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Introduction
- University of Iowa Press
- Chapter
- Additional Information
Introduction O ut-of-state friends and professional colleagues ask me, "Why is it only in Iowa that girls' basketball has been played continuously with an annual state tournament since 1920? Why was it so different from surrounding states, which were settled the same time, had essentially the same immigrant groups, and shared the same agrarian based economy and the same religions?" Over the course of researching and writing this book I asked the same questions of those closest to girls' basketball in the state, but most of the Iowans interviewed didn't have a theory about why play wasn't interrupted here as it was at one time or another in other states. However, after interviews were held with several hundred former and present players and coaches, and relevant literature was reviewed, theories emerged. These were considered , discarded, and reconstructed. It is evident that there is not just one or two major factors that have made basketball a permanent fixture on the Iowa scene but that there were and are several interacting factors-individuals, groups, traditions, and circumstances-that can help to answer the question, "Why in Iowa?" 1. Male advocacy for girls' basketball was a principal factor in its preservation in the 1920s. Four administrator/ coaches spoke out on behalf of the girls and formed along with about a hundred more coaches the Iowa Girls High School Athletic Union, then and now the only secondary sport federation exclusively for girls. These progressive men included John King, formerly of Missouri, who saw firsthand that sports was as positive for girls as boys. He became an ardent supporter. M. M. Mcintire from Pennsylvania experienced that, too, when he became principal of Audubon High School. High school boys' coach G. Sanders realized that only 50 percent of the high school students were provided the privilege of participation in the 1920s, and he joined the other two gentlemen Several interacting factors can help to answer "Why in Iowa?" xiii in promoting girls' sports because he saw it was in the best interest of the girls. These men were instrumental in starting the federation and ensuring that girls had a competitive basketball program. So began the major involvement of male teachers and school administrators in girls' basketball. 2. In the early 1920s there was no one dominant female physical educator in Iowa as there was in surrounding states. In Minnesota, Illinois, Missouri, Nebraska, and Wisconsin these nationally known university physical educators took up the torch against competitive school basketball because they were against competition between schools and favored providing a broad range of participation opportunities rather than using the limited gym time for training a few girls to play basketball. This was a major factor in the demise of the girls' basketball state tournament in those states. The women's division of the National Amateur Federation sent its executive director to Iowa to speak against the evils of interscholastic sport in the 1920s. Soon after, basketball disappeared from Des Moines and other schools. It did not reappear until the late 1960s. 3. In the rural and small town schools where basketball was most prominent between 1920 and 1960, there was less demand on gym space than in city schools. In the small towns the girls' coach was often the boys' too, so it was simple for the coach to arrange for equal practice for both teams. In the city schools with their larger enrollment the boys' sport had top priority, and the girls' basketball teams interfered with their gym practice and game time. So it was natural for the boys' coaches to agree with the leading physical educators around the nation who were saying that basketball competition between schools was too strenuous for girls and should be stopped. 4. Basketball was not viewed as too physically taxing for the girls who lived in rural communities. Descendants of pioneers , rural young women were accustomed to heavy farm work. Males working alongside females in the barns and fields knew that females were capable of exertion and that playing basketball would not cause them too much physical damage, and certainly not limit their reproductive capabilities as some leading educators and physicians were predicting. Players and their families paid little heed to their dour warnings. 5. Basketball for girls filled an entertainment void in rural communities. Between World War I and II there was an exodus from the rural areas to towns and cities. Basketball was seen as a means to partially compensate for perceived differences in...