From Six-on-Six to Full Court Press: A Century of Iowa Girls' Basketball

3. Small Town Teams Win Big-time Support

Small Town Teams Win Big-time Support 1935-1949 BETWEEN 1935 AND 1950 GIRLS' BASKETBALL IN IOWA GREW like Iowa corn in July. Iowa led the nation in girls' basketball opportunities. Other states who still hung onto statewide programs in the 1930s were Florida, Wyoming, Georgia, Oklahoma, Tennessee, and Texas. From the first IGHSAU sponsored statewide program in 1926, when there were about 125 teams, the number of teams steadily increased . By 1950, 700 of the state's 834 schools offered basketball . Girls wanted to play basketball and pressured their authorities to start teams. But it was still mostly girls in small schools, those with fewer than two hundred students, who had that opportunity. As basketball grew in the small schools, so did the debate: should girls play competitive basketball? Centerville school girls, for example, waded through all kinds of public opposition against basketball. Nevertheless, when they entered and won the first two-division court championship in 1935, the loudest detractors were silenced by the clamor and celebration . Diehards around the country, many of them physical education teachers and other educators, vociferously debated the appropriateness of interscholastic basketball. They were dead set against players from one school competing against another. They also feared that if all the attention was given to girls' basketball and competition between schools, physical education would not be taught to all the girls. They also argued that 47 48 FROM SIX-DN-SIX TO FUll COURT PRESS the game's "fighting features developed aggressive characteristics that were unladylike, too physically demanding:' Those against basketball competition could always quote some physician whose "research" had shown athletics affected menstrual cycles or the capacity to have children. Even though there were a few physicians who didn't agree, they were silent. Donald Laird was fairly typical of the first group when he wrote in Scientific American, 1926, "It may be a good thing that women are not as interested in athletics for feminine muscular development interferes with motherhood :" Former Iowa basketball players must have had some good laughs about that-especially "Tuffy" Helen Parker Nissen , mother of eight children, who had played for Coon Rapids, 1928-32. Many other former players were mothers by 1936. However, it was the school superintendents, coaches, and teachers, not the girls, in those basketball playing small schools who had to respond to charges that the educators and physicians were making. Claude Miller, a Drake University graduate student, polled former players in 1948 as to what they thought about their basketball playing experiences. He surveyed women who'd played both three-court and two-court ball between 1932-1936. All the players he contacted responded. Few said that they would not want their daughters to play. Most endorsed thei r daughters' participation in basketball.2 The Union leadership always emphasized that girls could be strong physically fit individuals but at the same time typical females. One way it promoted this was through the selection of a queen and princess who was a member of a state tourney team. Fans could vote each time they attended a tourney game. They were given a ballot and were asked to choose their favorite player based on personality, ability, sportsmanship , and popularity. The player who garnered the most votes was queen; the second place was princess. The results of a 1979 survey I conducted among Hall of Fame members who had played basketball between 1926 and 1973 contradicted the charges made against basketball. It would be expected that those skilled elite players would have had positive playing experiences. But the response was overwhelmingly enthusiastic. These former players, some as old as 75, sent pictures, newspaper clippings, and their teams winloss records and wrote letters telling about their wonderful experiences. They all said that playing basketball had helped to develop strength, fitness, poise, and confidence to make friends. Friendships with their teammates had endured: many former teams such as Stratford still had periodic reunions 20 or 30 years later. They also emphasized they had made many friends with girls on other school teams.3 In contrast to what many physical educators and physi- 49 SMALL TOWN TEAMS WIN BIG-TIME SUPPORT, 1935-49 cians said, none of the Hall of Famers thought basketball too strenuous or stressful. In fact, for those farm girls accustomed to hard labor, basketball was a piece of cake. They also recognized that basketball was important for community solidarity and recognition. Most reported...