The following post was written by IWA Graduate Assistant, Emma Barton-Norris.
Six-on-six girls’ basketball was extremely important in Iowa, to both those who played the game and to those who made the trek to attend the annual Iowa State Championship every year. In the newly processed collection, Six-on-Six Girls Basketball in Iowa ephemera, the stories of individuals who experienced the “joy and zest” of the sport are put on display.
IWA graduate assistant, Emma Barton-Norris, processed several of IWA’s Six-on-Six Basketball collections this fall. Pictured here with Title IX 40th anniversary commemorative basketball, Christine Grant papers
The Six-on-Six Girls Basketball in Iowa ephemera is a continuation of a long-standing project at the Iowa Women’s Archives (IWA). Finding unique and inspiring stories in the past of Iowa’s girls’ and women’s sports, the IWA created the physical and digital exhibit 6-on-6 Basketball and the Legacy of Girls’ and Women’s Sport in Iowa back in 2018. During the traveling exhibit, IWA Curator Kären Mason and University of Iowa lecturer Jennifer Sterling collected stories from Iowans about their personal histories with one of Iowa’s favorite pastimes: girls’ six-on-six basketball.
What is six-on-six basketball, and just what made it different and exciting for players, coaches, and fans alike? According to the 2008 Iowa Public Television documentary “More Than a Game: 6-on-6 Basketball in Iowa,” the six-on-six version of basketball that became known and loved by Iowans was established by 1920. Girls played a two-court, six-on-six game that required three forwards from one team and three guards from the other on each side of the center line – and no one was allowed to cross it. This meant that if a team had one high scorer, they couldn’t be beat. In addition, players were only allowed two dribbles at a time and a referee was needed to inbound the ball after every basket. But why was this new version of the traditional five-player basketball game (that had been invented and played for nearly half a century before) necessary? It’s simple: sexism. Girls were seen as the “weaker sex” and the full-court, five-on-five version would be too strenuous for their weak disposition.
This did not stop the rise to fame that girls’ basketball experienced in small town Iowa. In fact, the game was uniquely made to help small-town Iowan schools thrive because of a team’s ability to rely on one high scorer. Towns like Newhall and Van Horne became the heart and soul of six-on-six.
Highlighted within the new ephemera collection are notable names in women’s Iowa basketball, such as 1968 State Championship star Janet Scharnberg and 1995 University of Iowa women’s basketball coach Angie Lee. Numerous newspaper clippings showcasing the excitement rural Iowans had for their “Iowa girls” are also heavily featured. One such newspaper article exemplifies how the passion of six-on-six fans encouraged the longevity of the game in Iowa. Newhall and Van Horne won the Iowa State Championship in both 1927 and 1962. Within Jean Kubu’s folder of Six-on-Six Girls Basketball in Iowa ephemera, a copy of the March 9, 1972, South Benton Star-Press cover story features this girls’ basketball team in 1927 and 1962 – two state champion teams, side by side.
As told by “The Bobcat” in 1972:
“…we take you back to the year 1927… It was a hectic journey to the number one spot, as it so often is, even for the best of team, which Newhall was, as evidenced by their outscoring of combined opponents, 703-147. […] By the final round of the [State Championship] tournament, Newhall had three starters on the bench, but kept battling, narrowing it to 37-36, favor of their opponents Sioux Center. With just 30 seconds remaining in the game, Newhall’s Luella Gardemann fired in the winning basket for a thrilling 38-37 victory and the state crown.
“For the girls from Newhall wearing bloomers, it was a great time and one the people who lived in Newhall in 1927 will never forget. The tears, smiles, hard work and teamwork all paid off for those Newhall girls and their coach…”
From ten minutes away, and thirty-five years apart, the Van Horne girls’ basketball teams of 1962 would accomplish the same feat.
“The Bobcat” continues:
1927 team photograph, South Benton Star-Press article, 1972, Six-on-Six Basketball in Iowa ephemera, Box 1, Iowa Women’s Archives
“The year was 1962. Van Horne went to the state finals at Waterloo with much going for them. […] During the week of the state tournament, Van Horne, and the surrounding areas had a bad snowstorm, but the fans came to Waterloo anyway. The team had not even practiced because of bad weather, and they didn’t check into their hotel until they had already played their first game.
“Tension was tight during the game and the score was close, but the team won 62-59 to win the coveted state championship. […] As they left Waterloo, they were on the television and at the Garrison corner a caravan of about three miles in length followed them to Van Horne […] to present the trophy to the team and coach.”
1962 team photograph, South Benton Star-Press article, 1972, Six-on-Six Basketball in Iowa ephemera, Box 1, Iowa Women’s Archives
“The Bobcat” concludes: “It was a great experience for the basketball team… It was a week that coach, the team, and fans will never forget.”
The Iowa Women’s Archives is proud to now have these Iowans’ stories available for all to enjoy. Materials include memorabilia, photographs, newspapers, tournament programs, and film of actual State Championship games. With the help of basketball players, old and new, the IWA has been able to save the legacy and history of girls’ and women’s sport in Iowa.
The progress six-on-six basketball made for young women carries on in every girl’s high school basketball game. Those who attended the crowded six-on-six championship games can never forget the energy on the court and in the stands. Iowa’s high school and collegiate players who now participate in five-on-five basketball should never forget that their great-great-grandmothers also played the game they loved. Six-on-six may be gone from high school athletics, but it will never be forgotten.
