It’s the holidays…again…and in the midst of all the typical crap like breaking out the decorations for the house and erecting the false trees or buying the real ones and scrambling to get out the Christmas cards to people we don’t ever talk to anymore, we here at the Sewer are once again taking stock of the many gifts we’ve gotten from the movies over the years and celebrating them in the form of our own demented little Christmas carol we like to call the 12 Days of CHUDmas.
Over the next 12 days we’re going to be counting down – in reverse order, cause screw the original carol, counting up sucks – these gifts and tying in the entries with some gift ideas to help take the sting out of that last minute trip to the store to snag something for that cousin who decided to be a considerate douche and send you a present after five years of non-communication.
On the tenth day of CHUDmas my true CHUD sent to me…
Ten Hoosiers Ballin’
Film: Hoosiers (1986)
Director: David Anspaugh
We know what you’re thinkin’: “Hold on, wait a minute…there were only eight Hoosiers, so WTF?” If you mean on the Hickory Huskers team, then yes., that’s accurate. But what we’re talking about here is on the court in every game (except for one, where there were nine), especially the championship game. Five Huskers and five from whatever team they were facing. In the championship game is was the South Bend Central Bears. Those kids were bigger and more athletic, and more importantly, also Hoosiers. Jimmy Chitwood’s final shot don’t mean shit if there’s not another team against whom to throw it up.
Up until 1997, Indiana was somewhat unique in that rather than breaking their high school basketball championship tournament into classes based on school size as most states do, they had one tournament for everybody. That meant that rural High Scool A, with enrollment of a few hundred, could go up against urban High School B with enrollment of a few thousand. The final four would gather in the Hoosier/RCA Dome or wherever they do it since they tore that thing down, and they would play both of the semifinal games and the championship game in the same day. When Hoosiers came out in 1986, it was the first part of a double whammy of pride for the state, as the actual Indiana Hoosiers would go on to win the national championship the next year on a shot from Keith Smart not dissimilar to Jimmy Chitwood’s jumper. Not sure if there was a drunk assistant coach jumping up and down on a bed somewhere though…
As a former Hoosier myself (Jeffersonville High, state champs, 1993…woo hoo), I can tell you that people would talk about that movie for years afterward. Somebody knew somebody who’s grandmother’s house was seen in a shot, or somebody’s cousin’s doctor drove by the production one day. There was a lot of state pride in Hoosiers, and deservedly so, as it’s one of the best, most moving sports films ever made. It reminds us how much Gene Hackman is missed on movie screens these days. And it took ten Hoosiers on the court to make it happen.
CHUDmas Gift Ideas
