Wednesday, September 24, 2008

1958-59 Girl's Basketball




This is the team from 58-59.

I, as some of you, was not there to see the games that these women played, but I'll bet they were very good in the Bearcat tradition.

Coach Vandiver always seemed to have a great team in those years.

7 comments:

  1. Actually the only Baldwyn girl's (not politically correct) team of that era to go to the State Tournament in Jackson. Played together as a team very well.

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  2. Someone said that Irene Cheatham was a model and a basketball player most of her life. Is that fact?

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  3. This is one good looking bunch of girls. I was blessed growing up in this era.

    The Old man.

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  4. Hey, guys! They not only played good on the court, but they looked really good, too!
    Don't you agree???

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  5. They do look good and always seemed happy and full of smiles like this photo and had some good leaders. They didn't have a Maxine Lominick or Jane Arnold (holds record for most points scored in a game at BHS) type star but they played together as a team and went to State tourney.

    I digress but they were like the 1964 Boys overall State champion team with Gary Hart, Danny Bishop, Larry McKay and Gary Cooper in the way they passed the ball around. Doc had some good teams in his career.

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  6. Are all of these gals still living? I don't see any thing in the memorial list.
    Dale

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  7. Anybody remember when the Pekin, Arkansas girls' team came to BHS in the early '50s to play an exhibition game against our girls, using the new full-court Arkansas rules rather than the traditional half-court rules still in effect in Mississippi? Our girls were at a distinct disadvantage, since they were not accustomed to full-court play and were used to killing their dribbles after two bounces. Here's my poem about the games of those days:

    Girls' Basketball, 1950s Style

    Girls' basketball.
    Not women's. Not in the 1950s.
    That would come much later.
    And later still in Baldwyn, Mississippi.

    Half-court play only,
    forwards on this end, guards on that.
    Everyone a specialist, virginal.
    Unlike boys, who can do it all.

    Win or lose,
    you must never, never
    cross the dividing line.
    Know your place.

    Two dribbles only.
    Don't sweat.
    Sit out the menstrual cycle.
    Save your cherry for your husband.

    Cradle the ball in your arms
    like a baby.
    Swish two-handed set shots.
    But never dream of dunking.

    Robert Hamblin

    P.S. Of course women players do dunk the basketball these days. Who would've thunk it back in the 1950s!

    Bobby

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