Episode #44 - Bobby Plump (the real life Jimmy Chitwood)

The movie Hoosiers is universally adored among sports fans,
especially hoops junkies.  It is loosely based on a magical
season from 1954 of a small Indiana school called Milan, who made
it all the way to the Indiana state championship where their
small school, which had an enrollment of 160 took down much
larger Muncie Central whose school size was 1,600.  In the
movie the winning shot in the state title game was made by a
sharp-shooter named Jimmy Chitwood.  Back in 1954 that
game-winning shot was made by a young man named Bobby Plump.
 

Bobby is now 84 years old and still lives in Indiana.  I
connected with Bobby to talk about that magical season where
Milan made history, how much of the movie Hoosiers is accurate
based on what happened with their team and his thoughts on the
Indiana state basketball tournament switching to a multi-class
system.  I can’t imagine what it was like to make a basket
for your team to win a state tourney in a major upset, let alone
have that moment made into a movie.  Bobby does a great job
going back in time to share those details with me.