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March, 1974: Women's national tournament at KSU

Back in the early days of collegiate women's basketball, KSU was among the leaders and hosted a national tournament.

KSU's women's team had finished 5th in 1973 and would take 6th in 1975.

Back then, the quality of play was not high - it was widely said that a decent boy's high school team could take the women's college national champions without a lot of trouble. But women hadn't grow up playing the game and playing it against other women so the comparison wasn't fair.

The women didn't get much respect. Aside from being forced to carry insulting names like "Wildkittens" - Wayland Baptist, an early power in women's basketball, was the "Hutcherson Flying Queens" - rumor was that men's coach Hartman did all he could to interfere with the women's team and deny them access to facilities.

How ironic that he later came out of retirement to coach them for the remainder of a season.

Attending KSU at the time I went to several of the games - an action that some of my male friends found very, very weird.

The tournament was won by Immaculata College - note their nickname.
Last modified 8/25/21; posted 3/12/11; original content © 2021, 2011 John P. Nordin