July 21, 2012: Everly’s welcome sign. I mentioned Everly’s unique nickname in a 2015 blog post and someone has set up a website about the Cattlefeederettes’ six-on-six history.
With the girls’ state basketball tournament starting, I though I would share an idea for what in a far-fetched world would be a “30 for 30” type sports special: The Queen and Her Court.
It would be about Iowa’s six-on-six girls’ basketball tradition, but about more than that. It would also be about the buildings themselves, how they influenced student life and the way the sport was played and what effects those old gyms had on players and fans. How many gyms currently used for high school games on a regular basis, or any games, still have the special in-bounds line? (This isn’t necessarily a rhetorical question. I’m curious.)
In reality, something like this is more suited for Iowa Public Television. The thing is, IPTV has recently done it…sort of. My idea sounds a lot like what you’d get from a mashup of “More Than a Game” and “Lost Schools.”
With some schools using sales-tax and PPEL money to build new/larger gyms, and others closing, the number of active or available Iowa gyms that once hosted six-on-six games is continually decreasing. There’s more uniformity in design now. The landscape for high school sports has changed so much that the rationale for having separate boys’ and girls’ athletic organizations is questioned. (The existence of the IGHSAU is a testament to Iowa’s belief in what, for much of the 20th century, was a progressive or even radical concept — that girls should be allowed to play basketball.)
The upcoming year would be the best time to put together such a show because 2018 is the 50th anniversary of Iowa’s “greatest game ever played” (Union-Whitten 113, Everly 107) and the 25th anniversary of the last six-on-six tournament in Iowa history.
August 2, 2016: A view of the Walnut school complex.