31 passes and a half-court set shot, nothing but net (SLTY)
March 11, 2015 7:27 PM Subscribe
What did basketball look like during the great depression? No bounce passes. Underhand freethrows. An actual key-shaped "key." Halftime scores of 4 (home) to 6 (visitors). Live footage of "the rubber band legs of Thorton's single male cheerleader." I'm addicted. 1932 through 1936 Illinois High School Association basketball tournaments footage
It's like some bizarre alternate universe version of basketball
posted by DoctorFedora at 7:55 PM on March 11, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by DoctorFedora at 7:55 PM on March 11, 2015 [1 favorite]
My grandma was the power forward for Bosworth, MO's high school girls' basketball team in the early 1940s. My grandma has never been taller than 5', but there were five girls who were willing to play basketball at her high school in Bosworth, and she happened to be the most enthusiastic of them all. Girls played half court, probably because there were no substitutes on her team, and they wore really excellent uniforms. No cheerleaders for their team, though, which still irritates her - there were cheerleaders for the boy's team, and that just wasn't fair.
posted by ChuraChura at 8:04 PM on March 11, 2015 [2 favorites]
posted by ChuraChura at 8:04 PM on March 11, 2015 [2 favorites]
I suspect you'd have a similar reaction to early baseball, but by the time film was around the game had already evolved to a point where it was essentially the game of today (and thus stats can be compared to some degree). I've played on vintage ball teams and with 1860s rules, not only do fielders not have mitts, but you can get an out if you can catch the ball on the first bounce.
posted by ursus_comiter at 8:06 PM on March 11, 2015 [2 favorites]
posted by ursus_comiter at 8:06 PM on March 11, 2015 [2 favorites]
I'm surprised this exists from such an early era. I'm not sure whether I'm underestimating the development of film technology or the importance of high school basketball in making that statement.
posted by jacquilynne at 8:20 PM on March 11, 2015
posted by jacquilynne at 8:20 PM on March 11, 2015
Navy pilots in the forward elevator well playing basketball." Jumper at left identified as Gerald R. Ford. Attributed to Lt. Victor Jorgensen, ca. June/July 1944. 80-G-417628.
posted by clavdivs at 8:28 PM on March 11, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by clavdivs at 8:28 PM on March 11, 2015 [1 favorite]
Apparently the guy who created March Madness was randomly from central Illinois and became an IHSA administrator. The IHSA was founded in 1900 and only Wisconsin has an older high school sports organization, and Illinois hosted the first statewide basketball tournaments.
They managed to get special exemptions from gas rationing to run tournament buses during the war because they were such a big deal, but they also managed to hold out against girls' sports until Title IX passed in 1972 even though interscholastic girls' basketball games were already occurring in Illinois in 1900.
posted by Eyebrows McGee at 8:34 PM on March 11, 2015 [1 favorite]
They managed to get special exemptions from gas rationing to run tournament buses during the war because they were such a big deal, but they also managed to hold out against girls' sports until Title IX passed in 1972 even though interscholastic girls' basketball games were already occurring in Illinois in 1900.
posted by Eyebrows McGee at 8:34 PM on March 11, 2015 [1 favorite]
I found myself in the small Illinois town of Hebron last fall (northern, not central) and was surprised to find the water tower painted like a basketball. Plus, each streetlight in the downtown area had a backboard and hoop on it, painted with the name of a local business. Commemorating a championship in the 1950s, not the 30s, but anyway they're still talking about it.
on preview: looking up 'most athletic president,' you usually find Gerald Ford at #1, ironic because Chevy Chase used to stumble all over the place on TV imitating him. For one thing, he was a key member of a University of Michigan football team that went undefeated two years in a row, winning two national championships in the 1930s.
posted by LeLiLo at 8:52 PM on March 11, 2015 [1 favorite]
on preview: looking up 'most athletic president,' you usually find Gerald Ford at #1, ironic because Chevy Chase used to stumble all over the place on TV imitating him. For one thing, he was a key member of a University of Michigan football team that went undefeated two years in a row, winning two national championships in the 1930s.
posted by LeLiLo at 8:52 PM on March 11, 2015 [1 favorite]
Reminds me of how much gymnastics and ice skating have developed from simple bounds and leaps and twists to things that you need a high-speed camera to really understand.
posted by not_on_display at 8:58 PM on March 11, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by not_on_display at 8:58 PM on March 11, 2015 [1 favorite]
Gerald Ford was a center, which means his butt was in the quarterback's face, and the QB from Michigan gave a very amusing quote about how he knew the president from a whole different angle.
