Corrected entry: In the first act, two of the seven Hoosiers leave the team after Hackman takes over as coach. Shortly after, one of the players apologetically returns, bringing the total to six. The seventh member, "Buddy," is never shown returning, but halfway through the film you start seeing him again in the games.
Corrected entry: In the scene where Dennis Hopper's son visits him in the sanitarium before the championship game, the hands on the clock on the wall don't move.
Correction: The clock is either broken or needs new batteries. It happens.
Corrected entry: When the coach is first talking to the team, he asks why the team is so small. One of the players comments that there are only 64 boys in the whole school. Later, right before the state championship game, a radio announcer states that the total enrollment for the whole school is 64 students.
Correction: Two possible explanations come to mind. The announcer either simply mis-spoke himself (character mistake), or he meant 64 students eligible for the boys' basketball team (different interpretation.) Neither is a movie mistake.
Corrected entry: In the opening sequence (while the credits are still appearing) there is a shot where, for a few seconds, Gene Hackman is driving on the wrong side of the road. He is on the correct side again in the following shots.
Correction: Although it is not "standard fare", it is also not unheard of to drive in the center of country roads (or even briefly on the other side of the road) in rural Indiana. Road conditions on country roads is not always the best. You can often take advantage of better road conditions in the middle of the road or briefly even on the other side of the road. Additionally, at times you can drive for miles and miles and never pass another car.even today, let alone in the 1950s.
Corrected entry: Early in the movie, coach Dale is running the boys through drills. He is approached by a group of men from town that confront him about his methods. As the coach walks towards the men, we see a long shot from high up showing the men, the coach and the boys on the left. At this point, one of the players looks to be raising his hand and giving the coach (or Hackman), the finger. Can you confirm this?
Correction: The player is not giving the finger but saluting. This is in response to Dale's statement. "You ARE in the army. You're in my army."
Corrected entry: In the scene where Coach gets himself kicked out of the game and Shooter takes over to coach(successfully), Jimmy (#15) intercepts the ball. Shooter yells for a time out. Buddy (#14) suddenly has the ball and calls the timeout to the referee. (01:06:03)
Correction: In the split-second scene when Shooter calls a time out, Jimmy could have thrown the ball to Buddy. It is common in basketball for a player to see that his coach is calling time out and to notify the ref on the court that his coach is calling for one.
Not the case here.
Corrected entry: In the State Semi-final game, Ollie is forced to enter the game after another player is called for an offensive foul for his 5th foul. Ollie is seen entering the game while the opposing player shoots a free throw. Players are not awarded free throws for offensive fouls. The other team should have gotten the ball out of bounds.
Correction: Offensive foul is change of possession only, no matter how many total fouls the makes. No Free Throws should have been awarded.
Correction: Yes, it was an offensive foul, but that foul may have put the opposing team into the bonus, in which the other team is awarded a one-and-one free throw. Seeing that Hickory is in foul trouble, it is a very likely possibility.
Correction: This is only an error due to editing. There was a scene filmed that explained Buddy's return to the team. However, it was edited out. I believe the director later indicated he regretted doing this but that he needed to reduce the run time of the film (I am not positive on the reason for the removal, but the scene does exist).