No other game captured the interest of Kentucky high school girls during the early 20^th century like basketball.  Audrey Peterson was the winning coach of the 1932 Woodburn High School state basketball tournament.  Coach Peterson trained her girls’ team to win and to follow the same rules that boys did—full court and unlimited dribble—unlike other girls’ teams  The coach’s remarkable record evidenced the training, discipline, skill, and confidence that she taught her female athletes.  It paid off and they won!

  But it was their last win.  The Kentucky High School Athletic Association abandoned the state tournament for girls.  There was no state tournament until 1975, when the Kentucky Legislature mandated that the state tournament be re-established for girls.  Until the 1970s schools could choose whether or not to even have sports teams for girls, and most chose not to.  In 1972, federal legislation called Title IX mandated that institutions receiving money from the federal government treat both genders equally in the programs and activities that they provide.  This legislation applied not just to sports, but all activities.  But it meant that schools had to provide equal opportunities for female athletes. 

Visit Appalshop's Web site to find out how to order a copy of Girl's Hoops, an Appalshop film directed by Justine Richardson.

Learn more about Title IX at the KY Dept. of Education’s Division of Equity site and the University of Iowa Gender Equity in Sports project Web site.