HISTORY

  HAECO Invitational: Greensboro Holiday Tradition Thrives 

More than four decades ago, seven Greensboro Sports Council men had a vision: bring Greensboro’s high school basketball teams together for a holiday tournament and donate the proceeds to the schools. It sounded like a pretty good idea when the inaugural HAECO Invitational was played back in 1976, and it’s an idea that still sounds pretty good today.

Jim Betts, Lem Cox, Bradley Faircloth, Stanley Frank, Doug Galyon, Fred Joseph and E. Kemp Reece not only envisioned a tournament that would help fund the schools’ athletic programs, they created it. At that time, First Horizon Coliseum hosted the Big 4 Tournament, an annual affair among Duke, NC State, North Carolina and Wake Forest. These seven Sports Council visionaries realized they could make their vision a reality if they created a similar event among Greensboro’s four city high schools, Dudley, Grimsley, Page and Smith, and in 1976, the Little 4 was born.

When Grimsley played Page and Dudley faced Smith in the first tournament games Dec. 28, 1976, organizers knew they had four good men’s basketball teams, and they knew that with strong support from the community, they’d be able to return $5,000 to each of the four schools. As it turned out, the event drew nearly 4,000 high school hoops fans to the Greensboro Complex each night. Not bad for a holiday tournament that was no sure thing. The Greensboro Sports Council started the tournament as a two-day playoff, but it didn't take long to expand the field to eight schools and to add a women’s tournament to the program. Despite changes along the way, the basics and mission of the event remained, and the holiday tournament’s popularity and significance were strong.  

Today, the HAECO Invitational is just that: an invitational tournament. The Greensboro Sports Council can invite different schools from year-to-year as long as they are located in or around Guilford County; Bishop McGuinness joins the field for the first time this year after Southeast Guilford returned in 2021 following a decades-long absence. The mission remains, and the tournament thrives. 

In addition to donating funds back to the schools, the Greensboro Sports Council awards four Bill Lee Scholarships to participating student athletes each year, and the Council makes charitable contributions as well. Following last year’s tournament, the HAECO Invitational made a donation to Out of the Garden Project; the outgoing tournament chair chooses the charity each year. 

Some previous recipients of charitable donations made in honor of outgoing tournament chairs are Ready for School, Ready for Life, Greensboro Urban Ministries, Backpack Beginnings, the American Cancer Society’s Coaches vs. Cancer, Friends for an Earlier Breast Cancer Test, Joseph’s House, the Eastern Guilford High School Fund, the Joey Cheek Fund, the North Carolina State Games, the Girls and Boys Club, The First Tee of the Triad, Bryan Family YMCA, the Salvation Army, Youth Focus and the UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center.

While the tournament remained focused on its original purpose, it also enjoyed some great basketball over the years, and last year’s tournament added another chapter. On the women’s side, the sixth-seeded Southeast Guilford Falcons made the most of their return to the HAECO Invitational knocking off fifth-seeded Page High School 48-30 in the championship game. Playing in their first HAECO since the 1980s, Southeast upset Smith High School and second-seeded Ragsdale High School on the way to the championship game.   

The men’s tournament was a familiar storyline as Greensboro Day School defeated Grimsley High School 64-49 to reclaim the title. The Bengals defeated Southeast Guilford and Smith High School on the way to the championship game. It was the 18th HAECO title for both coach Freddy Johnson and Greensboro Day School. 

While the HAECO Invitational has evolved through the years in both title and teams, the original mission remains – support high schools in or around Guilford County. Deep community roots planted in a different century grow stronger each autumn when the familiar sounds of basketball shoes squeaking on high school hardwoods return - the HAECO Invitational must be on the horizon. 

 Note: Former Greensboro News & Record writer Jeff Carlton contributed to this tournament history before his death in 2008.  The Greensboro Sports Council will always be grateful to Jeff for his many contributions to the HAECO Invitational and Guilford County high school sports.