When did newspapers start covering high school sports?

Our local paper began in 1899, covering high school football regularly. I'm sure there have been certain "one-off" stories before then. The stories were not placed in a certain "sports" section of the paper. They made bottom fold most of the time.

Grammar school football stories were the same size as HS back then.

 

The Missourian covered the Little League exploits of Tom Sawyer in the 1820s. He and Huck Finn made All-Area First Team as shortstop and second baseman, respectively.

 

It was until Tobey Maguire showed up [/pleasantville]

 

You were fine until the frickin' "respectively" ...

 

And Mrs. Sawyer called to complain that her son should have been player of the year.

 

You were around in the 1870s, and you damn well know it.

 

"The world only became color during the 1930s. And it was pretty grainy color for a while, too" </calvin'sdad>

 

I know of a couple of papers which still do.

 

I was gonna say "When Doug Huff got to Wheeling."

 

Nice pull.

 

Indianapolis' three newspapers covered *statewide* high school basketball like it was a year-long Super Bowl from the teens through the 1950s.

Matter of fact, the Indy Star has cut back its high school coverage -- and definitely its coverage area -- somewhat dramatically since the sale to Gannett.

 

When Lou Gehrig was in high school, he went to Chicago for a high school All-Star game at Wrigley Field. He hit the game-winning homer for his team, yet a paper (I don't remember which one), spelled his name 'Gherig'.

So that must have been around 1920 or so, since he played for Columbia before first joining the Yankees in 1923.