Sports ‎ > ‎

Boy's Basketball

Boy's Basketball Seasons  -  School Directory  -   Schools by State Appearances  -  State Champions

History of Iowa High School Boy's Basketball
Basketball was a promising but fledgling sport in Iowa in the 1910s. In order to grow the sport, the Iowa Athletic Council (a group of school administrators sanctioned by the IHSAA) began holding  “invitational state tournaments” annually--usually at sites connected by railroads like Ames, Iowa City, and Boone. These to urnaments "created interest but did not address issues like length of the season, number of games, eligibility, academic grade  and age of the participants, etc." Seeing a need for more order the IHSAA stepped in, in 1923, and  created what was dubbed at the time, the "most ambitious athletic event ever attempted in Iowa". That year, 373 schools participated in 30 sectional tournaments, with the 30 sectional winners going to any of four district tournaments. The four district winners would play in a round-robin tournament in Boone. 

The tournament proved a success, and quickly became the biggest money maker of all IHSAA-sponsored events. Within a decade, over 800 schools had teams competing annually in the state sectionals, but only public schools were allowed to take part. Catholic schools, on the other hand, organized the  Iowa Catholic High School Association (ICHSA) in 1930, and  began staging their own state tournament. This continued until the 1940-41 school year, when the ICHSA was absorbed by the IHSAA and the ban on private schools taking part in IHSAA tournaments was lifted.

Through 1966, there was usually a single tournament held that included both large and small schools (for 7 years during this time there were two tournaments held). This setup allowed the state's small schools to take on the big ones, with some upsets happening every year. In 1937, the most surprising winner in the state's history was crowned, as little Melrose, with an enrollment of just 66 students and so unknown that they didn't even have a picture in the state tournament program, defeated Marshalltown for the state title ( their story can be found at  this link ). The next year, another small school, Diagonal, won the tournament, but would prove to be the last of the small-school winners in the single-tournament format.  Competition has been split into four classes since 1985, though this designation is binding only for tournament games, and schools often compete with some schools of other class designations during the regular season. 

County tournaments
In addition to state competition, teams annually took part in county tournaments through the late 1950s or early 1960s. With an average of around 10 teams per county, the tournaments typically included all schools except any that were much larger than the other schools in the county, or with a JV squad from any such school taking its place. In some counties, Class A and Class B tournaments were held. The winners of some county tournaments have been compiled on this site and can be found on the page for that County .







2013  





1A :  NUH




2A :  PCM

















































































Unofficial State Championships