The Sports Journal

The following story appeared in the November 15th edition of The O’Colly. Normally, I’d give you a link to the Web site now, but due to an internal feud, the paper’s content is not currently available online. Lucky for you that I’m posting it here.

On an April afternoon in 1901, a crowd of puzzled spectators would look upon something they’d never seen before.

It was the annual Field Day, a day of athletic competition at Oklahoma A&M begun in 1898 that featured running and biking contests. The day was highly anticipated for the student body, but onlookers weren’t prepared for the final event.

A group of Aggie women were playing basketball.

Women had never before participated in Field Day events, yet here they were on an outdoor basketball court of dirt.

Basketball itself was still a novelty, an innovation of Dr. James Naismith less than a decade old. Many of the people in Stillwater that day had never seen the game before.

The crowd’s confusion would turn to enjoyment as it watched the women play. The A&M sophomores beat the juniors by a score of 10-9.

The conclusion by most spectators was that basketball was a woman’s game. Six years would pass before the first men’s team was formed in 1907.

The phenomenon would only grow from that first April afternoon, as the women of OAM started a tradition of female athletics older than statehood itself.

Basketball would become a regular sport, played in the autumn and winter. The women mostly competed against each other or high school girls, and they maintained a solid fan base as they honed their skills at the young game, as reported in a 1902 edition of The College Paper:

“The basket ball game between the college and high school ladies, which was played on October 11, was well attended and much enthusiasm was displayed on both sides.

“The game was characterized by the number of fouls on both sides, but with more practice the teams will have less of this. The playing of the college team was all that could be expected, and we feel sure that before long it will make an excellent showing.”

Sexism still dominated many people’s views of the women’s attempts to legitimize their sport. The women were still judged as much by their domestic skills as their athletic ability, stitching their own uniforms—black dresses with crimson trim.

In the winter of 1904, the basketball team played Kingfisher in Oklahoma A&M’s first female sports game against another college, but the preview in the Stillwater Democrat read:

“The college basketball team will pull hair with the Kingfisher team at this place next Wednesday. Everybody should turn out and see the girls scratch.”

The women had more to deal with than sexism. The early basketball games were often played outdoors, including the game against Kingfisher, which was set at the College Athletics Grounds on a chilly November afternoon.

But the Aggie women won in spite of it all, triumphing 18-4 and founding a winning tradition.

Decades later, what these women started would grow exponentially.

In 1972, Congress would pass Title IX legislation, prohibiting gender discrimination at any educational institution receiving federal funding. For the first time, universities had to include women’s sports teams.

At Oklahoma State, many female sports teams were started around this time, including golf, tennis, field hockey, gymnastics and track teams.

The forerunner to them all, however, was women’s basketball. Long before legislation compelled that everyone be allowed the opportunity to compete, a small group of women set out to show their own athletic talent.

Their efforts on a court of dirt more than 100 years ago sparked a legacy of determination that lives on and grows stronger everyday.