Hoosiers




Hoosiers was released into theaters on November 14th, 1986. Filming locations include Crawfordsville, Knightstown, Lebanon, New Richmond and Terhune, In. The film was directed by David Anspaugh, who would go on to direct another inspirational underdog sports film seven years later in Rudy. Gene Hackman played the lead of Coach Norman Dale. It's been well documented over the years how problematic Hackman was for Anspaugh during filming, even driving the first time film director to the brink of a nervous breakdown. Dennis Hopper was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role as Shooter. Jerry Goldsmith wrote and composed the films score, also earning an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Score. The films first DVD release was on December 9th, 1997.


Bridge Coach Dale drives over - County Rd. 175 East Crawfordsville, In. 47933

The 192 foot long iron truss bridge had been there since 1913, but was removed in 1991 and replaced with a more modern bridge. He was traveling north over Sugar Creek.


2019


Store Coach Dale stops at - North 1000 East Terhune, In. 46069 (between Harrison St. and E. Sims St.)

The building still stands and has been converted into apartments. The Terhune Grain Corp. grain elevator and silo that's seen in the background have been gone since the early 90's.


2019


Coach Dale stops at the crossroads - South 25 West (Pittsboro Rd.) and West 600 South Lebanon, In. 46052

The small church seen in this scene was The Concord Church of Christ. It was burned down by an arsonist on January 10th, 1994.


2019


Downtown Hickory - Washington St. and Wabash St. New Richmond, In. 47967
(New Richmond, Indiana)

When Coach Dale is first driving into town he's traveling south on North 400 West or Wabash St. The 335 population town fully embraces it's Hoosier history and there are numerous reminders throughout the small community. Today, the barber shop in the film is the Hickory Cafe, located at 102 Washington St.


All "Now" pictures taken in 2019.




Hickory Huskers gym - 355 N. Washington St. Knightstown, In. 46148
(Hoosier Gym)

The gym was built on December 1st, 1921 for the Knightstown Community School. Renovations were done to the gym in 1932 and 1952. In 1966, the gym closed due to a new school and gym being built for the Knightstown Panthers and for the next nineteen years it was used sparingly. By 1988, even with the success and popularity of the film, the gym faced possible demolition, until Historic Knightstown and Historic Landmarks of Indiana stepped forward to help preserve the gym. Today, in addition to serving as a museum for the movie, the gym hosts high school teams from around the country. It attracts roughly 70,000 tourists per year. Visitors are taken on tours of the gym and locker room and they're even allowed to play basketball on the court themselves. The gym is kept looking like it did in the film and it's very well maintained, while still keeping that old school charm. The staff is also very accommodating and knowledgeable about it's history.


All "Now" pictures taken in 2019.





Me shooting in the gym.


Cletus Summers home - 5170 North 400 West Crawfordsville, In. 47933

The house, garage and barn were all built at some point prior to 1955. The house still stands, but the other structures have since collapsed.


2019


Town meeting - 5946 N. Howard St. Lebanon, In. 46052
(Elizaville Baptist Church)

The church was built in 1894.


2019

7 comments:

  1. A great film with an inspirational story that captured the ambiance of the time and place wonderfully. Pure Midwest. A bit sad to see the passing of time has changed a few places, and nice that others have been preserved.

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  2. Thanks for sharing!

    One quick question: What about the Hickory High School? Where is that located?

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    1. The school was demolished at some point between 1998 and 2002. It was located at 7544 S. Nineveh Rd. Nineveh, In. 46164.

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  3. Thank you so much I seen this movie at the theater in 86 and I as well as most people have this iconic movie as the best sports movie of all time

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  4. Ha, I grew up in the area during the filming of this movie. Rural Central Indiana absolutely looked liked the opening scene in many small towns. Even old guys would hang out at country stores 'shooting the breeze'. I also appear in the film as our school thespian club was invited to be extras. I remember walking up to Gene Hackman during a break and asking for his autograph. He was so tall and polite and I still have the autograph. We had to wear cloths to the shoot that was period correct. Not a problem as our mothers grew up during that time and knew how to dress us. There was a crew on set that spiffed our hair or changed an item of clothing to fit the scene. They took polaroid pictures of us in the stands and asked us to return to the same spot after breaks. A crew member checked everyone's seating referring to the pictures when break was over. To this day I can stop the movie and see myself in the stands. There is a scene in the movie where kids are shooting basketball on the side of a barn. Well I spent many hours doing the same. What many folks may not know is that a lot of those barns had basketball hoops in the haylofts. We played basketball inside when it was snowing out. Oh how I long for those old days when life was simple in the Midwest. DGG

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  5. Great memories. We were in college during the filming and some of our classmates at Marian College were recruited to be on Hickorys team. I was asked to be an extra. We skipped our classes for a few days to be in the filming in Knightstown. Hackman earned my respect as an actor. He is a perfectionist. Often times, it took hours of retakes to where Hackman was happy with his performance. My buddy and I got yelled at a few times because we weren't doing what we were told during the filming. They had barbers on the set that cut all our hair to fit the 50's style too inside the school.i remember it was freezing inside the gym the days during the filming we were in. All great memories!

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