They will never make a movie about the 1954 Muncie Central Bearcats’ basketball team. As good as the team was, how good their record was, how deep the history of success at that fine high school, they will never be stars of the silver screen.

They were the runner up. They finished second, or as Dale Earnhardt reportedly said, they were the first loser.

The Milan Indians won the championship, thanks to the shot by Bobby Plump. The crowd went wild. They got the parades through town and found everlasting celebrity. Thirty years later, they even had a movie made about them, as “Hoosiers” hit theaters in 1986.

Muncie Central got the silver medal and little else. In fact, in the movie “Hoosiers”, the fictitious Hickory Huskers team didn’t even play Muncie Central in the final game. That honor was given to South Bend.

Now that we’ve had a few days to start letting things sink in, I thought it was time to look at the runners up in the Honda plant race.

Southeastern Indiana landed the big fish and the promise of 2,000 jobs and a brand new state of the art assembly plant for Honda. Governor Mitch Daniels also drew on the story of Milan High School when making the announcement on June 28th. The Greensburg Community Learning Center, where the Honda announcement was made, isn’t exactly Hinkle Fieldhouse where Milan won their state championship, but was the gathering point that many will refer to for years.

As happy as I am about Honda’s decision, and believe me I am very happy for our communities and for our state, I also want to take a moment and shift the focus on the runner ups of that day.

Officially, Honda will not discuss the other sites considered for the plant. That is very smart on their part, never wanting to burn a bridge. But most experts agree that there were several serious contenders, and a few that came along towards the end.

Washington Courthouse, Ohio and Van Wert, Ohio appear to have been the biggest competitors with Southeastern Indiana . Much like many of you, I spent some time looking up and researching what I could find about those two communities. Both areas have a lot to offer, seem to have good, caring people living there and would have worked well with Honda to provide them with anything necessary to make the plant successful.

Because of such strong competition, residents of Southeastern Indiana should feel even better about winning the Honda plant. The competition was stiff, yet Honda still decided that doing business in the Hoosier state was the best selection.

Before the announcement, I said many times that even if we didn’t get the plant the exposure we received was positive. It announced to the world that we had a lot to offer, a ready workforce willing to partner with a good corporation to find success. If Honda said no, surely someone else would say yes in the near future. For Van Wert and Washington Courthouse, I really do hope that is the case for you.

As we learn more, I will be curious to see what the total impact will be on the economy, for our region as well as for the entire state. The state’s incentives to Honda, estimated around $145 million, is a large amount yet a bargain by market standards. In Alabama , the payout was $158 million to place a Honda plant in that state.

There is little doubt this will help the statewide economy, which continues to struggle. And, as great as the news was about Honda, it wasn’t the only headline of the day regarding automakers. Guide Corporation, a General Motors spin off laid off more than 100 Hoosier workers that day. And the Ford Motor Company credit rating was downgraded yet again to single-B-plus. GM’s credit rating was downgraded to ‘junk’ status in early May.

I congratulate the winning team for landing the Honda plant. It was a resounding slam dunk by Mitch Daniels and others. But we must remember that there are many other games still to be played before our statewide economy is back to where it should be.



VanBaalen is the regional publisher for CNHI covering Greensburg, Rushville and Batesville. He can be reached at (812) 663-3111 ext. 7001.

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