1922-23 Team: Back (L to R) Stoltz (Chaperon), E. McGinnis, Poore, B. McGinnis, Bennett (Coach); Front: Higginson, Loper, Starlin, Harwood, Dye
MHS - Women's Basketball / December 30, 2019 By Kasey McDowell
Did you know? Mulvane High School had a girls basketball team in the 1920's and they were very good. They went 18-1 in the 1922-23 season and were Sedgwick County Champs! We know they were very good the previous years but currently do not have any information on the records.
The following excerpt is from the 1922-23 Mulvane High School yearbook:
No small amount of credit can be given to the Mulvane Girls' Basketball Team which became one of the greatest assets which Mulvane High School has had for the past two years. Never during the past two seasons has the Mulvane girls' team been defeated by any Kansas town. It has won the Sedgwick County Championship for two consecutive years and also second place at the Winfield Tournament for two years.
The season opened with the loss of Marguerite Dunlap, Maurine Seaman. Harriett Robertson, Merle Grinstead and Edna Albright. After considerable training and a few games to test the strength of the team, the Mulvane rooters hailed them as perhaps a better team than the previous year. Under the leadership of Captain Bessie McGinnis they had unusual success. Bessie and Bonnie Harwood proved to be very efficient goal-tossers and both of them played exceptionally well at forward. We scarcely need to mention that the Margaret Poore-Della Dye combination was not equaled anywhere and to them goes largely the credit for the success of the team. Grace Starlin and Eleanor McGinnis played most of the season at guard, however Vera Loper and Grace Starlin later in the season developed into sterling players and much credit of the team's success at Winfield can be attributed to Grace and Vera.
The Mulvane-Phillips game at Winfield was heralded as the finest game of girls basketball ever played there by two high school girl teams. Although the Phillips girls defeated the Mulvane team by the score of 29 to 27 for the championship this year and 16 to 14 last year, still Mulvane has nothing but the highest regards for this team.
On the All-Tournament Team which was selected at Winfield Bessie was chosen for forward position, Margaret Poore for jumping center and Grace Starlin for guard. The other three positions were filled by Phillips players. Although this was Bonnie's first year on the team she developed into one of the main cogs in the Mulvane machine. Margaret Higginson was also used at forward in several of the games and proved herself to be a worthy substitute. We need not tell you much about our running center for if you have ever seen the Mulvane girls play you could not have overlooked our flashy "Joker" as she outclassed every opponent. Margaret Poore and Grace Starlin showed their exceptional ability when they were chosen on the All-Tournament Team. The guarding of Eleanor McGinnis and Vera Loper helped Mulvane on to many victories.
The girls, this year, added two beautiful silver loving cups to Mulvane's numerous collection, one for the championship of Sedgwick County and the other for Second place in the Southwestern Tournament.
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Women's basketball was very different back then up until 1970 when the women's rules finally matched the men's rules, minus the basketball size. Most schools played 6 on 6 basketball for the women's games.
A few of the rules for women's basketball were:
1. Teams have six players each instead of five; three "forwards" and three "guards".
2. The court shall be divided into three equal parts.
3. Only forwards are allowed to shoot the ball. Forwards must stay in their teams' frontcourt (the side of the court they shoot from) and guards must stay in their team's backcourt. For example, Team A's forwards would be on the left side of the court with Team B's guards on defense. Team B's forwards are on the right side of the court with Team A's guards. Thus, forwards play only offense and guards play only defense.
4. Snatching and batting of the ball is not allowed.
5. Holding the ball longer than three seconds constitutes a foul.
6. There shall only be a three bounce dribble.
7. There may be five to ten players on one team.
You could not run or jump and could only dribble twice before you would have to stop and pick up the ball. Since guarding was only allowed on the vertical, there was no way to defend against a two handed overhead throw. Many coaches strategically had their players perfect that shot. Therefore, in 1921, to make the game fairer, a goal using this technique counted only one point instead of the usual two points. By 1925, goals scored by the one hand overhand throw, two hand underhand throw with back to the basket, and the shot put throw also only counted one point.
In 1922 an official team changed from five to at least six players. The maximum of nine players remained. As always, guards could not shoot. The Committee decided to let tie games stand. This rule was an effort to "minimize the emphasis upon winning and losing. In 1924 the official playing time changed from halves to eight minute quarters with two minutes between quarters and a ten minute halftime. No coaching could happen during the two minutes between quarters. Three time-outs of five minutes each had been available to each team since 1918; however, in 1925 these time-outs were also to be used for injuries. By 1926 five minute time-outs seemed unnecessary, so they revised the five minutes to two minutes, and the following year reduced the time-outs from three to two per game. Timeout for injury remained five minutes.
For more history of women's basketball, check out "A Century of Women's Basketball" by Joan S. Hult and Marianna Trekell at https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED336377.pdf
