Josh Barnett - Sports Editor

The Board of Directors of the Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame made an exception by honoring the 1954 Milan Indians Basketball and inducting them into the Hall of Fame, which is located in New Castle. The board voted unanimously to induct the Indians, as a team, since their story is so unique in the history of basketball in the state of Indiana. Milan, with an enrollment of 161 students in 1954, captured the imagination of nearly all sports fans when they defeated the much larger Muncie Central Bearcats. It was a small school playing a large school for the state basketball championship.

Hollywood thought enough of the game to make the movie "Hoosiers" from the 1954 season of Milan High School. Tourists have visited the Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame from every state in the country and from 62 foreign nations. Nearly all visitors are familiar with the film.

Sports Illustrated put together a poll asking peoples top 25 best and favorite all time sports wins during the 1900's. The results had just one high school team (Milan) listed in addition to college, Olympic and pro teams in the survey.

Milan High School was the last small school to win the state title in the single class format. Following the 1997 season the IHSAA changed the tournament and adopted a four-class system. The Milan Miracle of 1954 will undoubtedly last forever.

Josh Barnett - Sports Editor

This year marked the 94th year for the annual IHSAA State Finals, which were held Saturday, March 27 at Conseco Fieldhouse in Indianapolis. The finals are split up into two sessions with class A and class 2A playing in the morning games and class 3A and class 4A playing in the evening games. In the morning games class A started at 10:30 am with 2A immediately following and in the evening games class 3A started at 6:30 pm and 4A immediately following.

In the class A the undefeated Waldron Mohawks defeated the Fort Wayne Blackhawk Christian Braves 69-54 to keep their perfect season in tact and win their first ever state championship. The Mohawks finished the season with a 27-0 record and the Braves finished with a 15-11 record. Waldron became just the ninth team in the history of the IHSAA to finish the season undefeated.

Waldron was led by the Barnard twins, Justin and Jordan, with Justin scoring 24 points and Jordan chipping in 21. Justin Sawyer was the next highest scorer with 13. Jordan Barnard led the team with 14 rebounds followed by brother Justin with 12.

The Braves were led in scoring by Philip Kelpin with 18 points and Shannon Coward with 16. Kelpin was the teams leading rebounder with 9.

Waldron's Bryan Hurst was the recipient of the Arthur L. Trester Award for Mental Attitude for class A.

In the 2A game the fourth ranked Jimtown Jimmies upset the top ranked Brownstown Central Braves 63-59. Jimtown was without one of their starters due to the flu. The Jimmies finished the season with a record of 25-2 and the Braves finished with a record of 27-2. It was the first ever state championship for the Jimtown Jimmies.

Kyle Johnson was the Jimmies
leading scorer with 21 points followed by Tyler Leighton with 19 and Derrick DeShone with 12. DeShone and Johnson were the teams leading rebounder's with 11 apiece.

Brownstown's leading scorer was Marty Young with 19 points followed by Chandler Lambring with 18. Young was also the leading rebounder with 9.

Jimtown's Kyle Johnson was named the winner of the Arthur L. Trester Award for Mental Attitude for class 2A.

Evansville Mater Dei clinched their first ever state title with a 63-45 win over the Bellmont Braves in the 3A final game. The unranked Wildcats from Mater Dei finished their season with a 21-6 record and the Braves finished with a 22-5 record.

Wacey Hall led the Wildcats with 17 points followed by Matt Halbig with 12 and Craig Maier with 10. Halbig was the team's leading rebounder with 8.

Bellmont was led by Adam Arnold with 21 points followed by Brian Schultz with 9. Arnold was the team's leading rebounder with 6.

Bellmont's Jon Zeser was named the winner of the Arthur L. Trester Award for Mental Attitude for class 3A.

In the 4A game the favored Lawrence North Wildcats defeated the Columbia City Eagles 50-29. This was the second time these two teams met this season, with the first game going into double overtime. The top ranked Wildcats finished their season with a 29-2 record and the sixth ranked Eagles finished with a 25-4 record.

Seven foot sophomore Greg Oden led the Wildcats with 13 points and 12 rebounds. Anthony Sargent was the team's second leading scorer with 11 points.

Doug Sheckler led the Eagles with 15 points and 5 rebounds, he was the only player from Columbia City to hit double-digits.

Lawrence North's Stefan Routt was named the winner of the Arthur L. Trester Award for Mental Attitude in class 4A.

JOSH BARNETT PHOTO

1954 Indians honored at halftime of state finals

The 1954 Milan Indians basketball team was honored at halftime of the Class 1A championship game and again at halftime of the Class 3A championship game. This year marks the 50th year of the Indians state championship run. Team members were honored along with some of the actors from the Hollywood hit "Hoosiers".