Early years
The IHSA was founded on December 27, 1900, at a rump session of the Illinois Principals Association. Known as the Illinois High School Athletic Association for the first 40 years of its existence, the IHSA is the second oldest of the 52 state high school associations. Only the Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association outdates it, by two years.
For the greater part of a decade, the IHSA was concerned mostly with establishing school control over interscholastic athletic programs and setting eligibility standards for competition. Ringers were a persistent problem, and among schoolboy sports, football was a special concern. In this period, severe injuries and even deaths were not uncommon, and there was much talk of banning football completely.
In 1908, the IHSA's mission expanded in an unforeseen direction when its board was convinced by Lewis Omer of Oak Park and River Forest High School to sponsor a statewide basketball tournament. Although a handful of other state associations had sponsored track meets, none had ever attempted to organize a statewide basketball tournament. The first tournament, an 11-team invitational held at the Oak Park YMCA, was a financial success. Subsequent state tournaments, which were open to all member schools, provided the IHSA with fiscal independence, an important new vehicle to spread its message, and ever-increasing name recognition among the public.
By 1922, the affairs of the Association became so time-consuming that its board hired a full-time manager, C. W. Whitten. As vice president of the Board, Whitten had recently reorganized the basketball tournament and reduced the size of the state finals from 21 teams to four. About the same time, the IHSA became a charter member of the National Federation of State High School Associations. In addition to his IHSA responsibilities, Whitten ran the business affairs of the NFHS, at first unofficially, and after 1927 with the official title of general manager.
From this dual stage, Whitten and his assistant manager at the IHSA, H. V. Porter, exerted unusual influence over high school sports, not only in Illinois, but across the nation. In one memorable battle, Whitten took on the "grand old man" of college football, Amos Alonzo Stagg of the University of Chicago and effectively shut down his national tournament for high school basketball champions. [8] Porter served on several NFHS committees and helped develop the molded basketball and the fan-shaped backboard, among other inventions. Porter later became the first full-time executive of the NFHS.
As the Association matured, member schools requested sponsorship of state tournaments in sports other than basketball. The first such move came in 1927, when the IHSA took over control of the Illinois Interscholastic, a festival of high school track, golf, and tennis run by the University of Illinois. The meet continued to be held on the campus in Champaign–Urbana, but as with basketball, IHSA involvement opened the field to all IHSA member schools and removed non-member schools, including a handful of out-of-state schools. The IHSA subsequently established state series in several other boys' sports: swimming and diving (1932), wrestling (1937), baseball (1940), cross country (1946), and gymnastics (1958) (gymnastics had a University of Illinois sponsored state meet from 1952 through 1957). Few of these series were self-supporting, but the ever-popular basketball tournament – sometimes referred to as the "goose that laid the golden egg" – paid the freight for all.
Of the many challenges faced by Whitten during his 20-year career, the one with the longest-lasting repercussions was the reorganization of 1940. Prior to this time, two large groups of Illinois high schools remained outside of IHSA control: private schools, which were not eligible for membership, and the public schools of Chicago, which were eligible but had joined only sporadically. The new constitution approved in 1940 extended the privileges of membership to non-public schools and gave limited autonomy to the Chicago schools, which subsequently joined en masse. In addition, non-athletic activities such as speech and music were added to the IHSA's menu, prompting the elimination of the word "Athletic" from the Association's name. [9] [10]
1941 saw one of the first serious challenges to IHSA authority, when the association banned high school bands from competing nationally. When a bill was introduced in the Illinois General Assembly to transfer the IHSA's authority to the state superintendent's office, the IHSA moved to change the ban, and give local athletic directors a greater voice in decision making. [11] Also that year, the IHSA allowed private schools to participate for the first time. [12]
In 1942, as World War II started to have an effect on American life, many schools began dropping less popular sports as transportation and hiring qualified coaches became a serious issue. The association polled its membership to investigate the possibility of ending the spring sports season. The poll supported keeping the season. [13] [14] All over the country, as gas rationing threatened to prevent teams and officials from traveling, IHSA Secretary Al Willis was able to get special exemptions for Illinois teams and officials; a precedent that spread to other states, very likely saving high school competitions during the war. [15] By 1943, the IHSA had to look at making changes to its rules regarding eligible coaches, and the prospect of military veterans returning to high school. [16] Ironically, the federal government eventually did put a limit to post season travel for high schools in May, 1945; too late to stop Illinois' spring tournaments, and just in time to herald the end of the war. [17] In the end, the IHSA did not curtail its sports tournaments throughout the war.
Private school multiplier
The success of non-public schools in IHSA tournaments has led to considerable debate among the members, 83% of which are public schools. In 1985, the Interstate Eight Conference proposed a bylaw that the IHSA should exclude private schools from competing in state tournaments, though the membership voted this proposal down. [18]
1995 wrestling controversy
In 1995, Mt. Carmel (Chicago), under coach Bill Weick, entered the end of the wrestling season ranked third in the nation by USA Today, and was poised to win its fourth consecutive state dual team title. [19] Just prior to their Regional tournament, the IHSA learned that the school had competed in too many invitational tournaments, and disqualified the school from further competing as a team. [19] Mt. Carmel did not deny the assertion; however, they claimed that one of the varsity tournaments had only had JV and frosh-soph wrestlers competing. [19] Mt. Carmel won a temporary injunction from the Cook County Circuit Court to permit their team to compete in the regionals. [20] While the individual tournaments progressed, Mt. Carmel won a court victory, which forced the IHSA to permit the team to wrestle. [21] When the IHSA's appeal was denied, and after temporarily suspending the tournament, the IHSA decided to end the season without a Class AA state championship dual team tournament; the first time in the history of the Association that a state tournament had been cancelled due to a cause other than war. [22]
On November 1, 2007, the Illinois Press Association (IPA) and two newspapers (the Northwest Herald and the State Journal-Register) filed for a temporary restraining order to prohibit the IHSA from enforcing its policy restricting the use of photographs taken at its state final events. The IHSA's policy, similar to those adopted by the NCAA, colleges such as Illinois State University and the University of Illinois, and other state high school associations, allows news-gathering organizations to sell photos that are published but prohibits the sale (usually through a Web site) of the many photos taken at the event that are not published. A circuit court judge denied the motion on November 5 and encouraged the parties to renew talks to resolve the impasse. The plaintiffs withdrew their request for a preliminary injunction on November 16 as talks continued.
On December 5, 2007, the IHSA announced that it had filed a countersuit to the IPA seeking a resolution to the ongoing issue, citing a failure on the part of the IPA to continue talks, and the ongoing sale of photographs. [23]
In January, 2008, it was announced that State Representative Joseph Lyons had submitted Illinois House Bill 4582, which would prevent the IHSA from enforcing its ban on press outlets from selling pictures of IHSA events. [24]
In April, 2008, the IHSA and the Illinois Press Association jointly announced a cessation of hostilities that gave the press permission to sell photographs without hindrance from the IHSA [25]
On January 14, 2008, the IHSA announced that, based on a survey of 54% of its principals, [26] it would move forward to design and implement a program to test for the presence of performance-enhancing drugs in student athletes participating in select State Series competitions. [27] While details have not been worked out, based on the vote of the principals, the membership would not favor forcing a team to forfeit in the event of a positive test, though the membership, which voted overwhelmingly favored to support a period of ineligibility for athletes testing positive, and narrowly supported forcing schools to adopt education programs if an athlete tested positive.
