Roadside America -Courtside Dreams

As an Indiana native and a fan of all things Basketball, Ben was thrilled to visit a few basketball dream sites. For those who aren’t familiar with Indiana and basketball, just hear what Dr. James Naismith (the inventor of basketball) said on a 1925 visit to Indiana: “While the game was invented in Massachusetts, basketball really had its origin in Indiana, which remains the center of the sport.”

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On an early spring weekend Ben and his dad too a trip to Indianapolis to go see a Pacers basketball game. On the way to Indy, they made a stop at the Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame and the Hoosiers Gym. If you haven’t see the movie Hoosiers, please stop what you’re doing and check it out. It’s a feel good sports movie about an underdog and a big time tournament. Even for the reluctant sports enthusiast it’s a fantastic movie. In Knightstown, Indiana is the gym where the filming took place.

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First stop was the Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame located in New Castle, IN. This city also happens to be home to the New Castle Fieldhouse. “What’s that?” You might ask. It is the largest high school gym in the United States at just under 10,000 seats. For a frame of reference, the average High School Gym seats less than a tenth of that.

The Hall of Fame started out with an introductory movie on basketball in the state of Indiana. After the movie you proceed down a ramp into the actual museum. There is a TON of memorabilia that almost any sports fan would find interesting. The focus of the Hall of Fame is on high school sports, but you will find information on John Wooden, Larry Bird, Oscar Robinson, Bob Knight, etc… Interestingly, there is a section devoted to the 1954 Milan High School team. Never heard of them? Well, that is the team that serves as a basis for the movie Hoosiers! That makes this the perfect segue to our next stop…Hoosiers Gym!

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As previously stated the movie Hoosiers is loosely based on the 1954 Indiana state basketball Champion Milan High School. Many of the scenes of the movie were filmed in the old Knightstown gym which is now a community center and museum. Many of the props from the movie are still here. Even if the gym did not have the connection to Hoosiers it is still a great historic gym that is fun to visit. It reminded me a lot of the Middle School Gym I used to play in….ahhh the nostalgia. This gym and the one where I played in middle school were built roughly the same time during the 1930s.

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As you enter the gym, there is a gift shop and small museum unsurprisingly dedicated to the movie Hoosiers. There are volunteer tour guides who give tours of the gym, tell about filming of the movie, and will answer any questions. Like me, the guide was a HUGE fan of all things Indiana basketball and the movie Hoosiers. We could have talked for hours, but had to stay on track to make it to our hotel and then the basketball game that evening. As you can see in the pictures below, the gym and locker room looks almost the same as they do in the movie. Interestingly, there were people playing a pick-up game, but they took a break so we could get pictures.

If you are a fan of Gene Hackman, Hoosiers, The Milan Miracle Bobby Knight throwing chairs, IU Basketball, The Butler Bulldog, Purdue Basketball, Gene Keady and his comb-over, Larry Bird, small town gyms, or basketball in general, you need to make a stop at these two places.