Louisiana's "Marsh Madness" was magic

(First of three parts)

Where Louisiana boys state basketball tournament began in 1961

     The building stands on the Louisiana State Fairgrounds along Interstate 20 in west Shreveport, as it has since the mid-1950s. The name now is Hirsch Memorial Coliseum; when it opened, it was Hirsch Youth Center.
     Elvis played there, and left the building ... in 1957.
     Many other acts performed there -- singers, the circus, Centenary College basketball and the Louisiana Invitational Tournament/Gulf South Classic. 
     It is, mostly now, the home of ice hockey (the Mudbugs, a junior-level professional) team, and the rodeo site during the Louisiana State Fair.  
     But how we remember it most: A long time ago, it was the mecca of high school basketball in Louisiana.
     It was, from 1961 to 1966, the first home of the boys state tournament, the "Top Twenty." 
     And once upon a time, covering the state tournament was a magic time for a young sportswriter. Gosh, we loved it.
     The 60th annual edition -- 60 years, can you believe it? -- will be played this week at Burton Coliseum in Lake Charles.
     But the state tournament is not what it used to be. (Right, and your reaction is, what is?).
     In our boyhood, when it began (and we do remember that), it was one of the greatest things that ever happened for basketball in Louisiana. Yes, in my opinion, even better than Pistol Pete Maravich and -- arguably -- Coach Dale Brown at LSU.
     For years and years, state championships had been decided in school gymnasiums, one team as the host -- thanks to a coin-flip victory -- and the visiting team facing a road challenge.
     Many believed it wasn't fair, knowing that basketball-crazy states such as Indiana and Illinois had the right idea: a state tournament, played at a neutral site.
      After several years of in-fighting among the school principals who made the decisions in the Louisiana High School Athletic Association, the idea became reality. 
     So starting in '61, the final four teams in the five LHSAA  classifications -- AAA, AA, A, B and C -- came to one site for (at the beginning) three intense days of basketball. Four teams, five classes ... a Top Twenty.
     Don't know the origin of that tournament name, but -- just a bit partial here -- let's credit the organizers in Shreveport and the sportswriters at The Shreveport Times. And Hirsch Youth Center was a perfect home, for a short while. 
     That was home. We were the proud home team, so to speak.
     The guys in the sports department at The Times were the first to give the tournament the full coverage it deserved. And as the historical microfilm pages of the newspaper prove, they did a helluva good job. 
     (Yes, I am partial. Two years later, on those sports pages, I would begin a career of bylines.)
     Researching this subject, through the sports pages of the late 1950s and in 1960, there was clearly a divided state.
     On one side: Small-school principals (and coaches) preferred to take their championship hopes to the big city. They realized that playoff games in their small gyms often attracted overflow crowds, uncomfortable conditions for fans and the on-court action. Plus, their games got little press coverage. A state tournament, with writers from all over, would change that.
     Opposing side: Many/most South Louisiana schools -- especially a solid core of the bigger New Orleans schools -- were OK with a playoff format that The Times sports columnist Jim Dawson in 1959 called "probably the worst system in the United States."
      Among the opponents, though -- surprisingly considering his former basketball-coach role -- was Bossier High's Frank Lampkin. Well-respected, he and his coach, John McConathy, had proven their stance.
     When their team -- led by future major-league baseball and Centenary basketball star Cecil Upshaw -- made the Class AAA state title game in 1960, Lampkin and McConathy turned down a chance to play the game at Hirsch (10,500 seating capacity) and, not wanting to give up homecourt advantage, opted to stay at Bossier's tiny old gym, where some 600 fans crammed in to see the Bearkats beat DeLaSalle (New Orleans) 39-34. 
     DeLaSalle's Johnny Altobello, the state's most successful high school basketball coach of the 1950s and '60s, was with Lampkin in the battle "against" right up to the end. 
      For several years, one of the leading principals "for" -- and an advocate for Shreveport and Hirsch -- was J.H. Napper of Simsboro (Class B). His efforts were rewarded at the LHSAA meetings in March 1960.
      It was Shreveport that made the difference.
      Centenary athletic director-coach Orvis Sigler, a Missouri man who had come to town after coaching at the U.S. Military Academy, was a basketball promoter and the spokesman for the Shreveport group at the pivotal LHSAA meetings.
      Sigler's pitch: The Athletic Affairs Committee of the Shreveport Chamber of Commerce had agreed to underwrite the state tournament, offering a $12,000 guarantee to the LHSAA with all expenses paid for the visiting teams, plus $400 for each of the 10 finalists and $200 for each of the 10 losing semifinalists. Net profits after expenses would be equally divided among the 20 schools.
      Still, the LHSAA Executive Committee turned down the proposal by a 15-13 vote. Told of the strong support by the four lower classification schools for the tournament, Triple-A principals reconsidered by a 17-4 vote. And then the Executive Committee vote was 26-2 "for" (Lampkin and Altobello were the "no" votes.)
     The next day -- March 26, 1960 -- it was James "Little Fuzzy" Brown, principal of arguably the state's top athletics powerhouse at the time, Istrouma of Baton Rouge, who told the entire body of school principals: "Let's do this for the good of basketball in this  state, not for the interests of a few individuals."
     Napper and Minden High principal W.W. Williams joined Brown in pushing the "for" proposal ... and it passed in a landslide. 
     The next March, basketball took a huge step in Louisiana.
     (Next: Louisiana's basketball eyes were on Shreveport)