Last week, we had a story about the game that saved Kentucky basketball from going to classified play, that game being the Christian County loss to Edmonson County in the state championship game of 1976. However, did you know, that Kentucky’s state tournament was actually once classified in some fashion.
Travel back in time to 1927. That season would be the first of a five year run, where the state basketball tournament in Kentucky was “classified.” Under the tournament set up that year, Kentucky was divided into districts and regions before the state tournament.
There were six regions, comprised of a total of 24 districts. There were 12 teams that qualified for the state tournament. Schools were divided by size into “A” and “B” classes.
The district and region tournaments were both set up so that the “A” finalist played the “B” finalist for the championship, with both advancing to the next level of play. At state, the schools were again divided by class until the championship game, where the “A” champion played the “B” champion for the overall state title.
Over that five year run of “classification”, the results were actually fairly even. Three times the “A” schools won the overall title, and two times the “B” school took the championship. Here is the list of those 5 championships:
1927 – Millersburg Military Academy (B Champion)
1928 – Ashland (A Champion)
1929 – Heath (A Champion)
1930 – Corinth (B Champion)
1931 – Louisville Manual (A Champion)
1931 was the final year that there were eight regions, with both the Class A & Class B winners from each advancing to state.
In 1932 and 1933, there were still “A” and “B” classes, but there were 16 regions, and only the overall region champs advanced to the state tourney.
1934 was the first year that the tournament was played in its existing format.
(Thanks to the late Bob Mays for all of his extensive research into Kentucky high school basketball history.)