Ford actually has a crazy life story -- his mother fled across state lines (allegedly on foot, at night) with him when he was two weeks old to escape his abusive father (who allegedly tried to kill them all with a butchers knife) ... back when fleeing the state could get you away from custody actions. She married Gerry Ford Sr. when Gerry Jr. was two and they changed his name to Gerry Ford Jr, and Sr raised him as his own son. His biological father turned up hoping for money and/or fame when he heard Jr got a football scholarship to Michigan and Jr was basically like, "Fuck off, my dad rocks." Ford Jr, mom Dorothy, and Ford Sr when Ford was elected to the House.
In short Ford had a crazy-ass fairytale of a life that WHY HASNT DISNEY ALREADY MADE THIS MOVIE? Things were shitty, his brave mother rescued him, his loving father took him in and loved the shit out of him, he became a football hero and then President, seriously why are we watching movies about this Cinderella bitch?
posted by Eyebrows McGee at 9:09 PM on March 11, 2015 [6 favorites]
Ford actually has a crazy life story -- his mother fled across state lines (allegedly on foot, at night) with him when he was two weeks old to escape his abusive father (who allegedly tried to kill them all with a butchers knife) ... back when fleeing the state could get you away from custody actions. She married Gerry Ford Sr. when Gerry Jr. was two and they changed his name to Gerry Ford Jr, and Sr raised him as his own son. His biological father turned up hoping for money and/or fame when he heard Jr got a football scholarship to Michigan and Jr was basically like, "Fuck off, my dad rocks." Ford Jr, mom Dorothy, and Ford Sr when Ford was elected to the House.
In short Ford had a crazy-ass fairytale of a life that WHY HASNT DISNEY ALREADY MADE THIS MOVIE? Things were shitty, his brave mother rescued him, his loving father took him in and loved the shit out of him, he became a football hero and then President, seriously why are we watching movies about this Cinderella bitch?
posted by Eyebrows McGee at 9:09 PM on March 11, 2015 [6 favorites]
I wonder what soccer would look like if you had a shot clock.
posted by halifix at 9:15 PM on March 11, 2015 [2 favorites]
posted by halifix at 9:15 PM on March 11, 2015 [2 favorites]
The basketball clips are fantastic and eye-opening -- the play scarcely resembles today's game -- but far and away the best thing about this is the "Electronic Basket Ball Indicator". (~5:50 into the first video) Way cooler than a nerf hoop!
For someone like myself who sees so much of the world through the lens of sports, the game footage gives me a reactionary view of "back then, everything is so staid, slow, formulaic." It takes those shots of the 'EBBI' or the slapdash cinematography of the 'huddle shot' (~6:45 in the first video) help me relax my knee-jerk judgements: in it's own way, there's a playfulness or a creativity present, if not so much between the lines of the basketball court.
Though I will admit that behind-the-back pass at ~8:15 would be blowing up Vines in the NBA blogosphere if it happened 80 years later.
posted by Theophrastus Johnson at 9:26 PM on March 11, 2015
For someone like myself who sees so much of the world through the lens of sports, the game footage gives me a reactionary view of "back then, everything is so staid, slow, formulaic." It takes those shots of the 'EBBI' or the slapdash cinematography of the 'huddle shot' (~6:45 in the first video) help me relax my knee-jerk judgements: in it's own way, there's a playfulness or a creativity present, if not so much between the lines of the basketball court.
Though I will admit that behind-the-back pass at ~8:15 would be blowing up Vines in the NBA blogosphere if it happened 80 years later.
posted by Theophrastus Johnson at 9:26 PM on March 11, 2015
that behind-the-back pass at ~8:15
My favorite part is the defender frustratedly slamming the ball on the ground back to center court. Even at such low resolution you can see the anger and confusion in his body language over having been hustled so thoroughly.
posted by GrumpyDan at 9:47 PM on March 11, 2015 [1 favorite]
My favorite part is the defender frustratedly slamming the ball on the ground back to center court. Even at such low resolution you can see the anger and confusion in his body language over having been hustled so thoroughly.
posted by GrumpyDan at 9:47 PM on March 11, 2015 [1 favorite]
What struck me was how often tiny towns were important at the state championship level. Canton, Athens (pronounced Aythens), even Equality of all places! Nowadays it's all big schools, Chicagoland suburbs or other cities like Peoria and Rockford.
posted by Harvey Kilobit at 10:01 PM on March 11, 2015
posted by Harvey Kilobit at 10:01 PM on March 11, 2015
... how often tiny towns were important at the state championship level.
