♪♪ [Kohlsdorf] Stretch your legs in the heart of Carroll where a full-sized basketball court decked out in purple and gold commemorates the day an airplane fell from the sky and forever bonded this western Iowa town with one of the most legendary franchises in professional sports.

[Dr. Jack Donavan] I just remember being awakened with the sound of this horrible, not horrible but a noise that I wasn't familiar with.

[Norman Hutcheson] There was some noise going around but we really didn't know what it was.

[Dr. Jack Donavan] I got out of bed and I walked out on my patio and my next-door neighbor across the street was screaming at me, look out, look out.

[Norman Hutcheson] Circled the water tower about 200 feet, all they could read was the "ll" on Carroll because of the fog and the snow.

[Dr. Jack Donavan] You could see everything about that airplane.

You could count the rivets on the bottom of that plane.

[Kohlsdorf] On the evening of January 17, 1960, the then Minneapolis Lakers were flying home in a blizzard following a basketball game in St. Louis.

Experiencing an electrical failure and low fuel, the team's plane was forced to pull off a miracle landing in the middle of a corn field.

[John Steffes] This is almost the precise site.

It touched down, it came in from the south and it flew around the town at least nine times.

[Kohlsdorf] All 23 players, pilots and passengers survived the landing.

[Dr. Jack Donavan] It looked like a miracle, it looked like this airplane sitting there in the middle of this corn field, snow field.

The only place where the corn was down, the only black area there in miles around and he found it.

He had the Holy Spirit working with him that night.

[Kohlsdorf] The team returned home by bus the next day and the plane was flown out a few days later.

♪♪ [John Steffes] Carroll, Iowa has a lot to do with the NBA.

If the Lakers had not survived and Carroll didn't come to the aid, it would have been down to seven teams.

There were only eight teams in 1960.

♪♪ [Kohlsdorf] In 2010, the now Los Angeles Lakers donated $25,000 to build this court to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the miracle landing.

[Dr. Jack Donavan] The ribbon cutting, that was pretty exciting.

We had the people from the Lakers here.

[John Steffes] Yeah, we had a perfect day in September, did a fly over, we had a few of Tommy Hawkins made a great speech and then he kissed the court.

It was a fun day.

It was a lot of people here and did the ribbon cutting and the DC-3 went over just at the right time.

[Kohlsdorf] Today, travelers can visit this historic site and shoot some hoops on the exact spot where Carroll residents came to the aid of the NBA.

[Norman Hutcheson] It's very well known in the community.

It's one of the pieces of history that every town would like to have that has a good ending.

[Dr. Jack Donavan] Makes me feel really good about Carroll, Iowa.

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