Episode 20: Hoosiers movie discussion: Part 2.

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In this episode, we’re finishing our discussion about a GenX classic sports movie: Hoosiers — the legendary 1986 basketball movie that became an instant classic. Whether you remember watching it on VHS or caught it during a Saturday afternoon TV marathon, Hoosiers is the ultimate underdog sports film. Join us as we revisit the unforgettable story of Hickory High, the inspirational coaching of Norman Dale, and why Hoosiers remains one of the best sports movies of all time.

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Production Credits:

Intro and outro music: Mason Enis

Narrator: Haylee Wolf

Copyright @ PineStreetProductions 2025. Any illegal reproduction of this content will result in immediate legal action.

Transcript

welcome sports fans to Gen X Classic

Sports where we bring the nostalgia of

our sportsfilled youth into the present

day grab your favorite retro jersey

crack open a cold one and let's stroll

down memory lane together welcome back

everybody and I just have to say we are

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auntsies

granola.com if you love granola then

you're going to love Aunt Suzie's

Granola aunt Suzies it's a 100%

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their product offerings to include

overnight oats and other kind of snacks

my favorite flavors are salted caramel

and s'mores so try those out aunt

Susie's Granola is shipped coast to

coast online with subscription service

options the owner Erica has generously

offered our listeners a great deal from

now until July 31st listeners of our

little podcast can use the code Gen X

Classic Sports all one word gen XC

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31st at Aunt Seuzies Granola a N T Suzie

