March 25, 2011
03/28/11 Bobby Plump, the man who hit “the shot” that propelled Milan High School to sports immortality with a state championship in 1954 and would later become the subject of the movie “Hoosiers” was at Martin’s Supermarket in Plymouth Thursday to promote the legendary drink “Chocola”.
“I remember when I was a kid – so many memories – and Chocola was one of those memories,” said Plump. “They really were the good old days and Chocola was a big reason for that. When they told me they were going to re-introduce the original recipe for Chocola I knew I wanted to be a spokesman for them. I’m really happy they brought it back.”
Plump will be touring the area promoting Chocola in Warsaw and South Bend over the next few days. After cementing his place in history with a 14 foot jump shot at the buzzer that insured tiny Milan High School’s state title over Muncie Central in 1954, Plump went on to play at Butler University and had successful careers in both professional basketball and business.
He admits that this is a very exciting time of the year for him.
“I think it’s exciting for all of us in Indiana this time of year,” he said. “We’ve got the high school state tournament but what about Butler University? How exciting is that? What a great story that is. They’ve been a great story for the last 15 years but they’ve really gotten people’s attention the last two.
“I watched the game the other night and all you hear is the commentators talking about how boring the way they (Butler) play is. What’s boring about execution? What’s boring about doing things fundamentally right? I’m sure they talked about how boring our game was with Muncie Central in 1954 too but they’re still talking about that 57 years later so it couldn’t have been that boring.”
Plump also has an idea for the Bulldogs to push it over the top.
“I told (Butler Head Coach) Brad (Stevens) that he had to get some Chocola in the locker room after they win their next game. That would be really exciting.”
Rusty Nixon Correspondent