What took so long?

Updated: March 22, 2011 4:10PM

When the state basketball playoffs took place for the first time in 1908, Theodore Roosevelt was president, white bow ties were all the rage and the Cubs won a World Series.

When the state football playoffs took place for the first time in 1974, Gerald Ford was president, bell bottoms were all the rage and the Cubs were in their 66th year in a row without a World Series victory.

Now it's 2010, and one streak still hasn't ended. But on Thanksgiving weekend there will be eight more state football champions.

These days, it seems, we can't get enough of them. It makes you wonder why it took so long to crown the first one.

I mean, teams in California were playing for a state title in the nineteen teens. Texas had its first state title game in 1920.

Florida's been at it since the early 1960s, Alabama since the mid-'60s. A lot of states didn't come around until the 1970s, but Illinois certainly dragged its feet for a mighty long time in comparison to some.

For many years, the shining beacon in the Chicago area was the Prep Bowl at Soldier Field, pitting the Catholic and Public League champions in a game that drew insanely large crowds upward of 100,000. The concept of a state playoff, meanwhile, had been floated about at various times throughout the 1960s, but none was taken seriously by the IHSA.

I've heard theories that Chicago's Catholic and public schools were not about to give up their cash cow, and that without them in the state playoffs it wouldn't be the "real" state playoffs anyway, so the idea never gained steam.

Taylor Bell, who was writing columns calling for the creation of a state football playoff since around 1969, said part of the reason the IHSA balked was that the season started so late (after Labor Day), and to do a full regular season plus playoffs would mean overlapping into basketball. The IHSA also was reluctant to get involved with a multiple-class system.

A large push, and subsequent success, by the Illinois Basketball Coaches Association to split basketball into two classes in 1972 opened the door for discussion about football. It took two years, but ultimately a plan was devised whereby all of the conference champions in the state, plus a few at-large teams, gathered for a tournament that involved five classes of 16 teams.

Bell gets into that, and tells many a good story regarding Illinois high school football history in a book that's out now called "Dusty, Deek and Mr. Do-Right." Go get it. If you love high school football, you'll love this book.

Anyway, it wasn't easy getting into the state playoffs at first. Marist's 1982 team went 8-1 and didn't qualify. Now five wins will get you in. And instead of 80 schools qualifying for the state playoffs, 256 get to play at least a 10th game.

Dennis Wierzal, who coached Reavis to five state playoff appearances, including the Class 6A title in 1982, doesn't remember much about the process. But he does remember the excitement when it was announced that suburban schools would be given a chance to prove their worth not only against each other, but against schools that were coming out of the Prep Bowl year after year claiming to be the Chicago area's best.

"It was very exciting and challenging," he said of the original system. "We were always convinced that our suburban football was really, really good. And we had a lot of good coaches like George Egofske at Rich East and Murney Lazier at Evanston.

"In my humble opinion it's a little too easy now. I would hate to be the last seed, just barely making it through a tough season with kids who were banged up and played their hearts out, and then find out that we're going to have to play Joliet Catholic or Providence or Wheaton."

Then again, I'd rather see too many teams than none. And that's how many teams made the state playoffs during the 1960s when Egofske-coached teams went 7-0-1, 8-0, 7-0 and 8-0. And what about those Tinley Park teams under Jim Fredenberger that went 9-0 in 1972 and 10-0 in 1973? Thornridge, under Wayne Lunak, went 9-0 in 1970.

Could Thornridge have licked 1970 Prep Bowl champ St. Rita? What about Rich East taking on the likes of Weber, St. Rita or Loyola with those unbeaten squads?

President Ford visited Tinley Park High School in February 1974 to honor a Tinley Park football program that had gone undefeated two straight seasons and won 24 straight games - but had no chance to play for any state titles.

"It was a sad situation that we didn't have a playoff (for such a long time)," Egofske said. "We didn't have a lot of kids who went on (to play in college), so a playoff would have been thrilling for them. Kids got cheated out of having that experience."

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