Indiana state finals honor Mental Attitude Award winners after title games

Carmel stands alone atop Indiana boys basketball’s Mental Attitude Award chart with 67 recipients, a tally that shows how the IHSAA still rewards more than points at the state finals. The award goes to the outstanding senior participant in each classification, with principals and coaches making the nominations and the IHSAA Executive Committee presenting the honor immediately after the championship game.

Current IHSAA materials say winners must excel in mental attitude, scholarship, leadership and athletic ability in basketball. Farm Bureau Insurance adds a $1,000 scholarship to each school in the recipient’s name, which makes the honor part recognition and part investment in the program that produced it.

The award’s roots run back to Jake Gimbel, who sponsored the boys basketball honor from 1917 to 1943, when it was known as the Gimbel Award. That history explains why the ceremony has stayed embedded in the title-game routine rather than floating off as a separate presentation. In the boys basketball state finals program, the award is listed by class and handed out right after the championship game, which gives it the same formal stage as the trophy itself.

Arthur L. Trester’s name remains attached because he shaped the state association from the beginning. Indiana historical sources identify Trester as the IHSAA’s permanent secretary in 1913 before he later served as commissioner, and the Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame says he was affiliated with the association for 33 of his 66 years. The Hall of Fame also describes him as vitally interested in good school procedure and sportsmanship, a description that still fits the award now tied to his name.

The current state finals programs reflect that split history. The Class 1A honor is identified as the Ray Craft Mental Attitude Award, while the Class 2A, 3A and 4A awards remain Arthur L. Trester awards. Ray Craft, a Milan High School guard on the 1954 state championship team, was inducted into the Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame in 1991. In 2016, the Class A award was renamed in his honor, linking one of the state’s most famous title-game figures to a ceremony that still prizes character alongside performance.

Carmel’s 67 recipients lead a list of schools that have made the award part of their basketball identity. North Central (Indianapolis) has 32, Jasper 31, Penn 25, Brebeuf Jesuit 25, Evansville Memorial 25, Valparaiso 23, Bloomington South 23, Indianapolis Cathedral 22, Columbus North 21, Lafayette Central Catholic 20, Ben Davis 19, Homestead 19 and Zionsville 18. In a sport that celebrates scoring runs and championship banners, those totals show which programs have kept the state’s oldest standards in view after the final horn.