Granola welcome back everybody to the

show we're about to jump back into part

two of our Hooers classic Gen X movie

sports movie um special and I just want

to remind everybody from where we left

off on part one Coach Dell is about to

be um voted on by the town by the school

whoever uh they're all in one room

basically and they're about to decide

whether Coach Dale is going to remain

the head coach or whether they're going

to fire him on the spot so thank you for

listening if you like what we do here

please please press like uh please

subscribe and we thank you for listening

and on with part two barbara Hershey who

plays Myra Fleiner by now is there is

just a hint of a romance brewing between

her and coach Dale and I mean a hint

they really don't spend much time on

that relationship trying to put it ahead

of the story at hand with the sports

but you can tell he likes her even

though she's been all but completely

dismissive of this guy all along it's

like she's finding every way possible to

get him run off and sure

enough she confronts him one day with a

newspaper article that she's found and

this newspaper article explains that

Coach

Dale was a college coach and Coach Dale

punched one of his own player well I

don't even know if it said one of his

own player players i assume it was one

of his own players but he punched a

college player and he got suspended from

college basketball for doing that you

know in the 50s being how news was back

then it's not unthinkable that a guy

would could go across the country

somewhere and coach at the high school

level and no one would be any wiser of

the situation but basically he was

suspended from coaching high school in

whatever state that that event happened

in and I don't think they even say and

she basically tells him "When we have

this meeting I'm I'm going to let

everybody know that this happens." So

cut to the meeting everybody's in the

church the the the this the good people

of the town uh decide to have a

vote and

um she decides to speak and she gets up

there with the letter with the newspaper

article and for whatever reason she

decides not to read it she begs him to

give him a second chance instead so

that's kind of the glimmer of perhaps

she's interested in him and is willing

to give him a chance and they vote to

kick him out anyway

now this is why that's the most

pivotable scene pivotal scene in the

movie is because I guess unknown to

anybody Jimmy Chitwood standing in the

back of the church and Jimmy on behalf

of the

coach he goes up to the front and he

tells everybody "It's about time for him

to play ball." And of course they all

erupt and cheering and I think that they

believe Jimmy means now that you've

kicked the coach out of here I'm ready

to play but no Jimmy tells them "Uh if

coach stays I'll play but if you

continue with this kicking him out thing

I won't play." So that stuns everybody

it stuns

everybody and so there you go you got

your star player back you're up to seven

players and you have a pretty good

helper on the bench now so things start

clicking and then of

course in the history in in the

tradition of sports movies we get to

enjoy the montage of Jimmy out there

shooting and balls going through the net

and shooter cheering from the bench and

all kinds of good stuff is now happening

be happening because they're clicking

and you know shooter does his thing from

the bench and helps him out

so despite everything going well um the

favorite subplot for me being the

shooter thing is sure enough shooter has

a relapse he shows up for a or he

doesn't show up for a game at all to sit

the bench and they can't figure out

where he is and he shows up drunk and he

embarrasses himself he embarrasses

Everett his son he embarrasses Coach

Dale he embarrasses everybody he shows

up in the middle of the game walks out

onto the court uh incoherently babbling

at the referees over a

call and um you know it's not good and

so he ends up coach Dale takes him to

the hospital and checks him in for uh

basically what passes as rehab in the

1950s which was it appears they just

kind of strapped him to a bed and made

him ride it out so there

are scenes of conversations between

Shooter and his son there's scenes of

conversation between Shooter and Coach

Dell but one thing you get out of it is

that Shooter is trying to do his best

and Shooter's trying to make this one

work and so um the redemption story of

Shooter is kind of complete at this

point because his son goes and wishes

him well and so forth and all of this is

happening of course right when they're

ready to go to the postseason and uh

qualify for state of course then you

have to cut to the obligatory sports

montage again where they're fighting

their way through the sectionals and the

regionals and and on to state but um you

know one of the things that everybody I

think likes about this movie is the

scene when they show up for the state uh

tournament and um basically Butler

Fieldhouse is what they used to call it

on the on the campus of Butler in

Indianapolis and Coach Dell in one of

the great scenes in all of uh sports

movies Coach Dell has them measure the

rim to see how far it is from the floor

and you know it's 10 feet just like it

is in their home gym so he points out to

them that nothing's changed it's just

going to be a big crowd and uh more

athletic team but you still have to do

what you have to do so

um they play in the movie they play

against the South Bend Central Bears

um which have more height more players

more of everything and you all if you've

seen it you know that it boils down to

the last shot of the game

and you know Coach Dale did that thing

that coaches do sometimes and he

outthinks himself he Coach Dale draws up

a play where Jimmy is the actual decoy

and a kid named Merl is going to take

the last shot and everybody in the

huddle just sort of the whole tone

changes and coach reads the room

basically and says "What's going on?"

And Jimmy says "I'm going to make it or

I'll make it." And coach is like "Yeah

what was I thinking i'm an idiot."

