The talent on that Central team is best explained by what happened after high school. 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. Bonham led his team with 22 points. He averaged a team-high 24.4 points and 6.0 rebounds as a senior and finished his career with 1,666 points. Jones averaged 16.7 points per game as a senior, going for 20 in the state championship game over South Bend Central. Out of these, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. 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. scoring. Our sixth matchup in the northeast bracket features No. eventual state titlist South Bend Central. East Chicago Washington lost to eventual state runner-up Under theleadership of Coach Marvin Wood,26 years old at the time, Milan wonits first eight games in the 1954tournament by at least eight pointsbefore facing Muncie. With four starters returning from the semifinalists, Milan was considered a lock to win both the Ripley County tournament and the sectional. Attucks star Oscar Robertson, who established the mark the previous Add missing athletes to the roster. Indianapolis Tech to a 56-49 victory against Lafayette For the Milan-Muncie championship match-up, HoosierHysteria was at an all-time high as 14,000-plus fans packed into ButlerFieldhouse, and tickets were being scalped for up to $50. Heavily favored to take the Versailles Sectional, Milan did not disappoint as the Indians crushed tiny Cross Plains before dispatching traditional rivals Versailles and Osgood to take their fifth sectional title. He was a two-time all-conference selection and all-state as a senior, finishing with 866 career points. The 1954 Milan Museum also contains a Central section, and even the reunions have taken on "Hoosiers" themes. "A lot of people are upset because that one red banner is (in the South Side gym) and think it's an eyesore," Thompson said. The first official NJCAA National Championship was in 1948 in Springfield, MO at the Southwest State College Fieldhouse. Oscar Robertson scored 39 points, breaking the previous record INDIANAPOLIS | Crispus Attucks became the first team to win the Your California Privacy Rights/Privacy Policy. "I can't tell you how many times I had to defend my court," he said. 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. We figured wed run on Milan. Get up-to-the-minute news sent straight to your device. He went on to play eight seasons in the NBA from 1967-75 with the Hawks, Houston Rockets and Detroit Pistons. forward Tom Schafer had 12 to lead South Bend Central to a 56-37 His college career ended with a serious knee injury six games into his senior season. 2023 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Satellite Information Network, LLC. He was the 27thoverall pick of the Detroit Pistons in the 1964 NBA draft but did not make it to the league until 1967 as a free agent of the St. Louis Hawks. Vinnie Drake, Ansonia. For his career, he averaged 9.5 points and 4.8 assists. He was the Mid-American Conference Freshman of the Year in 1980 after averaging 16.5 points. Bonham, meanwhile, recalled walking to the locker room at halftime of Cincinnati's game with Loyola and hearing someone shout, "Hey, Ron, Muncie Central just won the state championship!". All opinions expressed by Mark Montieth are solely his own and do not reflect the opinions of the Indiana Pacers, their partners, or sponsors. Dinwiddie finished his high school career with 814 points (14.8 per game). selection Robertson scored 95 points during that same stretch. 16 points. And it was sincere.. INDIANAPOLIS | Fort Wayne South spoiled Crawfordsville's return [4] Milan went on to shock the state by winning the 1953 regional title and sweeping the semi-state to advance to the final four, finally bowing out in a 5637 semifinal blowout to the Bears of South Bend Central High School. Lafayette Jefferson 54-37. 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. Volunteer Roster last updated on Jan 13, 2023 @ 1:22pm (GMT) Print Roster Correction All-Time Roster Forward Dan Howe and guard Carl Plumps shot with three seconds left cemented the Milan Indians place inIndiana basketball history. 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. Sometimes portions of a community turn against a team or player that disappoints them. South Bend Central finished the season with a perfect record of Birge and Todd called only fivepersonal fouls on Milan and 11against Muncie during the game. I saw the zeros, so I knew it was no good," he said. This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. Five or six, maybe seven. He might have been given a folding chair to sit in, he doesn't recall. Problem was, there were five junior high schools in Muncie at the time, all feeding into Central. 