Sports Broadcaster Jim Zabel Describes Covering Iowa Girls 6-on-6 Basketball in the 1940s
In this segment from Iowa PBS’s More Than a Game: 6-on-6 Basketball in Iowa documentary, sports broadcaster Jim Zabel describes covering the sport in the 1940s.
Transcript
Narrator: For sportscaster Jim Zabel, girls' six-on-six basketball was love at first broadcast. He started covering the state tournaments for WHO radio in the late 1940s when they were still being held at the Drake fieldhouse.
Jim Zabel, Sports broadcaster, News Radio 1040 WHO: It wasn't that big. It wasn't as big as veterans auditorium was, which I guess would seat 13,000 maximum. Out there I think you had maybe 4-5,000. They were lined up around the edge and they were crammed in there from all different angles. When I'd broadcast, I sat on top of a box and I fell off a couple of times because I got so excited. We'd be on the rim up there looking down at the floor, so it was packed right to the gills. You had the cheerleaders. You had the fanfare. You had those high, shrill voices of the young girls screaming and hollering. I loved it. It was great.
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