and he redesigns a play for Jimmy to

take the last shot and if you know your

sports movies you know that of course

Jimmy sinks the last shot they beat a

team that you know by what we would call

today's standards that's a 2A team or 1A

team beating a 7A team and so those

those Hickory

uh guys win their win the state title as

a small school along the way you know

there's a scene where coach tells Myra

Fleer he'd really like to take her out

on a date and she definitely warms up to

him and she and her mom show up at the

games and the whole town supports them

and everything and you know it's a great

feel-good story and that kind of leads

me into some of the thematic things that

happen throughout and I just want to

touch on some of the besides the plot

and I said I wouldn't mention every

scene in the movie and I didn't i just

mentioned the key ones but there's some

there's some thematic themes or there's

some key themes happening in this movie

it's first of all it's a sports movie so

you know it has to be an underdog story

everybody all the way back to the Bible

loves a David versus Goliath story right

and so this one's no different um you

know you have a one of the smallest

towns in the or the smallest town in the

state tournament defeating one of the

biggest schools in the state tournament

and so of course everybody likes that

kind of story and then the redemption

thing that I've already mentioned I love

the fact

that it's not an outward thing but Coach

Dell needs his own kind of redemption

you know he's a more mature person than

the guy who slugged a kid in the face

and got suspended he's had time in the

military he's aged he's got his second

chance even though it's in this small

town in Indiana in a high school um he

needs his own redemption and somehow

through

um giving Shooter a second chance

perhaps he's making up for some of the

things that he's done to himself along

the way and that was that was always my

favorite subplot and it always will be i

just love the fact that he helped

Shooter out and anyone else acting in

that role probably could have been I

don't know carrying it a little too far

with the way they did things but um I

thought Dennis Hopper playing shooter

was great it's just um he just you know

and of course knowing Jimmy Ho Dennis

Hopper's history he certainly had his

own experience with drugs and alcohol so

maybe it was an informed choice and how

he acted but um it was it was a really

good performance obviously he got

nominated for it and then that there's

another theme in this whole story and

it's about community and it's about

tradition and things like that where you

know the town's always enjoyed success

doing things a certain way and there's

certainly nothing wrong with that but

they're hesitant to change and I think

that happens in sports and it happens in

all kinds of areas of life and so you

know they needed to they needed a a

change they they were sort of successful

before but Coach Dale brought something

else to the table and then as far as

themes and sports and so

forth early on Coach Dale makes a big

deal out of this being a team effort

playing team defense playing team

offense and yes Jimmy Chu uh Chitwood

joins the team and yes that allows them

to get better but yes his individual

talent helped him a lot but until then

without those guys doing what they did

collectively there wouldn't have been a

chance to take it as far as they did

even with Jimmy jimmy was the talent

that put him over the top but he

certainly wasn't playing anymore with

four guys that were standing around and

watching each one of those guys there

was two or three guys in different

scenes even the kid that had been the

manager had a scene where he hits two

free throws to win a game for him two

other players had chances to hit free

throws and shots to win games from them

or for them and so it wasn't just a team

of guys standing around watching a

superstar play so I think that's

important to to know that their

discipline that they endured um beyond

wanting to endure it the discipline that

they endured as a team sort of led to

all of this and and that's important so

yeah the it's a sports movie so the team

you want to win did you know that's not

always the case and um so I kind of like

the fact that uh it was it looks old

school like the it's it's I always like

movies set in the 50s because especially

sports movies because they they give me

a glimpse into what kind of you know

childhood my dad and people his age had

so I always loved that um so you know

there's a there's there's some

interesting cinematography with the the

way they shoot the gyms and if you've

never seen some of those gyms like I'm

old enough to remember a few gyms in

Arkansas and South Arkansas where they

were very similar to the gym that the uh

Hickory team plays their home games in

and I mean I think it's Bandbox they

used to call them where it's it's a

stage on one end and there's an out-of-

bounds line and the wall is very very

close to that and you know it there's a

lot of scenery like that that I really

enjoyed in the movie great sports movie

um great acting so let's talk about the

people that brought this movie to the

public the cast Gene Hackman of course

who just passed away he was the winner

of two Academy Awards in his career in

1971 he won the the Oscar for best actor

in the French Connection i don't know if

you've ever seen that but it's Gene

Hackman with a snub-nose revolver

chasing bad guys around New York City he

won for that and then he won best

supporting

actor in 1992 for Clint Eastwood's

western unforgiven where he played the