The classic example, of course, being Hoosiers (set in the 1950s), from the next state to the east.
posted by LeLiLo at 10:52 PM on March 11, 2015 [1 favorite]
The classic example, of course, being Hoosiers (set in the 1950s), from the next state to the east.
posted by LeLiLo at 10:52 PM on March 11, 2015 [1 favorite]
seriously why are we watching movies about this Cinderella bitch?
posted by Eyebrows McGee
Well, Ford did have an uncredited role as a float prop.
posted by clavdivs at 11:18 PM on March 11, 2015
posted by Eyebrows McGee
Well, Ford did have an uncredited role as a float prop.
posted by clavdivs at 11:18 PM on March 11, 2015
Apparently the guy who created March Madness was randomly from central Illinois and became an IHSA administrator.
This is great because my dad would go to the IHSA state tournament every March when I was a kid, when things like my dad being gone for the weekend was a Big Deal (sometimes my mom would go with him so it was Super Big Deal), and he'd return with his plastic March Madness glasses as souvenirs that I cherished, and as I got older, I felt silly for thinking that March Madness was a term the rest of the country stole from Illinois.
How wonderful to learn little Mike was right all along.
posted by MCMikeNamara at 4:49 AM on March 12, 2015
This is great because my dad would go to the IHSA state tournament every March when I was a kid, when things like my dad being gone for the weekend was a Big Deal (sometimes my mom would go with him so it was Super Big Deal), and he'd return with his plastic March Madness glasses as souvenirs that I cherished, and as I got older, I felt silly for thinking that March Madness was a term the rest of the country stole from Illinois.
How wonderful to learn little Mike was right all along.
posted by MCMikeNamara at 4:49 AM on March 12, 2015
I'm not sure whether I'm underestimating the development of film technology or the importance of high school basketball in making that statement.
A bit of both, really. By 1932 (the oldest clip in the video) Hollywood was several years into the sound era. It wasn't that unusual for civilians to have their own (usually 16mm) movie cameras. It wouldn't be at all unusual for organizations such as the IHSA to have a camera, too.
As for the importance of basketball...It's the midwest. Basketball, especially during state tournaments, was a big deal. The aforementioned Hoosiers, does a pretty good job of relating just how important a school's basketball team was to the entire town.
posted by Thorzdad at 5:15 AM on March 12, 2015
A bit of both, really. By 1932 (the oldest clip in the video) Hollywood was several years into the sound era. It wasn't that unusual for civilians to have their own (usually 16mm) movie cameras. It wouldn't be at all unusual for organizations such as the IHSA to have a camera, too.
As for the importance of basketball...It's the midwest. Basketball, especially during state tournaments, was a big deal. The aforementioned Hoosiers, does a pretty good job of relating just how important a school's basketball team was to the entire town.
posted by Thorzdad at 5:15 AM on March 12, 2015
H.V. Porter: basketball coach, occasional poet, early adapter of technology, meticulous title card crafter. I've definitely found this week's historical crush.
posted by MCMikeNamara at 5:56 AM on March 12, 2015
posted by MCMikeNamara at 5:56 AM on March 12, 2015
My favorite part is the defender frustratedly slamming the ball on the ground back to center court.
I also liked that, and laughed how he's not getting a technical foul (or the 1930's equivalent) for delaying the game because there's a jump ball to restart after every basket! Kinda like soccer in the post-score, trudge back to the center of the court.
posted by Theophrastus Johnson at 7:34 AM on March 12, 2015
I also liked that, and laughed how he's not getting a technical foul (or the 1930's equivalent) for delaying the game because there's a jump ball to restart after every basket! Kinda like soccer in the post-score, trudge back to the center of the court.
posted by Theophrastus Johnson at 7:34 AM on March 12, 2015
My mom played six-on-six basketball in the 1950s, which is really an odd variant of the game to modern eyes. The rules divided each team into three "guards" and three "forwards"; only the forwards were allowed to shoot, and the guards to play defense.
Here's the 1950 Iowa Girls State championship, featuring six-on-six play.
posted by touchstone033 at 8:49 AM on March 12, 2015 [1 favorite]
Here's the 1950 Iowa Girls State championship, featuring six-on-six play.
posted by touchstone033 at 8:49 AM on March 12, 2015 [1 favorite]
It's like some bizarre alternate universe version of basketball
Either that, or ACC hoops circa 1972.
posted by sixpack at 4:03 PM on March 12, 2015
Either that, or ACC hoops circa 1972.
posted by sixpack at 4:03 PM on March 12, 2015
I'm grateful that comments have been disabled on the YouTube video.
posted by snottydick at 2:21 PM on March 17, 2015
posted by snottydick at 2:21 PM on March 17, 2015
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posted by Eyebrows McGee at 7:42 PM on March 11, 2015 [1 favorite]