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A photo from my 1974 Pawnee Rock Junior High yearbook. The ninth-grade girls basketball team.
The deal: Our high school closed in 1972. I was just starting 8th grade at the time. When I finished 8th, they added a 9th grade. The only girls sport was track.
Whether Title IX (which was enacted in June 1973) was the encouraging factor or not I don’t know, but in 1973-74, girls basketball came to Pawnee Rock.
Girls basketball was mainly for 7th and 8th graders, but we 9th graders begged for a team (and we borrowed the uniforms from the 7th/8th grade). We 9th graders played two games – we played Mullinville twice. Lost twice. 25-14; 19-14.
This was in the days before video cameras, so there’s no record of whether or not we looked like dorkezoids running down the court and flinging balls wildly at the baskets (I made a bizarre luck shot from above the top of the key.) But nevermind how we looked; we had fun.
Neato cool, No. 13. You had the best-looking socks! How’s your jump shot nowadays?
I imagine my jump shot is a little rusty these days.
I used to LOVE, LOVE, LOVE playing basketball. I’d go out in winter air, just to play basketball with my brother.