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

The Bare's Den w/ Matt Bare

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.