About this series

We celebrate now a moment that began five decades ago: It's the 50^th year of Minnesota's high school football state tournament.

Here's how we're partying: Every day through Dec. 2, we'll revive memories of the state tournament a year at a time, with stories, quotes, photos and scores. Writer Ron Haggstrom began with last year, discussing the 2021 champions, and we'll count backward to 1972.

Why the Dec. 2 timing? Because we'll turn our attention then to the Prep Bowl finals, rescheduled for Dec. 2-3 at U.S. Bank Stadium from their usual Thanksgiving weekend dates because the Vikings have a Thanksgiving night game.