Did the star player really convince the Coach that he should take the final shot?

No. During the final timeout, with the score tied near the end of the movie, Hickory's star player, Jimmy Chitwood (Maris Valainis), is told by the Coach that he'll be a decoy while the team runs its "picket fence" play, where a fellow teammate will take the last shot. The teammate, who is uncertain of himself, looks to Jimmy, prompting Jimmy to say with confidence to his Coach, "I'll make it." In reality, Coach Wood told Bobby Plump to take the final shot all along. "I was a very shy kid," Bobby Plump told the Washington Post in 1995. "I never would have said, 'I'll make it.' " Pictured at left is a photo of Plump's famous shot going through the basket at Hinkle Field House.