Hoosier Hysteria is the state of excitement surrounding the state high school basketball tournament in Indiana. To some degree this excitement can be understood by watching the movie Hoosiers. In part, the excitment stemmed from the inclusion of all Indiana high schools in the same tournament, where a small town's David might knock off a large city's Goliath. The most famous example occurred in 1954, when Milan (enrollment 161) defeated Muncie Central (enrollment over 1,600) to win the State title. The plot of Hoosiers was very loosely based on the story of the 1954 Milan team.

However, after Milan, no school with an enrollment of less than 500 won another boys' State title under the all-comers format. As school consolidation became more common and as more rural residents migrated to cities making large high schools grow even larger, smaller high schools had only a mismatch to look forward to come tournament time as success concentrated in Indiana's large urban and suburban schools. Finally, starting with the 1997-1998 season, Indiana established a controversial four-class system for its basketball championship. The State's move to this new system has, to some extent, diminished the phenomenon and public opinion is split on the merits of "class basketball."

Nonetheless, Hoosiers still have a traditional love for high school basketball equaled only by the love for high school football found in Texas and Ohio, and Minnesotans' love for high school ice hockey. It is one of the State's cherished traditions.

Historically, each of the several hundred small towns of Indiana had its own small school system. Before consolidation of many of these rural school districts in the last half of the twentieth century (Milan itself is now a consolidated school whose enrollment is twice what it was in 1954), Indiana high schools had fewer students than those of most other States; basketball was a natural game for these schools since it only required five starters and a few reserves. Even one or two great basketball players can make a high school team a powerhouse, and nearly every Indiana town dreams of such glory.

Incidentally, two states still use an all-comers format. Delaware uses an all-comers format mainly because the State has only approximately 70 high schools. The closest parallel to Indiana's old-style all-comers tournament is in the neighboring state of Kentucky. Like Indiana, Kentucky traditionally used an all-comers format, and several small rural and small-town schools have won over the years. Compared to Indiana, however, Kentucky has relatively few extremely large high schools and has continued the all-comers format for basketball. Schools comparable in size to Milan (and even smaller) have won Kentucky state titles since 1990.

Basketball in the United States | Sports in Indiana | High school sports in the United States