A Look At The History Of Indiana’s Ping-Pong Balls

(8-9-26) Leigh Evans of Hickory Husker shared online the effort in the early years of the IHSAA to eliminate the use of the blind draw and would evolve into to use of the ping-pong balls.

The Indiana High School Athletic Association (IHSAA) has utilized a traditional blind draw system since the inception of its postseason basketball tournaments in 1911, but an exact historical calendar year or date when physical ping-pong balls and lottery-style air mix machines officially replaced handwritten slips or physical tokens in a hat is not formally documented in state association archives.

The Ping-Pong Balls have an honored spot in the IHSAA Headquarters—

One report says that the IHSAA has used handwritten ping-pong balls in lottery-style air mix machines to determine blind-draw tournament pairings since 1980.

Section 127 recently added a branded moment inside the IHSAA HQ in Indianapolis.

The ping pong ball display. Since 1980, handwritten ping-pong balls were used to determine school pairings for state tournaments; authentic, historic, and as real as it gets.

With select sport State Titles looming this month, our design team at Section 128 recently added some stunning branded moments inside the @IHSAA1 HQ in Indianapolis. pic.twitter.com/euVCdHn5re
— Sport Graphics (@TheSGway) February 17, 2026

Unable to find that IHSAA members have ever voted to seed teams and replace the blind draw

IHSAA commissioner Paul Neidig in a July, 2026 interview for the Tribune story said-

“That’s not the case in all of the other states. Everybody participates here, and that puts us in a different standard. We need to be realistic about the differences in schools as far as different locations and the different resources they have.”

Former IHSAA Commissioner Bobby Cox in a Courier Press article in February of 2017 —

“The blind draw is our tradition and it ensures the fairest manner to construct the tournament. The IHSAA is also very concerned with sportsmanship and behavior. Seeding tournaments ensures lopsided scores in the early rounds, which in many cases results in undesirable behaviors. My sense is that the regular season with conference, county and regular season tournament championships are very important.”

Courtesy Leigh Evans of Hickory Huisker

Coach John Adams' 1926 plan to Seed Sectionals!https://t.co/cVAZ56yTLb — Coaching legend John Adams of Adams Coliseum fame in Vincennes was a vocal critic of the IHSAA's blind tourney draw. Even in our game's infancy, not all within the Indiana basketball community saw the… pic.twitter.com/mz9712jjwQ
— Leigh Evans (@HickoryHusker) August 9, 2026

Coach John Adams was an iconic Indiana high school basketball legend who led the Vincennes Lincoln Alices to the 1923 state championship. The historic Adams Coliseum in Vincennes was renamed in his honor in 1961.

Coaching Career and Legacy

He played on Bloomington High School’s first basketball team. After graduating from I.U., he embarked on a successful coaching career 4-year mark at tiny Smithville was 86-24 guided Vincennes for 19 years, with mark of 438-158 19 straight sectional titles, 8 regional championships won state in ’23, breaking Franklin’s 3-year hold on title
Won 19 straight sectional championships and 8 regional titles.
Captured the state title in 1923, halting Franklin’s three-year run.
Served as the school’s athletic director for 39 years until retiring in 1959.
Inducted into the Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame in 1970.

The Coliseum