Dorothy McIntyre will be the keynote speaker at Legends Conference this summer. She is co-author of Daughters of the Game: The First Era of Minnesota Girls High School Basketball 1891-1942.
Did you know that the first place that saw the new game of basket ball was Carleton College in Northfield in 1892, the year after James Naismith created the game? Did you know that it wasn’t until 1969 when the Minnesota High School League added girls sports to its competitive sports activities? Did you know that the first Minnesota State High School Girls Basketball Tournament was held in March 1976 and the St. Paul Central team won the first Class AA championship? (It was spelled as two words until the 1920s.)
Daughters of the Game is the account of “The First Era of Minnesota Girls High School Basketball 1891-1942.” Young women of today do not realize that the gift of playing and participating in high school sports as they do was not always available. Co-autho Marian Johnson was of the generation who was not allowed to play high school sports in the decades of the 1940s to the early 1970s. She became curious about the women who had participated and began gathering their stories. As part of her research, Johnson contacted the Minnesota State High School League to connect with Dorothy McIntyre who helped gather information.
The book provides a chronology of the rules of the game, accompanied by the individual stories and pictures of the women who led the way. Players talked about the excitement when they got uniforms even though they were wool and itchy. Players talk about how they had to travel to the games which were often far away. Teams often had to stay overnight in homes, churches, and other places that provided a roof for the evening. Teams had to provide their own transportation, often using the train system which was much more comprehensive at that time.
The book is organized by town/city, including pictures of the early teams. There are stories shared by those women who were among the early participants in this new sport. The pictures and stories provide a snapshot into the change in the game itself and into the history of the time, the struggle for women, and even the effect of politics, how the involvement of women in sports disappeared during World War II.
The book is eye-opening, fascinating, and charming. It emphasizes the power of story which is the integral root of his-STORY. Actually, this is her-story which gives us all a new respect for those people who travelled in the cold, by horse and wagon, stayed overnight wherever they could, to participate in a sport that gave them the experience of teamwork, fun, and activity. We are all the beneficiaries of their efforts. Thanks to them!
Buy the Book:
http://kubitzeducationalservices.com/
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