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. To prepare for the rigors of tournament play, Milan scheduled several games against larger, more prestigious schools, including a tournament at Frankfort, where they would suffer their first loss of the season, a 4947 nail-biter against the hosts. Its been 50 years since those two veteran referees patrolled the biggestupset in Indiana history. Coach Wood prepared the Indians intensely for Gerstmeyer, who, like Milan, had been in the state's Final Four the previous year and, like Milan, came into the tournament with only two losses. It might be six decades from the time he made his mark on basketball history, but it hardly feels that way to Plump. Contact him via email atrgeneral@gannett.com,on Twitter @rgeneraljror by phone at 765-283-8864. That held true for decades, as Central won state championships in the Twenties, Thirties, Fifties, Sixties, Seventies and Eighties eight in all, matched only by Marion among state schools. game-high 26 points. Jefferson. Oscar Robertson and Co. Robertson scored 30 points, forward Willie Merriweather had 21 Moore went on to become a star at Nebraska, where he was a three-year starter. You have permission to edit this article. The bigger schools dont play the little schoolsanymore. Joe Sexson paced Indianapolis Tech with a Share team highlights with fans & media. Few movie-goerswill forget those last 18 seconds when Jimmy Chitwoodhit that jumper to give the title to Hickory. Because if hedid, then he couldnt dribble anymore on a doubledribble.. Please try again. OVERALL 15-8 0.65 Win % CONFERENCE 5-3 3rdNorth Central. A date for its return remains uncertain. Muncie Central High School Alumni Class List. 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. just the second team in history to win a state title with an A new high school on the south side of the city was opening soon, and would dilute the local basketball talent. 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. The nucleus of that team returned for the 195354 season with expectations of tournament success unprecedented for such a small school. They held the ball. Dinwiddie, a sophomore on the '60 team, was his mother's brother. team in its 85-71 semifinal victory over Terre Haute Gerstmeyer against Elkhart and notched a 59-50 victory. Sexson was named the winner of the Trester Award for Mental Ronnie Fisher led the Bronchos past Elkhart with 21 points. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience. Andy Hircko, Torrington. As a result, most Indiana high schools of the era had what today are considered extremely small enrollments. The hero of the last-moment shot is Jimmy Chitwood on film, Bobby Plump in real life. Michael McCoy, a 7-foot center, scored a game-high 24 points to He was inducted into the Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame in 2006. Either way, dreams were hatched. Going to games only fueled the desire to join the city's most exclusive club, the varsity team. Crispus Attucks (26-5) had five players score in double figures Please subscribe to keep reading. Everything we send is officiating specific because that's all we do. Lafayette Semifinal, which would be officially named the Lafayette TheIndians feat became known as the Miracle of Milan and was later theinspiration for the 1986 movie Hoosiers. He signed with Oklahoma City University, where he became a star at the then-Division I program (s. He averaged 20.4 points per game as a junior and 22.2 points as a senior in 1978-79. Cook, Xaviya ( Jr.) Cole, Demarkis ( Jr.) Ullom, Josiah ( Sr.) When Celina Had Just One Team. state championship with an unblemished record. Jefferson in a semifinal of the Lafayette Semifinal. INDIANAPOLIS | Muncie Central repeated as state champion to 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. 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. He went on to play at Ball State and has been a head coach at Ball State, Houston and Detroit Mercy, as well as an assistant coach at Indiana University. We knew it was a big deal to win the state tournament, of course, but we didn't realize the significance or that (win) at the time.". thumping of Lafayette Jefferson in the state title game at Butler You can cancel at any time. In the other semifinal, Muncie Central took care of business Milan 65, Indianapolis Crispus Attucks 52. In the original footage, Shanahan said Gates' call "was almost indiscernible at times." Junior forward Gene Flowers tied the game on a layup, but after holding the ball, Plump hit his shot with four seconds left. last-second jump shot to give coach Marvin Wood and the Indians the Indianapolis Tech at Butler Fieldhouse. We were the big-city team and Milan was the small-town team. The tension was there, but asfar as up and down the floor, wedidnt have to run nearly as muchas we were used to, said Birge. 1 Muncie Central to the state finals before falling to East Chicago Washington. With increased urbanization and suburbanization throughout the state, Indiana schools became much larger and the urban schools that had the most success in the tournament increased their domination of the tournament. But the tension was there evenmoreso, I guess, because it wassomething we didnt do that often. Great teams feature great players, of course, and Muncie has produced plenty of those. semifinal. 1956 and 1957, respectively. MUNCIE Some 66 years later, the 1954state championship game between Milan and Muncie Central remainsone of the most enthralling games in Indiana basketball history. All rights reserved. in their showdown against Kokomo. Hes been talking about the shot, the team, that season since then. 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. added 10 to lead the Bears (25-5) and first-year coach Elmer McCall He was a sophomore starter on the University of Cincinnati team that won the NCAA tournament championship in 1962 and was a consensus first-team All-American in 1963 when Cincinnati lost an overtime game to Loyola of Chicago in the championship game. 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. impressive than the first because they did it with the guidance of The three-year letterman was All-Big Eight Conference as a junior and senior, averaging 13.8 points as a junior and 18.5 points as a senior. That happens every once in a while. 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