Looking Back: Girls Basketball

by Marcia Napier, Grain Valley Historical Society

​    Last week I shared a photograph of what I believed to be the first football team at Grain Valley High School. So this week, I want to give equal time to girls sports.
     Again, I wish I knew more about this team. While I’m sure this was not the first girls’ basketball team, I think it was one of the early teams. Aunt Opal (Rumbo) graduated in 1925, and she told me there was not sports for girls when she was in school. My mother told me she played basketball all during high school, 1928-1932.
     According to a January 1932 newspaper the conference teams were different for the girls and boys.
     Grandview and Ruskin were apparently in the boys’ conference while Lee’s Summit and Raytown were in the girls’ conference standing. I suspect that may have depended upon which schools had girls’ basketball. We can only assume that the statistics being reported after two games.
     The players are (Left to Right) Betty Jane Bartlett, Isabelle Napier (my aunt), Imogene Sebolt, Edna Rowe,   Evelyn Bush, Artis Phillips, Margaret Ann Hutchings., Mildred Rumbo (my mother), Mary Chiddix and Merle Houston. Seated: Paul Farley, also the superintendent, and Luella Linewebber.
     And on a personal note, while Mary Chiddix appears to be the “star player,” my mother did have one basket.  On the other hand, I could not help but notice that my 5’8” dad was the top scorer on the boys’ team. Way to go, Dad!