Traveling Through Time With the Shelby County Historical Society
     Feature Article on girls basketball. Topic: SPORTS
Written by Rich Wallace in March, 1997

1904 SIDNEY HIGH SCHOOL GIRLS BASKETBALL TEAM

Pictured below is the 1904 Sidney High School girls team.
Team captain Stella Burkhardt, star of the championship game, is on the far right.
Other known starters on the team are Jessie Binkley (second from the left),
Jessie Fry (third from left) and Lenita Reddish (third from right).
basketballteamgirlssidneyhighschool.gif (87529 bytes)

As the remaining high school basketball teams continue their quest for a state championship and the nation's 64 best college teams compete in the NCAA's 'Big Show', sports junkies everywhere will become addicted with the disease. Local communities fortunate enough to have a high school or college team involved will never forget the thrill of competing for the big prize. The residents of Sidney experienced their own version of 'March Madness' long before pundits recently coined the term. This is the story of those exciting times.

The local Kenton, Ohio newspaper reporter captured the excitement of the moment: "Never in the days of old did the winner of the Roman chariot race receive a greater ovation than did the Sidney girls basket ball team from 1300 wildly gesticulating spectators last night...in what proved to be the most exciting, nerve-racking enthusiastically cheered game ever played in this city." The scene was what many in Sidney at that time considered the state championship game for high school girls basketball. The year was 1904.

During those early years, girls' basketball was a far different game than the fast-paced, run and gun style to which we are accustomed today. The girls were always appropriately attired, which usually meant some form of bloomers or a dress. Because of the risks of physical exertion on such delicate frames, the rules for girls adopted in 1899 provided that the floor was divided into three sections. A player assigned to that section could not leave it. No player could dribble more than three times, and stealing the ball was prohibited. The halves were fifteen minutes each, with a ten minute 'rest' in between.

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