Girls’ Basketball at Oliver High

The young stars of the WNBA—Caitlin Clark, A’ja Wilson, Angel Reese, and others—have recent­ly trans­formed women’s pro bas­ket­ball into a high­ly pop­u­lar sport and prof­itable enter­prise. The game has flour­ished much longer at the col­lege lev­el. I espe­cial­ly remem­ber UK’s team of the 1980s with Lea Wise, Patty Jo Hedges, and All-American Valerie Still. They were excit­ing to watch. Clark County’s Lady Cardinals var­si­ty teams have been very suc­cess­ful over the past 13 years under coach Robbie Graham, who has led them to nine region­al titles. 

Girls’ bas­ket­ball at the high school lev­el began to take off in the 1920s. The first team at Oliver Street High School played in the 1920–21 sea­son under coach E. J. Hooper. The play­ers were Lena Bell, Rose Anna Franklin, Clementina Nelson, Lula Moore, Lodema Butler, Adlean Talbert, Rebecca Quisenberry, and Zellene Blye. The team’s nick­name was the “Red Caps.”  Game reports were sparse, only occa­sion­al­ly appear­ing in the “Colored Column” of the Winchester Sun.

Ernest Jackson Hooper (1900−1983) came to Winchester from Philadelphia.  He had a brief but bril­liant career at Oliver School, coach­ing boys’ bas­ket­ball, foot­ball, and girls’ bas­ket­ball (and teach­ing indus­tri­al arts). He left in 1925 for a teach­ing posi­tion in Louisville, then went to Indianapolis in 1928.

The girls played in long-sleeve blous­es, bloomers, and stock­ings. The leather bas­ket­ball had a seam with lac­ing, like a foot­ball.  Games con­sist­ed of four 10-minute quar­ters. There were dif­fer­ent rules in the 1920s, but I could find no con­sis­tent explanation. 

Few games got report­ed in the 1921–22 sea­son.  Most of the play­ers came back from the pre­vi­ous year, with the addi­tion of Hattie Bell.  Lula Bell was the team cap­tain and lead­ing scor­er.  In ear­ly February the team had won all six of its con­tests.  After that no more results could be found search­ing the Colored Columns.

In the 1922–23 sea­son, Hooper’s boys and girls bas­ket­ball teams both won Blue Grass League cham­pi­onships, and his foot­ball team played the pow­er­ful Lexington Dunbar to a score­less tie.  The boys’ teams were called the “Sheiks” and the girls were the “Sheiks’ Sisters.”

The girls lost only one league game in ten out­ings that sea­son. Based on the point sys­tem, the Sheiks’ Sisters totaled 109 and were declared league cham­pi­ons, while Lexington was run­ner-up with 37.  Lula Moore led the scor­ing for the sea­son with 43 points, fol­lowed by Lena Bell with 33, Zyllene Blye 17, Rose Franklin 10, and Naomi Madison 2. After the last game, coach Hooper added a com­ment about each of his players.

“Lula Moore is a capa­ble all-around play­er.  She has been used as a for­ward, as a guard, and at cen­ter.  She plays a hard, con­sis­tent game.  She is a bul­wark of strength both on the attack and defense.  She pos­sess­es an expe­ri­enced eye for the bas­ket, scor­ing 43 points for her team.  She deserves her posi­tion as captain.

“Lena Bell is a desir­able type of girl bas­ket­ball play­er.  While small of size, she has a world of speed, plays an aggres­sive floor game, piv­ots and drib­bles like a boy, and has a tact of get­ting on the ball.  She pos­sess­es a good eye for the bas­ket, although she did not make the most num­ber of scores.  To her cred­it are 33 points.

“At the piv­ot posi­tion was Rose Franklin.  Although she did not play in her form of the year before, she was a pow­er­ful asset to the team.  Her abil­i­ty to out­jump her oppo­nent gave the Sisters many an advan­tage over their opponents.

“Rebecca Quisenberry pos­sess­es many qual­i­ties which go to make her a desir­able run­ning guard.  She has speed, endurance and plen­ty of grit.  She was a tell-tale thorn in the sides of oppos­ing forwards.

“Mary K. Green is an ide­al back guard.  She was a moun­tain of strength on defense and with more expe­ri­ence will devel­op into a reli­able guard.

“Zellene Blye is com­ing on strong as a bril­liant per­former in the for­ward posi­tion.  She scored the third high­est num­ber of points for her team and played in only four out of ten games scheduled.

“There are oth­ers who will bear watch­ing next year:  Naomi Madison, Hattie Bell and Gertrude Strode.”