Why do we still talk about 'Hoosiers' 40 years later? Well, 'In 49 other states...'

Heather Bushman, Indianapolis StarThu, November 12, 2026 at 8:20 AM UTC

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Strangers on the street, sports film aficionados and a laundry list of Indiana governors have shared their personal connection to "Hoosiers" with Angelo Pizzo. The Bloomington-based screenwriter appreciates every interaction, even 40 years after the sports epic hit theaters.

Pizzo struck gold with the story of Milan High School’s improbable 1954 state single-class boys basketball championship on his first crack at a film script. Milestones for the 1986 “Hoosiers” movie and the team that inspired it regularly reunite core cast and crew members to relive the magic. They’ll gather once again Nov. 15 to celebrate the film’s 40th anniversary with a screening at Carmel’s Allied Solutions Center for Performing Arts.

Pizzo admits that fielding familiar viewer inquiries at panels and events can feel like a "pressing play on 'Frankie Valli's greatest hits,'" he said. But any monotony dissipates when a fan tells him just how much the film means to them – and to the state of Indiana.

"The gratitude of people responding positively to the movie never goes away," Pizzo told IndyStar. "I'm grateful that my intentions in writing the script got through to people."

More: Catch the cast, crew of "Hoosiers" at Carmel Palladium screening

Pizzo’s slam dunk turns 40 this year, which means it’s time to rewind the tape and talk about “Hoosiers” again. Until someone produces a cinematic retelling of a different group of Hoosiers – the 2025 National Champion Indiana University football team – the Hickory Huskers will reign as the apex of this state’s athletic achievements on film, and occasions to reminisce will spring up in perpetuity.

We have dissected “Hoosiers” down to its guts, probed and prodded it every which way. Four decades later, it’s still in rotation. Here’s why, according to film personnel and sports culture experts: Indiana, underdogs and, “In 49 other states...”

Few can speak to the movie’s enduring spirit better than Brad Long, who played Husker guard Buddy Walker. These days, he’s a sales representative for the high school memorabilia manufacturer Jostens, but back in 1985, Long was a recent graduate of Southwestern College in Kansas, where he played on the basketball team.

Long caught wind of an Indianapolis Star article advertising “auditions for basketball movie next week,” as the headline of the Aug. 23, 1985, story read. Producers for a movie about the 1954 “miracle” Milan team were seeking “seven white males, age 18 to 20, no taller than 6 feet 2, possessed of excellent basketball skill,” according to the story, and would hold open auditions at the then-Indiana University Purdue University Indianapolis’ Natatorium.

Long was 23 at the time and had no acting experience, but he looked young for his age and “kind of happened to fit a character that they were looking for,” he told IndyStar.

“They wanted players that could actually somewhat play,” Long said. “I just got a lucky break.”

More: Is Indiana football CFP run or 'Hoosiers' the better story?

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A lifelong Indianapolis-area resident and Center Grove High School alum, Long was well aware of Milan’s miraculous run, which rang in its 70th anniversary in 2024. He remembers how inspiring he and others found the team, and he posited that the familiar beats of Milans’ “David v. Goliath” victory over Muncie Central elevated the story to state legend.

But the longevity of “Hoosiers” doesn’t just rest on the classic, aspirational narrative, Long said: Audiences resonated with the realistic depiction of a rural, tight-knit Indiana community. Long credits the filmmakers with nailing the details, from the small-town look and feel of the fictional Hickory down to the Chuck Taylor high-tops on the players’ feet.

“Those guys, David Anspaugh and Angelo Pizzo, they got it right,” Long said. “It was like, ‘Life imitates art.’ It was real.”

How 'Hoosiers' nails small-town nostalgia

That nostalgia factor – which, according to researchers at the University of Florida, actually alters our brain chemistry – anchors the endless “Hoosiers” replay value. Indulging in fond memories hits our pleasure centers and releases dopamine, so a depiction of a simpler time like “Hoosiers” is almost scientifically engineered to stick. The more the 1950s marinates as a bygone era, the more sentimental viewers become over, say, a town so invested in its basketball team that the employment status of the coach is put to a public vote.

Pizzo often fields questions about whether “Hoosiers” would make it off the cutting room floor if it were pitched today. His answer is almost always “no,” considering Indiana’s relatively meager tax credit structure for filmmakers and the industry’s reluctance to take chances on original, little-known stories. The timing of “Hoosiers,” both in its ‘50s setting and ‘80s release, is paramount to its longevity – but so is its location. Where else could it work but in basketball-crazed Indiana?

Galen Clavio, director of the National Sports Journalism Center at Indiana University Bloomington, said Indiana’s hoops fervor elevated “Hoosiers” to legendary status. Fans saw infamous Indiana University basketball coach Bob Knight in Gene Hackman’s hard-scrabble, no-nonsense coach Norman Dale, and good-ol'-boys like Jimmy Chitwood and Everett Flatch reflected the kind of hometown heroes that Indiana communities rallied around during basketball season. And, Clavio said, Indiana basketball fans saw themselves in Hickory, where the team’s miracle trophy was a win for the whole town.

“It captured so well the romanticism and the on-the-ground feelings of being a fan of basketball,” Clavio said. “It was one of those movies that felt like it was made specifically for those who care deeply about the sport in the state.”

'Hoosiers' is a love letter to Indiana. Years later, Indiana basketball buffs keep reciprocating

Pizzo wrote the film with the Indiana fanbase in mind. In fact, he was pretty sure the only audience who’d ever lay eyes on “Hoosiers” would be, well, Hoosiers: The movie was originally slated for a limited release in Indiana, and Hackman famously told Pizzo and Anspaugh on the last day of shooting that he guessed the movie would be tossed in the “dust bin of film history,” Pizzo remembers.

But out of that dust bin and onto almost every “best sports movies of all time” list it went, up to the annals of cinema history and trotted out once again when the time comes to reminisce. The outpouring of love for the film that each anniversary inspires, Pizzo said, reminds him why “Hoosiers” lives on.

“It’s essentially identity, connection to tribalism,” Pizzo said. “It’s like, ‘Thank you for showing the world who we are.’”

Contact IndyStar Pop Culture Reporter Heather Bushman at hbushman@indystar.com. Follow her on X @hmb_1013.

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Why do we still talk about 'Hoosiers' 40 years later? Well, 'In 49 other states...'

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