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Hibbing Tournaments

Hibbing Holiday Tournament History

The Hibbing Holiday Tournament is one of the longest running holiday tournaments in the state of Minnesota.  Beginning in the 1987-1988 basketball season, the tournament was held in the Hibbing Memorial Building.  The Hibbing Memorial Building is still one of the finest basketball venues in the northern part of the state, if not all of Minnesota.  The Memorial Building has hosted numerous district, region, section, and state tournament games.  The holiday tournament was held in the Hibbing Memorial Building until the 1992-1993 season when it was moved to the Lincoln Gymnasium.  The Lincoln is the regular season home of the Hibbing Bluejackets boys basketball team.  This tournament has seen some great teams and individual players throughout its history.  There have been 13 different winners of the tournament in its 30 year history.  Hibbing and Cambridge-Isanti have won the most titles (7), Chisholm (3), Brainerd (2), Red Lake (2), and the rest of the champions list includes Chanhassen, New Prague, Lakeview Christian Academy, Bigfork, Duluth Marshall, Mt. Iron-Buhl, North St. Paul, Pine River-Backus, St. Michael-Albertville, & Sauk Rapids. Traditionally, the coaches have voted for the 10 best players in the tournament to form an All-Tournament Team.  Other significant events throughout the history of this tournament was the breaking of the MSHSL Boys Basketball Scoring Record in December of 2012 by Lakeview Christian Academy's Anders Broman. In the same tournament, Anders set a tournament record by scoring 61 points in a 94-79 Championship game victory over the Mora Mustangs. In addition to that, Chisholm's legendary coach Bob McDonald recorded his 1,000th career coaching victory in the 2013 tournament as his Bluestreaks defeated Walker-Hackensack-Akeley by a score of 61-55. In 2014, Bjorn Broman (Lakeview Christian Academy) tied the tournament scoring record set by his brother two years earlier as he scored 61 in a 111-75 victory over the Bigfork Huskies. 

Starting with the 2016 tournament, the traditional "Hibbing Holiday Tournament" underwent an extreme transformation. What had started as a "best of big schools vs. best of small schools" area tournament in 1987, had, over time, evolved into a tournament played by more smaller schools than larger schools. Due to the importance of QRF in Minnesota high school basketball, the tournament staff tried to put together an event like no other north of the St. Cloud area. The newly named 2016 North Star State Hardwood Showcase saw participation of 5 AAAA schools and 2 AAA schools from Minnesota and what was reported to be the best basketball team in Winnipeg, Manitoba. New Prague became the Showcase's first Champion with a 5 point victory over Chanhassen. 

The 2017 Tournament saw the same field from the year before with the exception of the additions of the Osseo Orioles and the Minneapolis Patrick Henry Patiots. In one of the most entertaining championship games, the Chanhassen Storm edged out the Cambridge-Isanti Bluejackets by a score of 80-77.

In the 2018 tournament, the field was narrowed down due to weather and a last minute cancellation of a season. The six-team tournament field consisted of Hibbing, Duluth East, Cambridge-Isanti, Grand Rapids, Chanhassen and Owatonna. In the Championship Game, Cambridge-Isanti avenged its loss from 2017's championship game as the Bluejackets defeated the Chanhassen Storm by a score of 76-72. 

With the 2019 Showcase, we welcomed Forest Lake and Orono to their first tournament. These two additions put the number of total schools that have participated in the tournament over 50 in its 33 year history! This tournament was the first to use the shot clock in all varsity games. In the final, Cambridge-Isanti won the ”Battle of the Bluejackets” with a 90-80 victory over Hibbing.

Unfortunately, we had to take a year off with the Showcase in December of 2020. With practices not beginning until January, no MSHSL schools were allowed to host such an event.

With the return of the North Star State Hardwood Showcase in December of 2021. First-time participants included Badger-Greenbush-Middle River, Warroad, and Columbia Heights. Fans witnessed two historic milestones on opening night as Hibbing's Ayden McDonald set a single game school scoring record by putting up 50 against Badger-Greenbush-Middle River. In the same game, Ayden became the 8th player in state boys basketball history to record his 1000th assist. Taking the chunk of hardwood home was a team that finished their regular season undefeated - the Columbia Heights Hylanders as they defeated the Bluejackets in the championship game. 

Past participants of the tournament are listed below in alphabetical order. 

Andover

Badger-Greenbush-Middle River

Bemidji

Bigfork

Brainerd

Broad Meadow (Australia)

Cambridge-Isanti

Cass Lake

Chanhassen

Chisago Lakes

Chisholm

Cloquet

Columbia Heights

Crookston

Crosby-Ironton

Deer River

Duluth Denfeld

Duluth East

Duluth Marshall

Ely

Eveleth-Gilbert

Forest Lake

Grand Rapids

Hammarskjold (Canada)

Hermantown

Hibbing

Hill Murray

International Falls

Kenora (Canada)

Kildonan East Collegiate (Canada)

Lakeview Christian Academy

Little Fork-Big Falls

Mesabi East

Menahga

Minneapolis Patrick Henry

Mora

Mt. Iron-Buhl

Nashwauk-Keewatin

New Prague

North St. Paul

Orono

Osseo

Owatonna

Pine River-Backus

Port Arthur Collegiate (Canada)

Red Lake

St. Michael-Albertville

Sauk Rapids

Superior, WI

Toivola-Meadowlands

Totino Grace

Virginia

Walker-Hackensack-Akeley

Warroad

Westbrook-Walnut Grove