Saturday, March 21, 2009

Purely Iowa--Six on Six Basketball

Today Colin and I went to Mount Pleasant High School for an exhibition of six-player basketball played mainly by those who grew up participating in it. The Park and Recreational Department of Mount Pleasant put on this jamboree comprising of teams from Mediapolis, WACO (Wayland, Ainsworth, Crawfordsville, Olds), Winfield-Mt. Union, New London and Mount Pleasant. We stayed for two games and entered the gymnasium to near capacity of fans from Winfield-Mt. Union and WACO.

This was a representation of how Iowa Girls played basketball until the five-player game was fully instituted following the 1993 season. As seen this is a game where forwards played offense and guards were the defense. Only two dribbles were allowed by each player at a time, and play was limited to half cout. Players were not allowed to cross the mid-court line. Typically scores reached the 70s and 80s.

After going through some old tapes, I found this clip I recorded during the CBS News Coverage of the 1988 Iowa Presidential Caucuses. This is a good clip on what Iowa Girls Basketball meant to the state.

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