About two years ago, Brent Slinkard asked screenwriter and producer Angelo Pizzo and hall of fame Indiana sportswriter Bob Hammel to lunch in Bloomington to discuss an idea.

Admittedly, they all got lost in the moment.

The product of that lunch and two solid years of work will revealed from 7-10 p.m., Thursday when WSLM airs “The Greatest Sports Stories in the History of Indiana” with the stories counted down  and hosted by Greg Rakestraw.

“We just knew within 5 or 10 minutes that this was the right thing to do,” said Slinkard, 54, the president of Indiana Sports History.

“Everything seemed to fit together, especially after Bob made mention that it was in alignment with the state’s bicentennial year as well.”There has been plenty of work done on specific Hoosier sporting categories such as Indiana basketball, Notre Dame football and the Indianapolis 500, but no project ever tried to encapsulate all of the state’s athletic traditions and history. As Slinkard said, this became the ultimate hobby.

“In this country we love our sports, we love men and women athletes, and it’s truly part of the American way,” Slinkard said. “In Indiana, it’s even more special because of the collegiate programs we have, the athletes, the coaches and the games that not only made an impression on people in this state but across the country.”

The top 25 are sure to include Indiana basketball, Notre Dame football and the Indianapolis 500, but Slinkard said those highly visible three did not earn the No. 1 spot in a vote by members of the Indiana Sportswriting and Sportscasting Association.

Following the release of the list on Thursday, a book detailing the events and the project will be released Nov. 1, and next June a banquet will be held to celebrate the stories in Indianapolis.

The original list of 72 possibilities includes Fort Wayne stories on former all-time NFL great Rod Woodson and the NBA acknowledging the city as the birthplace of the league.

The full list can be viewed at www.indiana25.com.

Maybe the key to the project was naming it stories instead of moments.

“That was heavily debated,” Slinkard said.

“That was maybe the one thing I had to fight for. The reason I felt the fight was important was if you just left it at just moments, you would maybe essentially have seen Indiana University basketball, the Indy 500 and Notre Dame football dominate the top 25. If you cluster them into distinct programs then you have room for other products.”