Tourney tradition changes over years

After using the historic Butler Fieldhouse to host its boys' basketball state championship in 1971, the Indiana High School Athletic Association stopped using the building. \nThe Fieldhouse was used for 25 consecutive years (39 in all), but it was an understandable break from tradition. Buildings do get old and the huge capacity it could once hold was now not as large as new, bigger buildings.\nWhen the IHSAA decided to disregard its single greatest tradition by doing away with the single class, "everyone in one big tournament" format in 1997, it broke something that did not need fixing, most agree.\n"I played three years under single class and it was a lot better," IU senior point guard and 1998 Indiana "Mr. Basketball" Tom Coverdale said. "The tournament's not as exciting. The smaller schools that have the chance to beat the big schools … they've had that taken away."\nThe tournament is not as profitable since the IHSAA decided to change to a four-class system five years ago.\n"There was a 30 percent drop in attendance in one year," Leigh Evans said. Evans runs HiskoryHusker.com, a Web site that still gets 1.4 million hits per month during the high school season. "My goodness, it took a big bite (out of the tourney's popularity)," Evans said. \nSo why was it changed?\n"Part of it came from class football," Roger Dickinson, president of the Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame, said. "Football began in the class systems and it kind of started making others want to experience the winning. In basketball, the elite big boys usually won every year."\nCurrent IHSAA assistant commissioner and player on the historic 1954 "Milan Miracle" team, Ray Craft, agrees with Dickinson's explanation.\n"I think class football had a lot to do with it. When those communities win, it's a great thing," Craft said. "But I never supported (the change for basketball). I hoped that it would happen to the small school again.\n"(The IHSAA) felt that this was what to do though. We've never had a huge discussion since we changed it to multiple classes. I wish they hadn't changed. But I don't know if we went back it would have a huge difference."\nThe old proverb "time heals all wounds" is what the IHSAA seems to be banking on.\n"I think people are starting to accept it. Going to two classes seems like a possibility, but I don't think it will go back to one," Evans said. \nAnd it will apparently never go back to that old-time feel.\n"That's what we're striving for, that old-school feeling. But you've had a major loss. There are no more neighborhood rivalries anymore. With the classes you lose sectionals," Evans said. "There's not much consistency. Classes are based on student enrollments. Just now, schools are beginning rivalries."\nAt the IBHOF, Dickinson hears about class change all the time. \n"We do have a lot of older visitors. They remember the old system and they're outspoken about getting it back," Dickinson said. \nEver since Bloomington North defeated Delta, 75-54, in 1997 in the 86th and final single class Indiana state championship game, the nostalgia, the tradition, the things that make Indiana high school basketball so special have been missing.\n"I felt I missed out on the tradition a little bit," IU sophomore guard Ryan Tapak said, who spent his entire high school career in the multiple-class system, and still lists "Hoosiers" as his all-time favorite movie. "One class makes for more of a cinderella story."\nIf it wasn't for the single class system, Bobby Plump wouldn't have the "living legend" status that he does. Hoosiers, considered by many to be the greatest sports movie in history, would have never been made. The Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame would not exist. Indiana would not be "The Basketball State".\n"(The IBHOF) have about one-third of our visitors from different states. We've had visitors from 62 countries," Dickinson said. "And it seems like everyone knows about the movie. The odds stacked against the small team. Being the underdog. Everyone can relate to being in that position."\n"I think it was a great, unique thing about this state," said Andy Katz, ESPN.com senior college basketball writer. "But now the small town will never know if it can compete against the big high schools."\nAnd that's a shame.