1
Wednesday, March 11, 1937
Daily Nebraskan
Page 9
'Boosie9 principal
TT TT TTT r
BOW UiJib BF)ieS8
By Stew Magnuson
Senior Reporter
Cale Hudson pulled out the yellow,
brittle newspaper clippings dated March
20, 1954. In the photo, high-school girls
with hornrimmed glasses celebrate with
boys in crew cuts and basketball jerseys.
Thirty-three years ago this month,
the Milan, Ind., High Indians beat a
team from school several times its size
in the Indiana State High School bas
ketball finals. It was the first and last
time a tiny school knocked off a big
city giant. The legendary game inspired
the movie "Hoosiers," and Cale Hud
son, then Milan High principal, is now a
professor of educational administra
tion at UNL
Unlike Nebraska's high-school bas
ketball tournaments, Indiana doesn't
split the teams into divisions based on
enrollment. All 721 schools entered in
1954, rgardless of how well they played
during the regular, season. Over three
weekends, the 721 teams were elimi
nated to four.
In 1954, the Milan team, led by
second-year coach Marvin Wood, cruised
through the sectionals and regionals to
face their first large school, an all
black Indianapolis team featuring future
National Basketball Association star
Oscar Robertson Milan's Bobby Plump
led the Indians to a 65-52 victory and
their firt trip to the finals. After beat
ing another large team from Terre
Haute, they faced Muncie Central High
School for the title. Central had won
the state championship four times and
had twice as many students as there
were people in Milan.
Certainly this was the classic Cinderella-Rocky
story. Muncie Central's team
was taller and bigger, but in the Cin
derella fashion, Plump hit a last-second
jump shot that won the game 30-28 and
earned Milan and Plump a place in
histoiy.
! To this day, people still talk about
the Milan legend.
"People who follow basketball still
talk about Milan as a big thing," Hud
son said. "Everybody loves the 'little
one' to beat the 'big one.' It doesn't
happen too often, but when it does,
as
By Mark Derowitsch
Staff Reporter
One might say that it is by accident
that Nebraska women's track team has
its top high jumper.
Tammy Thurman, a junior from Fre
mont, was originally a long jumper
when she was in eighth grade. Until she
wandered over to where some of her
teammates were high jumping, that is.
From that point on, the long jump has
been long forgotten.
Thurman
"I was a long jumper, but one day I
was messing around and I went over to
the pit and started high jumping for the
fun of it," Thurman said. "I just started
doing it. I had no form or anything, so I
just did what I had to do to get over the
bar."
The "accident," which occurred al
most seven years ago, proved to be a big
plus for the Huskers. Thurman quali
fied as a freshman and sophomore for
Jumio
people remember it a long time."
It was Hudson's first year as a prin
cipal. The principal from the year
before left with a "nervous breakdown,"
he said. Hudson's job was to "keep
things as normal as possible," which
was not an easy task after Milan made
it into the finals for the first time and
the press started showing up at the
school.
"Hoosiers" is based on the Milan
experience. The Cinderella story of the
fictional town of Hickory is the same,
but the story is fiction, Hudson said.
"First of all, the principal was a lot
better-looking, and he didn't have any
heart attacks," Hudson joked.
Coach Marvin Wood was also quite
different from the character played by
Gene Hackman, Hudson said.
"Wood was very soft-spoken," he
said. "I don't think he ever said a curse
word in his life, He was church-going
person and a real disciplinarian. He
once suspended some kids for missing
a curfew by five minutes and he never
had any of (Hackman's) problems.'
The movies scriptwriters also made
the Milan team look like more of art
underdog than it was.: The kids were
awestruck as they entered Butler Aud
itorium in the movie. All but one of the
players, however, had competed in
seven games there the year before, and
Wood had played college ball at Butler
University.
"They were all seasoned players by
that second year," Hudson said. "It was
nice to say they were 'country hicks' all
awestruck, but actualy, they were a
pretty sophisticated bunch of young
men. They wren't as corn pone as the
movie made them out to be."
"Hoosiers" captured the basketball
fever and intensity well, Hudson said,
and he thought the film was "very
entertaining."
Hudson hasn't seen Wood or the
players since a reunion in the late 50s.
He is invited every year to a get
together one week after the Indiana
State Basketball Tournament, but he
never has had time to go back.
Hudson also was invited to the pre
miere of "Hoosiers" in Indianapolis but
couldn't make it to that, either.
M
the NCAA outdoor championships and
the national indoor meet last season.
But she failed to place at nationals
either year.
This season Jhurman qualified for
nationals during the first meet of the
season. She tied her own Big Eight Con
ference record in the meet by clearing
6-0 12.
Nebraska assistant coach Bob Cer
venka said Thurman will do well this
year at nationals.
"She qualified the first meet of the
year by jumping 6-0 12," Cervenka
said. "And at nationals this year, the
starting height will be 5-1 1 14, so odds
are that she will place. The object is to
get to the national meet. Once you get
thre, anything can happen."
Thurman said she was surprised that
she qualified so early for the NCAAs.
"Over Christmas I still didn't have
an approach," Thurman said. "I was
kind of in a state of panic because I
thought I wasn't going to get it all
straightened out for our first meet.
Even going into that meet, I still wasn't
feeling really confident with my ap
proach at all. I was surprised, that's the
only way I can put it."
Even though Thurman failed to place
in her first two attempts at the NCAAs,
she is optimistic that she can place
this season.
"It's possible that I will place since
there doesn't seem to be very many
jumpers this year," Thurman said. "Usual
ly they have prelims and finals, but this
year they just have the finals.
"My goal is to place alter no height
ing twice," she said.
Thurman, who has one more year of
eligibility after this season, said she
needs to improve in some areas.
hope
V
X
s 4
Cale Hudson, the former principal of Milan, Ind., High School, looks through newspaper
clippings from March 20, 1854, the day after the Milan Indians defeated Muncie Central High
School In the finals of the Indiana State Boy's Basketball Championships. The game was the
inspiration for the movie "Hoosiers," which is playing in theaters all over the country. Hudson is
now a professor of educational administration at UNL.
; ' 5 ; f '
fs ' ' . .
I. . ;
i "Vi jj i
: it: :, :;,.;.
Paul VonderlageDaily Nebraskan
