article A brief history of the Louisville Invitational Tournament

[coachlee]

Fairdale won the King of the Bluegrass, LIT and State Tournament in 90-91 and 93-94...the only two teams to win all three in the same school year.

 

That is one heck of a payload for a team to deliver. Wow, that will be a hard trifecta for anyone to ever repeat.

[Straitshooter]

I'm sure that travel plays a factor. It's probably not possible for a team from far away to miss school during the week for the tournament. Especially if they are set on making it 16 teams. Games start pretty early in the day and that's hard to justify if you're travelling.

[tcjkbt]

I liked it better when there were teams from out in the state participating.

[gchs_uk9]

I'm sure that travel plays a factor. It's probably not possible for a team from far away to miss school during the week for the tournament. Especially if they are set on making it 16 teams. Games start pretty early in the day and that's hard to justify if you're travelling.

 

This might be going down the wrong path, but there used to be rules on the number of tournaments you could participate in. With the LIT being one, two, or three possible games, but still one tournament, for an out-in-the-state team might it have been difficult to get teams to commit to the event?

[Colonels_Wear_Blue]

@Smallhoops I went ahead and added to all the legwork you did finding the 1948-2017 champs and filled in the winners from the last 6 tournaments.

1948 Owensboro
1949 Flaget
1950 Male
1951 Manual
1952 Manual
1953 Male
1954 Inez
1955 Male
1956 Berea
1957 Central
1958 Central
1959 Manual
1960 Central
1961 Elizabethtown Catholic
1962 St. Xavier
1963 Carr Creek
1964 Male
1965 St. Xavier
1966 Central
1967 Male
1968 Shawnee
1969 Central
1970 Clark County
1971 Male
1972 Central
1973 Male
1974 Bryan Station
1975 Male
1976 Male
1977 Ballard
1978 Apollo
1979 Lafayette
1980 Moore
1981 Bryan Station
1982 North Hardin
1983 Male
1984 Ballard
1985 Seneca
1986 Pleasure Ridge Park
1987 Pleasure Ridge Park
1988 Clay County
1989 Valley
1990 Fairdale
1991 Fairdale
1992 Pleasure Ridge Park
1993 Marion County
1994 Fairdale
1995 Male
1996 Male
1997 Owensboro
1998 Butler
1999 Pleasure Ridge Park
2000 Pleasure Ridge Park
2001 Ballard
2002 Male
2003 Eastern
2004 Seneca
2005 Trinity
2006 Eastern
2007 Ballard
2008 Manual
2009 Eastern
2010 Trinity
2011 Eastern
2012 Trinity
2013 Trinity
2014 Pleasure Ridge Park
2015 Ballard
2016 Ballard
2017 Fern Creek
2018 Trinity
2019 Trinity
2020 Ballard
2021 DeSales
2022 Male
2023 Ballard

[Smallhoops]

Over the past 20 years, the tally is Seventh Region 17 Sixth Region 3.  Will that continue this season?

[The Professor]

The ‘63 Carr Creek team starred future ABA guard Glen Combs, coached by his dad Morton Combs. He led the ABA in 3 point shooting several times and was also named to the All Star team several years. Phenomenal shooter. 

[111]

14 hours ago, Smallhoops said:

Over the past 20 years, the tally is Seventh Region 17 Sixth Region 3.  Will that continue this season?

Over that same 20 years Ballard has won 5 and Trinity has won 6…… an every other year thing. That is impressive. 

[gchs_uk9]

If you're curious, here are the appearances, records, and number of championships for each Jefferson County team:

• Atherton - 36 appearances, 13-36 overall record, 0 titles
• Ballard - 48, 101-40, 8 titles
• Beth Haven - 4, 1-4, 0 titles
• Brown - no appearances
• Butler - 34, 26-33, 1 title
• Central - 48, 69-42, 6 titles
• CAL - 9, 3-9, 0 titles
• DeSales - 45, 20-44, 1 title
• Doss - 33, 24-33, 0 titles
• Eastern - 37, 46-33, 4 titles
• Evangel - no appearances
• Fairdale - 34, 31-31, 3 titles
• Fern Creek - 27, 29-26, 1 title
• Francis Parker - no appearances
• Iroquois - 33, 18-33, 0 titles
• Jeffersontown - 25, 22-25, 0 titles
• Kentucky Country Day - 5, 3-5, 0 titles
• Louisville Collegiate - 4, 0-4, 0 titles
• Louisville Holy Cross - 5, 0-5, 0 titles
• Male - 67, 105-53, 14 titles
• Manual - 58, 49-55, 4 titles
• Moore - 27, 23-26, 1 title
• PRP - 41, 71-35, 6 titles
• Portland Christian - 1, 0-1, 0 titles
• St. Xavier - 67, 48-65, 2 titles
• Seneca - 21, 32-19, 2 titles
• Shawnee - 26, 15-25, 1 title
• Southern - 17, 10-18, 0 titles
• Trinity - 44, 58-38, 6 titles
• Valley - 25, 26-24, 1 title
• Waggener - 20, 13-20, 0 titles
• Walden - no appearances
• Western - 20, 13-20, 0 titles
• Whitefield Academy - no appearances

[King of the Bluegrass]

On 1/8/2018 at 10:38 PM, coachlee said:

 

That is one heck of a payload for a team to deliver. Wow, that will be a hard trifecta for anyone to ever repeat.

Sorry, Fairdale won all three in 1990 and 1994, not 1991. Takes Creek beat Fairdale in the Championship game of the 1990 KOB during the '90-'91 season. 

[King of the Bluegrass]

On 1/7/2018 at 3:56 PM, coachlee said:

 

Since the turn of the century I count this breakdown of championships:

Trinity - 4
Ballard - 4
Eastern - 4
Pleasure Ridge Park - 2
Male - 1
Seneca - 1
Manual - 1
Fern Creek - 1

In the last 18 years beginning in 2000 this event has been fairly dominated by 3 different schools; Eastern, Trinity, & Ballard who are all from the 7th region. They have won the event 2 out of every 3 years. PRP is the only other school that has won more than once. PRP and Fern Creek are the only two 6th regions schools to have won since 2000. I had thought Butler had won the LIT in the recent past, but I guess not.

What a great event and it will be exciting to see if Trinity or Ballard can add another title or could it be someone who has never won it like Fern Creek did last year for the first time? Next week at this time the 2018 champion will be known. Who is your favorite to emerge as the next LIT champion?

Fairdale won 3

[brooksville]

Wish this could be held at the KFC YUM Center.  Would probably draw a better crowd than the current games being played there. 

[Ordell]

Mr BBall, Brandon Davenport, played on that 1997 Owensboro team. Eventual state champion Louisville Eastern got upset early in that tourney. Was really wanting see Owensboro play them in the title game.