Masonic tournament

The Illinois Masonic Tournament is an annual tournament sponsored by the Illinois Freemasons. It is a statewide tournament, and is generally regarded as one of the three state championship tournaments in Illinois (with IHSA State and the newer Illinois NAQT State being the other two). While the tournament began as a regional tournament in 1983, it did not develop a statewide draw until 1990, so while older than the IHSA Tournament, it did not become a state tournament until after the IHSA Tournament had been established.

In recent years, the Masonic Tournament attracts over 300 Illinois high schools each year. The schools are divided into three classes based on school size, and each class has twelve Sectionals. The winner of each Sectional advances to the State Tournament. The State Tournament and most Sectionals have 10-12 teams, which are split into two pools and play round robin. The top two teams in each pool advance to a single-elimination semifinal, starting with the 1st place team in one pool playing the 2nd place team in the other pool.

The Masonic Tournament uses a unique match format. Instead of bonus questions, the tournament uses team questions that are just like bonuses, but control over the team questions alternates so that each team is guaranteed to control half of the team questions. Each match consists of six tossups, eight team questions, six tossups, eight team questions, and then four tossups. This format tends to make scores closer.

The Masons give money to schools that place highly at Sectionals and State. The total amount of money given each year is over $100,000. The tournament has no entry fee.

History

The roots of the tournament can be traced to 1982 when the principals of Byron, Stillman Valley, and Winnebago High Schools met with a representative of the Winnebago Masonic Lodge to create the Northern Illinois Academic Bowl (the first invitational tournament in northern Illinois). The first tournament, with 16 teams taken from Boone, Carroll, Ogle, Stephenson, and Winnebago counties, was held in the Spring of 1983. Stillman Valley defeated Winnebago in the finals to win the first tournament. Hosting duties rotated between Byron, Stillman Valley, and Winnebago for the first five years, though the field of invited teams began to expand beyond the initial counties. By 1987, the tournament was expanded to all teams in northern Illinois, and in 1988, it was renamed the Illinois Masonic Academic Bowl. 1988 was also the first time that the tournament was not held at a single site, with the winners of the western and eastern sites meeting for a championship. In 1989, two southern Illinois sectionals were added, though downstate teams were not permitted to play for the championship until 1990.

1990 saw the tournament become a state tournament for the first time, with the state finals held at Illinois Wesleyan University. The top four teams from each of four Sectional Tournaments (two in the southern part of the state and two in the north) came to Bloomington to compete for the state title. Rockridge defeated Sullivan for the first Masonic State Title (and doing so by 5 points).

The State Tournament then moved to Eureka High School for four years, before moving to Eureka College for the 1995 and 1996 iterations.

For many years, the winner of the tournament, in addition to significant money, earned the right to keep the Charles W. Spatz Memorial Trophy. The trophy was a large traveling trophy. Charles Spatz was an officer and newsletter editor with the Grand Lodge in Winnebago, who was largely responsible for expanding the original tournament to a state tournament.

The Robert Grierson Friend of Scholastic Bowl Award has four times been awarded to individuals involved in the Masonic Tournament:

• Garrie Burr, Senior Grand Warden of the Masonic Grand Lodge of the state of Illinois (1996 - the first FoSB award).
• Wendell Walch, for his running the Masonic Tournament (1998-2004), and increasing the number of regional sites all of which helped promote Scholastic Bowl (2006).
• Frank Conry, Neil Pavlus, and Nelson Pyle; the former principals at Byron, Stillman Valley, and Winnebago who first encouraged a Masonic Lodge to sponsor a Scholastic Bowl Tournament, greatly promoting and spreading Scholastic Bowl (2012).
• Dale Thayer, for running the tournament after Wendell Walch left the job in 2004.

Questions

The questions for the tournament were written locally by volunteers. Later they were provided by Answers Plus. After Answers Plus lost the contract around the year 2000, the tournament went through a number of vendors including Academic Hallmarks through at least 2006-07, but perhaps longer), Aegis Questions (2008-09), and Questions Galore (2010-11) until David Reinstein took over as editor starting in 2012.

Match Format

The Masonic Tournament used approximately the IHSA format and distribution through 2009, including what was then all-at-once, 3-5 part 20 point bonuses, then switched to its unique format for 2010.

Tournament Format

For the first 25 years or so, it used what was called a double-elimination format at Sectionals and State, though it was actually a single-elimination tournament with a consolation bracket. Around 2010, they switched to a tournament format that has two pools of 6 teams each play round robin, followed by the top two teams in each pool moving on to a single-elimination playoff.

