Month: January 2022

Multi-Class Basketball May Have Saved Indiana Basketball

Matthew A. Werner & Richard J. Penlesky

It’s been 25 years since single-class Indiana high school basketball was last played (1997), yet some Hoosiers still pine for its return. Curmudgeons claim that multi-class sports ruined Indiana high school basketball and they cite falling tournament attendance as evidence. Nobody has dug deep into the history and the data of class basketball. Until now. It turns out, multi-class basketball may have saved Indiana basketball. Read More

The Saint Mary’s High School basketball team in Michigan City, Indiana, prepared to play its first game of the season, just three days away; however, the team did not have a head coach. It was November 28, 1942 and Coach Tony Juska had joined the armed forces. Furthermore, World War II created a dearth of capable men available to coach athletics. Saint Mary’s had its eye on a candidate: Louis Sass. One problem—Sass already had a job coaching varsity basketball. Read More