Iowa Girls 6-on-6 Basketball: Title IX Brings Change to Girls High School Sports

“Title IX” is the name of a Federal law established in 1972 that required schools to offer similar educational opportunities to men and women, including sports. This allowed many girls in high schools across the country to participate in sports. In Iowa, this change marked the beginning of the end for the unique sport of girls 6-on-6 basketball. This segment from Iowa PBS’s More Than a Game: 6-on-6 Basketball in Iowa documentary includes interviews from a reporter, governor and player.

Narrator: In the small schools, girls played on equal terms with boys, but when it came to the big schools, girls weren't so lucky. For decades young women in urban areas had watched with envy as their small-town counterparts were literally having a ball. Title IX would change that.
 
Chuck Offenburger, Iowa writer: Through the late '60s and early '70s, when the six-girl game was at its zenith of popularity in Iowa, you could begin to see in the large schools the girls were demanding the opportunity to play because they had seen these games at vets auditorium. They had seen how much fun the small-town girls were getting to have, and they weren't getting to do any of this in the large schools and they were just furious about it. They really felt denied.
 
Narrator: In 1972 congress passed Title IX, legislation that required equal treatment for women and men in schools. It took a while for the ruling to be applied to sports, but finally in 1975, girls everywhere were allowed to participate in athletics.
 
Robert D. Ray, Iowa Governor 1969 - 1983: It changed the complexion of things. Of course, it forced, almost, larger schools, which were not participating in girls' basketball and other sports. I know my own high school, Roosevelt, finally got with it. They just couldn't put it together before, but once Title IX was adopted, they had no choice. They had to do something to make sure girls had equal and fair opportunities with boys.
 
Lynne Lorenzen-Ward, Ventura H.S. (1983-1987): I looked at mom, and I was, like, "Title IX, what is that?" they were, like, "equality of women." I'm, like, "I never knew there wasn't equality of women." Women were lifted up. Young girls were lifted up. We were lifted up in a way -- It wasn't exploitation. We were lifted up to be role models for future young women, strong women.

Narrator: ironically, Title IX would ultimately bring about the demise of six-on-six basketball in Iowa. In 1983 three high school girls filed a lawsuit against the Girls' Athletic Union claiming six-on-six was not equal to the boys' five-on-five game. In what many consider an ingenious move, the Girls' Athletic Union and its board of directors decided to offer both options, allowing schools to decide which game their female athletes would play. In 1985 the first five-on-five state championship was held, along with a separate tournament for the six-player games. For a few seasons, six-on-six girls' basketball continued strong while the five-player game was played to smaller crowds. Eventually, though, there began to be a shift. More schools were choosing five-on-five, as girls felt their chances for playing college ball would be greater. Finally in 1993, The Iowa Girls' High School Athletic Union voted unanimously to end six-on-six once and for all.
 
E. Wayne Cooley, Executive Secretary, IGHSAU 1954 - 2002:  We did not make the change because of pressure from the media, not because of coaches, not from superintendents or principals of high schools, not because of the general public pressure. The pressure that we could not handle came from the girls themselves, the high school students that were playing basketball at that time.