I thought of it again while watching the KU women play Creighton the other night. I can't imagine their reaction if some dean just showed up at practice and told them they were no longer going to play road games.
And I'm assuming the Washburn co-eds were playing that dumb game of girls' basketball where there were six on the court at a time for each team. But there was no crossing of the half line and no more than 3 dribbles before the player had to pass. I played it this way in the sixth grade and it was incredibly boring. Standing at the half line waiting for a pass or making a pass to the three on the other side of the line. Counting your dribbles, etc.
The Washburn faculty gave the Washburn basketball girls quite a surprise yesterday. The girls were practicing in the afternoon at the YWCA gymnasium when Dean McEachron of the Washburn faculty came in and announced on behalf of the faculty that the girls’ basketball team would not be allowed to play out of town games this season and that each girl would have to have the written consent of her parents before she would be allowed to play basketball. These two regulations were decided on at a faculty meeting several days ago but Dean McEachron’s announcement yesterday was the first intimation that the basketball players had of the new regulations.
Dean McEachron’s announcement almost broke up the afternoon’s practice. The girls received the announcement very submissively but as soon as Professor McEachron left the gymnasium they had an impromptu indignation meeting. Several of the players announced that they would quit playing then and there but were finally persuaded to continue the practice.
It was all galling to the team, but they felt it was clear discrimination because at that time the 16 members of the football team were spending almost 10 days in Colorado to play not one, but two away games.
The players are very indignant. They think they are being discriminated against. The Washburn football and baseball teams are allowed to take strips of several days’ duration in the course of their seasons and the co-eds think they are not getting a square deal when they are not allowed to play out of town even when they do not miss any classes.
The women had a manager, but not really a coach. Among his duties was to find a woman on the Washburn faculty to chaperon their trips away from the school. Pliny Snyder, the manager, said,
 |
| I tried to find a photo of the Washburn women, but this was as close as I could come. It's a photograph of women that was on the track page of the 1908 KU yearbook. |
"Basketball is the only sport that the girls take any active part in. I cannot see the faculty’s object unless it be to entirely discourage basketball by the girls. It will naturally put a considerable damper on the girls’ interest in the game. I don’t know whether the team will play at all or not if it will not be allowed to play out of town games. I do not know of any provocation for such a ruling that has resulted from any of the trips. . ."
The players also claimed to be in the dark concerning the cause of the faculty’s restrictions. One of the players suggested that it might have been due to one of the girls saying Doggone it in the game with the Haskell girls. Which was played here last winter. However this was a home game and this suggestion was voted improbable.
The ruling against playing outside of Topeka means that Washburn cannot be considered in the state college championship games. Last year the Washburn team was the champion college girls’ basketball team of Kansas, having defeated every team which had a show for the honors and losing but one game. This year the Washburn team will be out of the championship race unless the faculty reconsiders its decision.
I haven't found all the stories for the rest of the year, but they did retain enough members to play at least one home game. According to the current Washburn's Women Basketball web site, they began playing basketball in 1969. Probably best to go with that.
No comments:
Post a Comment