As the COVID-19 pandemic began to unfold on a national and global scale in March of 2020, the Illinois High School Association found itself on the cusp of conducting its Class 1A/2A Boys Basketball State Finals in Peoria. Shortly after the eight state finalists conducted their team practice at the Peoria Civic Center on Thursday, March 12, 2020, the IHSA announced (click here for release) that they would be following the NBA and NCAA in canceling all athletic events indefinitely. The IHSA managed to conduct state basketball tournaments throughout both World Wars, but the loss of the 2020 and 2021 state basketball tourneys marked the first time no IHSA boys basketball state finals were played since 1907.
The unprecedented nature and impact of the pandemic led IHSA staff members to reflect on their experiences and share matierals from the early days of the pandemic to help provide perspective on nature.
- One year from the initial pandemic shutdown, IHSA Associate Executive Director Kurt Gibson recorded his recollections 265 days earlier:
- IHSA Assistant Executive Director Matt Troha chronicled the frustrating fluidity of that week in an account for the NFHS magazine, High School Today, which can be read here.
- IHSA staff members, Board members, and other high school coaches and administrators were interviewed as a part of an oral history on the impact of COVID-19 on the state of Illinois. The oral history was a part of the historic preservation efforts of the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Museum in Springfield and is housed in their archives.
- In addition to the state basketball tournament, the IHSA Drama & Group Interpretation State Finals were preparing to conduct Sectionals around the state in preparation for their state final tournament one week later. A social media post below captures a final performance by a duo from Reavis High School after finding out the IHSA show would not go on, while Lake Park High School’s Brian Wussow captured the lonely image of his school’s empty stage after being alerted that Sectionals were canceled.
- Gibson also shared some memos from the start of the pandemic, as well as some photos he took of an empty Carver Arena an the March Madness Experience, a fan experience located in an adjacent exhibit hall, following the cancelation of the tournament. See the memos and photos below...
Memo from March 11, 2020:
