(La Porte, IN) - A Michigan City man was reliving his days as an Indiana high school basketball state champion.  While inside the bus, players from the movie “Hoosiers” rode in on their way to a state title.

 

The 1939 Chevy school bus was outside the Civic Auditorium on Thursday for opening day of the ESPN televised La Porte Invitational, featuring some of the best players in the nation competing on 11 college prep school teams from around the country.

 

“The bus is great. It’s good.  It’s good,” said Rob McFarland, who, obviously, seemed to relish the moment.

 

The red and yellow bus was there for people heading to the games to stop and look at or go inside at no cost  McFarland was the starting center on the Elston High School boys’ basketball team from Michigan City that won the state championship in 1966.

 

“We rode a bus a little bit bigger than this one,” chuckled McFarland, who sat in one of just 10 seats on the bus.

 

Except for the difference in bus size, McFarland said there were similarities between his real life season and the one depicted in the movie he’s watched countless times since the film’s debut in 1986.

 

The storied Hinkle Fieldhouse in Indianapolis is where his Red Devils won the state title.  Filming of the much smaller Hickory Huskers team winning the state championship in 1952 was on the same court.

 

“That brought back lots of memories.  Lots of memories,” he said.

 

Both teams also won their state titles when all of the schools in the tournament competed in a single class system.  McFarland went on to play basketball at the University of Pittsburgh.

 

He stepped on the bus with friend Bob Hull.  The Long Beach man said he used to watch Hoosiers with his sons every year before the start of the high school boys’ basketball sectionals.

 

“I love it.  I love it.  It looks just like the one in the movie,” Hull said.

 

Kalvin Jones of La Porte said it was neat to see the bus from one of his all-time favorite movies.

 

“It’s pretty cool looking,” he said.

 

Bruce Stevens, also of La Porte, said the bus made him feel like he was part of history and the film.

 

“Good Ol’ La Porte has the Hickory bus. I think it’s pretty outstanding,” Stevens said.

 

The bus is owned by Darryll Baker, who has taken the bus on a regular basis the past four years to events statewide and in Washington D.C.  The downstate Greenfield man even drove a lap in the bus at Indianapolis Motor Speedway to promote a game where the Indiana Pacers wore Hickory Huskers uniforms at one of their home games.

 

His grandfather, Jack, purchased the vehicle after it was placed out of commission as a school bus in 1949.  He turned the bus into an RV and still had it when approached by the director and writer of the movie who had been looking everywhere for a bus to use in the filming.

 

Baker, a former U.S. Navy officer, said he acquired the bus in 1996 and had it restored but didn’t use it much until he retired in 2021 and moved back to Indiana.  Ever since, he’s been taking the bus to a lot of parades, festivals and other events.

 

“It’s just been a lot of fun.  Everywhere I take this people just really react well to it,” Baker said.

 

The bus is often at the gym where practices and home games in the movie were filmed in Knightstown about 13 miles east of his residence.

 

Baker said the facility is now a community center run by an organization called Hoosier Gym, which books the gym for use by high school and private league games throughout much of the year.