The next term was Six-on-Six. Taylor Anderson, an IGHSAU assistant director, asked the committee if any of us had played Six-on-Six before. My hand shot up as we had tried a game of it during basketball practice last season. “It was terrible,” I said. I immediately regretted this after I had said it, because Dr. Berger’s head whipped around and stared at me. “It was so difficult,” I instantly responded. I didn’t understand at the moment why she was so offended by my statement but soon she started explaining what Six-on-Six meant to her.
Six-on-Six had two courts, and three players of each team on a side. There were forwards and there were guards. Forwards job was to receive the ball from the other side of the court and try to score. A guard’s job was to defend this on the other side. There were rules like only two dribbles, one can only hold it for three seconds, and no contact with the opposing players in a certain area. Only forwards could shoot the ball and the guards never scored because they never crossed the half-court line. Anderson said, “My kids always think it’s crazy their aunt was All-State and didn’t have a career point.” But this was how the game worked. As Dr. Berger explained it, “People loved it because it was so fast-paced and offensively heavy.” Dr. Berger herself stated that she averaged 44 points a game her senior year and she wasn’t even in the top 75 girls in the state. Fellow player, Jan Jensen, of Kimballton, averaged 65.7 points per game her senior year. Most importantly though, Dr. Berger said, “It was ours, only ours.”
However soon the game wasn’t theirs anymore. People complained that their daughters were at a disadvantage in college basketball recruitment. At the next level, they only played Five-on-Five, so players coming from Iowa didn’t know how to play the game. So for a short time, Iowa Girls Basketball transitioned from Six-on-Six to Five-on-Five. This was an interesting period because they played both versions of the game and had two state tournaments for a while. Eventually, in 1994, the last game of Six-on Six was played and the union made the switch completely to Five-on-Five girls basketball.
Title IX was game-changing for girls’ sports in Iowa. Although Title IX was originally an educational funding degree, it changed the way girl’s sports were treated. Dr. Berger started by asking Anderson how many boys he had on average on a football team. Anderson responded with 60-70 boys. Dr. Berger looked at us and said, “What girl’s sport has that much participation?” She explained that although the school isn’t required to have that many girls on a team, they are required to provide for those numbers if there happens to be that much participation. She further explained this by telling a story about her daughter. Her daughter had played on Valley High School’s freshman basketball team and the school didn’t have enough uniforms for the girls that went out. This resulted in girls getting cut from the team. Dr. Berger herself went to the athletic director and asked why they couldn’t provide more uniforms. The athletic director responded with the excuse they didn’t have enough money. Dr. Berger then asked what would happen if this was the freshman football team and the AD immediately responded that there were plenty of uniforms for them. This was a violation of Title IX.
She further explained that there are three branches included in the bill. The three branches are transportation, facilities, and participation. As a committee, we sorted through all of the Title IX violations in our own schools. The feeling of anger and empowerment in the room was like no other. It was unbelievable how many violations had snuck in unnoticed for so many years. Title IX truly changed the way girl’s sports were treated and continues to have its effect today.
