Lynnville-Sully senior Carrie Norman drives past Rockwell-Swaledale's Carrie Stromley during the 1999 Iowa Girls' State Basketball Tournament. Photo courtesy Iowa Girls' High School Athletic Union
|
Iowa Girls' High School Basketball Tournament
The Iowa Girls' High School Athletic Union (IGHSAU)
has been the best friend of girls' high school basketball since the
1920s. Even then, the organization published its own basketball
rulebook, high school yearbook, and held seminars to help officials
and coaches learn more about girls' basketball. However, at the
heart of the IGHSAU was its pride and joy - the Iowa Girls' High
School Basketball Tournament. Early on, the Iowa innovation of a
six-on-six game was showcased during the Iowa Girls' State
Basketball Tournament. Capacity crowds at the girls' state
tournament became a fixture in 1949, when 40,000 fans attended the
tournament at Drake University Fieldhouse. The growth of the
tournament received another boost in 1955 with the completion of
Veterans' Memorial Auditorium in downtown Des Moines, where the
girls team played the first title game before a record crowd of
15,290, a state record that still exists today. The Tournament
enjoyed its "Golden Age" in the late 1950s to the mid-1970s, when
the tournament actually sold out months before it began. The game
was broadcast on TV statewide, also reaching nine other states.
The passage of Title IX in 1972 called for fair and
equal opportunities for women and men, and forced many states to
begin interscholastic programs for girls. Yet even before Title IX,
Iowa girls made up 20 percent of girls participating in high school
sports across the country. Iowa was used as a model for other
states that were starting girls' sports programs. Sports
Illustrated called Iowa "a utopia for girls' athletics..."
Nevertheless, Iowa girls' basketball received a jolt when three
Iowa high school girls filed a Title IX lawsuit against the Iowa
Girls' High School Athletic Union, alleging that the girls were not
receiving the same opportunities as their male counterparts, as
they were playing six-on-six rather than five-on-five as the men
did. The IGHSAU came up with the solution of allowing each school
to decide for itself the style in which to play. In 1993, the
IGHSAU Board finally voted unanimously to end six-on-six
basketball.
Even while the schools were adjusting to a new style
of playing, Iowa high school girl basketball players were still
making their mark on the national scene, with many Iowa girls
playing Division I College Basketball. In 1999 Waterloo West star
Nina Smith was named 1999 High School Player of the Year by
Parade and
USA Today. The game has changed, but
the excitement and pageantry of the nation's oldest girls' high
school tournament remain. Only in Iowa is the female athlete
queen.
Project documentation consists of an 11-page essay
with bibliography, five photos with cutlines, a flyer for a book
Only in Iowa: Where the High School Girl Athlete is Queen,
and a video: "Iowa Salutes the Iowa Girl: 72 Years of Iowa Girls
State Basketball Tournament."
Originally submitted by: Tom Harkin, Senator.
More Local Legacies... |
|
|
The Local Legacies project provides a "snapshot" of American Culture as it was expressed in spring of 2000. Consequently, it is not being updated with new or revised information with the exception of "Related Website" links.
|