Jumping into the season with a favorite film
I’m not referring to “It’s a Wonderful Life.” That one’s on network television so often during the holidays that there’s no need to own a copy, but I do take special note these days whenever I hear a bell ring.
And I’m not talking about those other personal holiday favorites, “White Christmas” (which started my lifelong love for Rosemary Clooney recordings) or “A Christmas Carol” starring that brilliant if underrated actor, Mister Magoo, of course.
No, I’m taking about a different movie genre and a different season.
The movie is: “Hoosiers.” And the season in question is: basketball.
There are a lot of great reasons to enjoy this particular movie.
For starters, I’ve been a Gene Hackman fan for as long as I can remember – especially since his hilarious turn in “Young Frankenstein.” His “Hoosiers” character, Norman Dale, reminds me of a number of high school coaches I’ve known over the years. The exterior may have been gruff, but if you listened closely they all had nuggets of wisdom to share.
In this movie, Norman Dale has wisdom to share, but he doesn’t exactly make it easy.
I’ve known coaches in his situation who were run out of town by people who, in another venue, would be the nicest people you’d ever want to meet. But if you mess with their basketball team, it’s not going to end well for you. My favorite line in the movie comes from the mother of the character played by Barbara Hershey – the one about dogs and sunshine. It perfectly captures what those men and women have gone through.
There are two incredible Norman Dale quotes I’ve heard, in various forms, from most of the coaches I’ve known:
1. “Five players on the floor functioning as one single unit: team, team, team – no one more important that the other.”
In a nutshell, this is a synopsis for what the whole movie is about, and it’s why the movie is constructed the way it is: the star player, Jimmy Chitwood, isn’t part of the team and remaining six must come together and play as a team if they are to succeed. Once they have a team structure in place and it works, Jimmy chooses to join them – to bring his game the team framework. Too often teams end up adapting their game to the needs of the star player – putting their faith in him instead of their collective strength.
2. “If you put your effort and concentration into playing to your potential, to be the best that you can be, I don’t care what the scoreboard says at the end of the game, in my book we’re gonna be winners.”
This is the mile-high view we all should have. Some actually get there.
I’ve always loved small schools like the one in Hoosiers. In fact, I grew up in a few of them. They don’t necessarily have Barbara Hershey helping to shape your academic career and none of them had a principal who had a hit singing about “a one-eyed, one-horned flying purple people eater” like this movie.
But most had a small, bandbox gym like the one in the film. They’re still around if you know where to look. Most of them had bleacher seats that would give you splinters if you slid the wrong way and the gym floor invariably had dead spots in it where the ball would die on the dribble. Good players would try to steer you into those spots so they could steal the ball when it died.
You have to love the mystique that surrounds small-town basketball.
Spokane has long embraced it with the popularity of the State B tournament.
And that’s why this movie never fails to get me in the right mood for basketball season.
Not only is it based on an actual Indiana state basketball championship team, but I’ve seen it play out in real life.
Despite taking great liberties with the real story, the basis for “Hoosiers” is the Milan High School team that won the 1954 state championship – a team that beat a special team from Indianapolis, Crispus Attucks High, in the semifinals. That team was led by a sophomore guard you might have heard of: Oscar Robertson, who won a title with the Milwaukee Bucks before being inducted into the NBA Hall of Fame.
Basketball championships are won by teams that find a way to become greater than the sum of its parts, to transcend their individual talents to accomplish great things.
It’s a growth process that teams embark upon in December, grow into in January and capitalize on in February.
It’s a magical process.
And what better time to find a little magic than the holidays?
Contact Steve Christilaw by email at steve. christilaw@gmail.com.