Chisholm, R H

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The Palimpsest

Iowa Girls\u27 High School Athletic Union

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Volume 31 | Number 2 Article 3
2-1-1950
Iowa Girls' High School Athletic Union
R H. Chisholm
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Chisholm, R H. "Iowa Girls' High School Athletic Union." The Palimpsest 31 (1950), 57-64.
Available at: https://ir.uiowa.edu/palimpsest/vol31/iss2/3
Iowa Girls’ High School 
Athletic Union
Most states do not have organized basketball 
for girls. The growth of strong state high school 
groups for boys has advanced rapidly since the mid­
dle 1920 s. With the increase in organized boys’ 
sports we find a decrease in the strength of girls' 
athletics — except in Iowa.
Iowa’s prep organization began in 1923 as the 
Iowa High School Athletic Association with 
George A. Brown as secretary. This body con­
ducted both girls’ and boys’ activities until 1925, 
when it decided at a meeting in the old Central 
Presbyterian Church in Des Moines that competi­
tive sports before crowds that paid admission was 
good only for the boys of Iowa, not for the girls.
Two well-remembered speeches were delivered 
at this momentous meeting. Speaking against the 
girls’ sport, one opponent said in effect: “I coached 
girls’ basketball once, and my conscience has both­
ered me ever since for the harm I might have done 
the girls.” For continuance of the girls’ game, 
John W. Agans, then superintendent at Mystic, 
shouted: “Gentlemen, if you attempt to do away 
with girls’ basketball in Iowa, you’ll be standing in 
the center of the track when the train runs over
IMyou!
57
58 THE PALIMPSEST
John W. Agans’ remark proved prophetic. 
His statement was colored with strong emotion, 
for those who supported boys’ athletics to the ex­
clusion of girls’ cannot be considered as “run 
over.’’ Their program has grown proportionately 
as well or better than the girls’. Happily, where 
bitter rivalry once prevailed harmony and cooper­
ation now exist between the two groups. For the 
first time since the rift in 1925, the boards of both 
the Iowa High School Athletic Association and 
the Iowa Girls’ High School Athletic Union were 
able to work out a complete tournament program 
for 1950 with no conflict existing between the two 
series of tournaments.
After the meeting in Central Presbyterian 
Church, about twenty-five school men, the major­
ity from small towns, met in a corner of the church 
and decided to begin the new girls' organization. 
The pioneer board members appointed at this time 
were M. M. Mclntire of Audubon, Claude W. 
Sankey of Ida Grove, and the fiery John W. Agans 
of Mystic. Since no one from northeast Iowa was 
present, A. W. Clevenger of Waverly was later 
appointed to the board to round out the four-man 
committee.
The fifteen men who have served as directors 
on the board of the Iowa Girls’ High School Ath­
letic Union between 1926 and 1950 from the four 
districts into which Iowa was divided are shown 
on the accompanying table.
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The men who have served on the Union’s board 
have been unusually able in their leadership. 
Girls’ basketball was not yet well established in 
1926 and a catastrophic depression was soon to 
add to their woes. As superintendents and prin­
cipals, they were leaders in their communities and 
they found their home towns solidly and enthusi­
astically in favor of continuation of the sport.
Many were distinguished coaches. M. M. Mc- 
Intire had coached Audubon to four state cham­
pionships from 1921 to 1924 inclusive. Agans 
also coached good teams, and is today, at 75, the 
oldest active coach in the state. Ray Mclntire 
coached at Gray; Hagan — for a period during 
the war — at Allerton; Moe at Lake Park; Diddy 
at Minburn, West Bend, and De Soto; and 
Chisholm at Gray. Agans coached teams to the 
state tournament from Hiteman and Mystic, Chis­
holm from Manilla and Exira, Sanders from Plo­
ver and Gruver. Board members who have 
coached state champions, since tournaments were 
sponsored by the Union in 1926, are: O. H. Rut- 
enbeck, from Avoca, 1931; Lovell Diddy, from 
West Bend, 1939; John H. King, past chairman, 
from Numa, 1941; and Kenneth E. Amsberry, 
from Steamboat Rock, 1943.
During 1930-1931 a movement gained some 
headway to combine again the boys’ and girls’ or­
ganizations. The proposal failed because of the 
solid alignment of larger high schools and colleges
60 THE PALIMPSEST
ALLERTON 1926 TEAM COACHED BY P. H. JARMAN
ALLERTON 1925 TEAM COACHED BY P. H. JARMAN
COON RAPIDS GIRLS' TEAM OF 1922
KAMRAR STATE CHAMPIONS OF 1948
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19
42
IOWA GIRLS' ATHLETIC UNION 61
against competitive girls’ basketball. The girls’ 
association was in no financial position to hire a 
full-time secretary and George A. Brown mean­
while had resigned to give all his efforts to the 
boys’ association. The Girls’ Union then decided 
that each of the four board members would serve 
as part-time secretary every four years.
By 1947 the association had grown to such an 
extent they found it necessary to employ a full­
time executive secretary. Then it was that R. H. 
Chisholm of Exira, board member from Southwest 
