The Beginning of the Madness

There are a dozen small town clichés that can describe the village of Manito, Ill, in northern Mason County, near Pekin, Ill.  I have driven through it numerous times when I make my treks back to Missouri or when attending my wife's family gatherings held in the town, so I can contest that you can blink and miss it. 

Established in 1858, the town still showcases its 1858 "Old School" and 1906 "Old Jail".  The three day Manito Popcorn Festival is celebrated annually on Labor Day Weekend, since 1972. It attracts not only local residents, but residents from Mason, Tazwell and Peoria counties as well.  The village of nearly 1,600 is also home to Midwest Central High School and its Raiders, which have played host to the IHSA sectional playoffs.  But what most Illinois high school basketball fans might not realize is the tie the town has to one of Illinois' most coveted basketball traditions.

Small Illinois community

When planning our basketball trips, it is customary to give it a basketball name that is popular within the state we are traveling.  The days leading up to our Illinois trip this past October, it was a no-brainer to identify our trip with the most popular basketball term that originated in Iliinois, "March Madness".  While researching it, I was surprised to learn that Manito was the birthplace of Henry Van Arsdale Porter (H. V. Porter), who would coin the popular phrase in an essay written in 1939.  "March Madness" defined the excitement and spirit of the Illinois high school basketball tournament.  



 H.V. Porter (1891-1975)

Porter was born in Manito on October 2, 1891, but he grew up on a farm near Washington,  Ill.  Following high school he attended Illinois State Normal University and after graduating, he began his career teaching in Mount Zion, Keithsburg, and Delavan.  From 1919 to 1928 he served as principal of Athens High School, where he also coached basketball, leading his team to a second place state finish in 1924.

In 1928, Porter was hired as assistant manager of the Illinois High School Association (IHSA).  Along with organizing a department to license and train officials in sports, such as, football, basketball, and baseball, Porter served as editor of a new monthly magazine, the Illinois High School Athlete.

According to Basketball.org, nearly every magazine contained an article or essay from Porter himself. In 1939, near the end of Porter's tenure at the IHSA, he wrote an essay titled, March Madness, about the fans of the Illinois high school basketball tournament, which during the 1930s had grown in popularity.  The term itself is thought to have come from the old English saying, ‘Mad as a March Hare.’ The essay’s punctual line was,

“When the March madness is on him, midnight jaunts of a hundred miles on successive nights make him even more alert the next day.”

The spirit of March Madness

Shortly thereafter, Porter left the IHSA to become the executive secretary of the National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS). In 1942 he provided one last contribution to the IHSA’s magazine, a poem titled “Basketball Ides of March“, which ends with the final stanza:

           WIth war nerves tense, the final defense

           Is the courage, strength and will

           In a million lives where freedom thrives

          And liberty lingers still

          Now eagles fly and heroes die

          Beneath some foreign arch

          Let their sons tread where hate is dead

          In a happy Madness of March

Shortly after joining the NFHS , Porter became a member of several influential committees. As a member of the National Basketball Committee, Porter contributed to many innovations that shaped basketball for years to come.

It is also worth noting that Porter was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 1960, in the second inducted class.  The following are his basketball contributions listed on the Hall of Fame website:

"Equipment inventor, rule maker, high-school coach, and athletic administrator, Henry Porter's innovations were vital to the evolution of basketball. In 1933, Porter designed the popular fan-shaped backboard, adopted for official use in 1940-41. In 1935, he pushed for replacement of the then-used cumbersome, irregular, and expensive 32-inch sewn leather ball with a 29 1/2-inch molded leather basketball. Under his leadership, high schools adopted the new ball in 1938, and later in the 1940s, adopted an even better composite-molded basketball. Throughout the 1930s, Porter teamed with Hall of Famer Oswald Tower to create new and consistent rules for basketball. In 1936, Porter published the first high school rulebook standardizing the game across the nation. In 1940, Porter became the first full-time executive secretary and editor of publications at the National Federation of State High School Athletic Association (NFSHSAA), a position he held until 1958."

Career Highlights

• Served as the first rep for high schools on the National Basketball Rules Committee
• Pioneered use of motion pictures to study proper playing techniques
• Published the first high school rule book, 1936
• Published the first magazine-style state high school association publication, The Illinois Athlete

You can see why I was taken aback to learn that a man of large influence to basketball, state-wide and nationally, came from this small, rural community.  I guess it shouldn’t surprise me when I look at the history of Illinois high school basketball and the list of small town players, coaches, administrators, and programs that have contributed to the game and to the Madness of March.  Trust me when I say that small town clichés do not apply to Porter.  Because when you are reading about Porter and you blink, you can't miss reading his accomplishments and contributions.

 



Legeman's Court Vision

When entering through the doors to your school’s gymnasium, grabbing a game program and taking a seat in your favorite spot, you generally don’t ask yourself, “who built this gym?” or “why was the gym designed this way?”  If you have been in more than a handful of the tri-state area gyms, you will probably agree that they have their similarities and differences.  But there is one style of gym that is so unique, its design belongs to only a small fraternity of gyms in Illinois, Indiana and Michigan and to one man, whose late night vision would change the basketball landscape for decades to come.  