Results

Year Host Champion Runner-up Third Place Fourth Place Consolation 1983 Winnebago Stillman Valley Winnebago unknown unknown 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 Illinois Wesleyan University Rockridge Sullivan unknown unknown unknown 1991 Eureka 1992 Eureka 1993 Eureka Maine East 1994 Eureka Winnebago 1995 Eureka College 4 May 1996 Eureka College MacArthur Belvidere Princeton Dixon Niantic-Harristown 10 May 1997 Woodruff Streator Princeton MacArthur Edwards County 4 Apr 1998 MacArthur Sterling Streator Centralia Auburn 8 May 1999 Moline New Trier Carlinville PORTA IMSA 18 Mar 2000 Stevenson Streator New Trier Eureka Auburn 2 Mar 2001 Salem Fenwick Moline Stillman Valley unknown 2 Mar 2002 Springfield Southeast Limestone Guilford Auburn Danville 8 Mar 2003 Springfield Southeast Wheaton North Sterling Stillman Valley Pleasant Plains Auburn 6 Mar 2004 Springfield Southeast Wheaton North Morton Auburn Galena Bradley-Bourbonnais 5 Mar 2005 Springfield Southeast Fremd Auburn Morton Pittsfield IMSA 4 Mar 2006 Springfield Southeast Fremd Peoria Heights Bloomington Elmwood Auburn 3 Mar 2007 Springfield Southeast Maine South New Trier Springfield Moline Auburn 1 Mar 2008 Glenwood Auburn Carbondale Sterling PORTA Springfield 28 Feb 2009 Glenwood Carbondale Auburn Peoria Christian Warrensburg-Latham New Trier 6 Mar 2010 Class A Riverton Litchfield Latin School Macomb St. Joseph-Ogden Class AA St. Ignatius Stevenson Auburn IMSA 5 Mar 2011 Class A Riverton Lisle Macomb PORTA Peoria Christian Class AA Stevenson Carbondale IMSA Fremd 3 Mar 2012 Class A Springfield Peoria Christian Peoria Heights Carlinville Keith Country Day Class AA IMSA Auburn Carbondale Latin School 2 Mar 2013 Class A Springfield Litchfield Peoria Christian Cumberland Elmwood Class AA Loyola Academy Macomb IMSA Carbondale 1 Mar 2014 Class A Springfield Newman Central Catholic Carterfield Litchfield Cumberland Class AA IMSA Fremd Stevenson Auburn 7 March 2015 Class A Bloomington Casey-Westfield Riverdale Keith Country Day Blue Ridge Class AA Newman Central Catholic Macomb Latin School University Lab (Urbana) Class AAA IMSA Bloomington Fremd Stevenson 5 March 2016 Class A Bloomington Keith Country Day Warrensburg-Latham Carrollton Cumberland Class AA Latin School University Lab (Urbana) Macomb St. Teresa Class AAA Hinsdale Central Stevenson IMSA Fremd 4 March 2017 Class A Bloomington Riverdale Keith Country Day Blue Ridge Athens Class AA Latin School University Lab (Urbana) Southwestern Byron Class AAA Stevenson Barrington IMSA Hinsdale Central 3 March 2018 Class A Bloomington Athens Elgin Academy Cumberland Warrensburg-Latham Class AA UIUC Lab Latin Williamsville Southwestern Class AAA Auburn Stevenson IMSA Fremd 2 March 2019 Class A Bloomington New Berlin Elgin Academy Edwards County Galena Class AA UIUC Lab Chicago Christian Latin Williamsville Class AAA IMSA Oak Park-River Forest Auburn Barrington 7 March 2020 Class A Bloomington Villa Grove Edwards County Keith Country Day Galena Class AA UIUC Lab Chicago Christian Latin Williamsville Class AAA Stevenson IMSA Hinsdale Central Barrington The 2021 tournament was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. See Also IHSA State Championship - Illinois High School Association State Tournament NAQT Illinois State Championship Links official site questions High School Quizbowl in Illinois Organizations Coaches Association · Illinois HS Association State Tournaments NAQT (records) · IHSA · Masonic Awards & Honors All-State & All-Sectional · Coaches Hall of Fame · Team Illinois Major Tournaments Earlybird · Novice · Scobol Solo · David Riley Memorial Kickoffs · HFT Mirror at Auburn · Reinstein Varsity · Macomb Rotary · Turnabouts · Ultima