Illinois high school basketball teams are grinding through the late parts of their seasons as the state tournament approaches early next month. In this episode of our series McHistory, we learn about the longest-running annual basketball tournament in the state — 112 years and counting.
Central Illinois, particularly in the first half of the 20th century and into the decade after World War II and especially in small rural school districts, was basketball country, according to Bill Kemp, librarian and archivist at the McLean County Museum of History.
“Basketball is played during the winter months. It's a quiet time in the Corn Belt countryside as opposed to football being played during harvest time. A lot of these small town schools have very small enrollments, making football difficult to organize. Obviously for basketball, you just need five boys,” said Kemp.
For many years, the highlight of the McLean County sports calendar was the McLean County Basketball Tournament that started in 1911. At the inaugural tournament, Lexington defeated LeRoy.
“It was so big that in 1924, a group of area clergymen lobbied educators to end the tournament because they believed it was playing a role in students not paying as much attention as they should to their schoolwork,” said Kemp.
Initially, Bloomington, Normal, University High, and what became Central Catholic high schools took part in the contests, but that ended in 1929.
“Since that point, the tournament is really the exclusive domain of small town high schools, initially only from McLean County. Today, the tournament serves as a mid-season conference tournament for the Heart of Illinois Conference, which includes schools outside of McLean County, but nonetheless, the tournament continues,” said Kemp.
The tournament also speaks to rural depopulation in the 20th century, and school consolidation. In the late 1930s, there were at least 20 high schools in McLean County outside of Bloomington-Normal. Only five of those communities have high schools today, noted Kemp.
“And we think of the smallest communities in McLean County: Cropsey, Cooksville, Anchor, Towanda, Downs. They all had high schools at this time," he said. "The only community in the county that did not have a high school, Shirley, had a high school outside of its community. There was Benjamin Funk High School, which served Shirley and the Funks Grove area. And these high schools had really small enrollments.”
Stanford High School had 81 students in 1938-39; Cooksville 56, Ellsworth 41, Ben Funk 32. The 1939 tournament had 20 schools and involved 20 games over six nights in late January.
“It was held at this time at McCormick Gymnasium on the campus of what was then Illinois State Normal University. After being played in the early years at the YMCA building in downtown Bloomington, it had several different venues, but then settled at McCormick Gym on the ISNU campus from the 1930s-60s,” said Kemp.
Newspaper coverage of the tourney was far deeper than it would be today, Kemp noted. Basketball largely developed in the 20th century and in the early years, he said the slang associated with the sport was still developing.
“You hear the term ‘quintet’ to refer to a team. One of the stars of Saybrook handled the ‘center berth.’ Another player was a ‘real ball handler’ we're told, and a ‘team man,’ said Kemp.
The tournament title would not only cap a particular season, but would be remembered for a generation or more in the community — and be a career highlight for a player.
“There was only one class competing in the basketball state championships. Small schools would really be eliminated by the time of the regionals," said Kemp. "That's when teams like Chenoa and Saybrook would have to face high schools from Bloomington-Normal, Decatur, or Peoria. And that's when they would drop out.”
The only small school to ever win the Illinois State Championship when there was one class was Hebron in McHenry County near the Wisconsin border. Hebron captured the 1952 state championship with an enrollment of 98.
At the McLean County tournament, Octavia, now Ridgeview, and Colfax had a run in the mid-1950s to the early 1970s. They won 10 tourney titles. Lately, Ridgeview has been a power in the conference tournament, said Kemp.
By 1979, school consolidation had reduced the county tourney to only nine schools. Two years later, in 1981, the girls tournament began.
“Which has really re-injected life into the tournament. And now the McLean County basketball tournament serves as a mid-season conference tournament for the Heart of Illinois Conference,” said Kemp.
That conference includes high schools in Tazewell, Woodford, Livingston, Ford, and Champaign counties. Kemp said school mergers have been so extreme, it's not tenable to have a tournament based on one particular county.
