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178 More than Money: The Significance of Girls' Basketball for Players and Community FEW GIRLS IN IOWA WHO HAVE PLAYED BASKETBALL have been aware of the uniqueness of the program. They haven't realized that before the 1970s competitive interscholastic basketball ran counter to what was available to high school girls in other parts of the country. They are surprised when they learn that girls' basketball is still not so widely offered and strongly supported in other states. As Lynne Lorenzen (1993 Hall of Fame inductee) said in 1993, "I was in a situation where the stands were full to watch girls' basketball and I didn't realize it wasn't that way everywhere. I was made to feel very very special to be a girl in athletics:' Outside of Iowa many people did ask why Iowans supported girls' basketball for 100 years. Why did Iowa schools continue competitive basketball for girls when other states stopped it? There may not be a single answer, but some understanding may be gained by considering what Iowans have had to say about girls' basketball. A 1973 article in Sports Illustrated featured the Iowa program . The authors talked to four Roland-Story athletes about the uniqueness of the Iowa programs. The SI reporter wrote about sitting in the Story City Roadside Cafe in 1972 with Kathy Kammin, Karen Ritland, and two members of the boys' basketball team, Alan Eggland and Jim Johnson, and talking about discrimination against girls in sports. The four teenagers found it hard to relate to this phenomenon, 179 MORE THAN MONEY "Gee, no, I can't think of any way we're treated much different than boys;' says Karen Ritland. "We're all just basketball players:' "It's not all equal;' says Jim Johnson. "How do you mean?" "Well, Karen and Kathy get a lot more publicity than we do;' and Johnson grins while both the girls look flustered. "But they deserve it. Right now they're playing better than we are:"'Are girls in sports popular in this school?" "I haven't really thought about that;' says Kathy Kammin, the Story City heroine , and then pauses to work out the matter. "I guess we're popular enough. It isn't a big deal. I mean you play sports because it's something you like, but I suppose you are ~ort of doing something for the school, too, so nobody looks down on you:' "Maybe this is something;' contributes Alan Eggland, as if working away on a puzzle. "The homecoming dance is a big social event here. The last three years a girl who has been on one of the teams has been queen:' The writers of the article interviewed the coaches and the athletic director in Roland-Story. "Sports are very big in a little town like this;' explains Dallas Kray, the Roland-Story athletic director. "We encourage a lot of sports and we have a recreation program that goes full blast in the summer. We spend about $14,000 a year on sports in the high school. It comes out the gate receipts. I guess the girls' basketball team is our biggest gate attraction:' Bill Hennessey, coach of the 1972 girls' championship sixplayer team, asked Pat Elredge, the boys coach at Roland-Story, a question often asked. "If less time and attention were given to girls' basketball would the quality of boys' basketball improve ?" Coach Elredge answered smiling, "There might be some truth in that. If we didn't share a gym, if we had more coaching for the boys, if the boys got all the attention, we might have a better team, but that is just a guess. What I do know for certain is that if we cut back on or did not have the girls' team, our sports program for humans would be a lot poorer. I wouldn't want to see that happen:' The sports journalist concluded, Whatever value sports have, men like Bill Hennessey and Pat Elredge believe sports promote human values, beneficial to boys and girls alike. All those dire warnings of the medical, moral, and financial disasters that would follow if girls were granted athletic parity are considered hogwash in Iowa. The local girls have not become cripples or Amazons; the boys have not been driven to flower arrangement or knitting. In fact, there may be no place else in the u.S. where sport is so healthy and enjoys such a good reputation.' Former Governor Robert Ray identified some of...

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