sheriff in sheriff in there so he was

also famous for his roles in Bonnie and

Clyde uh Mississippi Burning uh and for

kids my age when we were little when

people my age were little we remember

him as the one and only Lex Luthther in

the Christopher Reeves Superman movies

and then there's just a long list of

other things we've all seen him in the

Poseidon Adventure uh The Conversation A

Bridge Too Far Crimson Tide The Bird

Cage Absolute Power Enemy of the Estate

The Royal Tannon Bombs and Runaway Jury

among many many others he's one of the

best to ever do it rest in peace Jean

Hackman

barbara Hershey who plays Myra Fleiner

and like I said they had just a glimpse

of a romance in this movie but you kind

of go away with the feeling that okay

maybe he's finally going to get it get

to take her to the movies as he asked

her about

um Barbara Hershey was a Emmy award

award winner and a Golden Globe award

winner and she's known for uh a movie

called Beaches in 1988 that some of you

may be um familiar with

dennis Hopper was like I said earlier he

was nominated for an Oscar for playing

shooter in this movie dennis Hopper goes

back a long ways he goes back to the

early 50s and Dennis Hopper played uh in

Rebel Without a Cause with the great

James Dean he was also

in Giant with Jim James Dean also he was

in Gunfight at the OK Corral he was in

The Sons of Katie Elder Cool Hand Luke

Hang Them High and True Grit among

others but a lot of people know him as

the writer and director of a movie

called Easy Writer and so Dennis Hopper

was around for a long time writing

directing and acting in movies um so

great performance for him and then let

me talk a little bit about the guy who

played the principal Cletus Summers the

high school principal who suffers the

heart attack she woolly so here's the

connection to my hometown shebuili was a

country singer and his claim to fame is

that he sang novelty songs and so to

explain that in modern terms he was kind

of the weird Yanovic of country music

back in the 60s or 70s or whatever going

back a long ways and and he was famous

for a song in 1958 called the purple

people eater which was a novelty song if

any of you have ever heard the lyrics

oneeyed onehorned flying purple people

eater that was Chev Woolly and so Chev

Woolly had a dual career he was known

for touring the country as part of

country western country and western back

then singing uh novelty songs and for

being an actor and Chev Woolly started

out in his acting career by being in a

movie that you've all heard of called

High Noon very very famous

western and he was in The Outlaw Josie

Wells and he was in Rawhidede in ' 86 he

ends up in Hooers but here's a here's

the big uh claim to fame for Chev Woolly

really is in the 60s and 70s he became a

guest on Heihaw and he actually wrote

the theme song for Heihaw so there you

go there's your Chevoolly uh trivia and

if you've ever heard of a guy named Ben

Cer O L D as a country uh singer that's

actually him same guy and I think Ben

Cer is the name he used to record the

song Purple People Eater okay now what's

that have to do with my hometown uh Chev

Woolly apparently someone from my

hometown will have to tell me but I'm

almost positive I'm remembering this

correctly that in the late 70s or early

80s

um somewhere in there Shbooy toured

around and went to different little

towns and stuff singing and he performed

at our high school and I don't know who

sponsored it what fundraiser it was for

or whatever but Chev Woolly um made an

appearance i didn't go that I remember

but um yeah I'm almost positive I'm

remembering that correctly so who

brought this movie to the screen well oh

actually before we go to that let me

tell you who I told you earlier that

there's a guy named the character named

George was played by an actor that

you've seen before and George was the

parent type who was actually coaching

the team and wanted to run thing uh his

way george was played by an actor named

Chelsea Ro uh Chelsea Ross and Chelsea

Ross also played in he co he played

coach Dan Divine in Rudy and he also

played a baseball pitcher in the movie

Major League if some of you remember

Major League with Charlie Sheen and Joe

Buu and Corbin Bernson and all those

people um he's the guy who was already

gayheaded by then and was like the

knuckle ball pitcher who always walked

around with the the greasy stuff on his

shoulder trying to get his shoulder to

loosen up because he was already a

senior citizen basically by baseball

standards that's Chelsea Ross and he

plays George in this movie and he plays

Coach Divine in Rudy and why am I

mentioning Rudy well that brings me to

my next group of people who actually

brought this to the big

screen the director of Hooers was a man

named David Anspa and the writer for

Hoosiers was a man named Angelo

Piso well they were high school no they

were college friends at Indiana

University and as buddies they got out

there in the world and decided to try to

give showbiz a try by writing and

directing movies and they made a

successful movie out of Hooers and that

gave them a little little bit of clout

and with that clout they had a movie

named Rudy that they put out in the

early 90s so they they as a

team are responsible for Hooers and

they're responsible for Rudy and they

actually one or two of them one or the

other of them actually participated in

some other sports movies and I don't

think I really recognized those so um

I'm not going to mention them but um you

can look it up now the thing about uh

Hooers is that not only did it actually

make a little money for them on a $6

