Movies and Coach

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A. The Wizard of Oz (1939) 1. Hickory, North Carolina, is my hometown. I graduated from Hickory High School in Hickory, North Carolina. The mascot for this high school is the “Red Tornadoes.” I am not sure what year this high school adopted this mascot though the Wikipedia page for this high school does state that the high school in Hickory, North Carolina, was renamed “Hickory High School” in the 1940s. In the 1939 movie The Wizard of Oz, a tornado sweeps the character Dorothy Gale and her dog, Toto, away from Kansas, and “Hickory” is the name of another character in that movie. 2. One of my father’s first cousins once lived in or around Lancaster, Pennsylvania. A news article in the Hickory Daily Record (Ragan Robinson, “Where’s the Granite Falls? What’s the Long View?,” at www.hickoryrecord.com (July 18, 2010)) suggests that Hickory, North Carolina, possibly got its name from settlors who moved to the area from Hickory, Pennsylvania, in or around where Lancaster, Pennsylvania, today is located. Again, “Hickory” is the name of a character in the 1939 movie The Wizard of Oz. 3. (My) Uncle Henry, one of my two uncles, graduated from college in Greenville, North Carolina (East Carolina University). A nickname for Greenville, North Carolina, is the “Emerald City.” This uncle lives or has lived in Emerald Isle, North Carolina. “Uncle Henry” is the name of a character in the 1939 movie The Wizard of Oz, and the “Emerald City” is the capital city in The Wizard of Oz. 4. One of my two first cousins lives or once lived in Kirkland, Washington. Kirkland is a suburb of Seattle, Washington. The nickname for Seattle, Washington, is the “Emerald City.” Again, the “Emerald City” is the capital city in The Wizard of Oz. 5. A former co-trainee and co-worker of mine once claimed, though perhaps falsely, to me and others in a group of (now former) co-trainees and co-workers that Margaret Hamilton, the late actress who played “Miss Gulch” and the “Wicked Witch of the West” in the 1939 movie The Wizard of Oz, graduated from the same high school as she. B. Hoosiers (1986) and Coach Rick Barnes 1. The high school in the 1986 movie Hoosiers was called “Hickory.” The colors of the basketball jerseys in this movie were gold and cardinal red. My understanding is this movie was based on a true story about a basketball team from Milan High School in Indiana. Also, there appear to be three high schools in the United States currently named “Hickory High School.” 2. Coach Rick Barnes is the current head men’s basketball coach at the University of Tennessee. This basketball team currently (as of January 27, 2019) has the No. 1 ranking in two national polls. Coach Barnes played basketball in high school at Hickory High School in Hickory, North Carolina. The school colors at Hickory High School in Hickory, North Carolina, are gold and garnet. 3. Two news articles in the IndyStar (Kyle Neddenriep, “Small Indiana Town Still Proud of Role as Real-Life Hickory,” at www.indystar.com (September 15, 2016), and Dana Hunsinger Benbow, “The Fascinating Tale of the ‘Hoosiers’ Hickory Uniforms,” at www.indystar.com (November 6, 2015)) suggest that no known connection exists between the 1986 movie Hoosiers and Hickory, North Carolina’s Hickory High School: there is no mention in these news articles of Hickory High School in Hickory, North Carolina (or its school colors).
Total votes: 342
Date submitted:Mon, 28 Jan 2019 14:18:38 +0000Coincidence ID:10195