1987 IHSA State Championship Tournament

1987 IHSA State Championship Tournament

State Champion: Quincy Senior High School

Runner-Up: Salem High School

The 1987 Illinois High School Association (IHSA) State Championship Tournament was held in May, 1987 at Mahomet-Seymour High School. It was the inaugural State Championship Tournament in Illinois, sponsored by the IHSA.

Advancement

The state was divided into 16 areas, termed in Illinois as Sectionals. Each sectional hosted a tournament, the winner of which advanced to the State Tournament. The determination of these geographic boundaries was arbitrarily decided by the IHSA Office.

Tournament Format

Each round was comprised of 40 toss-ups and accompanying bonus questions. The sectional tournaments and State Championship Tournament were all single elimination. Teams were randomly assigned to positions in the bracket without regard for record or performance.

There was no third place match. The top two teams earned trophies and medals for team members, coaches, principals, and activities directors. The trophies were of the design smaller than that of the athletic trophies given out by the IHSA.

Octafinals

Winning Team	Score	Losing Team	Score
Stillman Valley	321	Charleston	294
Springfield Southeast	447	Woodruff	276
St. Joseph-Ogden	335	Reavis	254
Salem	413	ROWVA	307
Quincy	337	University	279
Downers Grove South	274	Clinton	238
Streator	337	Herrin	264
Niles North	300	Bradley-Bourbonnais	266

Quarterfinals

Winning Team	Score	Losing Team	Score
Stillman Valley	378	Springfield Southeast	360
Salem	565	St. Joseph-Ogden	174
Quincy	656	Downers Grove South	274
Niles North	300	Bradley-Bourbonnais	266

Semifinals

Winning Team	Score	Losing Team	Score
Salem	574	Stillman Valley	326
Quincy	444	Niles North	390

Finals

Winning Team	Score	Losing Team	Score
Quincy	539	Salem	275

Notes

• The 656 points scored by Quincy in the Quarterfinals remains an all-time IHSA State Championship Tournament record, and will not likely ever be broken given that the 1987 and 1988 tournaments were the only tournaments to use a 40 question format.
• There would not be another team scoring 500 points in a match until 2008, when Wheaton North scored 506 points while beating Sandburg.
• This was the first of Quincy's three championships; all of which would be won under IHSSBCA Hall of Fame coach Beth Young.
• As of 2008, only Quincy, Stillman Valley, and University High School would go on to win state championships in their own right. Salem would later win a Masonic State Championship.

1987 IHSA State Championship
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