girls six-on-six basketball - talk about a memory [View all]

[rurallib]

Someone had a thread here asking us to name something from our past that would get a truly quizzical look from those born in the 90s I believe.

Couldn't think of anything that hadn't been mentioned until the girls bball tournament started here in Iowa this week. That reminded me of the truly unique brand of basketball played only in Iowa and Oklahoma and only by the girls.

It wasn't really one game, but more like two 3 on 3 games being run simultaneously with the half court line acting as an invisible wall that couldn't be crossed. On one side was 3 players on Team As's offense going against 3 players from team B's defense. On the other side of the line the teams were reversed with Team A on defense and Team B on offense.

Girls were allowed to only dribble the ball twice when they handled the ball - two dribbles and then they had to pass or shoot. The ball would go from defense to offense via a pass over the half-court line.

This version of basketball was played mostly in the smaller towns and rural communities. The teams were true local heroes. most of the teams would have one star shooter who often averaged over 30 points a game.

Large schools in Iowa took up girls basketball in Iowa in the 80s but they played the more common 5 on 5 game. This eventually doomed the 6 on 6 game.

Here is a championship game from 1973. The game actually starts at the 11:00 minute mark. The big star of this game was a girl named Deb Coates who is still legendary in high school sports annals.

It was an interesting, quirky game played in Iowa from @ 1920 when Iowa was one of the few states that offered any sports for girls. In the small towns and rural communities when the girls played, everything else stopped - and if they made it to the state tournament which lasted a full week - the town simply moved to Des Moines for a week.

Hope a few of you will enjoy