For many years, Indiana's one-class high school basketball tournament was the envy of the nation.
Then in 1998, the hammer fell and Indiana went to a four-class system, greatly diminishing the attendance at games not only during the tournament but also during the regular season.
Even members of the state legislature were upset. An amendment by Rep. Eric Turner, R-Gas City, which mandated a single-class tourney during the Christmas break in addition to a multi-class tourney at the end of the season was voted down in January of 2000, 74-19.
However, the diehard Hoosiers are back again.
Senate Bill No. 84, which has been introduced by Senator Jean Leising, would allow schools to "Participate in an interscholastic athletics association only if the association does not conduct boys' or girls' interscholastic basketball games in which the teams are divided into classes."
If approved the bill would take effect on July 1, 2012.
The IHSAA has sent out a news release in rebuttal:
"The Indiana High School Athletics Association, Inc. is opposed to Senate Bill 84. As a privately funded, education-based, voluntary organization, the member schools of the IHSAA and its Board of Directors, which is made up of school administrators, have repeatedly rejected returning to single-class tournaments in team sports. The most recent survey in 2006 indicated only 36 schools (10.6 percent) favored a single-class tournament.
"The Association office has not received any requests from the membership to go back to single-class tournaments in any sport. Generally speaking, class sports have accomplished what they were intended to achieve. The current tournament formats allow more schools and more student athletes to advance through our various state tournaments and along with countless communities experience the excitement of advancement to the higher levels of tournament series events."
Bobby Plump, who hit the winning shot to give tiny Milan a stunning state title (spawning the Hoosiers movie), is one of the greatest supporters of a one-class tourney.
He told the Indianapolis Star, "It would take some time to bring the magic back, but it could come back. It would better benefit the student-athletes from the supposedly 'lower' class schools who do not get the attention they would in a single-class tournament. My problem all along was that it was a disservice to the kids. We had the best tournament in the nation. Even though it's been 13 years, there's no reason it can't come back and work again.
"I congratulate all the kids who win championships in smaller classes. I'm very proud of them. But I've had two Class A champion coaches tell me they'd rather have won a sectional in the old tournament than a class championship."
Bob Gardner, who was commissioner of the Indiana High School Athletic Association when the class system started, told MaxPreps, "Schools have had ample time to experience that. There's not a student in school (now) that ever experienced that (single-class) system. The state legislature has far more important things to worry about. "
Now the Executive Director of the National Federation of State High School Associations, Gardner conceded, "You and I liked the old class tourney. They (small schools) just had the deck stacked against them. They made some runs, but it just didn't happen enough to satisfy the small schools."
Chris May, the executive director of the Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame, has mixed feelings.
He said, "Truthfully, this is an IHSAA issue. I'd much rather see the state legislature worry about employment and unemployment and taxes. That's me as a taxpayer.
"We have a great history and tradition in our state with a one-class system. Personally, do I think it would be wonderful? Sure, it would be wonderful. Older people can absolutely cry, 'Yes, we've got to get back to that.' Winning a sectional in the one-class era just meant so much to the small schools."
But he conceded, "Kids now just don't understand how it used to be. I don't see the reality of it (happening)."