  

Ralph E. Legeman

Architect Ralph E. Legeman, of Evansville, IN, launched a career in architecture in 1922, designing general buildings but his legacy would be cemented nearly 25 years later with a simple solution to a large problem.  In 1946, he began to be approached by school officials asking him to build them a gymnasium that could hold large capacity crowds, but at a low construction cost, since the cost of labor and materials had increased tremendously in recent years.  With this problem on his mind, Legeman had troubles sleeping. One night with numbers, facts, and figures running through his head, he got out of his bed and went to his desk to do some sketches.  It was that night that his vision of a unique design would become the answer to the school officials problem. Shortly thereafter in 1948, Legeman would file to patent (granted in 1956) his solution, which is to build underground. 

Diagram from the patent

Legeman felt that his underground “bowl” design would be economical in construction, safe and convenient in use and attractive in appearance.  In Legeman’s design, only the roof and upper walls stand above ground. The design also eliminated the need for elaborate structural supports for seating and roofing, which were expensive and constrained by limits in technology.  Bleachers were concrete, built directly on the sloping dirt sides of the excavation and the top of the gym is supported by steel trusses. Spectators are seated up to where the trusses join the abutments. There are no steel rafters above the court, since the abutments support the weight of the structure.

In addition, the underground design would allow the spectators to enter the seats from above and leave the same route, without interfering with persons on the playing floor and without obstructing the views of the persons in the seats.  Also, Legeman thought exits could be installed behind the seats at ground level so that the spectators may leave at many access points and the seats may be quickly emptied at the end of a game.  

Legeman's design became so successful that he would eventually design 27 bowl gymnasiums for both high school and college and license 10 others during the late 1940’s, 50’s, and 60’s.  There were three different gym sizes that a school could build: small, medium, and large.   In 1949, Herrin, IL (Memorial Gym) became the first of 27 bowl gyms and Loogootee, IN would be the last, built in 1968.  Many of Legeman's gyms are noteworthy, large and small, such as Duster Thomas gym in Pinckneyville, IL, the Jacksonville Bowl in Jacksonville, IL and the 12,500 seat multi-purpose arena, Roberts Municipal Stadium, in Evansville, IN.  The most recognized would probably be Chrysler Fieldhouse in New Castle, IN. Chrysler is better known as “The largest high school basketball gymnasium in the world”, since its seating capacity is 9,325, but has held more than 10,000. 

Duster Thomas Gym in Pinckneyville, IL

Chrysler Fieldhouse in New Castle, IN

For someone like myself who grew up in northeast Missouri, I too do not have to travel very far to see or play in a Legeman Gym.  Twenty miles to the east, in Hamilton, IL, Legeman erected their high school gymnasium in 1956.  Once home to the Hamilton Cardinals basketball teams, it is still in use today for a handful of the West Hancock Titan varsity basketball teams home games.  Having traveled to some of Illinois and Indiana’s most decorated basketball schools and gyms, I was excited to learn of the local connection between Hamilton’s gym and the many prominent gyms that Legeman built. 



Hamilton gymnasium interior



Hamilton gymnasium exterior - steel abutments

I am never surprised anymore when I learn something new about the historical relevance of a gym, school or person located down the street or in the area where I grew up.  When recently talking to Hamilton High School Athletic Director, Dave Dion, he mentioned that he too is learning things about his gym after being at Hamilton for 35 years. Uncovering history can start by asking a simple question or by keeping your eyes and ears open to conversations. Basketball history is everywhere around us.  You could even be sitting on it and you might not know it. 

Additional information:
According to chopperinu of IllinoisHighSchoolSports.com, Ralph Legeman Associates, Evansville, Ind.,  designed or licensed bowls in the following cities:

Three gyms yet to be identified, plus:

Norris City
Herrin
Owensville (IN)
Herrin JHS
Murphysboro (now MS)
Huntingburg (IN)
Pinckneyville
Bushnell-Prairie City
Lynnville (IN)
Central (Clifton)
Hamilton
Ridgway
Trico
Jacksonville
Center Grove (IN)
Roberts Municipal Stadium (IN)
Evansville North (IN)
Carmel (IN)
Edinburg (IN)
Boonville (IN)
Connersville (IN)
New Castle (IN)
Indiana Central College (IN) (now UIndy)
L.C. Walker Sports Arena (MI)

Designed by Weber & Curry, Terre Haute, Ind., under license:
Switz City (IN) (now White River Valley)
Clay City (IN)
Orleans (IN)
West Vigo (IN)
Springs Valley (IN)

Designed by James Associates, Indianapolis, Ind., under license:
Brownstown Central (IN)
West Washington (IN)
Eastern (Pekin) (IN)
Indian Creek (IN)

Designed by Lester Routt & Associates, Vincennes, Ind., under license:
Loogootee (IN)