Gulfport basketball embracing history ahead of 39th annual Holiday Classic
You’d be hard pressed to find a high school basketball tournament played the week after Christmas that’s been going on as long as Gulfport’s Adidas Holiday Classic.
Now less than 24 hours away from tipping off the 39th annual event.
This year, fans can take a walk down memory lane in the lobby of Bert Jenkins Gymnasium where Gulfport Athletic Director Bryan Caldwell has recently finished the ‘wall of winners’ display.
The Admirals have won the tournament more times than any other school, but are still looking for their 13th tournament title, dating back to 2012. “I just wanted to make sure everyone understood the history behind the Holiday Classic because when you look at that board and you see a lot of great teams and some hall of fame coaches, and every team that I see reminds me of a great player or two or three or four that were in the tournament that year, so it’s just there’s a ton of tradition involved with this tournament. I think back to the 80’s and the 90’s when there were just so many great players and outstanding coaches, and it was really kind of a golden era of basketball on the Coast. It’s just kind of the holiday thing to do if you’re a basketball junkie.”
The eight-team field will tip things off at 3 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday with each school guaranteed three games.
Attendance expected to be upwards of 1,000 fans each day, more than 3,000 total.
