State remembers Muncie-Milan game

MUNCIE -- For one incredible evening of noise and nostalgia, this was the way Indiana high school basketball used to be.\nThe Muncie Fieldhouse rocked in opposing seas of purple and black Saturday night. It was Milan and Muncie Central once again -- the small-town, country kids against the big boys from the city played in front of a Who's Who of Indiana basketball past and present and a national television audience.\nMost of the 6,700 people in the fieldhouse weren't alive on that magic night 50 years ago when Bobby Plump's last-second shot gave tiny Milan an upset victory over Central's mighty Bearcats.\nThe 1954 championship marked the last time a small school won an undivided state tourney.\nMilan was no match this time, losing 81-40, but it hardly mattered. The game itself was secondary.\n"The people and the fans have kept this alive because they like the David and Goliath story. We never thought anything about it lasting five years, let alone 50," Plump said of the way Milan's legacy has endured. "As the years have gone on, I've kind of lived with this."\n"This is such a great, great ending of 50 years," he said. "But that's the class that Muncie Central has. They're the defeated team and they're hosting this thing."\nThe 1954 championship game was the inspiration for the 1986 Gene Hackman movie, "Hoosiers." The two schools played a regular-season rematch in 1996 to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the film, and the switch by the Indiana High School Athletic association two years later from a winner-take-all format to four separate class tournaments cemented Milan's enduring fame.\n"It was probably the biggest game that has ever been played in the state just from a history standpoint," said Muncie Central Coach Billy Shepherd, a former Indiana Mr. Basketball who attended the 1954 game -- as a 4-year-old.\nCentral, which has an enrollment of more than 1,200, now plays in Indiana's largest class, 4A; and Milan, whose enrollment this year is listed at 346, is in the second-smallest class, 2A.\n"Bobby Plump and others -- and myself -- who would love to see the high school basketball tournament be a one-class tournament, I think this brought attention to that game," Shepherd said. "Most people say, 'Well, that could never happen again,' and it might not. But it happened once, so I guess that's what made it the story."\nThe ESPN Classic cable network showed original game footage from the 1954 championship, followed by a live telecast of the game Saturday night, the climax of a weekend celebration honoring members of both teams from a half-century ago.\n"It epitomizes the Cinderella story," said ESPN announcer Quinn Buckner. "The people of Indiana have always had this passion about this sport ... Then there's a human spirit story here -- never dying, never quitting, overcoming seemingly overwhelming odds. This can't be said any better than the Milan-Muncie Central Game."\nCy Birge, one of the two referees who worked the 1954 game, tossed the ball up at the opening tip-off as fans throughout the arena stood and cheered.\n"When I played, it was the 25th year anniversary," said Andy McIntosh, a former Milan player and father of a member of the current team. "We went the route of all the banquets and things going on. It's special 25 years later to see the same thing going on with my son, and that the tradition's still going on."\nTerry Moore, a member of Milan's freshman team, said everyone in the small Ripley County town lives with the history of the game.\n"It's the biggest thing in basketball for our school," he said.\nDuring a halftime ceremony, with Muncie Central's record eight championship banners hanging overhead, the surviving members of both teams were introduced. Also recognized were Mary Lou Wood, widow of the 1954 Milan coach, Marvin Wood, and Jay McCreary, Jr. and Debbie Cook, the children of the late Muncie coach Jay McCreary.\nThe evening ended, appropriately, with a 1950s-style sock hop.