The Only Dance in Iowa: A History of Six-Player Girls' Basketball - Softcover

McElwain, Dr. David (Max)

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0803282990 ISBN 13: 9780803282995

Publisher: Bison Books, 2004

Synopsis

Iowa six-player girls’ basketball was the most successful sporting activity for girls in American history, at its zenith involving more than 70 percent of the girls in the state. The state tournament was so popular—regularly drawing fifteen thousand fans, more than the boys’ tourney—that officials declined a lucrative broadcasting offer from ABC’s Wide World of Sports rather than forfeit the Iowa Girls’ High School Athletic Union’s control of the game. The Only Dance in Iowa chronicles the one-hundred-year history of this Iowa tradition, long a symbol of the state’s independence and the people’s rural pride. Max McElwain shows how, well before the passage of Title IX in 1972, Iowa six-player girls’ basketball was, as Sports Illustrated gushed, “a utopia for girls’ athletics.” He also demonstrates how, ironically enough, the fallout from Title IX in many ways led to six-girl basketball’s demise.

 

Through interviews, careful ethnography, and detailed historical analysis, McElwain exposes the intricate political, sociological, and historical dynamics of this cultural phenomenon. His book reveals how six-girl basketball, flourishing with the passionate support of Iowa’s small towns, school districts, and media, came to represent the state’s strong traditional beliefs and the public school system’s determination to maintain its identity in the face of national educational trends. The Only Dance in Iowa is as much a study of this disappearing culture as of the game it claimed as its own.

About this title

About the Author

Max McElwain, an assistant professor of communication arts at Wayne State College, is a former sportswriter for several Midwestern newspapers.

From the Inside Flap

Iowa six-player girls basketball was the most successful sporting activity for girls in American history, at its zenith involving more than 70 percent of the girls in the state. The state tournament was so popular regularly drawing fifteen thousand fans, more than the boys tourney that officials even declined a lucrative broadcasting offer from ABC s Wide World of Sports rather than forfeit the Iowa Girls High School Athletic Union s control of the game. The Only Dance in Iowa chronicles the one-hundred-year history of this Iowa tradition, long a symbol of the state s independence and the people s rural pride. Max McElwain shows how, well before the passage of Title IX in 1972, Iowa six-player girls basketball was, as Sports Illustrated gushed, "a utopia for girls athletics." He also demonstrates how, ironically enough, the fallout from Title IX in many ways led to six-girl basketball s demise.

Through interviews, careful ethnography, and detailed historical analysis, McElwain exposes the intricate political, sociological, and historical dynamics of this cultural phenomenon. His book reveals how six-girl basketball, flourishing with the passionate support of Iowa s small towns, school districts, and media, came to represent the state s strong traditional beliefs and the public school system s determination to maintain its identity in the face of national educational trends. The Only Dance in Iowa is as much a study of this disappearing culture as of the game it claimed as its own.

Max McElwain, an assistant professor of communication arts at Wayne State College, is a former sportswriter for several Midwestern newspapers.

Edition details

• Publisher: Bison Books
• Publication date: 2004
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0803282990
• ISBN 13: 9780803282995
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 265