Looking Back: 1932 Women’s Basketball

by Marcia Napier, Grain Valley Historical Society
 
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The November calendar photo for 2023 features a photograph of the 1932 Women’s Basketball team coached by Noel Wilkerson and Luella  Linewebber. The team was quite successful, winning the 1932 Conference Championship.
 
Research in an old newspaper tells revealed the teams in the conference were

• Boys – Buckner, Grandview, Ruskin, Grain Valley, Blue Springs and Lone Jack
• Girls – Grain Valley, Lone Jack, Raytown, Blue Springs, Lee’s Summit and Buckner. 

I find it interesting that the boys and girls played different teams but were in the same conference. Since Grain Valley did not have a yearbook until 1936 and athletic teams, musical groups and clubs were not always featured, it is really impossible to say who they might have played and beaten to become the Western Missouri Conference Champions!

I can tell you that girls’ games featured six players from each team. There were three forwards and three guards and each played half-court. I do recognize a few players, only because they stuck around Grain Valley and I knew them in the 1950s and beyond.

The team (left to right) Betty (Bartlett) Carpenter/Owens, Isabelle (Napier) Clark,( my dad’s sister, also known as Aunt Izzy), Imogene (Sebolt) Grossheider, and Edna (Rowe) Elliott. I do not know the girl holding the basketball but the two on each side of her were the Bush sisters, Evelyn and June. Since the newspaper listed June as the center, she is probably the one on the left. Aren’t centers usually the tallest player on the team? Next is Artis (Phillips) Rumbo. (Her first husband was mom’s cousin Jack, Uncle Porter’s son), Margaret Ann Hutchens, Mildred (Rumbo) Napier (I called her Mom!) Mary Chiddix and Merle (Houston) Costigan. Coach Wilkerson and Coach Linewebber are seated.
 
Note: Although this article is about the 1932 Girls’ Championship Team, I will point out that my father, a forward on the boys’ team was the high point scorer (8 points) as Grain Valley defeated Ruskin by a score of 17-15!