Challenges
A second wave of American feminism prompted important social, legal, and cultural challenges in the ‘60s and ‘70s – and girls’ basketball in Iowa was not exempt from their effects. Opportunities to play basketball at the collegiate level expanded due in part to the passage of Title IX, and the state welcomed the Iowa Cornets, a franchise of the short-lived Women’s Basketball League. While colleges and the Cornets featured the newly adopted five-player full-court game, it would be over a decade before the IGHSAU sanctioned the transition in its high schools. However, a successful legal challenge by Ruthven basketball standout Jane Christoffer Rubel in 1971 forced a reversal of the Union’s policy of excluding girls “associated with a marital status or motherhood” from play and signaled changing times ahead.
Jane Christoffer Rubel was prohibited from playing basketball on the Ruthven team in 1971 after getting married and having a child. Faced with Rubel’s lawsuit, the IGHSAU reversed its decision and allowed her to play.
Appendix "A" of the Jane Rubel lawsuit; a letter from Ruthven Consolidated School District informing Jane Rubel she was ineligible to play high school girls' basketball due to IGHSAU by-laws.
Julie Goodrich (#5), a multisport athlete at Adel High School in the 1970s, was on the state runner-up Tigerettes basketball team in 1973. Goodrich went on to play basketball at Iowa State University.
Molly Van Venthuysen Bolin, a Moravia Mohawkette, earned the nickname “Machine Gun Molly” for her shooting skill. She was the first player signed by the Iowa Cornets and played for other professional women’s teams after the league folded.
After playing high school basketball for Ankeny, Rhonda Penquite earned all-American honors at Oral Roberts following seasons at Grand View College and UNLV, and played professionally for the Iowa Cornets. In the 1980s she returned to Oral Roberts University as the head coach of the women’s basketball team.