Indiana Snapshot: Plump still big 攻撃する，衝突する at NCAA Tourney time
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) - One big 発射 turned Bobby Plump into an instant celebrity.
More than 50 years later, he's every bit as popular. Heck, he might be more popular.
At age 84, the affable, silver-haired Plump remains one of the 明言する／公表する's 最高の，を越す basketball 外交官／大使s and nothing, not a pandemic or an 前例のない NCAA Tournament, can keep those yearning to 会合，会う him away.
"I've had やめる a a few requests おもに from fans," he said. "We´ve had people come into our restaurant/sports 妨げる／法廷，弁護士業 (during the NCAA Tournament) and one group I remember was four students from Rutgers who drove 11 hours for the game, then had to go 支援する to school the next day. They （機の）カム all that way for one game."
Or perhaps just to 会合，会う Plump. It wouldn't be the first time.
Most fans 自然に link Plump with Hinkle Fieldhouse because of the last-second 発射 he made in 1954 to give Milan High School the 明言する／公表する 選手権 inside the venerable 円形競技場 on the Butler campus. They know it as the 発射 that 奮起させるd the movie "Hoosiers."
FILE - In this Dec. 20, 2016, とじ込み／提出する photo, Bobby Plump, 星／主役にする of the 1954 Milan 明言する／公表する 選手権 basketball team, 提起する／ポーズをとるs at Hinkle Fieldhouse in Indianapolis. "The Indiana high school tournament is still special, not as special as it used to be, but it's still special," said Plump, whose winning 発射 in the 1954 明言する／公表する 選手権 game became the inspiration for "Hoosiers." (AP Photo/Michael Conroy, とじ込み／提出する)
Around the 明言する／公表する, Plump is 深い尊敬の念を抱くd for other 推論する／理由s.
Old-timers remember him 主要な Milan to the 1953 半分-明言する／公表する 一連の会議、交渉／完成する, Indiana's 見解／翻訳／版 of the final four. They watched Plump and his high school チーム仲間, Ray （手先の）技術, 現れる as 星／主役にするs on Tony Hinkle's Butler Bulldogs. After 卒業生（する）ing from college, Plump became a Hinkle 正規の／正選手 and enjoyed celebrity status along with his high school チーム仲間s during the 2010 and 2015 Final Fours played in Indianapolis.
"I don´t think people who don´t live in the 明言する／公表する really get the high-level 利益／興味 we have in basketball," Hall of Fame player George McGinnis said. "It starts at the high school level and it's all because of a guy like Bobby Plump, the guy that made the 発射 heard '一連の会議、交渉／完成する the world that really started this whole thing."
This year's tourney has admittedly been different for the 1954 Mr. Basketball Award 勝利者.
While all 66 games have been played in Indiana with one remaining, Monday night's 肩書を与える game between undefeated Gonzaga and Baylor, Plump has been いっそう少なく 明白な.
COVID-19 関心s 誘発するd him to sca le 支援する public 外見s months ago and three fused レコードs in his 支援する along with the 時折の 一区切り／（ボクシングなどの）試合 with vertigo have made it ますます difficult to …に出席する games. His restaurant, Plump's Last 発射, was の近くにd from late December until March 17 when warmer 天候 許すd it to 再開する. Plump calls it a coincidence the tourney started that week.
And yet the one 思い出の品 things aren't all that different is the continued clamoring to be 近づく Plump.
"Here we are the first day of my 関与 in the NCAA Tournament and I get out of the car and who´s waiting for me but Bobby Plump aka Jimmy Chitwood in the movie `Hoosiers,'" longtime CBS 放送者 Jim Nantz told the 網状組織's Los Angeles' (v)提携させる(n)支部，加入者 recently. "He (Plump) was waiting with a 調印するd basketball from the 1954 Milan High School basketball team."
Plump also enjoyed the photo op but wasn't watching when Nantz について言及するd it during his first テレビ放送 from Hinkle. Instead, a former チーム仲間 called Plump to explain Nantz sounded as if he was 涙／ほころびing up while telling the story on 空気／公表する.
It wasn't the first time they met, which （機の）カム during the 2010 Final Four coaches 祝宴, nor was it the only request he 受託するd. Plump doesn't turn 負かす／撃墜する many.
"I had somebody in here doing a commentary on Mr. Basketballs and we talked for three hours," Plump said. "They probably used three minutes of it, but it was fun."
Plump couldn't stay 完全に away from the games, either.
When the fieldhouse historian 招待するd him to join "Hoosiers" screenwriter Angelo Pizzo at the Villanova-Baylor 地域の semifinal game to celebrate the 35th year since the movie's 解放（する）, Plump couldn't resist. He even got a new 視野 on the old 円形競技場 as he watched from a balcony 控訴.
"It's the best seat in the fieldhouse," Plump said. "Instead of seeing it sideways, you can see plays develop. I never experienced that before. Angelo and I were looking at the plays and the 開発 of the plays, it was just really neat."
This week, Plump …に出席するd dinner with a family from Georgia. The family patriarch grew up in Indiana and always dreamed of 会合 Plump.
So when another family member got Plump's number, he called and 始める，決める up the 会合 that was sure to give Plump another 適切な時期 to tell some of his boundless, entertaining tales of yesteryear as he seems to do every tourney season.
For Plump, it's pure heaven.
"They 手配中の，お尋ね者 to go to the restaurant and 手配中の，お尋ね者 to look at the memorabilia, but really he 手配中の，お尋ね者 to talk about basketball and 特に the movie `Hooisers' and Milan and how it compared," Plump said. "I get those calls all the time."
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Bobby Plump, 権利, 星／主役にする of the 1954 Milan 明言する／公表する 選手権 basketball team that 奮起させるd the movie "Hoosiers," 提起する／ポーズをとるs for a portrait with the movie's writer, Angelo Pizzo, at Hinkle Fieldhouse in Indianapolis, during a 甘い 16 NCAA men's basketball game Saturday, March 27, 2021. Most fans 自然に link Plump with Hinkle Fieldhouse because of the last-second 発射 he made in 1954 to give Milan High School the 明言する／公表する 選手権. They know it as the 発射 that 奮起させるd the movie "Hoosiers." Around the 明言する／公表する, Plump is 深い尊敬の念を抱くd for other 推論する／理由s. (AP Photo/AJ Mast)
FILE - Hinkle Fieldhouse is shown in the second half of an NCAA college basketball game between Butler and Marquette in Indianapolis, in this Jan. 18, 2014, とじ込み／提出する photo. Hinkle Fieldhouse is one of six 発生地s hosting NCAA Tournament games later this week. (AP Photo/Michael Conroy, とじ込み／提出する)
