RIP Gene Hackman

[Pink Freud]

RIP, one of the greats. Favorite role : playing the Indiana HS Basketball Coach

Since the great "Hoosiers", I wonder how many coaches have taken their very nervous teams into a gigantic venue and done the same thing: Measuring the dimensions to prove they're exactly the same as at home.

When I was the play by play guy for a southwest Missouri AM/FM, we really lucked out: Two of the schools in our coverage area went to the 1987 state finals: Hartville in Class 2A and Marshfield in 3A. I did a bunch of both schools' games.***

I was at the Hearnes Center in Columbia to announce the 1987 MO high school Class 2A and 3A title games. The coach of Marshfield High, Jackie Payne, whose games I had done 5 or 6 times that year, saw his all-white small-town squad was very nervous about facing a nearly all-black, much taller team from K.C.-Bishop Hogan.

As I was setting up for the broadcast two hours before gametime, I saw Jackie out there doing the Hackman routine with the ladder and tape measure. "Hoosiers" had just come out the year before.

Despite a very nervous, thoroughly intimidated start, Marshfield's boys found their bearings and won by 10 for the state's 3A title.


*** We had built up the regular-schedule showdown in Hartville of their game vs. Marshfield (why would a 2A team face a 3A team???) to epic proportions, and when I arrived during the JV game to set up for the varsity game, a father of two players (one on each Hartville squad) suffered a heart attack in the stands....and the entire varsity showdown game was cancelled.

[MikoTython]

RIP, one of the greats. Favorite role : playing the Indiana HS Basketball Coach

Since the great "Hoosiers", I wonder how many coaches have taken their very nervous teams into a gigantic venue and done the same thing: Measuring the dimensions to prove they're exactly the same as at home.

When I was the play by play guy for a southwest Missouri AM/FM, we really lucked out: Two of the schools in our coverage area went to the 1987 state finals: Hartville in Class 2A and Marshfield in 3A. I did a bunch of both schools' games.***
...

“My first day on the set was the ‘Leave the ball, George’ scene,” said Chelcie Ross, who played George, the movie’s antagonist. In the scene, George starts coaching the team without permission, only to be ordered out of the gym by Coach Dale, who says: “First of all, let’s be real friendly here. My name is Norm. Secondly, your coaching days are over.”

“As a young actor walking in to do a scene with Gene Hackman, it was a little intimidating,” Ross said in a phone interview. “I was very nervous, and we did the one and only rehearsal.

“He didn’t like to rehearse a lot. He didn’t like to rehearse at all. Wanted to just do it.”

Ross fondly remembered asking Hackman for tips and being told: “No, you’ve got this. Do what you’re doing.”

The scene established George as a bit of a jerk (he eventually tries to have Hackman fired). Ross said he was told that after his audition the decision makers said, “That’s the jackass we’re looking for.”
‘Have fun Coach, trying to win with five.’

Early on, Coach Dale has problems fielding a full team, especially after Buddy, played by Brad Long, quits. “In the script, it called for me to be kind of surprised,” Long said in a phone interview. “Gene took me aside and said, ‘Brad, I think you might be more angry.’ And so I played that scene kind of angry.

“I walked out, and I smacked the door on my way out. That was improvised, and he told me that was a really good choice. We make our own choices, but he would give tips and advice, and I always cherish that.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/28/arts ... Position=4

[edwin drood]

Natural causes. That's the conclusion of New Mexico medical examiners. ( Is it still New "Mexico"?). They've determined that Ms Arakawa had contracted Hantavirus, which can hit a 65 year old, with pre-existing health issues, pretty hard. Hantavirus is indigenous to several species of southwestern rodents and spreads via contact with rodent feces. Hackman was found to be suffering from severe Alzheimer's, which may explain his inaction in the week between his wife's death and his own. Alzheimer's
can lead to numerous life threatening issues, as one might imagine, as the brain deteriorates. Strange how a long, successful life can end in such tragedy.

[GelatinousEndive]

Natural causes. That's the conclusion of New Mexico medical examiners. ( Is it still New "Mexico"?). They've determined that Ms Arakawa had contracted Hantavirus, which can hit a 65 year old, with pre-existing health issues, pretty hard. Hantavirus is indigenous to several species of southwestern rodents and spreads via contact with rodent feces. Hackman was found to be suffering from severe Alzheimer's, which may explain his inaction in the week between his wife's death and his own. Alzheimer's
can lead to numerous life threatening issues, as one might imagine, as the brain deteriorates. Strange how a long, successful life can end in such tragedy.

The mortality rate of this Hantavirus seems quite high, 30 to 40% and that’s with treatment.
That part of the world, northern New Mexico, also harbors vermin that spreads bubonic plague.

Back in the day when I had a library job in New Mexico, I used to skim the monthly health bulletin that came from the state, and a few times a year there was a case or two of bubonic plague reported.