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2 Special teams
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Below is some information on 2 of the greatest teams to ever have played. The first is the Edmonton Grads (1915-1940) and the second is the All American Red Heads (1936-1986)
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A very important team in the early part of women’s basketball history was a team called the Edmonton Grads. And it was by accident that this team was ever formed.
In 1912 Percy Page arrived in Edmonton Alberta at the age of 25 and taught classes in the city high schools. He also coached a relatively new game, basketball. In 1914 he was put in charge of classes at a new school called McDougal Commercial High school. He also ended up coaching the girl’s basketball team.
While the Grads got some local attention, other then playing an occasional game from Camrose or Calgary, they attracted little outside attention. That was until 1922. The team above was invited to play the London Shamrocks in the first East - West final. This presented a problem for the Grads. The London sponsors could only guarantee 600 dollars for travel expenses. Coach Page figured it would cost $1,000. Each girl contributed $25.00 of her own and some local merchants kicked in the rest. Only 6 girls could make the trip. The Shamrocks were the "World Champions". Not much was put into the Grads chances. They played one game with girl’s rules and one with boy’s rules. The Grads lost the first, but then overwhelmed London 41-8 in the second game. They quickly became a household word, similar to that of the New York Yankees of baseball in the U.S.
In 1923 a typewriter company (Underwood) came up with the idea of sponsoring an international competition for girls basketball. Hence the Underwood trophy series was born. This was the equivalent of the Stanley Cup. The first series had the Cleveland Favorite Knits playing the Grads in the Edmonton Arena. The Cleveland Favorite knits wore their form-fitting jerseys and short shorts with the words "World Champs stamped across them, against the long woolen stocking and billowing bloomers that the Grads wore. The Grads let their play speak for them and they whipped the Knits in 2 straight games.
Shown above is what to believe a watch fob that belonged to one of the members, maybe even the coach of the Favorite Knits. This team went 54-6 that year (it is a bit hard to read the back). From then on, the Grads were recognized as World Champs. During the next 17 years, the Grads would play in 120 games in the Underwood series. They would end up with a 114-6 record.
Shown above is the 1932 Grads team that would travel to Los Angeles Ca. Basketball was still considered an exhibition at the Olympics during this era, yet that didn’t prevent the Grads from bringing teams with such captains as Winnie Martin (24 - Paris), Elsie Bennie (28 - Amsterdam), Margaret MacBurney (32 - Los Angeles), and Gladys Fry (36 - Berlin). During this span, the Grads would play 27 games in all. Their record was an amazing 27-0. They would outscore their opponents from other countries 1,863 to a mere 297 (for every 6 points the grads would score, their opposition would score 1. This would include beating Lille 61-1, Paris 109-20 and London 100-2. Even though this sport was still in an exhibition stage, countries would still send their best.
The Grads would go on to dominate up until 1940. Coach Page always remained in the background, but it was quite obvious, that while the ladies were the ones that took the court each time, his presence was a driving force. He always said they were to be "Ladies first, basketball players second". He did expect dedication as he would tell them "You must play basketball, think basketball and dream basketball". As the team became more successful the city gave the coach a brand new Chevrolet Coupe. Up until that point, he traveled by pedaling his bicycle around.
The Grads would end up playing the famous Des Moines A.I.B's for the Underwood Trophy (shown above in 1939). There were many famous AAU teams during this time and members from these AAU teams have gone on to the Women’s basketball hof.
The AIB's would win the AAU championship in 1942. However when they played the Grads in 1939 the famous ladies of Edmonton would sweep all 3 games against Des Moines by a total score of 171-78.
The Grads disbanded in 1940. The Underwood series trophy would be retired and given to the Grads, in honor of their dominance over 2 decades of the series. Attendence had started dropping off a bit, as the Grads could not find good competition on a regular basis, and the only news they would generate was when they lost. World War II had begun and the Royal Canadian Air Force had taken over the Edmonton arena.
Some of the final stats for the grads: Leading all time scorer was Noel MacDonald with 1,874 points. Margaret MacBurney would play the longest with 12 years. The team’s final record would be an outstanding 502-20 (Better then 96%). They would win a record 147 games in a row during one point that went across several seasons.
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The second team is called the All-American Red Heads (see link below for actual web site).
The Red Heads started in 1936 and played all the way until 1986. During this time American went from the Great Depression, World War II, Vietnam, Title IX, the AIAW and NCAA.
In the 1930s many women were enjoying women’s basketball at night on what is referred to as Industrial teams. Women would go to work for a company during the day. At night, many co-workers would get together and play for team sponsored by their company and play against other such teams.
Yet, there were no opportunities for women to play the game and get paid for doing it.
C.M. Olson was the owner of a famous men’s basketball team called the “Terrible Swedes” out of Cassville Missouri. His wife, Doyle owned some hair salons in the area. At night the women got together and would play some basketball. One day, they decided to use some henna and they colored their hair red before playing a game. It was the talk of the town and people started coming to watch these women. They were simply known as the Cassville Red Heads. Being an entrepreneur as well as a basketball player, Olson saw what was happening. He started to book his team, but instead of playing against other women with a 6 on 6 game, he had them play men’s teams and by their rules, a full court game.
