So, for any of you who like sports history books, I’m near the end of a fascinating book by veteran sportswriter Jack McCallum, “THE REAL HOOSIERS: Crispus Attucks High School, Oscar Robertson, and the Hidden History of Hoops.”

It covers in great detail the era in which Milan pulled off its improbable upset—with the focus being on what happened in the two ensuing years when Oscar’s teams won back-to-back state titles.  And the book deals extensively with the history of discrimination and segregation in Indiana.

In any case, Oscar’s teams had to win 10(!) tourney games in a season to capture the state title.  There were the sectionals, and then the regionals, and then I think the next rounds were called the semi-states.  

i always knew that, for decades, the Indiana bball tourney had no breakdown by school size—that everyone played in one huge tourney.  But I didn’t realize it took that many games to emerge on top.  Gotta love it!

For those of you who played high school basketball back in the day in Ohio or elsewhere in the Midwest other than Indiana—or if you were a big fan of your high school hoops team—how many games did a school have to win to capture the state tourney?

I went to high school in CT over a half century ago.  There were four separate class or school sizes in the state tourney and I’m almost positive that only the top 16 schools based on record in each school category qualified for the tourney—so that the champion played a maximum of four games.  (I played soccer and I can say with 100% certainty the state tourney worked that way—except that there were only 3 classes/school size: L, M, and S.)

So, in essence, if you qualified, you started off with a Sweet 16.  
Thanks.