The Lutheran Elementary School Tournament began on April 21, 1951, as a “Pre-Junior Talent Festival.” The first official program for that year stated the purpose as follows: “In an attempt to encourage interest in cultural endeavor within the Lutheran churches and schools of the Northwest District, Missouri Synod, and to provide for the demonstration and exhibition of the skills and achievements of the children, Concordia College is sponsoring this first district wide Lutheran school and Sunday School Talent Festival.” Invited were “All pupils of the Lutheran day and Sunday schools in the Northwest District who are at present enrolled in the first through the eighth grade or the kindergarten through senior division in the Sunday School….”

The program was administered by Concordia students for the first ten years. In 1962 it became an official function of Concordia College when four area schools participated in a boys basketball tournament. Sports contests, chiefly basketball for both boys and girls, were eventually complemented with contests in music, art, spelling, chess, swimming, etc. The name was changed several times until in 1976 it became the Concordia Lutheran Elementary School Tournament and in 1984 Lutheran Elementary School Tournament, or LEST, when the tournament became a program of the College of Education. More recently LEST became a responsibility of the Concordia University Foundation. Programs were printed for each year. Souvenir T-shirts were also available. In the course of time pictures of participants, individually and in groups, were included in the program.