Girls just want to play ball
To celebrate the 50th anniversary of the landmark law, on the 23rd of each month this year, I’ll write about trailblazers who opened doors for the next generation.
Title IX was signed into law on June 23, 1972. It reads:
No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance.
I’m always excited to run across stories about the early days of girls’ basketball. I mean the real early days. When girls played the game in bloomers and pinafores. Way before Title IX was passed in 1972, and before girls were essentially banished from the sport.
James Naismith invented the game of basketball during the 1891-92 school year, when his professor challenged the class to come up with a game that could be played inside in the winter.
The following year, a physical education instructor at Smith College named Senda Berenson adapted the rules for women and introduced the game to her students.
In this timeline of women’s basketball since 1891, Helen Wheelock has collected information about the history of women’s basketball.
The timeline is robust and there is surely an interesting story behind every entry. But it is clear that, even as girls’ teams were enthusiastically formed at colleges across the country, there were people trying to stop them from playing.
I’ve provided some highlights from the timeline below, but want to note a couple items of personal interest:
My alma mater, Western Illinois University, established a women’s basketball team in 1904. That same year, a group of girls from the Fort Shaw Indian School, in Montana, became “Basket Ball Champions of the World” at the St. Louis World’s Fair. After finding a photo of the team, Linda Peavy and Ursula Smith conducted extensive research, including interviews with the players’ family members, to write Full-Court Quest.
Got 3 minutes? Watch this PBS video. The authors of Full-Court Quest provide an overview of this amazing team.
The book details the girls’ family history and how they came to be students at the Fort Shaw Indian School. Members of the team came from different tribes, became great friends, and were unstoppable on the basket ball court, losing just two games in four years and playing for thousands of fans.
Some points to ponder:
Basketball was introduced to Montana spectators first as a girls’ game. There was little interest in watching boys play; the girls drew large crowds while the boys played in near-empty gymnasiums.
As the Fort Shaw team had a full schedule that included traveling by train, their coach was concerned about burnout. His team played nonstop from October through the end of the school year, and he knew the value of giving them a two-month break in the summer to go home to see their families.
Though they realized they were being used to market the school, the Fort Shaw players also knew that basketball provided opportunities for them they would not have otherwise had, like traveling to cities in Montana to play in front of hundreds of people, and playing for thousands at the Worlds’ Fair.
During the Worlds’ Fair, they beat the girls’ basket ball champions of Illinois and Missouri, and every other team they took on—while simultaneously being excluded from the Olympic competition happening at the same time on the same grounds.
The Fort Shaw team inspired many and demonstrate that people have always been interested in watching girls and women play sports. And girls have always wanted to play ball. Yet, from the moment women began playing Naismith’s game, right up to and even after the passage of Title IX, there were those who argued they shouldn’t, for a variety of reasons.
Thank goodness there have also been people supporting women’s sports, right from the beginning.
Thanks, Rita!
More highlights from Wheelock's timeline:
1893
March 23: First women’s basketball game held at Smith College. All doors locked, no men allowed, sophomores against freshmen.
Informal games on grass courts played at Iowa State College.
Clara Gregory Baer introduces basket ball (or basquette) to girls at Sophie Newcomb College, the female branch of Tulane University, in New Orleans. LA.
Max Exner, Naismith’s former roommate, teaches basketball to the women of Carleton College in Minnesota.
1896
Illinois: December 18, Chicago Austin High School plays Oak Park in the first known girls basketball game in the state.
1899
In 1899, Stanford’s faculty athletic committee rules that women can no longer compete at the intercollegiate level. Soon Cal follows suit. Though carried on at the intramural and amateur level, it didn’t become an intercollegiate sport until 1974.
1907
Chicago Public Schools Superintendent Edwin Cooley bans city teams from organizing girls’ basketball league. A year later, the Illinois High School Athletic Association banned girls from participating in interscholastic sports, especially basketball.
1910
Schools begin limiting the number of games played against other schools, to prevent girls from becoming too competitive.
1912
Dr. Dudley A. Sargent published the book Are Athletics Making Girls Masculine? A Practical Answer to a Question Every Girl Ask.
1914
The American Olympic Committee formally opposes women’s athletic competition in the Olympics
1918
Dr. J. Anna Norris publishes the “Official Basket Ball Guide for Women.”
1920
Industrial leagues: Teams of players sponsored by the companies they work for begin to emerge. Companies begin to recruit women right out of high school or college because a winning team is good publicity.
1923
The Women’s Division of the National Amateur Athletic Federation (WDNAAF) holds its first conference. It attacks competitive athletics, especially basketball as being unhealthy and inappropriate. Concern that women’s scholastic athletics will begin to resemble men’s (quasi-professional, corrupt, promoting betting) they promote a “Sports for Sports sake” philosophy.
Indiana: Hammond High girls team. As interscholastic competition disappears, alternatives developed. Some areas developed “Play Days” during which different schools would gather, mix together and play against each other. High schools throughout the Calumet region established athletic clubs for girls. Each school formed teams according to grades. The seniors, juniors, sophomores, and freshmen competed against each other in a manner similar to present-day intramural sports. Girls’ Athletic Associations remained the most common form of women’s sports until the 1970s.
1925
WDNAAF passes a resolution outlawing extramural competition, opposing gate receipts at women’s games, all travel for women’s games, and all publicity of women’s sports. The National Association of Secondary School Principals supports the resolution. They pressure high school sports associations to disband tournaments and are most successful in Eastern states and large city schools, less so in rural states.
1951
AAU national tournament is now a week-long festival that showcases the best female players in the country and attracts thousands of fans. Hanes Hosiery, coached by Virgil Yow, wins first of 3 AAU titles (’51, ’52, ’53).
1954
The Iowa Girls’ High School Athletic Union is formed under the direction of Wayne Cooley, which successfully works to establish a state-wide program for girls sports equal to that for boys. By 1974 almost 500 Iowa schools have full girls’ programs, which included equal coaches salaries, better media coverage, and end of season championships for girls and boys.
Read more
Women’s Basketball Timeline – Since 1891, compiled by Helen Wheelock
PBS video – Learn about the Fort Shaw Indian School team from the authors of Full Court Quest
Montana’s Women’s History— Champions: The Girls of Fort Shaw
Full-Court Quest, by Linda Peavy and Ursula Smith