Some believed Bird left Bloomington because he was still grieving his dad's death. They were protecting this basketball star who had made it to the premier college team at IU but, unexpectedly, quit. Connie was a nurse and Hodges had moved his family around for a coaching career too many times for their liking. "He was not happy with his life, the life they had," Wood said. He and his wife, Connie, had a toddler daughter. In the spring of 1975, he was a 30-something who had spent the past 10 years as an assistant basketball coach at Marian, Tennessee Tech and Armstrong State in Savannah, Georgia. Hodges was from Zionsville and went to Purdue. "This was his last chance at greatness." Somehow, Hodges got to Bird
"Getting Bird, this was Hodges' Hail Mary," said Wood, writer and director of the film. Wood and Zukerman want to make that clear.
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The finished movie will be a sports drama, a film that conjures up the same emotions as "Hoosiers," "Rudy" and "Rocky," Wood says.īut this movie isn't the story of Larry Bird. The "Untitled French Lick Project" - yet to be named - will be filmed in Indiana and Georgia this spring. Wood, along with Steve Zukerman, two Indiana natives with star-laden careers in Hollywood, are in the midst of making a movie about the untold story of how Hodges persuaded Bird to play for him. "Wouldn't that make a great movie?" Patrick Wood said, laughing. The story of Bird's college career is woven into basketball lore now, of Bird going undefeated in the regular season at Indiana State in 1979, leading his team to the NCAA finals and losing to a Magic Johnson-led Michigan State.īut how did Bird end up at Indiana State? Did Hodges emerge from the bushes that day? How did Hodges persuade a stubborn introvert to give basketball another shot? He drove from Georgia to French Lick to find Bird, to try to convince him to play for Hodges, who would be an assistant at Indiana State.Ī day with Indiana State basketball:: How you rebuild a D-1 program basically from scratch I'll sell insurance, or cars, or whatever it takes to keep a roof over our heads." "If I don't make this work, then you have my word," he told her. Hodges packed a suitcase, tossed it in the back of his rundown Dodge Dart and turned to his wife, Connie.
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