History of Iowa High School Girl's Basketball Girl's basketball has a deep and unique history in the state of Iowa. Girl's basketball grew alongside boy's basketball in the 1910s and 1920s, with a modified version of the game, allegedly "more suitable to women", that had six players per team. Drake University organized a 24-team invitational tournament in 1920, which became the first state championship tournament. Correctionville claimed the first state championship, but only after the local businesses and fans stepped in to fund their trip to Des Moines when the school refused to do so. The suitability of girls playing basketball was debated throughout the decade. The IHSAA briefly took over sponsorship of the state tournament, but ended sponsorship following the 1925 season in response to a growing concern that "high school basketball is unhealthy and inappropriate for girls". The same was happening in other states across the country, and most states that had girl's basketball dropped it around this time. But, girl's basketball was gaining in popularity in parts of the state, especially in rural districts, where the sport didn't seem too strenuous for those who knew girls to be capable of farm work and where the added entertainment value was greater. Near the end of the year, 25 school administrators, from mostly small schools, organized to save the sport. The result was that girl's basketball in Iowa continued uninterrupted (making Iowa the longest-running state to offer the sport without interruption), and a new organization devoted solely to girl's sports, the IGHSAU was formed. (Despite this mission, basketball would be the only sport it sponsored for the next 30 years.) For the next 50 years, the sport was played mostly by small schools. Despite this, the state tournament annually drew large crowds, and the press took to covering it at a level similar to boy's basketball. Some years, a single session of the state tournament outdrew the entire population of the 16 towns competing in the tournament. The rarity of girl's sports across the country and the huge support the sport was receiving in Iowa led to the tournament drawing significant regional and even national attention. By the late 1960s TV viewership reached over 5 million across nine midwestern states (the population of Iowa at the time was about 2.8 million), and writers from publications such as Sports Illustrated, the Wall Street Journal, and the New York Times made the trip to Des Moines to see the spectacle. Iowa girl Denise Long even became the first (and to date only) woman ever selected in the NBA draft in 1969 (though the pick was merely a publicity stunt and nullified by the league office). In the 1970s, large schools began to sponsor girl's basketball as well, however not all the attention received by the sport was positive. The Office of Civil Rights began to look into banning six-on-six basketball in 1958, and in 1983 three Iowa girls sued the IGHSAU on the basis that six-on-six was discriminatory. By this time, many colleges were playing basketball, but it was the 5-on-5 version. The girls playing 6-on-6 were thus at a disadvantage when it came time to play in college. For the 1984-85 season, 26 schools (mostly larger ones) switched to 5-on-5. The IGHSAU would sponsor 5-on-5 basketball competition alongside 6-on-6 through the 1992-93 season, but 6-on-6 remained the more popular girl's game. During the 1992-93 season, 275 schools were still playing 6-on-6, with less than half that number (134) playing the 5-on-5 game. That would prove to be the final season of 6-on-6 basketball in Iowa, however. Under growing pressure to end 6-on-6, the IGHSAU mandated that all basketball schools play 5-on-5 for the 1993-94 school year, and along with this change began holding 4 class tournaments every year with eight teams each (previously there had been just one tournament for 6-on-6 and one for 5-on-5). A fifth class was added in 2012-13. 6-on-6 gameplay A 6-on-6 version of basketball emerged shortly after the sport was invented in 1892. The variant involved players being stationed on a particular part of the court, with guards not allowed to cross half-court to the end their basket was on, and forwards not allowed to cross half-court to the end their opponents' basket was on. Until 1934, there were two guards and two forwards, along with two centers who roamed the middle section of the floor. Starting in 1934, a "two-court system" was developed in which three forwards and three guards played two separate 3-on-3 games, unable to cross half-court. In addition to the half-court division, the game differed from 5-on-5 basketball in that players were allowed only two dribbles. This is the style that became most associated with Iowa 6-on-6. Games were often high scoring, and fast paced. It was not uncommon for offensive players to score over 50 points in a game. In fact Lynne Lorenzen, the IGHSAU all-time scoring leader, averaged 63 points per game one year. Not allowing players to cross half-court was believed to make the game less strenuous, which was a concern of women's recreation in the 1920s. While Iowa's continued sponsorship of the sport at a time when other states had no athletic opportunities for girls made the state one of the most progressive for girl's athletics, by the mid-1990s the state's continued sponsorship of a game based on archaic notions of gender capabilities and that hurt college athletic opportunities for the girls participating looked very non-progressive. Only one state, Oklahoma, held on to 6-on-6 longer than Iowa (only two years longer at that). However, as Jean Berger, executive director of the IGHSAU stated, “The greatest thing about six-on-six was that it didn’t get compared to the boys. It wasn’t about what girls couldn’t do. It was its own game.” |
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