Encyclopedia Dubuque
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DUBUQUE DIOCESAN BASKETBALL TOURNAMENT
DUBUQUE DIOCESAN BASKETBALL TOURNAMENT. From 1925 to 1959 LORAS COLLEGE hosted the Dubuque Diocesan Basketball Tournament for high school athletes. The first tournament was held in March 1925 with fifteen teams at COLUMBIA COLLEGE. The fieldhouse had recently been erected and to add to the occasion Knute Rockne, in town to honor the Columbia football team, made an appearance. From the start, the tournament provided athletes an opportunity to demonstrate their ability and the college to showcase its facilities. The huge fieldhouse and brand new facilities attracted many future students.
Neither weather or war prevented the tournament. In 1935 high snow drifts led the event to be postponed one day. WORLD WAR II cancelled many events but not the tournament which was held in keeping with the national practice of building morale through sports and providing physical activity for students. Interested teams planned the shortest routes to conserve tires and gasoline.
Division A was dominated from 1925 to 1937 by the Columbia Academy Gubs.
The decline in the tournament can be traced to the consolidation of smaller Catholic high schools in the 1950s. The cost of travel led some early round games to be held outside of the Dubuque. In 1960, the Rev. Louis Ernsdorf, director of the event for many years, resigned and none of the games were played in Dubuque. The finals were held at Waterloo (Iowa) Columbus. This was the last tournament.
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Source:
Swenson, Jim. "Hoops History," Telegraph Herald, January 24, 2016, p. 1C