Glory days discussion

Opinion

Discussion

April 6, 2012

Glory days discussion

Anonymous The Kokomo Tribune Fri Apr 06, 2012, 12:18 AM EDT

— For generations, Hoosiers took pride in the hysteria that swept the state during the annual high school basketball tournament.

When other states adopted multiple classes to give smaller schools a chance to claim a title, Indiana stuck with its single-class tournament.

The fans liked it that way.

Every Hoosier basketball fan grows up knowing the story of little Milan knocking off Muncie Central for the state championship in 1954. The story inspired the movie “Hoosiers,” which helped to further spread the legend of Indiana basketball.

The legend took a big hit, though, when the Indiana High School Athletic Association abandoned the single-class tourney in 1997.

Schools were placed up against schools of similar size, and the state began to crown four champions. Suddenly, schools that had never made it out of the sectional were competing for state championships.

Fans, though, have never really embraced the multi-class tournament, and many have complained for years that Indiana should go back to the good old days when high school basketball was king, when gyms across the state were filled to the rafters with screaming fans.

The fact is, of course, Indiana will never recapture the good old days. The 1950s and ’60s when everyone turned out for the high school basketball game on Friday night are gone forever.

Life has changed, and folks now have many other things competing for their attention.

Nonetheless, the IHSAA, with a push from the Indiana General Assembly, has agreed to stage a series of town hall meetings to talk about whether the state should go back to that single-class tourney that made Indiana basketball famous.

The organization last week announced a series of public meetings across the state. One of the meetings will be at 7 p.m. May 1 at Milan High School.

The sessions closest to Kokomo will be at 7 p.m. April 24 at Pendleton Heights High School and at 7 p.m. May 10 at Marion High School.

These meetings represent your chance to influence what the IHSAA decides to do with the state basketball tournament. If you’re interested in this issue, you might want to mark your calendar to attend.

Text Only | Photo Reprints

Opinion

Prepared for a disaster?
Put together a disaster plan and make sure everyone in your family knows what the plan is.

May 21, 2013
Move over, Ind. drivers
Keep highway and utility workers safe; remember to pull over for utility vehicles.

May 19, 2013
May 18, 2013: Cheers & Jeers
Commissioner earns respect of inmates

Kyle Stacy sends this Cheer for Howard County Commissioner Paul Wyman:

May 18, 2013
House of Burgess: The revolution will be printed
Another major milestone in the history of 3D printing was reached earlier this month when Cody Wilson, director of the nonprofit Defense Distributed, announced he had conducted the first-ever successful test firing of a completely 3D-printed gun in (where else?) Texas. Wilson then uploaded the plans online. These files were then downloaded over 100,000 times over the next 48 hours. That was, until the State Department intervened.

May 15, 2013 1 Photo
Hayden: From good to great in education
On the campaign trail last year and early into his administration, Indiana Gov. Mike Pence said repeatedly that his goal as governor would be to take Indiana from “good to great.”

May 14, 2013
Mom’s simple advice still presents a valuable challenge
Most moms don’t base their advice on scientific research. Instead, their words of wisdom come from a greater source — the heart, where they store and process life experiences. Unfortunately, some folks don’t receive the gift of maternal guidance, for various reasons.

May 14, 2013
Wolfsie: Making bird calls
One afternoon in 2011, my friend Eric spent a couple of hours over lunch explaining Twitter to me and I thought I understood it all, but as you’ll see from my first few tweets, I wasn’t very confident: “Is anyone getting this?”

May 13, 2013
Letter to the Editor: May 13, 2013
Good people wouldn’t do this to their neighbors. This common refrain is being heard over eastern Howard County where industrial development is planned for our farmland in the form of massive wind turbines.

May 13, 2013
Vasicek: Mother’s Day stresses
For two hours, the lady sitting next to another airplane passenger boasted about her grandchildren, producing a barrage of photographs. She finally realized that she had been talking the whole time, so she tried to make amends:
“Oh, I am sorry! I have monopolized the conversation. I will listen to you now. So please tell me: what do you think of my grandchildren?”

May 12, 2013
Letters to the Editor: May 12, 2013
How fortunate, that after years of trying to bring top-notch wind energy companies to Tipton County, this great choice is here for us — just at the right time. Tipton County badly needs the revenue from clean wind farm companies.

May 12, 2013
More Opinion Headlines

Opinion

Search Results

Discussion

Glory days discussion

Site Map

Contact Us