The team was very successful on the court. Doyle had an All-American from the national champions Tulsa Stenos working in her saloon named Peggy Lawson. Peggy came up with the idea of changing the name to the All-American Red Heads and the name would remain from then on.
Olson would book the team to play all over North America. People like Bing Crosby, Bob Hope and others would attend their games.
With the ability for women to get paid for playing basketball, Olson continued to attract some of the top talent in the nation. 11 time all-American Hazel Walker (enshrined in the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame) would play for 3 seasons with the Red Heads before starting her own team, the Arkansas Travelers.
It was during this time that Olson hired a schoolteacher to coach the Famous Red Heads. Orwell (Red) Moore from Arkansas agreed to coach the team, along with his wife, Lorene. Orwell would coach until 1955, when he bought the team. Lorene would play for the team and would go on to score over 35,000 points. A record in women’s basketball.
During the early years of the team, the Red Heads would begin to add some fancy tricks, such as ball handling, shooting and passing. Each player on the team would have her own specialty. This could be from making 25 fouls in a row while on her knees, to an actual piggyback shot.
The Red Heads would go on to travel across the country through the 1986 season. By that time, Title IX had been passed for over a decade. The first AIAW National Champion Immaculata Might Ducks had been crowned and in less than a decade later, the NCAA would replace the AIAW as the organization to hold the national championships.
Below are some tidbits about the teams and players. Each one could easily be a story on to itself.
Teams:
The Red Heads would have 2 teams on the road for many years, sending one unit to the eastern portion of the country while the other would head up the Western Unit. For a period in the 1970s the popularity became such that 3 teams would traverse the countryside.
The teams would consist of 7 players. Many times one of the players was also the coach and she would handle both duties.
Players:
It took a special woman to be a Red Head. Many of the players came from the smaller towns of America. These women had a special passion for the game. Some would travel hundreds of miles with a family member to see a game and be given a try-out right on the spot. If the coach determined they thought the player had what it took, the player would go back to their vehicle, grab their luggage and leave with the team to head to the next game, not to return home for many months.
Traveling:
Players would arrive in Arkansas at the beginning of the season for training camp. Upon the start of the season the team would leave in the vehicle they would use all season. In the 1950s it was a station wagon. Each player would be given an assigned seat. Depending on which seat they were assigned, they were also given specific chores. Each day the players would rotate seats. Some of the seats had less leg room than others, so this was also a plus for some of the taller players to be able to stretch out a bit.
The team would travel up to 400 miles a day. On longer trips, sometimes the team would leave immediately after the game and signing autographs to get a jump-start on the trip. The teams would play every day and 2 games on Sunday. In the earlier years, the teams would even play on Christmas Day, as when the Red Heads came to town, it was a major event for some of the smaller towns in America.
Uniforms:
The uniforms would change many times throughout the 50 years. Satin uniforms with shorts were prevalent in the early years. Some of the uniforms would be green to offset the red hair. In later years there would also be black uniforms. In the mid 1950s a mid-riff showing red and white stripe uniform with red satin skort was worn. For a short time in the 1960s the team went back to green before the standard red and white stripe uniforms would make their appearance and remain for the following 2 decades. The later uniforms would be made by hand and when used with florescent lighting at halftime shows, they would appear to glow.
After games, the players would wash their uniforms in the bathtubs at the hotel.
The fans:
Every town has a story and this area is one of the most interesting to hear. Take the time when the team traveled to Alaska. The team was scheduled to play 3 games in a row in a small town with an Eskimo population of about 300. The townspeople had never seen anyone with red hair, never mind a whole women’s basketball team. The team was told 1 of 2 things would happen for the games. The entire town would show up each of the 3 nights to watch the women with their dazzling red hair, OR, there would be nobody in the stands at all. It came down to whether or not any of the Eskimo men would catch a whale that day. It may have been a few off days for the fisherman, but the stands were packed each night as 2 different cultures came together for the same reason, basketball.
A breakthrough in womens basketball history (shown above). After title IX, womens sports finally started getting the opportunity to show what it could do. Cyndi Meserve of Pratt Institute was the first woman in history to play in the NCAA (it was on a mens team at the time).
Pratt did not have a specific women's team. Cyndi saw a posting on a board about tryouts and went to tryout. When she arrived, she found out to her surprised (and the rest of the players) that she was the only woman.
Click here: Cyndi Meserve: First woman to play in NCAA to read her story
In the 1970's the famous battle of the sexes occured. Bobby Riggs played Billie Jean King in tennis.
Billie triumphed over Bobby. After that, the media tried to duplicate the popularity of the event. Shown above is Karen Logan and Jerry West.
The former 3 year All-American Red Head took on NBA great Jerry West in a shoot-out game of Horse on CBS t.v.
Karen beat Jerry and the next year was to play Oscar Robertson, but the event never came to a final product.
Contact the Author, John Molina
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