By Bob Pieper for Chronicle Media

An underdog Granite City High School Warriors basketball team, that scored a surprise state championship in 1940, could again prove an upstart success this fall – this time at the box office, according to some Hollywood insiders.

“Men of Granite,” starring William Hurt and Susan Sarandon, depicts the exploits of what became know as “The Happy Warriors.” Based on a book of the same name by award-winning Milwaukee Journal Sentinel sportswriter Dan Manoyan, the film, shot primarily in Granite City this spring, is anticipated to be released in theaters this November.

Manoyan, along with producer Valerie McCaffrey, director Dwayne Johnson-Cochran, and screenwriter Armand Kachigian were on hand as promotional efforts kicked, off June 8, with a reception and book signing at Granite City’s Lincoln Place Gym.

Though far from favorites initially, the team dominated Illinois high school in the year before America entered World War II. The team amassed a 28-5 record, squeezing out a dramatic 24-22 victory in the championship game.

The victory would launch the career of future Basketball Hall of Fame inductee Andy Phillip, who some consider among the best players ever to take to the court. Phillip over the following two years would help the University of Illinois’ legendary “Whiz Kids” teams pioneer the then-revolutionary “fast break” and win two consecutive Big Ten conference championships. After serving in World War II, Phillip, enjoyed an 11-year National Basketball Association career, notably as Boston Celtics star in the late 1950s.

However, central to the team’s success were four young, impoverished Armenian immigrants – John Markarian, Evon Parsaghian, Andy Hagopian and Sam Mouradian – who sought to overcome discrimination through success on the basketball court. Their families had come to America to escape political oppression, having never heard of a basketball, Manoyan notes.

Hurt plays the team coach who suffers a string of defeats and feels unlikely to win again. That is until the Armenians turn up – exhibiting an unusually aggressive form of play that foreshadowed the fast break and often giving each other signals in their native language.

Although the Happy Warriors and their tenacious style were arguably important to the development of basketball, as played today, they remain little known today among either sports historians or their home community.

Manoyan reportedly spent some 15 years researching Men of Granite. The book was finally published in 2007. About five years later, development of the film project was underway.

The entire Happy Warriors team this year was inducted into the Granite City High School Hall of Fame. Hagopian and Markarian, both now well into their 90s, still living in Granite City.

Although Shirley Maclaine, who was originally cast as the film’s female lead, dropped out of the project early on, producers believe Men of Granite still holds considerable potential for commercial and critical success.

Men of Granite’s premier is tentatively expected during one of the movie industry’s prime box office seasons, when films considered to have Academy Award potential are often released.