on to have a 10-year NBA career with the Rockets, playing in the NBA finals in 1981 and 86. The 1963 team brought the school's fifth state championship, defeating South Bend Central in the final game. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Other. You can cancel at any time. McCallum blossomed into a star in college at Ball State, where he set the schools all-time scoring record with 2,109 career points. This page was last edited on 21 February 2023, at 21:36. Muncie Central High School (Muncie, Ind.) Lafayette Jefferson 54-37. some of their fans. Thompson once introduced himself to Plump in the media room at Bankers Life and talked with him about that flashpoint in history. Indiana high school basketballat the time was known for itsracehorse style, pushing the ballup and down the floor, but Birgerecalls much of the opposite for the1954 title game. 1 Muncie Central to the state finals before falling to East Chicago Washington. The Indiana High School Boys Basketball Tournament, organized by the Indiana High School . Muncie attempted 42shots and made 11. semifinal. Mark Montieth's book on the formation and groundbreaking seasons of the Pacers, "Reborn: The Pacers and the Return of Pro Basketball to Indianapolis," is available in bookstores throughout Indiana and on Amazon.com. "I don't think they understand the tradition behind that name on the front of the jersey," Thompson said. who limited all of Lafayette Jefferson's players to single-digit "When Milan won, I called over to talk to my parents and all of the adults there were crying like babies. He also Charley Mazurek, Hartford Bulkeley. In the other semifinal, Muncie Central took care of business Jones was inducted into the Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame in 2001. Fieldhouse. Advertisement cookies are used to provide visitors with relevant ads and marketing campaigns. Gary Froebel suffered a 50-49 defeat at the hands of Lafayette He was inducted into the Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame in 2006. Jack Moore scored 34 points in the afternoon game and 27 in the championship game in '78. Oscar Robertson scored 39 points, breaking the previous record

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