The shot heard round the world
Macon's Dick Frame was 14 years old when he witnessed the real-life famous shot that inspired the movie "Hoosiers"
I thought a lot about Dick Frame today.
It was not because the Dick Frame Invitational was held at First Presbyterian Day School a few weeks ago on the track that bears his name. For more than four decades, Dick shaped the lives of hundreds of your athletes as a volunteer track coach at FPD. He and his wife, Marty, moved to Macon in 1965, and he has always been one of the city’s greatest ambassadors for sports.
It was not because baseball season has started at Vine Ingle Little League and Freedom Park. That is where I first met Dick more than 30 years ago. He volunteered there, too, doing everything from cleaning the dugouts to sweeping the infield to being the biggest cheerleader for every kid who ran the base paths for him.
And it was not because I recently learned about someone who has been diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, a fatal neurological disease more commonly known as Lou Gehrig’s disease. Dick, who will be 84 later this month, has fought a courageous battle with Lou Gehrig’s disease since he was diagnosed in 2008. The average life expectancy for someone with ALS is two to five years. You do the math. Dick is still with us after 16 years.
I thought of Dick today because this week is prime time if you are a basketball fan. It’s that magical stretch when March Madness gives way to April Gladness with the Final Four of the NCAA men and women, and the NIT men.
The semifinals of the NIT were held on Tuesday night, and the Georgia Bulldogs played Seton Hall in one of the matchups. I’m sure Dick didn’t care too much about that – he’s a devout Georgia Tech fan.
But the venue was the Hinkle Fieldhouse at Butler University in Indianapolis, sometimes referred to as “Indiana’s Basketball Cathedral.’’
Seventy years ago, on March 20, 1954, when he was 14 years old, Dick attended the 1954 Indiana state basketball championship game at the Butler Fieldhouse, which was the country’s argest basketball arena until 1950. With the exception of the war years, the state title game was played there every year from when the arena opened in 1928 until 1971. (It was renamed Hinkle Fieldhouse in 1960.)
That night was special, though, when tiny Milan High School, with an enrollment of 161 students, beat powerhouse Muncie Central to become the smallest school ever to capture the Indiana single-class title. It was David vs. Goliath.