Guest post by Dr. Heather Cooper, Visiting Assistant Professor in History and Gender, Women’s, and Sexuality Studies
During LGBTQ History Month in October 2018, I worked with the Iowa Women’s Archives and University Special Collections to organize an archives visit for students from West Liberty High School. The several students who were able to attend are members of the school’s Gay-Straight Alliance (GSA), a student organization that provides a safe and supportive environment for LGBTQ youth and their cisgender heterosexual allies and raises awareness on campus about LGBTQ issues. The group’s faculty advisor, Katlyn Clark, has been teaching English at West Liberty High School for three years and is also enrolled in an English Education MA program at University of Iowa. I first became aware of this important student group when Katlyn was enrolled in my Sexuality in the U.S. course during Summer 2018. Her independent research project explored the importance of GSAs and the need to continue to develop more inclusive programming and pedagogy in the high school environment.
“Spinster, a lighthearted lesbian [card] gayme,” Iowa City Women’s Press recordsLGBTQ History Month seemed like the perfect opportunity to introduce these students to some of the amazing archival records at UI that document the history of local LGBTQ activism. I relied on the expertise of archivists Kären Mason, Janet Weaver, Anna Tunnicliff, and David McCartney to pull together some of the most interesting and engaging materials from relevant collections. When students arrived, they found a smorgasbord of documents and artifacts, including issues of the feminist journals Ain’t I a Woman and Better Homes and Dykes; correspondence and newspaper clippings related to “Rusty” Barcelo’s LGBT activism; and records from the Gay Liberation Front, one of the first student groups of its kind in the country. Students also had fun exploring “Spinster,” a feminist and lesbian reimagining of the “Old Maid” card game, printed by the Iowa City Women’s Press. David McCartney introduced our visitors to the amazing timeline of Iowa City queer history that he and Kären Mason created for the outhistory.org project several years ago.
Miranda Welch’s high school graduation cap, 2006, Miranda Welch papers
Reflecting on their visit, high school senior Miguel Solis wrote that, “… most people’s knowledge of LGBTQ+ history is mainly the Stonewall Riots and the AIDS crisis. Iowa actually has a large history for the LGBTQ+ community that most people do no not know about. … I learned [that] the very first form of ‘Pride’ in Iowa was a last-minute float in the Iowa homecoming parade.” Senior Dio Gonzales described their visit to the university as “an eye-opening experience. … My favorite part was being able to go around and see different kinds of posters, books, and magazines that were released.” In contrast to the usual hushed environment of the library, we encouraged students to talk and wander around the reading room to get a feel for different kinds of materials. Our conversations led Librarian Anna Tunnicliff to bring out a few boxes from the unprocessed collection of Miranda Welch, a student activist from small-town Iowa. Among the papers and artifacts was Welch’s high school graduation cap, bedecked in pride-colored ribbons and gems.
In preparing for their visit, Katlyn Clark mentioned that the students were especially interested in transgender history. But the nature of archive collection practices and typical end-of-life donations means that IWA and Special Collections currently have very little material on this relatively contemporary topic. That archival silence created an opportunity to talk about what it would mean to try to build a transgender archive and to document the experiences and activism of LGBTQ people today. Aiden Bettine, a History Ph.D. student, joined us to talk about their current project, the Transgender Oral History Project of Iowa (TOPI). As Aiden explained, “A primary goal of the project is to empower transgender and gender non-conforming communities to collect and preserve their own histories by training trans-identified people in the methodology of oral history.” Students later commented that learning about TOPI’s goals was a very important part of their experience at the archives.
Students from West Liberty High School’s Gay Straight Alliance (GSA) learning about local LGBTQ history at the Iowa Women’s Archives.
On the day of their visit, our discussion about creating a transgender archive offered a perfect segue to talking about how students in the Gay-Straight Alliance could start to record and preserve their own history of activism. Since the club’s official recognition in 2017, they have successfully campaigned for the creation of a gender-inclusive restroom on their campus and, every year, they organize school-wide participation in the Day of Silence, a national event that brings attention to anti-LGBTQ bullying in schools. Members of the group have attended leadership workshops at the GSA Conference in Des Moines and they regularly attend the annual Governor’s Conference on LGBTQ Youth. I wanted to encourage the students to think about themselves as important historical actors whose activities deserved to be documented and preserved. I hoped that showing them the records of other student organizations at UI would help them recognize that the work of student groups like theirs was important and would be valuable to researchers and other activist groups in the future. We also talked about ways to build their archive, such as writing down the narrative of how the group was founded and keeping records of their members, group meetings, and specific events and activities. Katlyn reports that since their visit last fall, students in the GSA have talked about creating a twice-a-year newsletter to record their activities. Reflecting on our discussion in the IWA reading room, Miguel Solis wrote, “We really just need to keep trying to make a change and leave our mark on the school so that one day we can be remembered in history and be talked about as people who made a difference.”
A special thanks to Kären, David, Anna, Janet, and Aiden for their help with this! And to Katlyn Clark, C. Blick, Jacqueline Castillo, Dio Gonzalez, Angie Meraz, Mary Norris, and Miguel Solis for joining us and sharing the amazing work they are doing in West Liberty. Hope to see them on campus as official Hawkeyes in the years to come – the future is very bright!
Heather L. Cooper, Ph.D.
Visiting Assistant Professor
History and Gender, Women’s, and Sexuality Studies
