Coach Sam Babb was at the right pardine shifting interpretation of the universe in 1931, fueling the success of women's basketball.
The sport of basketball was invented in 1891 and the 1932 and 33' Oklahoma Presbyterian College women were arguably the toughest and best team in the entire realm of female sports, past or present.
Simple facts, the OPC Cardinals won 89 straight games, including two consecutive championships between 1931-34.' These Oklahoma college girls awoke at 3 a.m. during basketball season for practice in depression era America and were required to maintain a B average or higher.
The list of rules included eating healthy and no sweets during the season, although some players cheated by consuming one of the players' homemade fudge now and again to celebrate certain victories. Their measure of tenacity on and off the court has embedded coach Babb and his players into the heart of time itself.
Coach Sam Babb was 39-years-old in 1931 and previously the head coach of both the high school boys' and girls' basketball teams somewhere in Oklahoma, because the prior coach of the girls' team had sexual liaisons with one of the players while married with three children.
Babb was truly a good man, he wanted young women to succeed in life and basketball decades before women's sports were popular. Babb was the one who enforced the B average for all players on his team. Many of his players started life after college making $75.0 or more a week using their college degree. Earning nearly $400.0 a month in the 1930s after college was a fantastic start to a career, especially for a woman.
The first women's college basketball championship was played in 1926 and before the OPC women's rise to fame, the Dallas Golden Cyclones were the powerhouse team. By 1931, the Cyclones were often referred to as the Dallas Damsels, queens of the basketball universe.
The Dallas Golden Cyclones won the AAU championship in 1931. The following year, the Cyclones still had their 20-year-old staller stud, Babe Didrickson, named female athlete of the year by the Associated Press in 1931. Didrickson also set national records in track and field, including the 80-meter hurdles, javelin throw and the long jump.
Coach Babb for the Oklahoma Cardinals had his own star player in Doll Harris. Harris was not just a clutch shot maker, she was also the assistant coach much of the time. Harris also learned about fund raising and scheduling games. Fund raising for women's basketball in the early 1930s was an arduous task, yet coach Babb and Doll Harris got the job done.
On February 10, 1931, the Cardinals faced the Cyclones and their All-American player, Babe Didrickson for the first time as heavy underdogs on their home court, The Buzzard's Roast. Cardinals guard Hazel Vickers held the mighty Didrickson to six points, enroute to a 33-28 victory. Three days later, the Cardinals beat Dallas on their court 22-21, as 100 of their fans also made the road trip.
"Dust Bowl Girls" is a book I found by accident at one of the Santa Rosa libraries. and also details Indian life in Oklahoma in the 1930s. This book sparks interest and enlightenment, a solid five-star rating.
Give Doll the ball was often heard at The Buzzard's Roast.
Juanita 'Bo-Peep' Park, a sophomore guard for the Cardinals often drove the team bus and did many of the repairs.
College days or high school days, what does it matter? There're days that will forever be cherished in my heart. In remembrance of the sweetest friendship I have ever been part of-Toka Lee Fields. Fields wrote this in Doll Harris's yearbook. Yes, the players were nonblood family, and winners on and off the court.
Mark Izzy Schurr
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