By FRED KRONER
fred@sjodaily.com
A men’s basketball tournament is scheduled for this weekend at Oakwood Grade School.
Nine teams will compete, starting Friday at 6:30 p.m.
All will be chasing the top prize.
“A lot of ‘attaboys’ “ tournament director Harlan Freeman, from Oakwood, said.
There are no trophies or plaques to be won, no money to be earned.
“Just the opportunity to tell your buddies you kicked their butts,” Freeman said.
The games are what will officially attract fans to the 31st Oakwood Nostalgia Tournament during the three-day event.
But the main draw will be the chance to renew friendships and acquaintances, not only between those on the court, but those in the stands.
“When I first started, it was about the competitiveness,” said Westville’s Jeff Slavik. “For me now, it’s fun to see all the old guys from the other schools and reminisce with them.”
In the early years of the tournament, Freeman said, “guys would build vacation time around it and come back from a great distance.
“It was a chance to play against guys they’d played against in high school.”
Potomac native John Alexander was a participant for decades. This weekend, he hopes to be a fan in the stands.
“I enjoy talking with and getting together with folks you don’t see on a regular basis,” Alexander said.
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The first Nostalgia Tournament was held at Georgetown in 1989.
Event organizers Keith Rigdon (who is deceased) and Butch Lacey envisioned a one-year run.
“Keith’s wife was helping with the band and they needed to raise money,” Lacey said. “He had observed a tournament like this in Indiana. We thought we would do it one time and help out the band.”
The decision to start the event was easier than working out all of the details.
“The biggest thing was contacting each town and finding someone who was willing to put a team together,” Lacey said.
Originally, the tournament was limited to towns which had participated in previous Vermilion County tournaments at the high school level.
The inaugural event consisted of 12 teams: Armstrong, Bismarck-Henning, Catlin, East Lynn, Georgetown, Hoopeston, Jamaica, Oakwood, Potomac, Ridge Farm, Rossville-Alvin and Westville.
“In their first games, we matched teams with their biggest rivals at the time,” Lacey said. “We thought that might encourage more people to show up.”
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The brainchild of Rigdon and Lacey was a huge success.
“We averaged 1,200 to 1,500 (spectators) every day,” Lacey said. “It went on for two weekends. We’d introduce all the players.
“The band played each night. Our gym was full.”
Former players weren’t the only ones in the spotlight.
“We encouraged towns to bring (former) cheerleaders,” Lacey said.
Not all were as spry as they were during their teen-age years, so many cheerleaders found creative ways to incorporate some of the spirit-prompting elements.
“They would hold up and wave signs that might say, ‘cartwheel,’ “ Lacey said.
The event was well-received.
“We made over $10,000 and thought we might as well do it again,” Lacey said.
And again.
And again.
Georgetown was the site of 10 consecutive Nostalgia tournaments.
“Then the helpers kind of backed away, Lacey said. “Westville took it, and I still helped run it.”
By 2005, the event was on the move again.
The Oakwood Grade School, which opened earlier in the decade, was an ideal location and has now hosted nearly half of the Nostalgia Tournaments.
The event is still a fundraiser, with money earned going to the Oakwood Booster Club.
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Slavik sees benefits beyond the annual reunions which take place.
We’ve been practicing twice a week from about the first of December,” Slavik said. “We make it an open gym for an hour or two and get anywhere from 15 to 20 guys.
“A lot of these guys probably wouldn’t get exercise all winter otherwise. There’s a lot of good that comes from it. Guys work to stay in better shape.”
Though the game is basketball and sanctioned officials are on hand to act as arbiters, there are some specific rules that are unique to tournaments such as this.
No one who recently played at the high school level will be in uniform.
“The youngest guys will be in their 30s,” Freeman said.
Some of the veterans will have touched 60.
To ensure a more competitive balance, only players who graduated from high school prior to 2002 can play in the first and third quarters.
The younger guys — those whose graduation years were between 2002 and 2006 — get their chance in the second and fourth quarters.
As it has become harder to fill rosters, tournament organizers have become more lenient on who can play.
The rules established by Rigdon and Lacey included one that “you had to be out of school for 20 years,” Lacey said.
Another rule still on the books — though Lacey can’t recall when it was last put into play — was implemented so that the oldest of the former players could have a role.
