A CENTURY OF CHAMPIONSHIPS

The decade starting with 1920 was one of change, growth and new beginnings.

In the United States, it is frequently referred to as the Roaring Twenties or the Jazz Age.

In Europe, the time is sometimes referred to as the Golden Age Twenties, and in France, it’s called the Crazy Years due to the era’s artistic, social and cultural progress — all this just 13 months after the end of World War I.

The opening months of 1920 saw its share of news in the world of sports as well.

Baseball ruled to outlaw pitches involving tampering with the ball. The National Negro Baseball League was organized.

The first artificial rabbit was used at a dog track, and the trade of Babe Ruth from the Boston Red Sox to the New York Yankess began the so-called Curse of the Bambino.

The first week of March that year also saw the very first Little Ten Conference Boys Basketball Tournament played at Sandwich, with the hosts topping Rollo 16-9.

The Little Ten Conference is the oldest continually-running high school basketball conference in the state of Illinois and was organized during the 1919-1920 school year with Earlville, Hinckley, Leland, Paw Paw, Plano, Rollo, Sandwich, Shabbona, Somonauk and Waterman as its charter schools. A conference tournament has been an annual event every season, and for many years has been held at the end of January.

This season’s gathering, from Jan. 28 through Feb. 1, will mark the 100th Little Ten Conference Tournament.

Sheridan was added in 1930, but dropped in 1939 with Serena taking its place. Rollo closed in 1954. Hinckley consolidated with Big Rock in 1957 to form Hinckley-Big Rock. In 1967, Sandwich and Plano left, and Newark and Malta joined. Shabbona and Waterman consolidated to form Indian Creek in 1993, thus shortening the conference to nine teams. LaMoille joined in 1996. Malta closed in 2000. Kirkland Hiawatha joined in 2006, and that same year Earlville and Leland combined athletic programs to form Leland-Earlville. This season, Leland and Earlville are back to separate programs, while Paw Paw has joined with Indian Creek.

In the previous 99 LTC loop tournaments, Newark has walked away champions a record 21 times, followed by Serena with 16 titles, Waterman 15, Somonauk 11, Shabbona and Hinckley-Big Rock 10 each, Earlville 7, Paw Paw, Leland, Plano and Sandwich two each, and Malta one.

Waterman holds the record for consecutive tournament championships with seven (1929-1937). Newark has had a pair of streaks reaching four (1985-1988; 2015-2018) and Serena one such streak(1963-1966).

The Times area also has a number of non-LTC schools which will participate in long-standing tournaments just before the regular season moves aside for the postseason. Marquette, Woodland and Seneca will join the other members of the Tri-County Conference for the league’s 93rd get-together, while Fieldcrest and Flanagan-Cornell will lace ‘em up at the 108th McLean County/Heart of Illinois Conference Tournament. The Interstate Eight Conference has been trying to get its tournament off the ground for a few years now, though it’s in store for a major revision next season when the conference completely transforms.

The TCC Tournament championship, which was first captured by Lostant in 1927 after a 23-20 victory over Tonica, has been won by the Crusaders four times, including two of the last three seasons. The first McLean County Tourney — which has doubled as the HOIC league tournament since that conference’s formation — was won by Lexington after defeating LeRoy 38-29 in 1911. Fieldcrest has won the championship in 2009, 2010 and 2012. Streator won the I-8 Tournament once during its brief stay in the league, in 2015.

As a Serena graduate and third-generation basketball player to play in the LTC Tournament for the Huskers, the history of the league was mostly a mystery to me until about 15 years ago when I started researching its past.

In that time, my findings in microfilm, museums and chatting with former players and coaches about the conference and its boys basketball tournament have been like opening a window to the past ... a window that hopefully can stay open for another 100 years.