Dennis Hopper as Shooter Flatch Sheb Wooley as Cletus Summers Maris Valainis as Jimmy Chitwood David Neidorf as Everett Flatch Brad Long as Buddy Walker Steve Hollar as Rade Butcher Brad Boyle as Whit Butcher Wade Schenck as Ollie McLellan Kent Poole as Merle Webb Scott Summers as Strap Purl Fern Persons as Opal Fleener Chelcie Ross as George Walker Michael Sassone as Preacher Purl Gloria Dorson as Millie Hilliard Gates as Radio Announcer Michael O'Guinne as Rooster Wil Dewitt as Reverend Doty John Robert Thompson as Sheriff Finley Basis The film is inspired in part by the story of the 1954 Indiana state champions, Milan High School ( ). The phrase "inspired by a true story" is more appropriate than "based on a true story" because the two teams have little in common. In most U.S. states, high school athletic teams are divided into different classes, usually based on the number of enrolled students, with separate state championship tournaments held for each classification. In 1954, Indiana conducted a single state basketball tournament for all its high schools. This practice continued until 1997. Some plot points are similar to Milan's real story. Like the film's fictional Hickory High School, Milan was a very small high school in a rural, southern Indiana town. Both schools had undersized teams. Both Hickory and Milan won the state finals by 2 points: Hickory won 42–40, and Milan won 32–30. The last seconds of the Hoosiers state final are fairly close to the details of Milan's 1954 final; the last basket in the film was made from virtually the same spot on the floor as Bobby Plump's actual game-winner. The movie's final game was filmed in the same gymnasium that hosted the 1954 Indiana state championship game, Butler University's Hinkle Fieldhouse (called Butler Fieldhouse in 1954) in Indianapolis. Unlike the film's plot, the 1954 Milan Indians came into the season as heavy favorites and finished the '53–'54 regular season at 19–2. In addition, the 1952–1953 team went to the state semifinals, and they were considered a powerhouse going into the championship season despite the school's small enrollment. Production During filming in the autumn of 1985, on location at Hinkle Fieldhouse, directors were unable to secure enough extras for shooting the final scenes even after casting calls through the Indianapolis media. To help fill the stands, they invited two local high schools to move a game