My opinion that the Boy at the end who is shooting baskets, when the camera pans on him and on the State Champion photo, with the voice overs. Any way to get to the point. He is either the son of Norman Dale (who stayed in Hickory) and Myra Flenner. Or perhaps he could be the next Jimmy Chitwood.
Any opinions out their?
i played that kid
- Bring back the 80's movies!
That may be reading a little bit into it. I took it to mean that basketball will always be alive and strong in rural Indiana, and that Norman's legacy helped cement that, and helped inspire this kid and countless others to pursue their own level of excellence.
He's just representative of another generation of Hoosier kids who have the game in their blood.
Good point!!
sharewhat was the whole point of passing so much then? not inspirational at all.
shareI always thought it was the son of Dale and Myra. In the scene before, you see them making eye contact after Hickory wins and I thought that said a lot.
However, a recently saw a deleted scene that explains this is not their son. Just before leaving for the championship game, Myra tells Dale that she is leaving and going to Chicago to finish her master's. This explains her question to him at the press conference. She asks him to visit her there saying it's not all that far and Dale agrees.
As for the boy, I think it's just showing another generation of basketball player. I do think it's a great ending though.
However this the boy is around 7 or 8. So it could be possible that the boy is Normans and Myras son. Posibility she and Norman where married during the same time she was taking classes for her masters. Were not told how long it took her to finish.
Like in a pervious post I wrote, I think it could be their son.
I like to think that he is their son. We don't know how much time has passed between the championship game and this scene. The gym doesn't look much different than it did during the film. The picture on the wall and the voices we hear seem to indicate that some time has passed.
shareI would say 6 or 7 yrs.
shareI supposed it could be their son, but one thing to look for is the American Flag hanging on the wall...it still only has the 48 stars and since Hawaii and Alaska joined the union in '59, we can assume that less than 6 years has passed...
share<what was the whole point of passing so much then? not inspirational at all.>
Shooting is the easiest thing in the world to practise on your own - you just need a ball and a hoop. Anyone who is keen to play basketball would have shot many thousands of hoops in practice.
What is difficult, no, impossible, to practise on your own, is passing to a team mate, setting an offensive pattern, being patient.
By forcing the players to pass four times in the initial matches and in team practice Dale was attempting to practise these fundamentals and instil these attitudes. Notice that he didn't continue to insist on four passes right up until the state championships...it was just in those early days when he was trying to get them to unlearn some old habits and then learn some new ones.
Some of his training methods were very different and the players and the supporters resisted them. What do you mean we're going to practise for two hours and not touch a basketball? But he wanted to work on their fitness and the basic fundamentals first. The other stuff came later. It is actually a very sound coaching principle.
"He's just representative of another generation of Hoosier kids who have the game in their blood."
This is the correct answer.
Wich one was that? I recall one with the two of them talking before heading out to the State Championship game, Myra ask Norman if he will come up to Chicago to see, with some arm twisting he said; "I'll be thier."
I agree with CincyKid, just a boy pretending that he is Jimmy, his idol!!!
"When I read about the evils of drinking, I gave up reading". -Henny Youngmam
jimmy! jimmy! jimmy! what is really a boy? could it be the made ft's ghost of the future?
I was thinking of the immortal words of Socrates, who said, "... I drank what?"
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He was Myra and Cletus's love child. He went on to grand success with a meth lab but was ultimately tragically shot down in a bad drug deal. Been to Milan lately?
shareGrunching a bit here but I don't think it matters who the kid is. He is a random young boy shooting baskets at a gym in Indiana because he loves the game of basketball. He could be anyone. The point I thought was to show how love for the game is alive and well in rural Indiana.
That scene could have been from any year after Hickory won the state title to the present. Coach Dale and Hickory are a memory via a picture hanging in the gym but what they represented lives on in any young kid who loves basketball and has a dream.
Perhaps he remembered Hickory's title and was imagining himself as Jimmy Chitwood taking the last shot and winning the game. Perhaps Hickory's title was beyond his age range so to him the Huskers were just some team that won state. It makes no difference because he loves basketball so he is in an empty gym shooting over and over again. It's something I did several times as a young kid and is a scene I'm sure is repeated thousands of times daily across the world.
I was in the Milan gym about 45 years ago. There was a giant photo on the wall showing the coach and the 1954 championship team, just like in the movie.
share