I think any “red-blooded” Hoosier fan my age (81) would agree that high school basketball, as we knew it, died the day the Indiana High School Athletic Association, the IHSAA, instituted classifications into the state tournament. For decades (actually, since 1911), Indiana high schools had a single-class, “winner-take-all” basketball tournament. Every school, regardless of enrollment, entered the tournament with the same chance to be the state champion as any other. In 1959, the number of school districts dropped from 966 to 402 as a result of the School Consolidation Act. Several schools with low enrollments were consolidated into centrally-located, larger schools to reduce financial expenditures and increase efficiency. From then on, the number of schools entering teams in the state tournament steadily declined—1959-710, 1962-660, 1972-427, 1982-395, 1992-383, and 1997-382. This past season, 2024-25, 416 schools vied for the crown(s).
As you can see, crown, singular, has been changed to crowns, plural. In 1996, 100 IHSAA member schools submitted a petition to change the basketball tourney format to four-classes based on school enrollment. Public outcry appeared to be very much antagonistic to this idea, but the board voted 12-5, and a referendum of school officials voted 220-157, to approve the change. Public skepticism was profound. Anger was another emotion frequently expressed, but despite all this, in the 1997-98 high school season, class basketball became reality. It has persisted to this day, and shows no sign of ever going away.
My memory of this process has always been that this was a bad choice. Indiana’s high school basketball tournament was unique. Having a single champion represented a true, hard-fought victory over all comers—yours was the best team in the state! It spawned the universally popular movie, “Hoosiers” in which small town school, Hickory, beat a big city powerhouse for the state title. The movie happened for real in 1954 when Milan, enrollment 164, defeated powerhouse Muncie Central for the championship. That win was forever called the “Milan Miracle,” but a “David v. Goliath” win has not occurred since 1954, especially since the School Consolidation Act was passed in ‘59.
I set out to write a scathing indictment of the IHSAA and what I thought was dictatorial control over boys high school basketball. I was ready to malign the IHSAA officials for destroying an institution that people my age held in reverence and high esteem. I was ready to lobby fiercely for a change back to single class basketball because attendance and interest in today’s tournament seemed to be waning badly. Well, when you research a subject, you learn things you didn’t know that are direct reasons why the IHSAA has embraced class basketball and will continue to promote it.
- The School Consolidation Act of 1959 erased the existence of other potential Milan’s! Schools with enrollments like Milan’s (164) were forever consolidated with other small schools into a single, larger, more cost-effective, efficient school.
2. Schools and school administrations saw the tournament as unfair and initiated and
promoted class basketball—not fans.
3. A few years after class basketball began, coaches, principals, athletic directors, and
student athletes voted 71.6%-28.4% in favor of keeping class basketball.
4. As early as the 1940’s and 50’s, many in the public were calling for class basketball.
5. The number of sports high schools sponsor has increased, especially since girls sports
began. In 1962 there 7 sports, all for boys. By 1995, the IHSAA sanctioned 20 sports—10
for girls, 10 for boys. Basketball attendance declined because boys basketball wasn’t the
only game in town. As the number of sports increased, attendance at the boys basketball
tournament decreased—an unintended consequence.
6. Total attendance for all tournaments increased, however, despite decreasing numbers for
boys basketball.
7. The increase in attention paid to college basketball and March Madness, especially by
cable networks, has detracted from the attention paid to high school basketball.
8. Dozens of other entertainment outlets exist now that didn’t 50-60 years ago. These forms
of entertainment have taken fans away from high school basketball which in a small town
was the major source of social diversion.
The change in attitude that has occurred in me since I wrote the first sentence has been remarkable. The source I used for this blog was an article written in March 2022. That was at the tail end of COVID when everyone was struggling, but the tournament has since been unaffected. Four classes (4A, 3A, 2A,1A) still exist, four champions are crowned, and instead of one mighty, big school champion, we have 4 champs, and every year a new Milan emerges. This year’s “Milan” was Orleans High School, enrollment 396, located in south central Indiana between Paoli and Mitchell, NE of French Lick. They defeated Clinton Prairie (enrol 350) 64-55.
“Old schoolers,” and I’m one, still call for he elimination of class basketball, and a return to the “Winner-take-all” format, but that will never happen. Class basketball has an almost 30-year foothold and is the norm, now. As the authors of my reference said, class basketball has not detracted from the success of individual players. Indiana ranked 4th behind California, Texas, and New York as the state with the most NBA players. Indiana has in the past averaged 3.53% of the top 100 ESPN recruits while making up only 2% of the U.S. population. And compared with Kentucky, who still has single-class basketball, from 1998-2021, Indiana has won 40 IN-KY all-star games while Kentucky won only 6. That’s impressive.
So “class basketball” has not been the pox on Indiana that I believed. Not in the least. The authors state, “the men and women who played Indiana high school basketball over the past 25 years in the multi-class tournament fought and clawed and played to win. They sweated, they bled, and cried, and cheered. They hoisted trophies and suffered defeat just like everybody before them. Today’s tournament is not better, or worse—it’s just different.”
In the final assessment, I preferred single-class basketball. It’s “how I was brought up.” But I can’t begrudge others because it has NOT killed Indiana high school basketball. The people in charge found a better way that sought to strengthen high school basketball and succeeded. Saying the new way “ruined Indiana basketball….is a myth.”
2025 INDIANA HIGH SCHOOL BOYS BASKETBALL CHAMPIONS
CLASS 1A: Orleans (25-4) defeated Clinton Prairie (26-3)
CLASS 2A: Manchester (26-2) defeated University (26-2)
CLASS 3A: South Bend St. Joseph (21-7) defeated Crispus Attucks (26-2)
CLASS 4A: Jeffersonville (26-5) defeated Fishers (30-0) 67-66 in OT
References: Google search of “history of Indiana High school class basketball”
Werner MA, Penlesky RJ “Indiana Basketball Thrives Despite Multi-class transition: A deep dive into the history, facts, and fiction of Class Basketball” NUVO 2022 May 17.
