Redemption through Tradition
The Beauty of Hoosiers

3,107 words

One of my favorite movies is the 1986 film Hoosiers. As a lifelong sports fan and former basketball player, I am drawn to the story of an underdog high school team overcoming the odds to win a championship. Set in the fictional town of Hickory in the early 1950s, it showcases the unique relationship between high school basketball and the culture of rural Indiana.

The title of the film is significant. “Hoosier” has a long history as a colloquial term for natives of Indiana. According to the Indiana Historical Bureau:

The distinguished Hoosier writer, Meredith Nicholson (The Hoosiers) and many others have inquired into the origin of Hoosier. But by all odds the most serious student of the matter was Jacob Piatt Dunn, Jr., Indiana historian and longtime secretary of the Indiana Historical Society. Dunn noted that “hoosier” was frequently used in many parts of the South in the 19th century for woodsmen or rough hill people. He traced the word back to “hoozer,” in the Cumberland dialect of England. This derives from the Anglo-Saxon word “hoo” meaning high or hill. In the Cumberland dialect, the word “hoozer” meant anything unusually large, presumably like a hill. It is not hard to see how this word was attached to a hill dweller or highlander. Immigrants from Cumberland, England, settled in the southern mountains (Cumberland Mountains, Cumberland River, Cumberland Gap, etc.). Their descendents [sic] brought the name with them when they settled in the hills of southern Indiana.[1]

The film is a celebration of Indiana, specifically the small towns that dot its rural landscape. In many of those communities, basketball is a way of life during the winter months. Friday nights are reserved for the ritual gathering of townspeople in packed gymnasiums for the purpose of cheering on “their boys.” While such scenes are by no means confined to the Hoosier state, they are more closely associated with Indiana than anywhere else, and for good reason.

Basketball in Indiana

The sport of basketball was invented in Springfield, Massachusetts in 1891 by James Naismith, a physical education teacher originally from Canada. It spread rapidly, but nowhere more so than Indiana, which hosted its first high school state tournament in 1911. A quarter-century later, after attending the championship game at the sold-out 15,000 seat Hinkle Fieldhouse, Naismith remarked that “Basketball really had its beginning in Indiana which remains today the center of the sport.”[2] Until 1997, Indiana had only one state tournament, which forced small, rural schools to compete with large urban schools many times their size. Predictably, the small schools did not usually see much tournament success. But in 1954, tiny Milan High shocked the whole state when they won the championship game on a last-second shot.

Hoosiers is based loosely on the 1954 Milan team’s story, and was written by Angelo Pizzo and directed by David Anspaugh. The two are native Hoosiers themselves as well as former college roommates at Indiana University.[3] Anspaugh himself was an accomplished high school athlete.

Summary

The film’s first few minutes show scenes of the Indiana countryside at sunrise. We are then introduced to Norman Dale, played by Gene Hackman, who has agreed to be the coach of the Hickory Huskers basketball team. Dale is a middle-aged man who recently left the Navy and has not coached for more than a decade. He immediately implements rigorous practices that focus on teaching the players the fundamentals of the game, which contrasts with the previous coach’s laxer style. Two players quickly quit the team.

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Also not playing is Jimmy Chitwood, Hickory’s best player the previous season. Jimmy’s parents have recently died, and he is being looked after by Myra Fleener (Barbara Hershey), who teaches at the high school and is repeatedly rude to Norman. Fleener believes that Jimmy should concentrate solely on academics instead of basketball so that he can improve his chances at receiving an academic scholarship and going to college. When Norman suggests that Jimmy could receive an athletic scholarship to play college basketball, Fleener dismisses the idea. She insists that Norman “stay away from Jimmy” because she doesn’t want him to be a basketball coach when he is Norman’s age.

