It may not have the same ring as the
Original Six, but below are two of the oldest IHSA documents in existence, which list the first 27 members of what was originally called “The Illinois High School Athletic Association."
The first document lists the IHSA member schools as of September 1, 1905 (note that De Kalb, El Paso and Forrest are misspelled).
An unknown individual has penciled in numbers to put the schools in alphabetical order. The complete list is:
1-Alton 12-Kewanee
2-East Aurora 13-Lincoln
3-West Aurora 14-Moline
4-Bloomington 15-Ottawa
5-Centralia 16-Princeton
6-De Kalb 17-Quincy
7-Elgin 18-Rockford
8-El Paso 19-Rock Island
9-East St. Louis 20-Springfield
10-Forrest 21-Streator
11-Joliet 22-Danville
The second document is a list of member schools that accompanied a letter to principals in December, 1906 encouraging them to join the Association. The schools that were added in the 15 months between the two letters were Hoopeston, Rochelle, Jacksonville, Geneva and Plainfield.