Iowa, was appointed to the post. Iowa is the only 
state whose volume of business necessitates the 
employment of a full-time person, with office staff, 
to conduct the affairs of girls’ athletics. The office 
has been in Des Moines since its inception in 1947.
The men who have directed the Iowa Girls’ 
High School Athletic Union have exhibited un­
usual ability and initiative. In 1939, as an out­
growth of a conversation held at the national wo­
men’s A. A. U. basketball tournament, the first 
complete rule book was published for girls’ high 
school interscholastic basketball. Sam Nuzum, a 
sporting goods salesman, wrote the first rule book. 
A revised edition was published each year with 
Nuzum as editor and rules interpreter. In 1941 
the Girls’ Union bought Nuzum’s copyright but 
retained him as editor until 1947, when the Union 
bought Nuzum’s rights and appointed R. H. 
Chisholm as editor and interpreter.
62 THE PALIMPSEST
Previous to 1939, Iowa girls followed the A. A. 
U. rule book supplemented by a single sheet of 
differences, published each year. Until 1934 the 
game was played in three courts; two forwards, 
two guards, and a running or “side” and jumping 
center. Perhaps the greatest major change was 
made when the game went to two courts with three 
forwards and three guards. This eliminated cen­
ter jumping and started play with the referee 
throwing the ball to a girl in the center circle in 
what is known as the “center toss.”
In 1941, another major change developed in the 
guarding rule. Previously, a player was not per­
mitted to tie up the ball or knock it from an oppo­
nent’s grasp under any circumstances. The 
change permitted a guard to secure the ball or 
strike it from the opponent when the latter was 
in the act of shooting. Many opponents of this 
revolutionary rule argued that scoring would be 
lowered, but since passage of the change, for­
wards have developed more finesse in avoiding 
their guards and the average scores for games 
within the past few years have mounted.
The 1950 rule book attempts to coordinate boys 
rules and girls’ regulations in every respect in 
which a phase of the game not peculiar to girls’ 
basketball is not involved. The reasoning behind 
this is that most Iowa officials referee both a boys' 
and a girls’ game on the same program. The plan 
makes for more uniformity of officiating. In spite
IOWA GIRLS' ATHLETIC UNION 63
of this, we find listed in the 1950 rule book about 
thirty differences in the boys’ and the girls’ game.
In 1943 a Girls’ Basketball Yearbook (then 
named “Scrapbook ”) was started by R. H. Chis­
holm at Exira. This was a record book of past 
years; it also featured the current season in pic­
ture and news story. The publication was ab­
sorbed by the Girls’ Union as an official publica­
tion in 1949. Within six years it has grown from 
18 to 148 pages. In 1945, the Yearbook editor 
also started a column devoted exclusively to the 
girls’ sport. Since then thirty Iowa newspapers 
have subscribed to “With the Queens of the 
Court.’’
The Iowa Girls’ High School Athletic Union 
has developed and improved other services. A 
scholarship loan fund has been established. 
Schools of instruction for coaches and officials are 
financed; a library of books on all sports is avail­
able to coaches; official rules examinations are con­
ducted; and a clearing house for officials, coaches, 
and teachers is maintained. In addition to the pub­
lication of the rule book and Yearbook, the Union 
publishes brochures on basketball, books on play- 
situations of the game, and semi-annual bulletins 
of official business which are sent to each member 
school and registered official. It also furnishes 
sound movies on basketball and on physical edu­
cation which are available to all schools. The 
members of the executive committee are always
64 THE PALIMPSEST
available for talks at athletic events; the editor of 
the rule book is conducting seventeen rules talks 
during the 1949-1950 season; while three extra 
rules clinics and coaching schools have been ap­
proved in addition to the five already sponsored.
The Union subsidizes the sectional and district 
tournaments; pays all expenses of the teams par­
ticipating in the state tournament; provides all 
insurance and supplies for the tournaments; and 
furnishes 128 trophies in the sectionals, 48 tro­
phies in the districts, and 4 large trophies in the 
state tournaments. Each girl receives an emblem 
and identification bracelet from the Union. Free- 
throw tournaments give some 1,300 girls on losing 
teams an opportunity for recognition.
Other states — Tennessee, Texas, Oklahoma, 
Arkansas, New Mexico, South Dakota, and Wy­
oming — have received help from the Iowa Union. 
For the first time in any state, the Union, through 
the newspapers and radio stations, is conducting 
a bi-weekly poll of the girls’ coaches to select the 
outstanding teams in each district. With all these 
services, the Union is probably the only school 
organization in the state which has not raised its 
dues since its formation in 1926. Member schools 
pay $1.00 annual dues plus a $2.00 entry fee.
R. H. Chisholm


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Iowa Girls\u27 High School Athletic Union

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