Hickory loses their first two games of the season, and the fans become impatient. Coach Dale’s only assistant suffers a heart attack, which forces him to search for a replacement. The man he selects is Wilbur “Shooter” Flatch, played by Dennis Hopper. Shooter is a former high school star who is now an alcoholic. He is also the father of Everett, one of Norman’s players. As a condition of his employment, Shooter promises to stay sober during all the games and practices. Everett is deeply ashamed of Shooter’s drinking problem and does not want him around the team. Norman, however, hopes that appointing Shooter as his assistant will help to repair the relationship between father and son.

The Huskers begin to improve, in part because Shooter proves to be a capable assistant and an asset to the team. Even so, they fall short of the town’s expectations. Norman finds out that a town meeting has been called to decide if he will keep his job. Myra has a change of heart about Norman and pleads with the town not to fire him. Then, to everyone’s surprise, the normally shy Jimmy stands up to speak and tells those in attendance that he will play for the Huskers again, but only if Norman is allowed to remain as coach. Knowing how gifted a player Jimmy is, those present immediately agree to his terms.

With Jimmy back on the team, Hickory goes on a winning streak and the community rallies around Norman and the Huskers. Meanwhile, Norman and Myra become romantically involved. Everything is going well until Shooter relapses. To his credit, he decides to enter a rehabilitation facility instead of surrendering to his alcoholism. Everett is glad that his father is getting the help he needs, and the two become much closer. After a series of hard-fought wins, Hickory secures a spot in the state championship game.

Hickory’s opponent in the finals, a large urban school from South Bend, is heavily favored. Notably, the South Bend team has several black players, while all of Hickory’s players are white. The game is close, but the undersized Huskers come out on top due to a tie-breaking shot by Jimmy. Afterwards, the whole town of Hickory rushes onto the court to celebrate the win.

The theme of redemption

Hickory is not an idealized portrait of days gone by. The characters have their share of personal demons to overcome. At the same time, life in Hickory is not portrayed as backwards or broken. Instead, it is shown as a place where flawed individuals can — and do — overcome their personal challenges. Norman, Shooter, and Myra all undergo a process of redemption. At first all three are, to some extent, outsiders. In Norman’s case, he is a newcomer who must prove himself to the people of Hickory. Shooter, as a former high school star, was once a hero, but because of his public drunkenness, he has become an example of what not to be. Myra, also native to Hickory, adopts an oppositional attitude toward the town and its way of life. Her status as an outsider is self-imposed.

As previously mentioned, Norman had been out of coaching for a dozen years before taking the job at Hickory. Midway through the film, we learn why: Before joining the Navy, Norman had been an extremely successful college coach in New York, but his career seemed ruined when he lost his temper and punched one of his own players. After that he was barred from coaching in that state. The job in Indiana is therefore a second chance that he likely thought he would never get.

One of the difficult aspects of Norman’s new position is being forced to deal with those fans who care a bit too much. For example, during the first game of the season, an angry spectator attempts to go into the team’s locker room to berate the coach at halftime. Then, of course, there is the attempted midseason coup d’état at the town meeting. Such situations would be unthinkable for a college coach, and are surely humbling for Norman. But just as the town is making demands of Norman, Norman demands a great deal from his players. His practices are exercises in drudgery. During the Huskers’ first game, Rade Butcher, one of Hickory’s leading scorers, decides not to follow Norman’s offensive strategy. Norman does not hesitate to bench him for the remainder of the game. Afterwards, he delivers a fiery speech stressing the importance of the players following his instructions. At the same time, he also cares deeply about each player, and they sense this and reward him with their loyalty. Thus, by the end of the season the Huskers are a close-knit bunch. This is best illustrated by a heartwarming scene before the final game, where Norman ends his pre-game speech by telling his players that he loves them. Though it isn’t always easy, Norman is able to win the team and the town over in order to make the most of his second chance.

