• Holiday festival basketball has become a staple in high school gymnasiums across the country.
• The largest of the holiday basketball tournaments feature some of the top high school teams in the country while the college tournaments focus on the top conferences in the NCAA.

Given that basketball is played indoors during the winter months it’s only logical that the holiday festival basketball tournament has become a regular tradition for various leagues across the nation. The abundance of holiday tournaments at the high school and collegiate levels has grown year after year. No matter what region of the country you live in, there is almost certainly a holiday tournament in your area. Some of these tournaments are nationally recognized and are important part of college basketball recruiting. Other tournaments, such as the Waverly Holiday Basketball Tournament, are smaller tournaments that focus on local teams and the community.

There are several popular high school holiday festival basketball tournaments throughout the nation but the largest today by far is the State Farm Holiday Classic held in Bloomington-Normal, Indiana. The tournament currently boasts 64 teams; 32 men’s and 32 women’s teams from around the state of Indiana. Naturally, the tournament attracts the best teams from the state, which is already regarded as a top producer of high school players. The tournament was originally founded in 1975 and consisted of 32 teams overall, 16 for the boys and 16 for the girls. Traditionally, this tournament is held the week in between Christmas Day and New Years day and was modified into its current format in 1995.

Another prominent holiday basketball tournament that actually has a longer history than the State Farm Classic would be the Frank Spencer Holiday Classic in Winston-Salem North Carolina. This tournament dates back to the early 1920’s and reached its peak of popularity during the 1950’s. At its peak, the tournament included up to 140 teams, took nearly 4 weeks to complete, and was once billed by “Ripley’s Believe It or Not” as the largest sports tournament. After a 20 year hiatus in 1974, the tournament was revamped and fewer teams participated shortening the length of the tournament to three days.

Just like high school tournaments there are several college basketball tournaments that take place during the week between Christmas and New Years. One of the most popular tournaments in the New York metro area would be the ECAC Holiday Classic which is held at Madison Square Garden. This tournament is comprised mostly of teams from the Big East Conference as well as a few out of conference opponents. Since, these tournaments take place early in the season they’re usually a great tool for the coach to make any adjustments to his or her lineup.

Holiday tournaments and basketball go together like milk and cookies. The great thing about holiday festival basketball is its ability to bring teams of different abilities against each other. Whether the tournament is comprised of high school or collegiate teams, one thing is for certain. The festive time of year takes nothing away from the competition as these teams did not come to the tournament to exchange presents. They came to win.

Here at Electro-Mech we not only produce electronic basketball scoreboards but are big fans of all sports- basektball included. Check out our other articles about basketball scandals, news and trends.