H. V. Porter
Encyclopedia
Illinois high school boys basketball championship
The Illinois High School Boys Basketball Championship is a single elimination tournament held each spring. It is organized by the Illinois High School Association ....
.”
Biography
Porter was born in Manito, IllinoisManito, Illinois
Manito is a village in Mason County, Illinois, United States. The population was 1,733 at the 2000 census, and 1,595 at a 2009 estimate.The village is home to the Manito Popcorn Festival, which started in 1972.-Geography:...
and grew up on a farm near Washington
Washington, Illinois
Washington is a city in Tazewell County, Illinois, United States. The population was 10,841 at the 2000 census. There are currently 13,167 people living in Washington, according to a 2004 special census. Washington is part of the Peoria Metropolitan Statistical Area...
. After attending the Illinois State Normal University
Illinois State University
Illinois State University , founded in 1857, is the oldest public university in Illinois; it is located in the town of Normal. ISU is considered a "national university" that grants a variety of doctoral degrees and strongly emphasizes research; it is also recognized as one of the top ten largest...
, he taught at high schools in Mount Zion, Keithsburg
Keithsburg, Illinois
Keithsburg is a city in Mercer County, Illinois, United States. The population was 714 at the 2000 census.-Geography:Keithsburg is located at ....
, and Delavan
Delavan, Illinois
Delavan is a city in Tazewell County, Illinois, United States. The population was 1,825 at the 2000 census. It is part of the Peoria, Illinois Metropolitan Statistical Area.-Government:...
. From 1919 to 1928 he served as principal of Athens
Athens, Illinois
Athens is a city in Menard County, Illinois, United States. The population was 1,726 at the 2000 census, and 1,778 at a 2009 estimate. It is part of the Springfield, Illinois Metropolitan Statistical Area.-Geography:...
High School. Here he also achieved success as a basketball
Basketball
Basketball is a team sport in which two teams of five players try to score points by throwing or "shooting" a ball through the top of a basketball hoop while following a set of rules...
coach, with his team finishing second in the state in 1924.
In 1928, Porter was hired as assistant manager of the Illinois High School Association
Illinois High School Association
The Illinois High School Association is one of 521 state high school associations in the United States, designed to regulate competition in most interscholastic sports and some interscholastic activities at the high school level. It is a charter member of the National Federation of State High...
, where his career blossomed. Among his first orders of business were to organize a department to license and train officials in football
American football
American football is a sport played between two teams of eleven with the objective of scoring points by advancing the ball into the opposing team's end zone. Known in the United States simply as football, it may also be referred to informally as gridiron football. The ball can be advanced by...
, basketball, and baseball
Baseball
Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each. The aim is to score runs by hitting a thrown ball with a bat and touching a series of four bases arranged at the corners of a ninety-foot diamond...
, and to serve as editor of a new monthly magazine, the Illinois High School Athlete. He also set about developing new state tournament series in tennis
Tennis
Tennis is a sport usually played between two players or between two teams of two players each . Each player uses a racket that is strung to strike a hollow rubber ball covered with felt over a net into the opponent's court. Tennis is an Olympic sport and is played at all levels of society at all...
, golf
Golf
Golf is a precision club and ball sport, in which competing players use many types of clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a golf course using the fewest number of strokes....
, swimming
Swimming (sport)
Swimming is a sport governed by the Fédération Internationale de Natation .-History: Competitive swimming in Europe began around 1800 BCE, mostly in the form of the freestyle. In 1873 Steve Bowyer introduced the trudgen to Western swimming competitions, after copying the front crawl used by Native...
, and wrestling
Scholastic wrestling
Scholastic wrestling, sometimes known in the United States as Folkstyle wrestling, is a style of amateur wrestling practised at the high school and middle school levels in the United States. This wrestling style is essentially Collegiate wrestling with some slight modifications. It is currently...
.
Porter's boss at the Illinois High School Association, Charles W. Whitten, was also the general manager of the National Federation of State High School Associations
National Federation of State High School Associations
The National Federation of State High School Associations is the body that writes the rules of competition for most high school sports and activities in the United States. Most high schools, whether public or private, belong to their state's high school association; in turn, each state association...
(NFHS), and he actively involved his assistant in national matters. Within a short time, Porter was a member of several influential committees. As a member of the National Basketball Committee, Porter helped develop the fan-shaped backboard that was used at the high school level from the 1930s through the 1990s and the molded basketball that, free of the laces that made dribbling difficult, revolutionized the game. Porter also spearheaded the effort to write basketball and football rule books specifically for high school competition.
As editor of the IHSA's magazine Porter showed a particular flair for prose and verse. Nearly every edition contained a new Porter composition. In 1939, near the end of his tenure at the Association, he penned an affectionate essay about fans of the state's high school basketball tournament, which during the 1930s had grown into a statewide cultural icon. "When the March madness is on him," Porter wrote, "midnight jaunts of a hundred miles on successive nights make him even more alert the next day."
Soon afterward Porter left the IHSA to become the executive secretary of the National Federation of State High School Associations, but in 1942 he had time to make one last literary contribution to the IHSA's magazine. That piece, a poem entitled "Basketball Ides of March," ends with the final stanza:
With war nerves tense, the final defense
Is the courage, strength and will
In a million lives where freedom thrives
And liberty lingers still.
Now eagles fly and heroes die
Beneath some foreign arch
Let their sons tread where hate is dead
In a happy Madness of March.
Porter retired from the NFHS in 1958 and moved to St. Petersburg
St. Petersburg, Florida
St. Petersburg is a city in Pinellas County, Florida, United States. It is known as a vacation destination for both American and foreign tourists. As of 2008, the population estimate by the U.S. Census Bureau is 245,314, making St...
, Florida
Florida
Florida is a state in the southeastern United States, located on the nation's Atlantic and Gulf coasts. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia and to the east by the Atlantic Ocean. With a population of 18,801,310 as measured by the 2010 census, it...
, where he died in 1975.
External links
Additional reading
- Porter, H. V. H. V.'s Athletic Anthology: Highlights of Gridiron, Track, and Court in Verse and Prose (n.p.: 1939).
- Whitten, Charles W. Interscholastics: A Discussion of Interscholastic Contests (Chicago, 1950).