McLean County Basketball Tournament

One of the longest-running tournaments in the state, the McLean County Basketball Tournament is a considered one of the area’s premier sporting events. The tournament began in 1911 when the event was held at the downtown YMCA and allowed small rural schools in McLean County to compete. It’s still alive today, but now includes schools outside McLean County and serves as a mid-season conference tournament for the Heart of Illinois Conference (HOIC).
The collection includes the newspaper articles, tournament programs, digital scans of tickets (1912 – 1915), handwritten brackets, list of tournament champions and an email history of tournament memories by Robert Firchau from 2017.