Shooter, too, is able to take advantage of an unexpected opportunity. While others see him merely as the town drunk, Norman immediately recognizes his extensive knowledge of basketball. We get a look at the Flatch residence when Shooter is offered the assistant coaching position. Shooter and Everett live in a small house in the woods outside of town, and are obviously quite poor. Shooter references having been married in the past, but Everett’s mother makes no on-screen appearance. Presumably she has either died or divorced Shooter. At first he balks at accepting the job because it will require him to stop drinking. Norman then decides to tell him the truth: His constant drunkenness is a source of shame for Everett. This talk inspires Shooter to turn his life around and become a better father. Everett tries to talk Norman out of hiring Shooter. When Norman suggests that Shooter should be given a chance to help the team, Everett argues that his father “doesn’t deserve a chance.”

Not long after hiring Shooter, Norman purposely argues with a referee in order to get thrown out of a game, thereby giving Shooter the opportunity to coach the team by himself. He puts his basketball expertise to good use and designs the play that wins the game for the Huskers. For the first time in a long while, Everett is proud of his father. Furthermore, the town of Hickory no longer sees Shooter only as a poor, alcoholic single father. He has proven himself to be a man who can positively contribute to the community. Even though Shooter is unable to stay away from the bottle for the whole season, the experience of coaching changes him. Determined to kick his addiction for good, he seeks professional help. When Hickory wins the championship, Shooter is shown jumping with joy while listening to the game on the radio.

The third character who is given a redemptive story arc is Myra Fleener. To me, Myra is the most interesting character in the film. Not only does her view of Norman change, so does her attitude toward her hometown. She lives with her elderly mother, Opal (Fern Parsons), a dedicated basketball fan. Myra tells Norman that she has a brother who played basketball for Hickory, and that Opal was emotionally invested in all of his games, so much so that she had trouble sleeping on the nights before Hickory played. It is implied that Opal was never so passionate about anything that Myra has done. Norman also learns that Myra earned her teaching degree against the wishes of her father, who didn’t believe women should go to college. She only returned to Hickory because her father had died, and Opal could not live by herself. Though she plays the part of the dutiful daughter, it is obvious that Myra wishes she were living somewhere else. She dislikes small-town life and believes that Hickory puts far too much emphasis on basketball. It is easy to deduce that her attitude stems, at least in part, from the resentment she feels toward her family.

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At first, Myra is adamant that leaving Hickory, and basketball, behind is in Jimmy’s best interests. She thinks that he can live a more fulfilling life elsewhere. While her concern for Jimmy’s future is sincere, the advice that she gives him is colored by her own feeling of being held back, both by the town and by her family. As Jimmy is one of the state’s best players, Norman’s suggestion that he attend college on a basketball scholarship is completely sensible. When Myra claims that she doesn’t want Jimmy to end up like Norman, her real fear is that Jimmy will end up like her.

It is the example set by Norman that changes Myra’s mind about basketball. She respects his efforts to help Shooter, and notices the positive effect Norman has on his players. His continued interest in her, despite her initial coldness, doesn’t hurt, either. No longer does her conscience allow her to insult and look down upon Norman. Thus, when she hears that Norman’s job is in jeopardy, she does her best to talk the men at the town meeting out of firing him. When Jimmy makes up his mind to rejoin the team, Myra accepts it and enthusiastically supports both him and Norman. Living in Hickory, she comes to realize, might not be so bad after all. Her thinly-veiled hostility toward her hometown is abandoned, as is her self-pitying mindset. We see the emergence of a happier and much more likable Myra Fleener.

Thus, when the team’s season ends Norman, Shooter, and Myra are no longer outsiders, but full-fledged members of the community. They have undergone a process of redemption, and basketball, that much-loved cornerstone of local identity, is the vehicle through which this positive change occurs.

Hoosiers and race

There isn’t much to say about the subject of race in Hoosiers. All of the characters with speaking roles are white.[4] And why wouldn’t they be? There simply weren’t many non-whites living in rural Indiana in the early 1950s — nor are there now, for that matter. The town on which Hickory was based, Milan, Indiana, remains more than 90% white. New Richmond, where Hoosiers was filmed, lacked a single black resident as of 2020. That Hickory would have faced black players in the state tournament is also realistic. The team that Milan beat in the 1954 state semifinal, Crispus Attucks High School of Indianapolis, was an all-black team led by Oscar Robertson, who would go on to become one of the most accomplished professional basketball players of the 1960s.

