[Congressional Record Volume 170, Number 50 (Thursday, March 21, 2024)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2498-S2499]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



   Recognizing The Indians of Milan High 1954 Basketball Championship

  Mr. YOUNG. Mr. President, you might be surprised by the guest book of 
a museum in a small town in Indiana. Inside it are names of visitors 
from all 50 States and from much farther away--other countries, other 
continents, places like Italy, France, Japan, and New Zealand.
  They have made their way to Milan--Milan, IN. And they have done so 
because here is where the heart of Hoosier Hysteria lives. It is the 
greatest basketball story ever that has taken place. It happened there 
70 years ago this week, March 20, 1954, at the Fieldhouse on the campus 
of Butler University in Indianapolis: the finals of the

[[Page S2499]]

Indiana High School Basketball Tournament, the Indians of Milan High, 
enrollment 161, versus the Bearcats of Muncie Central, enrollment 
1,660. Fifteen thousand fans are in the bleachers, with thousands more 
Hoosiers listening over the radio. It is the fourth quarter. The game 
is tied at 30; 18 seconds on the clock. Milan inbounds. Senior Bobby 
Plump gets the ball. He fakes left, dribbles right, pulls up, knocks 
down a 14-foot jump shot just as the clock expires. The nets come down. 
The celebration starts.
  The next morning, the new State companions headed home. They are in a 
fleet of Cadillacs along Indiana's county roads. There was no 
interstate or highway connecting Indianapolis to Cincinnati, the 
closest city to Milan.
  Hoosiers were awaiting along the way in Greensburg, in Shelbyville. 
They were holding signs. They were waving. State Road 101, which led 
back home, was lined with cars and cheering fans for 13 miles. And 
40,000 people were waiting in little Milan, IN, even though at the 
time, the town had only 1,100 residents. This is Hoosier Hysteria. This 
is what the people of Indiana are so excited about every March.
  That year, in 1954, as the players from Milan rolled into town, two 
members of the team, Ray Craft and Kenny Wendelman, hopped on the roof 
of their Cadillac with the championship trophy between them. The 
procession ended near Milan High. That is where that trophy remains 
today.
  The next morning, the crowd was gone. The small town, its quiet had 
gradually returned. In the days that followed, members of the team 
graduated. They went off to college, pursued careers. They drifted 
apart. Coach Marvin Wood took a job up in New Castle.
  The passage of time brought other changes--not all of them welcome, 
of course. Little Milan, like so many towns across the country--it is 
facing challenges. And the single class basketball tournament system 
that gave small town teams like Milan a shot at the title is no more.
  Some of the schools that played in the 1954 tournament are gone. 
Milan, it hasn't won another championship. Though, it must be said they 
made it to the semi-State back in 1973.
  Despite this--or possibly because of it--the Milan Miracle is as 
inspiring as ever. Yes, it is the tale of the little guy, the underdog, 
David versus Goliath, the smallest school to ever win the single class 
tournament. Literally, in fact, Muncie Central's average height was 6-
foot-4. Milan was 5-foot-11.
  This story is so much bigger than that, so much bigger than 
basketball or even Indiana, for that matter.
  Milan's players always note that their championship run in 1954 
wasn't a lightning strike. It wasn't even a stroke of good luck. No, 
the Indians made it to the final four the previous year. Most of the 
players had known and practiced with each other since grade school. 
They played tough. They were coached well. Perhaps most importantly, 
they had faith--faith in their teammates, faith in one another, faith 
in that community that they represented, faith that merit and hard work 
would be rewarded, faith that, just maybe, their dreams would be 
satisfied.
  Bobby Plump's last shot is still talked about around the country, 
really, but certainly, back home in Indiana. That is the moment we 
remember. But it was the culmination of a lot of hard work, dedication, 
and teamwork. And it happened because of the support of families, 
friends, and neighbors.
  Milan was a place where, when a student needed a winter coat, 
locals--they took up a collection at the drugstore. They bought that 
coat. It is the place where the kids who didn't have a lot of money 
could eat for free at Rosie's. The ones from nearby Pierceville who 
often had to walk to school, they could count on rides from friends.
  In a different era, when the world seemed so much smaller, the local 
basketball team was, at least for the month of March, the world--the 
world--every one of these teams, the celebration of your togetherness, 
your community, your opportunity to show your stuff.
  Even a water shortage in the spring of 1954 didn't dampen Milan's or 
Ripley County's excitement for the Indians. In fact, as an area 
newspaper reported: ``water or no water, Ripleyians want Milan to bring 
home the crown.''
  Apart from what happened on the hardwood at Hinkle Fieldhouse, the 
memory of Milan lasts because--because their team and town symbolizes 
what keeps all of our communities together, what lifts our hopes and 
fuels our dreams, even when it feels like hopes and dreams are all we 
have.
  That trophy that I mentioned, that trophy in the newly refurbished 
lobby of Milan High's gymnasium, today is a symbol of more than just a 
State championship. Oh, it is so much more.
  You see, it is proof of how much we all can achieve when we work 
together towards a common goal and resolve to hold our own, no matter 
the odds, no matter how insignificant others might say we are or think 
we are. It is an inspiration still across small towns and struggling 
places waiting on their own miracle, where the basketball team brings 
people together and makes them feel proud of the places they call home. 
This--this is why we still celebrate little Milan beating mighty Muncie 
Central 70 years on. It is why we will, I believe, for the next 70 
years too.

  Of course, for those who haven't already figured it out, this is the 
story that inspired ``Hoosiers,'' a beloved movie written and directed 
by a pair of Hoosiers.
  You see, visitors regularly come to Indiana in search of the movie's 
fictional Hickory, hoping to find the small town epicenter of Hoosier 
Hysteria. But what they are really searching for is right there in 
Ripley County. It is an actual town with a real history and a tradition 
to be proud of and, dare I say, replicated.
  They will recognize it by the basketball goals in driveways, the 
backboards on barns, the black water tower with white lettering, 
prominently reading: ``STATE CHAMPS 1954''--it is still there. I have 
seen it many times, the historical marker commemorating the Milan 
miracle and that museum that celebrates it right there in the center of 
town.
  As a newspaper declared back in 1954:

       In basketball, Little Milan is the new capital of Indiana.

  I think that is about right. Well, 70 years later, it is still the 
capital, and the Indians will always be champions.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from North Carolina.
  Mr. TILLIS. Mr. President, I want to compliment my colleague from 
Indiana on those wonderful remarks and reflection on history.
  I will reflect, in the present day, North Carolina has three teams in 
March Madness.