The 1986 movie directed by David Anspaugh follows a high school basketball team in Indiana that gets a new coach named Norman Dale (Gene Hackman). Norman's tough ways and unorthodox methods upset the team and the basketball-loving town at first, but his ways soon cause the Hickory High School team to make it to the state championships.
The Milan high school team in the town of the same name in Indiana served as the basis for the movie.
Screenwriter Angelo Pizzo told ESPN that before the film came out, it was believed it wouldn't be a success because people didn't think a basketball film would do well, and Hackman believed the movie would be a "career killer."
