Traditions
Newhall residents greet their 1927 state champion girls’ basketball team.
1920 ushered in voting rights for women in the U.S. and girls’ state basketball tournaments in Iowa. Though girls’ basketball flourished in small, rural Iowa communities, wider disagreements about the appropriateness of girls’ participation in competitive sports led to the formation of separate athletic organizations to govern boys’ and girls’ sports in Iowa. Teams from Newhall (pop. 336) and Ida Grove (pop. 2206) won some of the first state tournaments sponsored by the newly formed Iowa Girls’ High School Athletic Union (IGHSAU) in the late 1920s. Small-town dominance would be threatened, however, as the century progressed and school consolidation in Iowa reduced the number of districts from over 4000 to less than 400.
Ida Grove High School girls' basketball team, 1928 state champions.
Sarah Alien Longchamp (Ida Grove), Girls' Sectional Tournament player's ticket, 1929.
Sarah Alien Longchamp (Ida Grove), Girls' State Basketball Tournament player's ticket, 1929.
Sarah Alien Longchamp's letter detailing Ida Grove's trip to Perry for the 1929 girls' state basketball tournament, where Ida Grove defended their 1928 championship title with victories over Pleasant Plain (21-18), Iowa Falls (30-18), and Perry (18-17).
1930 Whitten High School team with coach Melba Gardemann, who played on the 1927 state champion Newhall team and later coached at Conrad.
Coach Melba Gardemann's score book for Whitten High School's girls' basketball team, 1930.
Melba Gardemann's varsity sport letter from Newhall High School.