100 years ago in Spokane: How a local version of March Madness looked in 1921

Spokane was preparing for a local 1921 version of March Madness: the Inland Empire High School Basketball Tournament.

The opening-round draw pitted “two high-caliber teams”: North Central High School and Walla Walla High School.

This was only the second year of the tournament, but it was already drawing enough interest to merit a front-page story in the Spokane Daily Chronicle. The event drew high school teams from all over Eastern Washington, including Waterville, Almira, Ephrata and Ritzville. There were even teams from Montana (Libby) and Idaho (Culdesac).

From the zoo beat: A new resident – a bison – was on the way to the Manito Park Zoo.

The zoo had recently purchased a bison from Oklahoma. It was currently in a crate on a freight train headed to Spokane. It was scheduled to arrive in four days.

On this day

(From Associated Press)

1762: New York held its first St. Patrick’s Day parade.

1776: The Revolutionary War Siege of Boston ended as British forces evacuated the city.

1941: The National Gallery of Art opened in Washington, D.C.

1959: The Dalai Lama fled Tibet for India in the wake of a failed uprising by Tibetans against Chinese rule.

2003: Edging to the brink of war, President George W. Bush gave Saddam Hussein 48 hours to leave his country. Iraq rejected Bush’s ultimatum, saying that a U.S. attack to force Saddam from power would be “a grave mistake.”