Six-on-six basketball

Beginning in 1958 the Office of Civil Rights started looking at banning six-on-six high school girls basketball. It would take 37 years to phase it out. • 1978: Texas • 1993: Iowa • 1995: Oklahoma ==Notable personnel==

• Coaches: • Bertha Teague, Byng High School, Byng, Oklahoma. Won three straight state tournament championships in the 1930s (1936-1938), a record that was not equaled in Oklahoma girls' basketball until 1987 (now that Oklahoma has switched to five-on-five, and established multiple enrollment-based classifications in the sport—now seven—it has become easier to "three-peat"). She retired in 1969 after winning her seventh state championship that season. Teague had a winning percentage of .907 (1,136 victories, 116 defeats) over her 43-year coaching career. • Vernon "Bud" McLearn, Mediapolis High School, Mediapolis, Iowa. A 333-8 home court record (included home winning streaks of 97, 84, and 66 games). McLearn finished coaching with a 706-80 overall record. • Rose Marie Battaglia (NJ High Schools) • Players: • Molly Bolin, star of the early Women's Professional Basketball League, who averaged 55 points a game as a senior at Moravia High School. • Kelli Litsch, Thomas High School, Thomas, Oklahoma. Back-to-back state championships in 1980 and 1981, set a new state tournament scoring record of 338 points in nine games over three years, for a 37.6 point-per-game average. She led the Thomas Lady Terriers to 77 wins and only 9 losses over her three seasons, scoring a then-record (boys or girls) 3,364 total points. • Lynne Lorenzen, Ventura High School, Ventura, Iowa. Set the national high school girls' career scoring record with 6,736 points. For the 1986-87 season, she led her team to a 31-0 record and state championship. • Trish Head, of Henrietta, Tennessee. Head, like almost all Tennessee high school girls' basketball players, played the six-on-six game in high school before switching to the five-on-five code in college; in her first years after graduating, she helped her underclassmen transition from the six-woman game to five-on-five. Head would later become an illustrious women's basketball coach at the University of Tennessee better known under her married name, Pat Summitt. ==Notable games==

• In the 1968 Iowa girls' state high school championship game, Union-Whitten beat Everly 113-107 in overtime. Everly's Jeanette Olson scored 76 points and Denise Long of Union-Whitten 64. • Famous WFNZ Mac and Bone Show Caller "Granny"Pat O'Donnell went off for 67 points for Charlotte Catholic in a NC State Title game in 1900. - After this performance they implemented a rule where teams playing against "Granny Pat" were allowed an extra defender to even the playing field, fundamentally changing the format to 6 v 7. This rule was deemed the "Granny Pat Rule" ==New Jersey variation==

Until 1975, New Jersey also played 6-on-6 for girls High School basketball, however the rules were slightly different. In New Jersey, two players were offense only, two defense only and two were able to move freely on both offensive and defensive ends. Defense or offense only players could not move beyond their respective midcourts. In general, the best athletes were those playing both ends of the courts, while offense would usually have both an inside (big) player and an outside shooter type. Defense only players were usually taller players and used for rebounding purposes only. At the time New Jersey played 6-on-6 basketball, the game was primarily played in parochial schools. Among the powerhouse teams of the 1960s and early '70s were Mother Seton, Paramus Catholic, St. Vincent's Academy, St. Aloysius, Benedictine Academy and East Orange Catholic High Schools The two full court players are sometimes referred to as rovers. ==Legacy==

Six-on-six basketball has been chronicled in such media as the 2004 book ''The Only Dance in Iowa: A History of Six-Player Girls' Basketball by Max McElwain, and in the 2008 Iowa Public Television special More Than a Game: Six-on-Six Basketball in Iowa''. "Six-On-Six: The Musical", a show by Robert John Ford celebrating the sport's popularity in Iowa, debuted in 2009 at Hoyt Sherman Place in Des Moines. In January 2023, six-on-six basketball was the focus of an episode of the podcast 99% Invisible. ==References==