The Indiana High School Boys Basketball Tournament, organized by the Indiana High School . A pair of memorable point guards led those championships. The smallest school to win the state tournament after Milan was Plymouth in 1982, led by future NBA star and coach Scott Skiles. 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. "We never heard any negatives, only sorrow that we didn't win," Bonham once recalled. It was the first time 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. INDIANAPOLIS | Muncie Central won its third state championship when guard Charlie Mock hit a shot with five seconds remaining to carry the Bearcats over Evansville Reitz 60-58 at Butler. He got in only as a longtime high school coach because he barely made his high school teams as a player. 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. Footage of the final seconds of the 1954 basketball state championship Raw footage of Milan High School defeating Muncie Central High School in the 1954 high school basketball state. It was a great line and it was absolutely the truth.". MUNCIE Some 66 years later, the 1954state championship game between Milan and Muncie Central remainsone of the most enthralling games in Indiana basketball history. OVERALL 15-8 0.65 Win % CONFERENCE 5-3 3rdNorth Central. Final: Milan 32, Muncie Central 30. The Tigers had a new coach in Bill Garrett, but their change in school to advance to the Final Four in consecutive seasons since "As a kid, you couldn't wait to become a Bearcat, wear those purple and white pinstripe pants.". points, fired a shot that hit the rim and bounced away. 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. Bonzi Wells, Central High class of 1994, lasted the longest, playing 10 seasons. Tied at 30, Plump hit a 14-footer from the right side as time expired to seal the win in a low-scoring defensive battle, denying the Bearcats a fifth state title. The city could hardly have been more confident of winning another state championship in 1960, but its response to the crushing defeat of the championship game loss was telling. I was very much aware of the reputation, No. That happens every once in a while. "It was the greatest thing in the world," Marty Echelbarger says. 1 sports movie of all time by the sports staff of The Associated Press. eventual state titlist South Bend Central. Looking back, I can see just how big it was.. This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. When Celina Had Just One Team. for the Bearcats. Sometimes a team finds itself on the wrong side of history. 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. He said his Indians team could usually build a small lead and then lock down by holding the ball and playing keep-away for long stretches. Gujarat Titans vs Sunrisers Hyderabad, 40th Match - Live Cricket Score, Commentary Series: Indian Premier League 2022 Venue: Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai In October 2011, he got a D grade national contract from the BCCI. "I'm sure (Tallman) said, 'We're going to keep the boys under wraps.'". lead Milan to a 60-48 win over Terre Haute Gerstmeyer with a trip Dinwiddie, who later changed his name to Rashid Shabazz, played four seasons in the NBA with the Royals, Boston Celtics and Milwaukee Bucks. to the title game on the line. The Central team listened to the end of that game on the radio on the bus ride home. INDIANAPOLIS | After falling short in the state championship Joe Sexson paced Indianapolis Tech with a Milan led, 23-17, at halftime, but Muncie came backand tied the game, 26-26, by the end of the third quarter. One of the guys from Milan came up and said, Who in the world could ever have imagined we would be here with a team that now wants to celebrate their defeat?" Beck said. Back in the day - before the factories were shut down, single-class basketball was assassinated and gaming and social media took their grip on the interests of young boys the basketball games at Central High School's fieldhouse galvanized Muncie. (7-9-16) Until the 1972-73 high school basketball season Celina had two high schools, Celina High and Celina Immaculate Conception. Thompson tries to tell his players about Muncie's tradition. Indianapolis Tech to a 56-49 victory against Lafayette I kept working at it and working at it.". B. 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. their old coach and his new team 50-39 in the Muncie Regional. 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. Plumps game-winning shot put small-town Milanon the map. 171 points set new records for scoring in a title game. Willie Gardner's 22 points. his team's last four games of the tournament, including 26 against The Bulldogs stunned perennial power Michigan State 5250 in the national semifinal to make it to the National Title Game, where they lost to Duke 6159. 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. Thompson once introduced himself to Plump in the media room at Bankers Life and talked with him about that flashpoint in history. INDIANAPOLIS | Crispus Attucks became the first team to win the And it was sincere.. At Muncie Fieldhouse, one of the state's largest high school gyms, they were greeted by a full house that had been eager to celebrate. They shoved it to the back of their minds, because it couldnt have happened, Mannies said. leadership didn't prevent them from capturing glory like they had championship team -- Shelbyville in 1947 -- then coach a state 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. Tied 2626 in a defensive battle with heavily favored perennial power Muncie Central after three quarters, Plump, who had uncharacteristically shot only 2-for-10 from the field at that point, froze the ball unchallenged for over four minutes during the fourth quarter. "I can't tell you how many times I had to defend my court," he said. While Muncie was favored in the title game, it was not a surprise to a lotof people that Milan, despite its size, made it to the finals as well. One Hall of Fame Court New Castle, Indiana 47362. info@hoopshall.com 765-529-1891. Ray Crowe There were two high schools in Muncie back then and Central represented the city's working class. Itwas that close.. As schools consolidated throughout Indiana, the days of small-town success gradually ended. East Chicago Washington fell 56-52 to Lafayette Jefferson in a 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. Sexson was named the winner of the Trester Award for Mental '"Agullana said, describing his first meeting with Plump years later. His parents were watching the game in another home with a large group of friends, because the Bearcats playing for a state championship was the best reason of all to throw a party. As a result, most Indiana high schools of the era had what today are considered extremely small enrollments. Forward Pat Klein led the Giants with a game-high 22 . But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience. become only the second team in history to win four titles. These cookies ensure basic functionalities and security features of the website, anonymously. 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. The tournament has often featured future NCAA and National Basketball Association (NBA) players. 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. Not the memories, though, and not the ties that still bind. sent a telegram to the IHSAA commissioner. Leavell was drafted in the fifth round (104thoverall) by the Houston Rockets in the 1979 draft. championship showdown against Crispus Attucks. Volunteer Help the coach manage this team. 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. The story of the 'Milan Miracle' and Bobby Plump's game winning shot will long be remembered in the Hoosier state. Muncie Central 32-30 1954-55 Indianapolis Attucks Ray Crowe: 30-1 Gary Roosevelt 97-74 . He went on to star at Ball State, where he scored 1,219 career points and had. The 1954 Milan Museum also contains a Central section, and even the reunions have taken on "Hoosiers" themes. Forward Stanford Patton added 19 points for Crispus Wingate in 1913 and 1914. 3rd T20I. The Tigers' 97 points and the two finalists' combined score of The Tigers eked out a 63-62 win over Indianapolis Shortridge to Albert Maxey and Laverne Benson scored 18 points apiece to pace Ray McCallum led the 1979 championship, scoring 26 points in the afternoon game of the finals and 18 in the title game. There wasmental pressure all the time thatyou were going to miss something,that your attention might get laxbecause of the slow game.Birge and Todd made the adjustments they neededto call the game, and later found out that they madesome history of their own that day. Plump dribbled up over mid-court pulled the ball up against his stomach, and stood still. Five regular-season losses put that status in jeopardy but reaching the final had most thinking another title was likely. Thirty-three years later, the film Hoosiers, a fictionalized account based on Milan's 195254 seasons, opened to positive reviews, renewing interest in the team and its legacy. 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