Shanahan added: "The IHSAA Champions Network restored the film using multiple computerized softwares to enhanced, sharpen and stabilize the picture. As an elementary student, he and his father attended the games at the fieldhouse. 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 No. In the Archers' 55-42 semifinal triumph against Springs Valley, Oscar Robertson scored 39 points, breaking the previous record Muncie Central roll to a 51-41 victory over Lafayette Jefferson 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. In the other Final Four game, Harley Andrews scored 17 points game at Butler Fieldhouse. My junior high school track coach gave me the book in the spring of 1964.I referred to it frequently when I coached CYO teams in California. For his three-year career, Jones scored 1,029 points for an average of 13.2 per game. Albany. They could do things that youre supposed to do to win games, and they almost did.. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Who wouldn't love a 161-student school having a team good enough to beat em all back when Indianas glorious single-class tournament erased all doubt about who really was the best? He was a two-time all-conference selection and all-state as a senior, finishing with 866 career points. The team's bus stopped on the outskirts of Muncie on the way home from Indianapolis and the players and coaches piled onto a fire truck. 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!". 3rd T20I. Sullivan scored a game-high 21 points for the Bearcats. Many would have regarded him as the second-best player to come out of an Indiana high school at that time, surpassed only by Oscar Robertson. Robertson also scored 21 points to lead Crispus Attucks to a 79-67 The 6-9 Davis also graduated as Colorados all-time leading rebounder with 863. One rule: No school would have more than a 10-player roster. His mother replaced him in the morning and bought two, which likely was the limit. Central had become a basketball powerhouse by the 1950s. in with 11. And there were seven turnovers,three against Milan and fouragainst Muncie. They didnt even have time to throw it in. The story of the Milan Miracle and Bobby Plumps game winning shot will long be remembered in the Hoosier state. Anticipating a run deep into the later rounds of the Indiana High School Athletic Association boys basketball tournament, Milan expected to easily take the sectional before facing a tough test in the regional and a possible rematch against Aurora. IC would be the first Mercer County school to reach the state tournament in 1933. 1956 and 1957, respectively. Five or six, maybe seven. Muncie waited and if you think you gotta have motion to generate excitement, you should have been there. Its been 60 years since the Bearcats took the court at what was then Butler Fieldhouse to face Milan, the team from a 161-student school that made an improbable run to the single-class state title game. In Muncie Central's 68-67 semifinal win over New Albany, Jim points. Ahead at the time, the Muncie players were contentto stay back and not pressure the ball. four players named to the all-state team. Use of this website (including any and all parts and components) constitutes your acceptance of these, New England bishop takes tongue-in-cheek shot at Tom Brady. Bill Dinwiddie The 6-7 Dinwiddie was a star on the 1960-61 Muncie Central team, averaging 19.6 points per game in his junior season as the Bearcats won a regional title and came within a three-point loss to Manual of reaching the state finals. Jones averaged 16.7 points per game as a senior, going for 20 in the state championship game over South Bend Central. 30-0. (25-5) in the title game. entire season -- South Bend Central's 81-72 season-opening win just the second team in history to win a state title with an Note: The contents of this page have not been reviewed or endorsed by the Indiana Pacers. Basketball. MUNCIE Some 66 years later, the 1954state championship game between Milan and Muncie Central remainsone of the most enthralling games in Indiana basketball history. He still ranks in the top-five in NCAA history with a 90.1 percent free-throw percentage. The Bearcats' second title in a row was perhaps even more scored 17 in Lafayette Jefferson's loss against Crispus Robertson, who was named to the all-state team for the second couldn't earn a berth in the title game as they fell 56-37 against against Elkhart and notched a 59-50 victory. Offensively, Milanonly took 29 shots in the game,hitting 10. Milan High School, enrollment 161, defeated the favored Bearcats ofMuncie Central, 32-30, to win the 1954 Indiana state basketball championship. The same night the '63 Bearcats were winning the state championship, Bonham could be found a two-hour drive to the south in Louisville, playing for the NCAA championship as member of the Cincinnati Bearcats. That team's only regular season loss was in overtime to conference rival Richmond. in their showdown against Kokomo. victory against New Albany, paced by guard Jim Henry's game-high 27 Bonham scored a school-record 2,023 points in three seasons at Muncie Central. selection Robertson scored 95 points during that same stretch. There were two high schools in Muncie back then and Central represented the city's working class. chance to win. It wasn't unusual for a car full of boys to pull up and some kid who had been cut from the team to jump out and challenge him to a game. Muncie Central Basketball Schedule. With an enrollment of only 161, Milan was the smallest school ever to win a single-class state basketball title in Indiana, beating the team from the much larger Muncie Central High School in a classic competition known as the Milan Miracle. Kokomo standout guard Jimmy Rayl had a record 114 points during But that brought new challenges. INDIANAPOLIS | South Bend Central held off two-time defending "People thought I was nuts," he said. Agullanas Bearcats held a slim lead into the final three minutes of that game, before back-to-back Milan baskets put them in a hole. 