MovieChat Forums > Hoosiers (1987) Discussion > Norman would have almost certainly coach...

Norman would have almost certainly coached while he was in the Navy...

posted 10 years ago by jaystarstar
2 replies | jump to latest

The U.S. armed services took athletic competition within their ranks very seriously in the WWII era and afterward. All the major bases had competition in most major sports and most played schedules as impressive as most college teams.

If a 30-35 year-old guy enlists in the Navy in 1940-41, and puts on his entrance application that he had coached a national championship college basketball team, he would almost certainly have been assigned to coach basketball on naval bases like the Great Lakes Naval Training Center in addition to being a Chief Petty Officer or whatever else he was assigned to do.

(They wouldn't particularly care about his NCAA suspension for slugging the player, he wouldn't be coaching college kids in the Navy but sea-hardened recruits. Plus there would be MP standing right there if he took another shot at anyone.)

So it's highly unlikely if Norman Dale got a HS coaching job in 1951 that he would have gone 12 years without coaching.

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4) You ever seen Superman $#$# his pants? Case closed.

[–] jaystarstar 10 years ago

Also, there were several significant rules changes between 1939-1951 that Norman would have to have kept up on.

Goaltending was made illegal in 1944.

When Norman left coaching in 1939, players could only re-enter a game twice. This was changed in 1945 so players could come in or out as many times as the coaches desired.

Believe it or not, before 1949, it was illegal for coaches to talk to their players during time outs. Time outs were supposed to be used for strictly resting purposes and players were supposed to know on their own what to do during games. The only time coaches could talk to players was halftime or quarter breaks.

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4) You ever seen Superman $#$# his pants? Case closed.

[–] liscarkat (18886) 4 years ago

Interesting historic points. By "goal tending", does that mean one player would just stay by the goal all the time to block shots, like in soccer or hockey?