I know Tom Kelly was on it in the late 70's. I think Frank & Art came on in 80 or 81. I know they are on 81 for the Quincy games along with former Illini announcer Jim Turpin. But all of them were pros who obviously cared deeply about the product & did research. And this was in the pre internet age where it was a chore to find out info on a team let alone see them in person or on tape unless it was a team in your immediate vicinity.
If you go back to the 1950's, 16 teams made it to the state tournament which was played in Champaign at Huff gymnasium. Sometime in the early 60's after the Assembly Hall was built the tournament switched to the Assembly Hall. I have not looked up the date, but I believe in the mid to late 50's the Super Sectionals were added after the sectionals. As a resuilt there were 7 super-sectionals along with the public league champion who advanced to Champaign. Now here is some interesting trivia which may just be wife's tails. Supposedly a deal was made at this time. The original schools in the South 7 were guaranteed that each school would be sent to 7 different regionals in the southern part of the state. For example, Mt. Vernon always ended up in a regional with Carmi, Fairfield, Albion, , most years Mt. Carmel, the district champion, Grayville and maybe Wayne City. ( Teams like Eldorado, Ridgeway, McLeansboro which were closer to the other schools went elsewhere.) The other part of the deal which actually was put in place was that a Chicago Public League school was guaranteed a spot in the elite 8. At that time the public league had their own tournament and the winner advanced to the elite 8. Furthermore, at this time we are talking about the 1960's, the Chicago Catholic league was not a member of the IHSA. So essentially there were 7 supersectionals outside of Cook county who advanced to Champaign along with the Chicago public league champion. This was in place until the 2 class system came into play in the early 70's. When the 2 class came into place, the old district tournaments were was eliminated. Hebron was the last district champion to win the state tournament.
The public league winner advancing to state existed until I think when they went to 4 classes for the 07-08 season. Prior to that the public league tournament was the post season tourney sending the winner (and only the winner) to state.
I was trying to remember about the Public league. Initially, I thought it changed when the 2 classes came in during the early 70's. However, I think you are right. Some of the Chicago public league schools are in 2A and possibly 1A right now. I believe there is one in the elite 8 this year. As for the districts in the 1930's, I have read tthe same thing. I believe in Kentucky the 1st and second place finisher in the opening round of the state series advance to the next level.
Pure speculation. I would say somewhere around a 1000. I do not know if you could find that information on the IHSA website. The IHSA has updated their site. I have not searched it throroughly to see if they kept all of their history on it. In 1960 ( I believe it was 60 and not 58) Bridgeport was second led by Purdue recruit Steve Cunningham and Bernie Gray. Steve Cunningham's daughter, Mandi, is one of the top lady's scorers in the history of Illinois women's basketball.
Correction. Marshall's enrollment was 2433 and Bridgeport's enrollment was 385.
www.ihsa.org
28-26 halftime. Few less turnovers please
Was it just me or were the announcers openly rooting for Manual?
When the tournament was in Peoria that was always the case.
It seemed so but we had a terrible 4th qtr so...
