Schuckman: Time to bring back The Sloan and give Quincy Invitational monikers some flavor

QUINCY — The Quincy Invitational took place Saturday at Flinn Stadium, just as it did in January and last fall in the QHS gym, and last August at Westview Golf Course.

Each was a different sport, each with the same name for its event.

That’s a travesty that has taken too long to fix.

But there is always time to make up for missed opportunities, and that time is now.

Rewind the calendar to 2003 when the Quincy High School boys golf team was scheduled to play host to the 54th Don Sloan Invitational. Instead, the Blue Devils were chasing the championship of the  Quincy Invitational, a trophy they won by one stroke over Pekin.

It came three years after Sloan passed away. A longtime educator and golf coach, Sloan was honored long before his death for his impact by having the season-opening tournament bear his name. However, at the start of the 2003-04 school year, the school administration did away with all tournaments, invitationals and events bearing the name of an individual, even if it was a posthumous honor.

Does that remain a steadfast rule?

A search of the Quincy Public Schools website does not easily reveal a segment in any handbook that deals with naming rights. If I were to stumble across such a segment, my guess is it would deal with naming rights or buildings or athletic facilities.

So let’s run with the premise that placing a name on an individual event has no written-into-stone roadblock.

Which events deserve a name? Start with the longstanding ones — the boys golf invitational, the track invitational and the wrestling invitational. Add in the volleyball invitational, which is one of two events the team hosts. The cross country teams are the only other programs to play host to an invitational of some sort that continues to have a name attached — the Tom Oakley Invitational.

If the QHS girls soccer program decides to rename its early-season weekend tournament to honor someone, all the better, but it doesn’t have the longevity or a previous name to fall back on. Same with the Quincy Shootout, which is the ideal name for the boys basketball showcase because it spotlights the city, not just one program and one gym.

So for all intents and purposes of this maneuver, let us rename the four events that have taken on the Quincy Invitational moniker and give each some individuality.

Start with the boys golf invitational. It goes back to being the Don Sloan Invitational, or just “The Sloan” as many of us referred to it as. Sloan passed away in 2000, but his family is owed a quarter-century of good will and good memories.

The girls volleyball invitational, which takes place typically in October and long after the Blue Devils have hosted the Early Bird Tournament, needs to forever be known as the Mike and Barb Crist Invitational. The husband-and-wife coaching duo won more than 600 games combined and guided the Blue Devils to a pair of state final-four appearances — the only two in program history.

The wrestling invitational needs to be renamed the Rollie Platt Invitational to pay respect to the man who changed hundreds of lives in that wrestling room and continues to help do so. There is a different air and aura when Coach Platt walks into the gym.

The same can be said when Kerry Anders walks onto the track at Flinn Stadium as immediate respect and appreciation follows. Like so many others, Anders has devoted time and resources to the track and field program as an athlete, a coach, a referee and a volunteer. It’s as fitting as any honor.

If other sports decide to incorporate a home tournament or event into their schedule, a bigger opportunity to highlight an recognize someone who impacted their program will exist. For now, let’s be more creative and take a bigger nod to history.

And let’s bring back The Sloan.