“There might be someone who wasn’t capable of running up and down the floor,” Lacey said, “so teams could have a designated free throw shooter so that everyone had a chance to participate.”
Regardless of a make or miss, those free throw situations were designated as dead balls so that substitutions could be made after the attempts.
Teams are not allowed to press until the final 2 minutes of the fourth quarter and the younger players are only permitted three fouls before fouling out.
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Greg Anderson graduated from St. Joseph-Ogden in 1999. He grew up watching Nostalgia Tournaments.
“My dad (Reid) has been playing in it for 30-some years,” Greg Anderson said.
The elder Anderson had played his high school ball for ABL (which is now part of the Heritage school district).
When Greg Anderson put a team from SJ-O together last year, he made an interesting discovery.
“The hardest thing was finding the younger guys” he said. “We have so many of the older guys, but so many of the younger guys aren’t around here anymore.”
He expects to have a roster of about 12 players this weekend.
“We’ve been getting together once a week for the last couple of months,” Greg Anderson said.
Anderson, who will soon turn 38, and some of his colleagues used last weekend as a tuneup.
“We played in a tournament at Chrisman,” he said, “and took second in the master’s division.”
That division was for players who had been out of high school for 20, or more, years.
The Andersons had a family highlight in the 2018 Nostalgia Tournament.
Dad and son were on opposing teams in the third-place game and — at times — were on the court together.
It wasn’t an unfamiliar pairing, Greg Anderson said.
“I’ve been playing against him all my life,” Greg Anderson said. “He’s the first guy I played one-on-one with”
For the record, Greg Anderson and the SJ-O team defeated Reid Anderson and the ABL team, in the 2018 third-place game.
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Friday’s 6:30 p.m. tournament-opener will match teams from Oakwood and Bismarck-Henning/Rossville-Alvin.
Other teams in the event are ABL, Armstrong-Potomac, Catlin, Chrisman, Georgetown-Ridge Farm, St. Joseph-Ogden and Westville.
Each of the teams paid an entry fee of $250.
Games will be held throughout the day on Saturday.
Sunday’s third-place game is scheduled for 2 p.m. with the championship game to follow thereafter.
The spectator charge for admission is $2 per person.
Freeman got involved in the administrative end of the event earlier this century.
“I didn’t want to see it go away,” he said. “The reason I wanted to keep it going was that I’d had so much fun with it.”
Freeman — along with the referees — have tried to encourage one aspect to stay away.
“In the early ‘80s, the games were so rough,” he said. “It was as physical as anything I’d ever seen.
“When I took over, I said, ‘I don’t want it to be a bloodfest,’ and I tried to get it cleaned up.”
Slavik won’t be counting minutes played this weekend.
“If they need me, I’ll take the court,” the 1976 Westville graduate said. “Some years they need me, some they don’t.”
One of his teammates he will know exceptionally well.
“My son (Brock, a 1999 Westville graduate) is playing now,” Jeff Slavik said. “We could be on the court together.”
The father has one expectation — or at least one hope — if that materializes.
“I hope he’ll pass me the ball one or two times,” Jeff Slavik said.
PAST RESULTS
YEAR OUTCOME
1989 Ridge Farm def. Georgetown
1990 Westville def. Potomac
1991 Georgetown def. Chrisman
1992 Westville def. Jamaica
1993 Westville def. Georgetown
1994 Georgetown def. Westville
1995 Westville def. Georgetown
1996 Westville def. ABL
1997 Westville def. Georgetown
1998 ABL def. Westville
1999 Oakwood def. Westville
2000 Westville def. Oakwood
2001 Georgetown def. Catlin
2002 Oakwood def. Catlin
2003 Oakwood def. Catlin
2004 Not available
2005 Oakwood def. Catlin
2006 Oakwood def. Potomac
2007 Oakwood def. Potomac
2008 Armstrong-Potomac def. Oakwood
2009 Armstrong-Potomac def. Oakwood
2010 Oakwood def. Armstrong-Potomac
2011 Oakwood def. Georgetown
2012 Not available
2013 Not available
2014 Not available
2015 Oakwood def. Georgetown
2016 Armstrong-Potomac def. Westville
2017 Armstrong-Potomac def. Oakwood
2018 Veedersburg, Ind. def. Catlin
