INDIANAPOLIS — At 8:30 a.m. Thursday, a beam of sunlight shined through one of the arched windows and eerily landed at center court in old Hinkle Fieldhouse. True, in basketball circles, Hinkle is held in almost religious reverence.
But this week, Hinkle has become the epicenter of some kind of hoops holy alliance. A midmajor, playing on the same court where one of the great upsets in American high school history occurred, makes its first Final Four the year the event is played 5 miles from its pretty campus.
At Butler, life imitates art. And we’re not talking about the Bulldogs’ pick and roll.
“I feel like it was meant to be,” said Grace Wilthwein, a freshman psychology major. “You’d never expect it to happen, especially the timing, having it here. It’s really surreal.”
Wilthwein sat in Atherton Union, Butler’s student union, where the school bookstore’s cash registers clanged like Vegas slot machines. Colts jerseys in Indianapolis are being outsold by Butler T-shirts.
Sales have jumped 1,000 percent. Five racks of 600 to 700 Butler T-shirts each are sold a day. Customers are waiting two hours for certain styles. One company sent a truck 7 1/2 hours from Kansas City, Mo., to emergency deliver specific gray Final Four tees.
Downtown businesses leading to Lucas Oil Stadium, where Butler plays Michigan State on Saturday in the semifinals, helped buy out 196 large Butler banners in an hour.
“It has been a train station,” said Richard Goodpastor, the bookstore’s regional manager. “We have runs where 150 to 200 people are in here at any given time.”
Out front, sororities decorated overgrown bulldog statues. When Butler beat Kansas State on Saturday for the West Regional title, students poured out of their dorms and Jordan Hall and onto Hampton Drive, hugging anyone they could find while “We are the Champions” blared from a mysterious loudspeaker.
An enormous crowd greeted the team when it returned to Hinkle — at 3 a.m.
“People view it as a social thing where, ‘Everybody’s getting involved, I’m going to get involved too,’ which is cool,” said sophomore guard Gordon Hayward, Butler’s leading scorer. “We embrace that. We’re signing stuff from students, which is weird because we’re grabbing something to eat and people are coming up asking for autographs.
“To all of us, we’re just normal people.”
Walk up Sunset Avenue from Hinkle toward Atherton and the sidewalk is littered with the kind of graffiti school officials can only dream about. “Our Team. Our Time.” “Threeeeee for HAHN!” “Babyface Assassin in for the Kill!”
It looks like high school during homecoming week. How apropos, considering Butler’s connection with Hinkle. Built in 1928 for $1 million, the 15,000-seat arena was the largest basketball gym in the country until 1950.
From the outside, with its brick façade and high arched roof, it could pass for a major European train station. From the inside, with the seven windows beaming in light and single-bulb lamps hanging over the court, it could pass for a cathedral. It reeks of a 1950s Converse sneaker ad.
In 1954, it was where Milan High, enrollment 161, knocked off mighty Muncie Central for the single-class Indiana state high school title. The 1988 movie “Hoosiers” cemented Milan and Hinkle into American sporting lore.
You don’t need a protractor to see the parallels. Smallest school to win an Indiana state title. Upsets a huge power. Played at Hinkle.
Butler is from the middling Horizon League. It plays a Michigan State team seeking its third national title that is in its sixth Final Four under Tom Izzo. Plays at Hinkle.
Forget that Butler has been in the Top 25 all year, is 32-4 and has won 24 straight. This is “Hoosiers” on steroids. Every Bulldog but sophomore guard Shelvin Mack has seen it. But he’s from Kentucky.
“I think it’s a great movie,” Hayward said. “Hinkle’s a great place. We embrace it.”
By Saturday night, the Butler Bulldogs may also be very embraceable.
John Henderson: 303-954-1299 or jhenderson@denverpost.com