million budget I think it made $28

million and that's that's pretty good

return on your investment and that you

know $6 million isn't much um to

invest in a movie now as far as

production goes where' they film this

they did film this in Indiana and they

actually filmed it in um the the town

that hosted the gym from Hoosiers was a

town called Nightstown and it still has

what they call the Hooser gym in town

there the little greenwalled uh small

little gym with the stage and all that

that's in Nightstown Indiana the town of

New Richmond Indiana served as the the

downtown area and the community of

Hickory so a couple of different towns

one town for the for the area one town

for the gym itself

now maybe the best piece of trivia to

this to me that I just kind of just kind

of makes me smile is that they they

tried to film this in Indianapolis and

they weren't getting a whole lot of

response uh they were they filmed the

finals in Butler Fieldhouse which is

where they played the finals in Butler

Fieldhouse historically in Indianapolis

so they were going to shoot it in the

same building and they were advertising

all over the state of Indiana looking

for extras they needed crowd scenes like

you you have to have people in the

crowds cheering for these movies well

they couldn't find anybody or at least

the numbers of people that they needed

to shoot this movie so they did

something really brilliant I thought and

I just love this so they they in 1985

when they were ready to shoot this they

actually offered to let any two high

schools willing to do this play in front

of their camera camera crews in Butler

Fieldhouse they said if you if we can

find two schools that will do this we

will we will put the cameras out but

your crowd has to show up you know we

need everybody to dress 50 style we're

going to film the crowd as they watch an

actual high school game okay so that was

brilliant they filled the place up they

br And here's what's great about it one

of the high schools that participated

was the hometown team of Jimmy Chitwood

the guy who played Jimmy Chitwood's real

name was Maris Valantis and his high

school team volunteered to come be one

of the participants so they could film

these crowd she scenes so Jimmy Chipwood

himself his his hometown shows up and so

what the producers did they came out

they brought the the crowds were out

there in period costumes from the 50s

and um at halftime and immediately

following the game the actors from

Hickory and um South Bend High School

they put them out on the court while the

crowd was there before the game or at

halftime of the game to film the scenery

they needed for the championship game

and then they put them back out there

after the game so they used that one

crowd for an actual game and the same

people doubled for them for an actual uh

uh the scenes that they needed for the

state finals so I thought that was

really cool and Jimmy Chitwood's own

fans from back home came to help out and

I I thought that was a a really neat

touch to that you would think maybe

people just weren't interested in

putting on 50s garb and showing up but

if you got you know it's Indiana so two

high schools if you offer to let them

play in a big house with a big crowd and

have some Hollywood there I guess that's

an offer that a couple of schools um

couldn't refuse so yeah so New Richmond

Indiana has the ser served as the the

fictional town of Hickory and Nightstown

Indiana served as the fictional who's

your gym so there you go that's pretty

much it on the story the movie itself

but as far as the I don't know if any of

you care about movie critics there's

only one that I've ever really liked and

he's deceased now and his name was Roger

Eert from Cisco and Eert and and he's

the one who wore glasses and Eert loved

this movie and he read a really nice

write up about it back in the day um but

one of the things that uh you need to

know is that this this doesn't happen to

a whole lot of movies but in 2001

Hoosiers was selected for preservation

in the United States National Film

Registry and that's done by the Library

of Congress and what that means

according to their own language is that

that means this film is culturally

historically and aesthetically

significant so in other words it's a

great slice of Americana and it's now

preserved forever in the Library of

Congress as it should be in my opinion

so you know we all love sports movies

and

um this channel that I'm doing we're

going to

seasonally cover a Gen X sports movie

and it'll they'll there'll be different

sports involved and we told you back at

Christmas we would continue to do that

and here we are now we've got our

basketball movie done and we're going to

continue with this and we'll have golf

and we'll have uh baseball and we'll

have hockey and then next year we'll

turn around and do it all over again

with football and start from there so I

do believe that uh there were some

really great movies about sports made in

the 80s we will cover those so I

apologize it was just me it's really

hard to get guys together right now and

uh you just had to sit through this with

me but hey I'll be back with uh more

exciting guests uh we've we've got some

uh guys on the hook for interviews and

discussions later but I do appreciate

you uh listening and if you don't mind

uh press that like button make a comment

subscribe whatever you can do to help us

out and I would greatly appreciate it

and that is our discussion of the

1986 basketball classic Hooers and I

thank you very much for listening thank

you for joining us on Gen X Classic

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