March 2004 The Megaphone Page 7
I
had mentioned to you that the 50 year celebration of Milan's win was going to be
on TV, but it ran on ESPN Classics. Had some great high school stories on there
that day. The part about Milan and Indiana basketball started at 4:30 PM and ran
until 9:15 PM.
Part one was about the place basketball took in the life of a Hoosier. It was
called the Glory Years. Told how every barn had a basketball rim on it, be it
out side or inside, courts on the garage at home, on poles at home, and at all
parks. It was the one thing that could unify the people in the towns and Friday
and Saturday nights were set aside for game night. Small towns almost closed all
business so fans could attend a game.
Bobby Leonard, The Big O, and others gave a first hand event of stories. Indiana
has 28 of the biggest 30 high school gyms in the US. Most talk revolved around
the years of 1952-1954, but they did mention things like that great game in 1959
when Kokomo played New Castle and Jim Rayl from Kokomo scored 49 points and Ray
Pavy scored 51 points. Much was said about the 4 titles Muncie had then and the
8 titles they now have.
Much was said how the fans did not want the divisions but they finally did it in
the mid 1990s. The talk was about the great schools in basketball like Muncie
Central, Terre Haute Gerstmeyer, South Bend Central, and other schools.
Then came the story about Milan. Told how there were only 161 students in high
school and 71 boys. Bobby Plump, Butte, and Engel had played with each other
from grade school to high school. The old coach got fired in 1952 for buying new
uniforms so 27 year old coach Woods came along in 1953. (The old uniforms were
badly tattered.) They advanced to Indy but lost. They adopted to policemen who escorted
them to Indy both times and when the won in 1954, the policeman from Indy got to
cut down the nets.
They played the entire game and Milan could not hit. Bobby Plump said it was his
worse game. The score was tied 26-26 at half time. Milan started playing a 4
player box with one man constantly changing. Then in the final quarter, Plump
held the ball for over 4 minutes. With the score tied 30 each, they called time
out. One of the players said "Why not have us all go left, then Bobby will
have a one on one and could drive towards the basket with only one man on
him?" With 11 seconds left in the game, Plump got the ball, moved slowly,
then drove to his right, hitting a jump shot close to the free throw lane and
that is history.
On the way home they had no idea what was ahead of them. About 12 miles out of
town they saw cars every where and people walking and yelling and waving at
their bus. They estimated that the crowd ran from 30-40 thousand.
Oscar Robertson told how they never got respect. They drove down town and back
to Crispus Attucks High School but that was their ceremony.
The Muncie Central game and Milan was then played live. It was no game at all
because Muncie had all of the height. I think the final score was 81 to 40. So
for five and one half hours the above was all done. Many more good things I
could write about but will stop here. The coach of Muncie is the well known
Hoosier, Billy Shepherd.
One thing finally. I enjoyed watching the style of ball played. There are
several ex-basketball players on the Den site so you might have noted this. The
jump shot today is usually done by squaring up your shoulders and jumping up on
both feet. In the 1950s, the shot was taken off one foot. The set shot I would
call a "fling." The shooter just took the ball and shot without
leaving the floor -- very little height on it but more or less a line drive.
What great years to live in.
Submitted
by . . .
Jerry McClish '56