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Title :

Dust bowl girls : the inspiring story of the team that barnstormed its way to basketball glory / Lydia Reeder.

Title:

Dust bowl girls :

Author:

Reeder, Lydia

Format:

Books

Physical Description:

286 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm

Edition:

First edition.

ISBN:

9781616204662

Production / Publication Information:

Chapel Hill, North Carolina : Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, 2017.

General Note:

"Published simultaneously in Canada by Thomas Allen & Son Limited."

Contents:

New recruit -- The making of a coach -- The field house, 4 a.m -- A good shot maker believes in herself -- Choctaw town -- A man's sport -- Weak ankles and weaker nerves -- Barnstorm -- End game -- Babe Didrikson and the Golden Cyclones -- Guts and glory -- Next stop, Shreveport -- Brains, beauty, and ball handling -- A team that won't be beat can't be beat -- A hometown welcome.

Summary:

"At the height of the Great Depression, Sam Babb, the charismatic basketball coach of tiny Oklahoma Presbyterian College, began dreaming. Like so many others, he wanted a reason to have hope. Traveling from farm to farm, he recruited talented, hardworking young women and offered them a chance at a better life: a free college education if they would come play for his basketball team, the Cardinals. Despite their fears of leaving home and the sacrifices faced by their families, the women followed Babb and his dream. He shaped the Cardinals into a formidable team, and something extraordinary began to happen: with passion for the game and heartfelt loyalty to one another and their coach, they won every game. Combining exhilarating sports writing and exceptional storytelling, Dust Bowl Girls conveys the intensity of an improbable journey to an epic showdown with the prevailing national champions, helmed by the legendary Babe Didrikson. And it captures a moment in American sports history when a visionary coach helped his young athletes achieve more than a winning season"--

Bibliography note:

Includes bibliographical references, pages [267]-286.

Language:

English

Corporate Subject:

Oklahoma Presbyterian College -- Basketball -- History.

Personal Subject:

Babb, Sam, 1891-1937.

Harris, Doll, 1913-2001.

Subject Term:

Basketball coaches -- Oklahoma -- Biography.

Women basketball players -- Oklahoma -- Biography.

Basketball for women -- Oklahoma -- History.

Holds: Copies:

Available:*

Material Type	Library	Call Number	Item Barcode	Location
Book	Searching... Chelmsford Public Library	796.323/REED	31480010948989	Searching... Unknown
Book	Searching... Amesbury Public Library	796.323 REE	32114002345743	Searching... Unknown
Book	Searching... Andover - Memorial Hall Library	796.323 REE	31330008234910	Searching... Unknown
Book	Searching... Dracut - Moses Greeley Parker Memorial Library	796.323/REE	31482002742206	Searching... Unknown
Book	Searching... Hamilton-Wenham Public Library	Y 796.323 REE	30470001567378	Searching... Unknown
Book	Searching... Newburyport Public Library	796.323 REE	32128003515864	Searching... Unknown
Book	Searching... North Reading - Flint Memorial Library	796.323 REE	31550002217187	Searching... Unknown
Book	Searching... Salisbury Public Library	796.323 REE	32131000772413	Searching... Unknown
Book	Searching... Westford - J.V. Fletcher Library	796.323 REE	31990004393265	Searching... Unknown
Book	Searching... Wilmington Memorial Library	796.323 REE	32136003207846	Searching... Unknown

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Summary

"A thrilling, cinematic story. I loved every minute I spent with these bold, daring women whose remarkable journey is the stuff of American legend." --Karen Abbott, New York Times bestselling author of Liar, Temptress, Soldier, Spy

The Boys in the Boat meets A League of Their Own in this true story of a Depression-era championship women's team.

In the early 1930s, during the worst drought and financial depression in American history, Sam Babb began to dream. Like so many others, this charismatic Midwestern basketball coach wanted a reason to have hope. Traveling from farm to farm near the tiny Oklahoma college where he coached, Babb recruited talented, hardworking young women and offered them a chance at a better life: a free college education in exchange for playing on his basketball team, the Cardinals.

Despite their fears of leaving home and the sacrifices that their families would face, the women joined the team. And as Babb coached the Cardinals, something extraordinary happened. These remarkable athletes found a passion for the game and a heartfelt loyalty to one another and their coach--and they began to win.

Combining exhilarating sports writing and exceptional storytelling, Dust Bowl Girls takes readers on the Cardinals' intense, improbable journey all the way to an epic showdown with the prevailing national champions, helmed by the legendary Babe Didrikson. Lydia Reeder captures a moment in history when female athletes faced intense scrutiny from influential figures in politics, education, and medicine who denounced women's sports as unhealthy and unladylike. At a time when a struggling nation was hungry for inspiration, this unlikely group of trailblazers achieved much more than a championship season.

