HOOSIERS, Then & Now

Like many midwestern kids who played small-town high school basketball in the late 80s, the movie Hoosiers changed my life. Until then, the only basketball movie which made any impact on me was Teen Wolf, which came out in 1985, a year earlier than Hoosiers.

But Teen Wolf was pure basketball comedy. Hoosiers, for the first time, was a basketball movie with heart.

For the last month, Hoosiers has been on heavy rotation on HDNet Movies. I watched it again over the holidays and the movie, after nearly 30 years, holds up extremely well. Although, I'm still confused how Buddy found his way back on the team after Coach Dale (Gene Hackman) threw him out of practice on Day 1. It's Hoosiers' great mystery.

I also love film history. Today, I rarely watch a movie without having the IMDB app open on my phone so I can read the film's trivia while watching. 

Without IMDB trivia, I never would have known in the scene where Shooter (Dennis Hopper) walks onto the court drunk in the middle of the game, that Hopper wanted a ten-second notice before calling action. At the ten-second notice, he spun around in circles until action was called, allowing him to stagger onto the court in an awkward fashion in order to appear drunk. 

My best Hoosiers film history find is a video created by YouTube user watseinfeld. In the 18 minute video, the present day (actually 2012) Indiana set locations of the film are compared to how they looked in the movie.

For a film history freak and Hoosiers fan, this was one of the most compelling videos I've watched in years. 

I've included it below. Hope you enjoy it as much as I did.