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. Seven Muncie Central players returned from the previous season OVERALL 15-8 0.65 Win % CONFERENCE 5-3 3rdNorth Central. 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. Some were bitter and others still havent accepted or forgiven Plump for producing the defining moment of a dominant, historic decade of Bearcats basketball. HICKORY: Learn More About This Season's Honorees . A common belief around Muncie was that the 1960 teams championship game loss had been a classic case of overconfident players believing their own press clippings. With the eyes of mostof Indiana fixated to the ballgame and its slow-downnature, every call was likely magnified more than inmost games, making the absence of complaints evenmore significant. The tournament's terminology was adjusted in 1957 when the IHSAA It was like a disaster had happened. 3 Muncie Central vs. No. (Butler forward Gordon Hayward narrowly missed a last-second half court shot that would have won the game, and the national championship, for Butler.) BUILD-A-TEAM:Check out more historic rosters Kyle has put together. Central 53-45 in the other semifinal. It was the first time Check out more historic rosters Kyle has put together. Bonzi Wells, Central High class of 1994, lasted the longest, playing 10 seasons. "He got kind of nervous and then he said, What do you want? I said, I want to foul you on your last shot. Birge officiatedbasketball 34 years as a highschool referee and worked as acollege official from 1941 to1970, including nine years in theBig 10. Advertisement cookies are used to provide visitors with relevant ads and marketing campaigns. "We never heard any negatives, only sorrow that we didn't win," Bonham once recalled. He went on to star at Ball State, where he scored 1,219 career points and had 534 career rebounds, ranking in the top-20 in school history on both categories. first-year coach Lawrence "Jay" McCreary. their old coach and his new team 50-39 in the Muncie Regional. The Bearcats, resplendent in purple and white, were the biggest show in town. In his three seasons, Thompson averaged 12.7 points, 5.4 rebounds and 2.5 assists. Todd, who passed away several years ago, was alongtime high school basketball official from Fort Wayne, Ind. NEW HAVEN REGISTER ALL-STATE BOYS' BASKETBALL TEAMS 1949. He went on to star at Ball State, where he scored 1,219 career points and had. leadership didn't prevent them from capturing glory like they had Rolf went on to lead the Indiana All-Stars in scoring in each of the two games in the annual series against Kentucky that year, scoring 34 points in the second game in Louisville. He got in only as a longtime high school coach because he barely made his high school teams as a player. Other uncategorized cookies are those that are being analyzed and have not been classified into a category as yet. championship game at Butler Fieldhouse. 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. Jefferson in a semifinal of the Lafayette Semifinal. Center Jerry He averaged 4.4 points and 3.3 rebounds over four seasons. Many of these small schools had realistic expectations of advancing several rounds into the tournament in that era, but they would almost inevitably fall in the regionals to urban schools from places such as South Bend, Evansville, Gary, Terre Haute, Muncie, Bloomington, Lafayette, Fort Wayne, Anderson and Indianapolis. Bobby Plump's game-winning jumper became a legendary moment in tournament history and inspired a class sports movie, "Hoosiers." Good luck with that, because they usually were passed on in wills. He said Can I help you?' The Tigers eked out a 63-62 win over Indianapolis Shortridge to The talent on that Central team is best explained by what happened after high school. Plump, the first player from a state championship team to win With the updated film, the IHSAA Champions Network was able to verify that Gates was on the call and everything from "the floor at Hinkle, stripes on the officials shirt,numbers on the jerseys are clearer," according toShanahan. If you see your name among the Muncie Central High School graduates, someone is looking for you! [1][2], Unlike most states, Indiana held a single-class tournament in which all schools competed for the same championship in one of America's largest and most popular high school tournaments, until the separation into enrollment classes in 1997. But after falling behind by five, the Bearcats actually rallied back against such tactics and took a lead. A new high school on the south side of the city was opening soon, and would dilute the local basketball talent. Lafayette Jefferson sneaked past New Albany 41-39 in the other Ray Crowe The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Analytics". Muncie Central High School Alumni Class List. View. All rights reserved. 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. He often went to an elementary school playground to shoot in the summers. A date for its return remains uncertain. There was an error submitting your subscription. The 2010 run of Butlera university team that to this day plays its home games in the same building that hosted Milan's historic victoryto the Final Four led to countless comparisons with both the 1954 Milan team and its cinematic alter ego of Hickory High. 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. Roosevelt 97-74 at Butler Fieldhouse. The Indiana High School Athletic Association broke a longstanding tradition and awarded the Trester Award for mental attitude, sportsmanship, and character to a member of the winning team, Bobby Plump. And white, were the biggest show in town including nine years theBig. Side of the city was opening soon, and would dilute the local basketball talent added: `` IHSAA! 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