Delphos St. John's Celebrates 50 years of girls basketball

[Blue Jay Fan]

Delphos St. Joh's is celebrating 50 years of girls sports this year. On Sunday, January 29 the Blue Jays will hold their basketball Celebration Game hosting Lima Central Catholic at 4:00pm. Nearly 100 former coaches, players, managers, trainers, cheerleaders, etc... will return home to The Vatican to celebrate this milestone and cheer on the 50th team.

DSJ started girls sports in the 1973-74 with volleyball, basketball and track and field and the full support of the administration, staff and students. Jan Stover coached the varsity and JV of all three sports the first two years. The first basketball season the 'Jays went 0-4. There are no records for volleyball or track. The basketball program has won five state titles and has more than 700 wins in their 50 years.

Below is our first basketball team in 1974. Freshmen were not eligible for high school sports until 1976.

Celebrate YOUR girls sports teams!!!

A link to DSJ girls basketball records. http://alumni.delphosstjohns.org/basketball_girls/dsj_girls_records.pdf

 

[gcfqn]

Good job! I had no idea that Freshman weren't eligible to play.

 

[Blue Jay Fan]

Good job! I had no idea that Freshman weren't eligible to play.

I had no idea either until I started to do some research for an article. Thanks. I think every school should celebrate 50 years of girls sports, whenever that is for them. Girls sports are going through a bit of a rough stretch at the moment and we need to show our appreciation for the young ladies that are putting for the effort.

 

[Blue Jay Fan]

More than 80 alumni players and coaches gathered today to celebrate 50 years of DSJ girls basketball and cheer on the Blue Jays. An inspired Blue Jay squad took down rival Lima Central Catholic 52-44. First coach Jan Stover and eight of her players from 1974 was in attendance today. A whole lot of fun today.

 

[gcfqn]

i got this from the OHSAA website:
In September of 1939 a referendum was submitted to the schools to decide whether or not basketball would be continued as a girls sport. By a margin of 2-1, the voting schools opted to discontinue interscholastic basketball for girls as of September 1, 1940. This, in turn, led to the discontinuation of all interscholastic athletics for girls in Ohio.


It would be another 25 years before interscholastic athletics for girls would begin their return, and 10 years beyond that before the girls would start getting their own state tournaments. (Oddly enough, there are now a total of 22 state tournaments, 11 for the boys and 11 for the girls.)

 

[D4fan]

Good job! I had no idea that Freshman weren't eligible to play.

I recall a coach who played his college basketball at UD back in the mid 50's telling me Freshman could not play varsity college D1 ball and they actually carried a JV college team for all freshman and a few sophomores.

 

[D4fan]

I just looked it up and was surprised it was an NCAA rule that no Freshman were allowed to compete in varsity athletics for any sport . The rule was changed in 1968 for all sports except football and basketball. Five years later when title IX came in freshmen were allowed to play in all sports.

Surprised I was to find out a few schools still carry JV squads. I think it said North Carolina is one that does.

 

[gcfqn]

The great Jerry Lucas and his fab teams were on the JV as Freshmen because of the old rule.

 

[Mr. Slippery]

i got this from the OHSAA website:
In September of 1939 a referendum was submitted to the schools to decide whether or not basketball would be continued as a girls sport. By a margin of 2-1, the voting schools opted to discontinue interscholastic basketball for girls as of September 1, 1940. This, in turn, led to the discontinuation of all interscholastic athletics for girls in Ohio.


It would be another 25 years before interscholastic athletics for girls would begin their return, and 10 years beyond that before the girls would start getting their own state tournaments. (Oddly enough, there are now a total of 22 state tournaments, 11 for the boys and 11 for the girls.)

I recall seeing that while doing a newspaper microfilm dive. In my neck of the woods, the only schools that had girls basketball in the '20s and '30s were the small rural schools. The city schools and exempted village schools around here didn't field any girls teams.

The earliest evidence I can find of my school having fielded any kind of girls interscholastic athletic teams comes from 1963 when they competed in the inaugural Stark County girls track meet. They won the meet with major contributions coming in the form of victories in the 50 yd. dash, the softball throw, and the running broad jump (later known as the long jump). Interestingly, the young lady who won that 50 yd. dash was Renee Powell who was an athletic pioneer on a variety of fronts. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Renee_Powell

Her father Bill Powell was the first African-American to design, build, own, and operate a golf course in the U.S.A. Located east of East Canton, Clearview Golf Course (est. 1948) is on the National Register of Historic Places.