Reviews (5)

School Library Journal Review

In the early 1930s, Sam Babb recruited farm girls to play for his basketball team at Oklahoma Presbyterian College in Durant. At the time, most women's teams were sponsored by the companies for whom the players worked. Some, including Lou Henry Hoover, wife of President Herbert Hoover, thought that competitive sports were not an appropriate activity for young women. But Coach Babb knew that basketball helped participants develop critical thinking and good judgment. He also believed that a winning team could bring a whole community together and raise spirits that had been battered by the Great Depression. Reeder employs player interviews and scrapbooks to tell the true story of the Cardinals, who in 1932 became the first women's collegiate team to win the American Athletic Union's National Basketball Tournament. Her personable narrative is as much about the daily lives of the players as it is about the sport of basketball, and young adults will love details that bring the time and place to life (for example, because many of the players came from farms with no indoor plumbing or electricity, the hot water in their college dorm seemed extravagant). VERDICT Useful for curriculum support, this compelling offering makes for good recreational reading, too. Hand it to fans of A League of Their Own or to anyone who relishes a good sports underdog tale.-Hope Baugh, Carmel Clay Public Library, Carmel, IN © Copyright 2017. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Publisher's Weekly Review

In her comfortable, slightly husky voice, actor Wolf offers a warm, earnest narration of this inspiring story about a championship women's basketball team during the Great Depression. The coach of a tiny Oklahoma Presbyterian College sought out poor farm girls who showed athletic prowess in high school and offered them a free college education to play on his basketball team, the Cardinals. With a caring coach, fine teamwork, and high spirit, the young women overcome all the social strictures against female athletes and became the 1932 American Athletic Union national tournament champions. Wolf's expressive reading will keep listeners invested in this lost piece of Depression-era history. The audiobook will appeal to both adult and YA listeners. An Algonquin hardcover. (Jan.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

Kirkus Review

A former magazine editor tells the story of how, at the height of the Great Depression, her great-uncle trained a group of young women from rural Oklahoma to become college basketball stars.The son of a stern preacher father, Missourian Sam Babb survived a leg amputation in his teenage years to become a successful Oklahoma school superintendent. His career took an unexpected turn in the early 1920s when he decided to become a part-time high school girls basketball coach. By 1929, he had taken a full-time coaching position at Oklahoma Presbyterian College. On a recruiting trip to bring new talent to OPC, Babb discovered a poor farm girl named Doll Harris who, during the 1930-1931 season, would become his "star shot maker" and an All-American player. The team he built that year was good enough to win a sportsmanship trophy at the Amateur Athletic Union national tournament, but Babb believed they could do better. The following year, he recruited other talented girls with promises of scholarships and worked to create a national championship-winning team. With barely enough funding to keep the team going, Babb took his players on a barnstorming tour of the South to raise money. His OPC Cardinals won every game, including one against the reigning champions, the Dallas Golden Cyclones. In the meantime, Harris found herself in direct competition with sports phenomenon Babe Didrikson, the golden girl who knew how to charm fans and "leverage publicity" for her own benefit. As she tells the amazing story of Babb and his underdog women's basketball team, Reeder also reveals the challenges facing serious female athletes during the 1920s and '30s, including the perceived risk of "destroying their feminine image by invading a man's world." Sports fans and general readers alike are sure to find the story both worthwhile and entertaining. A heartwarmingly inspirational tale. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Booklist Review

One of the more unlikely national champions in U.S. sports history was the 1932 women's basketball team from tiny, financially strapped Oklahoma Presbyterian College. Coach Sam Babb, who, probably not coincidentally, taught Psychology 101 at the school, masterfully recruited talent, solicited funding for the program, created a culture of unselfish team play, devised unorthodox but effective basketball drills, and instilled in his players the self-assurance they would need in facing public opinion that largely considered basketball unladylike. And, more urgently, in facing (three times that season) the reigning national champion Dallas Golden Cyclones, led by legendary sportswoman Babe Didrikson. Author Reeder, Babb's grandniece, had access to such primary materials as player diaries, which reveal the players' relationships to one another and their coach, and to a dust-bowl era and region marked by serious hardship.--Moores, Alan Copyright 2016 Booklist

Library Journal Review

This is the story of an underdog women's basketball team from a small religious college during the Great Depression. Coached by the one-legged son of a preacher, the Cardinals of Oklahoma Presbyterian College took on the best amateur teams in the country, including the historically successful Texas Golden Cyclones and their leader, future Olympian Babe Didrikson. Unfortunately, the writing can be frustrating, despite the absorbing subject matter, with questionable scene re-creations that at times lapse into hagiography-the author is the coach's grand-niece. The reading by Virginia Wolf is adequate, but at times her attempts at accents grates. -VERDICT This is a fascinating history of a very different sports world that can't help but draw the listener in, despite its flaws. Recommended for fans of women's sports, history, Southern stories, and, of course, Sooners fans. ["This hidden gem of a story deserves a place in all public library collections": LJ 9/15/16 starred review of the Algonquin hc.]-Tristan Boyd, Austin, TX © Copyright 2017. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

1 New Recruit	p. 1
2 The Making of a Coach	p. 6
3 The Field House, 4 a.m.	p. 27
4 A Good Shot Maker Believes in Herself	p. 42
5 Choctaw Town	p. 56
6 A Man's Sport	p. 73
7 Weak Ankles and Weaker Nerves	p. 95
8 Barnstorm	p. 113
9 End Game	p. 133
10 Babe Didrikson and the Golden Cyclones	p. 153
11 Guts and Glory	p. 172
12 Next Stop, Shreveport	p. 193
13 Brains, Beauty, and Ball Handling	p. 209
14 A Team That Won't Be Beat Can't Be Beat	p. 233
15 A Hometown Welcome	p. 247
Epilogue	p. 256
Acknowledgments	p. 263
Notes	p. 267

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Bound With These Titles

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Summary

Summary

Reviews (5)

School Library Journal Review

Publisher's Weekly Review

Kirkus Review

Booklist Review

Library Journal Review

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