A Tradition Ends

The Indiana High School Athletic Assn. traded an 86-year-old tradition for trophies, voting Monday to replace the single tournaments in boys and girls basketball with four separate class championships, contested by 96 schools each.

The 12-5 vote by IHSAA directors--academic administrators and athletic directors--reflected a feeling that the time had come to give smaller, generally less-competitive schools a better chance.

“I don’t think it will change the image of Hoosier Hysteria,” board President Phillip E. Gardner said. “I choose to think the game is bigger than the way the tournament is set up.”

Football has been the only Indiana sport contested in separate classes based on enrollment.

Delaware, Hawaii and Kentucky are the only other states with single-class tournaments in basketball.

One of the most outspoken critics of the separate class proposal was Bobby Plump, the state’s 1954 Mr. Basketball from tiny Milan, the last small school to win the boys tournament.

“I’m not sure that there are many losses I’ve had that gave me the same devastating feeling that [vote] did,” Plump said.