Throwback Thursday – How the State Tournament was born

News Journal report of the birth of the state tournament, evening edition 5/20/66

By Chris Stevens, Editor

Delaware is indeed the First State, but they may be the last to have a single class tournament, as 24 teams in both the boys and girls ranks, have a chance to call themselves the one and only state champion.

But how did the state tournament as we know it come to be? Take a trip with us back to May of 1966 where the answer lies in a meeting of what was then known as Delaware Secondary Scholastic Athletic Association, the forefather of today’s DIAA.

The first order of business on Thursday May 19 was to vote on actually having a tournament. Close to 60 schools, high school and middle/junior high, had a say in the vote and the boys’ basketball tournament, which had been proposed as early as 1958, was voted in favor of by a 39-17 count.

Later in the day, the rules and particulars were approved of by a 39-15 count – an eight-team, single elimination tournament to conclude at the brand new University of Delaware Field House would tip-off in March of 1967.

The original tournament teams would be the Flight A champion and second place finisher, the Flight B champion, the Henlopen Conference Western and Eastern division champions, the Diamond State Conference champion and runner-up and whichever non-conference team had the best record.

Tower Hill administrator Bob DeGroat oversaw a group that studied the possibility of a tournament the previous fall and outgoing DSSAA chairman Robert L. Durkee approved of the format to be voted on.

It’s interesting to note of the 17 schools that voted “no” on a state tournament – several of them went on to win state championships. Wilmington High (5 titles), Howard (4 championships), William Penn (4 championships), Newark High (3) and Christiana and Milford (1 each) were not in favor of a state tournament at the time.

How the voting broke down on May 19, 1966

Delaware was also the third to last state to not have an official state tournament before the spring of 1966. The other two states? California and New York.

So now that a tournament was in place for the boys’ side, who would be the first winner?

To Be Continued…

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