He smiled and looked around the restaurant, which has a museumlike collection of basketball memorabilia: “We like that portrayal.”

With hair as white as his laugh is quick, the 73-year-old Plump is as engaging and unpretentious as the restaurant that bears his name.

The best seller at Plump’s is a pork tenderloin sandwich that Angelo Pizzo, who wrote and co-produced “Hoosiers,” said was the size of a Frisbee. The bar favorite is $2 Miller High Life drafts. Plump boasted that two years ago, the bar sold more Maker’s Mark bourbon than any other bar in the state.

On Monday, as the after-work crowd trickled in, the song “Patience” by Guns N’ Roses whistled through the restaurant.

It is a down-home place where Butler Coach Brad Stevens said he was a frequent visitor.

Stevens knows all about the allure of “Hoosiers.” His office was once situated where he could see people wander in to gaze at Hinkle Fieldhouse. They would come tell Stevens, then a low-level assistant, their favorite story of Hinkle, and he would tell them his favorite right back. Stevens said that people would occasionally still come in the gym during Butler practice and yell, “Hickory!” the name of the team in “Hoosiers.”

Stevens said of Plump: “He’s an icon in Indiana and a legend in Indiana and he makes a heck of a tenderloin sandwich. He really does, it’s great. My wife and I go quite a bit in the summer.”

Image Bobby Plump, right, of Milan High playing in the 1954 tourney against Crispus Attucks, which had Oscar Robertson (43). Credit... Frank Fisse/Indianapolis Star, via Associated Press

Before Hollywood made crew cuts and set shots of local basketball here national lore, Plump had always been somewhat of an icon. But he did not just live out his high school days. He decided not to play in the N.B.A. after graduating from Butler. Instead, he played for Phillips 66 because it paid better. From there, he returned home to Indiana, where he opened an insurance business that evolved into a financial planning business. He also opened up Plump’s, which is now run by his son.