(Editor’s Note: SouthMiss6 Sports is proud to sponsor the reincarnation of the Jackson County Boys Basketball Tournament which tips off Monday at Hubbard Gymnasium on the campus of Ocean Springs High School. The latest event is the fourth such in the county dating back over 90 years. In this three part story, we will explore the three different times since the early 1930’s a Jackson County Tournament has taken place.)
By CURTIS ROCKWELL/Sports Director
OCEAN SPRINGS — The first-ever Jackson County Basketball Tournament has its roots documented all the way back to 1933, when both high school and what was then documented as “grammar schools” compiled the field for over a decade.

The first version of this annual affair ran from 1934-1949. Those early participants on the high school side of the ledger included Pascagoula, Moss Point, Vancleave and St. Martin as well as OLV among others such as Wade, Escatawpa, Daisey-Vestry and Lyon as well as Tanner-Williams.

On several occasions back then, many teams would play twice a day, as was the case in the seventh annual event when the Wade High boys and the Pascagoula girls took home titles in the three day affair at Pascagoula High.
The 1941 event saw an opening round match-up on the boy’s side of the ledger between Pascagoula and Moss Point, a vicious battle that saw the Tigers prevail 13-7.
A report in the Friday, Feb. 20th edition of “The Pascagoula Chronicle Star combined with The Moss Point Advertiser”, states that the “take place this year in the new Moss Point High Gym” and will include “only the teams of schools which are actually located in Jackson County will be allowed to participate in the tournament. Formerly the tournament has been more or less invitational with several schools from outside the county sending in teams.”
That same report talked about the implementation of Spring football practice in the state as well as Moss Point fielding its first high school baseball team.

The 1947 tournament featured the Wade High “Greenies”, as well as Moss Point, Pascagoula, Vancledave and St. Martin.
The Ocean Springs boys joined the fray in time for the 1948 event.
The original Jackson County Tournament apparently ended its 16-year stretch in 1949. Almost all of those events took place anywhere from mid-January-mid-February.
It would be 23 years before the next version of the tournament.
(Up next: 1973-1975)

(Also on Monday, the Jackson County Girls Tournament will take place in Pascagoula.)