Iowa's Unique Take On Basketball - Girls 6 on 6

Wednesday night I was flipping the channels at the laundromat & came across a special on IPTV about a unique part of small town Iowa when I was growing up that is no more, 6 on 6 girls basketball. & while it may have been played elsewhere as well, Iowa's 6 on 6 was like nothing else arround.

Part of what made it unique in Iowa was the fact that Iowa was the 1st state to have High School teams for a woman's sport. 6 on 6 started in Iowa in 1898. & even more unique, until the 70s it was basicly a small town sport. Yes, rural iowa was far ahead of the rest of the state in allowing women to play sports of any kind.

OK, so many of you are saying what made 6 on 6 so unique. Obviously, the game had 6 players rather than 5. Why? Because each team had 3 forwards (offense) & 3 guards (defense). The players had to stay on their side of the court. The forwards were the ones who scored & the guards were the ones who tried to stop them. You could only dribble twice before you had to pass the ball. But as 1 woman said in the special these rules made you have to think & plan ahead a lot more. 1 other thing, the ball was smaller.

Again, what made 6 on 6 so unique? Well, lets go back to the fact that it took off in small town Iowa. & there you have it, it was small town, farm community pride at its best. As someone who grew up in a farm community I can honestly say that while we had pride in our other teams, it was girls basketball that ruled in some ways. Yes, we had boys basketball, so did the big cities. Yes we often had football & wrestling teams, again, so did the big cities. But, as I already mentioned until the 70s, 6 on 6 was almost uniquely small town Iowa.

We took huge pride in both our girls & boys BB teams. & when 1 of them went to state, even for 1 game, a huge number of us went with them. & for those of us who couldn't, the local radio station made sure we got coverage. & every area had 1 local TV station that would preempt network programming for the finals.

Here is a bit from another documentary that says what 6 on 6 was for those who played better than I can.

To this day it is an Iowa 6 on 6 player that holds the national record for the most career points scored in high school basketball, Lynne Lorenzen from Ventura High School with 6,736 points. For the 1986-87 season, she lead her team to a 31-0 record & the state championship. Then there was the game that had the highest HS varsity game total scoring. It happenned at the 1968 Iowa girl's state high school championship game. Union-Whitten beat Everly 113-107 in overtime. Everly's Jeanette Olson had scored 76 points & Denise Long of Union-Whitten 64.

The demise of 6 on 6 was probably inevitable. But, despite what some radical feminists may thing, 6 on 6 was truly a part of giving women true liberation.

These days 6 on 6 is seeing a bit of a revival. The Iowa Summer Games had 6 on 6 as a part of its 2010 games. They used the 1989-1993 I.G.H.S.A.U. rules with modifications will be used for the two court division. Click here for rule modifications and reminders.

Then there is SIX-ON-SIX: THE MUSICAL. here is a video from




OK, at times things did get a bit corny at the state Tourney as this video shows, but that is part of what made Iowa, Iowa.

Finally, Iowa is the home to Granny Basketball. They are seeing that 6 on 6 is not forgotten as well as giving those women who have fond memories of the game a chance to relive their youth.

OK, I doubt 6 on 6 will see the revival it deserves, still too many radical feminists that don't see it for what it was, an opportunity for small town girls to develop pride, skills & get recognition they so richly deserved & never would have gotten otherwise. & withoput it Iowa wouldn't be unique in another way. As the Iowa Girls High School Athletic Union points out on their website the IGHSAU “is the only organization in the nation solely devoted to interscholastic competition for girls. Over 70,000 students participate in IGHSAU sponsored events.”

For another take: Athletes in Iowa – The impact of 6 on 6 Iowa girls’ basketball

There is also a book about 6 on 6, The only dance in Iowa: a history of six-player girls' basketball written by Max McElwain