By FRED KRONER
fred@mahometnews.com
The year was 1932.
A subscription to the weekly Mahomet newspaper cost a dollar.
That covered delivery of the paper for a full year.
Students who wanted to watch the local basketball team play paid a quarter. For adults, the per-game charge was 50 cents.
The eighth-grade boys’ basketball team was worth watching during the 1931-32 season.
The heavyweight group, coached by principal H.R. Sparks, won the state championship in the third year that the Illinois Elementary School Association conducted a grade school state tournament.
They accomplished that feat without having to set foot outside of their own hometown, which at the time had 729 residents.
The postseason event began with a district tournament, which Mahomet hosted at the high school gymnasium, located at the corner of Main and Division streets.
Mahomet defeated Mansfield in the opening round and overpowered Penfield 21-11 in the championship game on Jan. 28.
The sectional tournament was scheduled for two weeks hence, but was never contested.
An article in the weekly Mahomet Sucker State explained the reasons. Four teams were to qualify from each of four sectionals so that 16 schools would compete at state.
The sectional where Mahomet was to compete, however, had just four qualifiers. Thus, those four qualified for state automatically.
Mahomet had previously requested to serve as the state host, so the local team — whose colors were green and white — joined a field that also included Algonquin, Arthur, Beardstown, Bloomington, Cissna Park, Forrest, Grayslake, LaSalle, McLean, Sidney, and Villa Park.
However, four teams did not participate — DePue, Kewanee, Ottawa and St. Joseph — which meant that four random qualifiers did not play a first-round game and received a bye into the quarterfinals. Mahomet was not that fortunate when the state finals started on Thursday, Feb. 25.
The majority of the competing schools in the elementary association finals were Downstate entries.
Mahomet was matched up with Grayslake, which is north of Chicago and about 15 miles from the Wisconsin border, in the opening round.
Mahomet was victorious 18-14. Harry Sparks and Raymond Pasley each scored six points for the winning team.
In the quarterfinals, Mahomet handled Bloomington 23-15. J.C. Moore scored a Mahomet-best 11 points.
Pasley was the team-leader in a 19-16 semifinal triumph over Forrest, scoring 13 points.
In the championship game, on Saturday, Feb. 27, 1932, Moore put up six points and a team-high six rebounds in a narrow 18-17 escape over Cissna Park.
Of the 78 points Mahomet tallied in four state games 50 belonged to either Pasley (27 points) or Moore (23 points).
Bloomington and Cissna Park were among the qualifiers that only had to play three games during the tournament.
Other Mahomet squad members who played in state games were Eli Blair, Sonny Blair, William Max Rex and Don Sanders.
Guards Eli Blair and Moore were chosen to the five-player all-tournament team along with Mahomet center Pasley.
The previous year, a Mahomet team, also coached by Sparks, had placed second at state.
Following the finals, the Sucker State wrote: “We remember last year of talking with Coach Sparks and Mr. Sparks made the remark, ‘I want to win a state championship for Mahomet.’ He has worked hard to do this, has spent many hours studying out a play that might win that much-coveted pennant and has spent many hours with the boys, teaching them the various plays. We all know that Mr. Sparks is great for the boys and every boy on the squad would do anything their coach desired.”
The Sucker State noted that when all expenses had been paid, Mahomet Grade School cleared a profit of $42.62 from the state finals.
Coach Sparks had guided Mahomet into the 1931 championship game, where it lost to Rossville, 12-8. That tournament was also held in Mahomet.
The 1931 and ‘32 grade school basketball state tournaments are the only ones hosted locally.
