John Wooden. Damon Bailey. Oscar Robertson and Crispus Attucks. Milan and Bobby Plump. The Franklin Wonder Five. Purple Reign. The Bearcats and the North Central Conference. Homer Stonebraker. Marion Crawley. George McGinnis. “Hoosiers.” Cliff Wells. Steve Alford and James Blackmon. The Big Dog. Hinkle Fieldhouse.
They’re names that resonate through the minds of the aficionados and the everyday fan of that unique experience known as Hoosier Hysteria. And they’re just a few of the hundreds of players, teams, coaches and experiences that Indiana has celebrated for 100 years.
The Indiana High School Athletic Association is celebrating the 100th state basketball tournament. The tournament began — unofficially — in 1911 when Crawfordsville knocked off Lebanon in the championship game at Indiana University. The teams competing were the winners of district tournaments aligned with each of the state’s congressional seats.
The next year, the IHSAA took over and the tournament took off with a bang.
It was in 1925 when James Naismith, who invented the game in 1891 in Massachusetts, attended the state finals at then-Butler Fieldhouse with 15,000 others and saw the Frankfort Hot Dogs defeat Kokomo. The experience left him amazed.
“Basketball,” he said afterwards, “really had its origin in Indiana, which remains the center of the sport.”
He was right then, and it’s still an accurate assessment today. Where else could you nearly fill a domed stadium with people to watch a high school basketball game? In 1990, the Hoosier Dome hosted the state finals for the first time and 41,000 people were on hand to see Bailey and the Bedford North Lawrence Stars defeat Shawn Kemp and Concord for the 80th state championship.
And while the number of those attending games has dwindled over the years as a result of consolidations and alternatives too numerous to mention, the support and excitement teams receive as they make their way along the tourney trail remain unsurpassed.
Naysayers will offer up that class basketball has ruined Hoosier Hysteria.
Yet, try to tell the young men from Lewis Cass who won the Class 2A state championship in 2003 that the medal hanging around their necks means any less than the ones awarded to the Berries in 1934 or to Crispus Attucks in 1955 or Plymouth in 1982.
Celebrate the anniversary this weekend by getting out and cheering for your favorite team.