Hoosiers was a success at the box office and has been positively received by critics overall. To give one example, the American Film Institute ranked it among the most inspiring films ever made.[5] Yet, the movie has still occasionally been criticized on racial grounds. The famous black filmmaker Spike Lee felt “uncomfortable” while watching it.[6] Pat Graham at the Chicago Reader alleged that the film pandered to “white-bread fantasies.”[7] But the most strident attack on Hoosiers came from sportswriter Rodger Sherman in 2015, when he said that the movie “ignores the team we should be rooting for.” The South Bend school that Hickory faces in the finals is, according to Sherman, “infinitely more interesting” than the all-white Huskers team.

Sherman also detects a racial motive on the part of Pizzo and Anspaugh:

The makers of Hoosiers counted on the racism of its viewers. They were trying to show that Hickory was heavily outmatched in the championship game. They hoped that by making Hickory’s opponents black, we’d immediately assume that they are stronger and faster and better than the small-town white kids. They used the black skin of Hickory’s opponents as an indicator telling viewers to root against them. This is hideous filmmaking that should be shot out of a cannon back to the Stone Age.[8]

Or, perhaps they were just staying true to the story of the real Milan High team. When asked about the allegations of racism in Hoosiers, Anspaugh stood by the film:

I can’t lose sleep over this criticism. It was a segregated time back then. That’s just the way it was and we were accurate to that period of history. It’s just that simple.[9]

No racial slurs are used in the film, nor are blacks portrayed in a demeaning or stereotypical way. Norman does not try to motivate his team before the final game by disparaging the black players of South Bend. The film simply isn’t about them. If the black players on the South Bend team are the villains in Hoosiers, then so are all of the players on the all-white teams Hickory must defeat in order to get to the championship. For detractors such as Lee and Sherman, the South Bend team ought to be seen as the film’s real heroes based on nothing more than their racial diversity. The very possibility that an all-white team might be more interesting, more inspiring, or more deserving of the audience’s support than a multiracial team is deeply troubling to some.

Hoosiers is intended to be pro-Indiana, but because of the demographics of the state and of the actors, it can also be viewed as subtly pro-white. The deep connection between small, overwhelmingly white Indiana towns and their high school basketball teams is presented not merely as an interesting quirk, but as a noble tradition that enriches the state and offers opportunities for self-improvement and personal growth. Like all aspects of culture, it is a product of a particular group of people living in a particular place. As Richard Houck wrote in “The Hierarchy of Culture,” “The root of culture is DNA, therefore part of culture must include DNA necessarily.” Through its message is that rural Indiana’s local culture and traditions are valuable and worthy of preservation, Hoosiers implicitly makes the case that the folk from which they sprang are also valuable and worthy of preservation.

Notes

[1] “What is a Hoosier,” Indiana Historical Bureau.

[2] S. Chandler Lighty, “The First State Basketball Champs: Crawfordsville High School 1911,” Untold Indiana, March 10, 2016.

[3] Jake Kring-Schreifels, “Indiana Fortuna: The Homegrown Roots of ‘Rudy’,” The Ringer, October 11, 2018.

[4] Actress Barbara Hershey, who plays Myra Fleener, is half-white and half-Jewish.

[5] “AFI’s 100 Years . . . 100 Cheers,” American Film Institute.

[6] “10 Burning Questions for Spike Lee,” ESPN.

[7] Pat Graham, “Hoosiers,” Chicago Reader, August 25, 2021.

[8] Rodger Sherman, “HOOSIERS SUCKS,” SBNation, July 28, 2015.

[9] David Marchese, “On the 30th Anniversary of Hoosiers, the Movie’s Director Recalls What a Pain Gene Hackman Was,” Vulture, November 3, 2016.