“Don’t get caught up thinking about winning or losing this game. If you put your effort and concentration into playing to your potential, to be the best that you can be, I don’t care what the scoreboard says at the end of the game, in my book, we’re gonna be winners … OK?!”
Gene Hackman’s portrayal of coach Norman Dale in “Hoosiers” represented the soul of the legendary 1986 movie.
On its face, “Hoosiers” was intended to be a snapshot of the unique hysteria of small-town high school basketball in Indiana, culminating in Hickory High’s improbable run to the state title.
Dale was a hypercompetitive former big-city East Coast college coach who arrived in rural Hickory, Ind., brimming with bemusement and befuddled by the norms of the small town. His transformation — and redemption — throughout the film was the heartbeat of the box-office classic.
“Hoosiers” fans lost their Coach Dale on Wednesday. Hackman and his wife were found dead in their home Wednesday afternoon, the Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Office according to multiple reports. Hackman was 95.
Part of the nostalgic obsession Generation X has for “Hoosiers” is that so many had contemporaneous high school sports experiences with coaches like Dale, who preached “my practices aren’t…
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