The line comes just before the state championship game in the movie “Hoosiers,” as Dennis Hopper’s character, Shooter Flatch, while in rehabilitation, storms around the room trying to grasp with his personal demons.
Flatch attempts to explain to a disinterested medical staff the magnitude of the pint-sized, hardly-big-enough-for-five-syllables Hickory Huskers advancing to the Indiana state championship game.
Hopper states, “No school this small has ever been in the state championship game.”
The movie perfectly captures the excitement and magnitude of a tiny school taking on the Goliaths of larger enrollments, with the predictable outcome of David toppling the heavily favored giant.
As a matter of fact, until the 1997-1998 season when the state added a four-class system, Indiana had only one state basketball champion for all of its basketball programs.
This would explain why the 1954 Milan Indian basketball team, the one the Huskers in the movie is based on, remains revered over 70 years later.
Today, the championship David versus Goliath matchups that make classic movies like Hoosiers possible are few and far between.
This is why the NCAA tournament maintains much of its luster. We all fill out prediction brackets with the top-tier seeds winning the championship, but then root for all the lower-seeded teams to break our brackets – or maybe that’s just me.
Seriously, who doesn’t want to see Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) take down North Carolina?
While in Missouri, we won’t see the David versus Goliath match-ups, we still occasionally get to see smaller schools get to play and push larger enrollments to the brink.
Holiday tournaments are one of the few bastions left where small schools can still see how they stack up with larger enrollment rosters.
At the 42nd annual Southwest Boys Holiday Tournament, fans were treated to one such game in a Monett-Purdy matchup. The last time that I could confirm that these programs met in boys hoops was in 1976, although they did appear in the same tournament in the 1990s. I was unable to find proof that they played each other in the tournament.
At most Missouri schools, football is the most popular sport. For smaller schools like Purdy that do not offer the gridiron option, basketball is their football.
The Cubs prevailed, 61-60, but needed a pair of free throws with less than 3 seconds remaining to secure the win. The gym was rocking as both fan bases lived and died on each possession.
Currently, the Missouri State High School Activities Association (MSHSAA) allows basketball programs to participate in three in-season tournaments. The Southwest tournament gave the Cubs and Eagles a chance to see competition from Oklahoma and Arkansas as well.
While the semifinal game featuring a pair of Barry County schools wasn’t for a state title, it allowed for a match-up that otherwise would not have occurred — a rare hardwood treat for fans who appreciate the novelty of a small school challenging its larger brother.
For some fans, they may see it as just another game, but for those smaller schools, the chance to play a larger enrollment is something they will remember for a long time.
Meanwhile, I will continue to advocate for every team I cover to run the Picket Fence.
Jared Lankford is the sports reporter for Monett Monthly and has 15 years experience covering Monett-area athletics. He may be reached at monettsports@gmail.com
