Basketball trailblazers ~ A century in the making. How basketball shaped local women’s sport.

Records from the Free Press archives indicate one of the earliest associations formed was in Oaklands in 1926. During the 1930’s the North East Catholic Ladies Association was also developed. 

 By the 1950’s, the sport’s popularity rose so much that a number of new associations had formed including Corowa and District Association, Rutherglen Basketball Association and Balldale and District Association.

Games were played in the winter on dirt courts on a Sunday afternoon with many spectators including football boys in attendance. In Corowa, matches were played in Ball Park and in Rutherglen, games were played in the area opposite to where the Rutherglen Information Centre building now stands. Reports indicate that games often got a bit rowdy showing just how competitive the sport was.

Originally, the game was played with a 32-panel, hand-stitched leather ball. The original uniform worn included long skirts, blouses, hats, knee-length bloomers and stockings favouring the myth that women should not overexert themselves in sport.

By 1956, rules and clothing had changed. The preferred uniform was a woollen box pleat tunic, a stiff-collared shirt, and shoes with a slight heel. The tunic was required to be seven inches from the ground when kneeling with regular checks carried out by the associations at the beginning of each season.

Over the years, the uniforms began to change to include lighter material and sandshoes like Dunlop Volleys being the popular choice for footwear. 

Despite the sport’s popularity in the area, for reasons unknown, women’s basketball was never well documented leaving Corowa local, and champion of the sport, Gwen Spencer to undertake the project of compiling the history. 

Ms Spencer began researching women’s basketball eighteen years ago. Over the years she has collected an abundance of photos and memories but still has many missing pieces of the puzzle to solve including exact dates of when the Corowa and District Basketball Association was formed.  

“I started researching when I realised there was no collection of the history. I couldn’t find anything and felt very disappointed that they history was being lost,” Ms Spencer said. 

“I’m particularly interested in finding information from 1964 up until 1970 when women’s basketball supposedly changed to netball. I can’t find anything for this period.” 

Ms Spencer is one of the only known local players of the time to receive a life membership for her contribution to the sport. 

From 1955 to 1965 she played basketball, starting at Wahgunyah before moving to Rutherglen where she played for the Rutherglen White team before starting the Rutherglen Roo’s club. 

“It was great fun and very competitive,” she said. 

History shows that during the late 1950’s to early 1960’s, the Rutherglen Roo’s and the Corowa Ex-Students teams were the most dominant two teams facing each other year after year in the finals. 

Corowa local Ivy Hendrick played for the Corowa Ex-Students during the 1950’s, 1960’s and 1970’s.

“The name of the team changed several times over the years but team itself mostly stayed the same. Heather Eggleston was our captain,” Ms Hendrick said.  

“It was very competitive. We had a fantastic captain and fantastic goalie as well. We won plenty of premierships too.

“I loved the game. It was my life for a very long time!” 

Ms Hendrick remembered great crowds with Free Press articles also reporting “bus loads” of spectators attending local matches. 

“They would take a basket and blanket to games and people would donate money to pay for things like umpires who would travel from Wangaratta and Albury,” the 82-year-old said. 

“We played down at Ball Park, over at Wahgunyah near the preschool, in Rutherglen and even JC King Park (Albury).” 

Norma Rippingale also played women’s basketball in Corowa for St Mary’s. At the time, during the 1940’s and early 1950’s, St. Mary’s was the only Corowa team. 

“I don’t remember much, but I do remember we won the competition in 1951,” she said. 

“I do remember we wore a green cotton tunic, white t-shirt, and plain white sandshoes. We were a pretty good team too!” 

Ms Rippingale finished playing basketball in the early 1950’s. 

“I loved the game. It was wonderful,” she said. 

“We used to follow the football boys and attend their games on a Saturday, but we weren’t connected with the club at the time.” 

The sport would continue to play an important role in Ms Rippingale’s life with her children and grandchildren playing netball.

Sandra Drum played Rutherglen Roos in the years following Gwen Spencer from 1961 to 1969.  She also played in the Hume League out at Balldale in 1970 and 1971 after she was married.

“I loved it. There were not a lot of options for sports at the time unlike nowadays,” she said. 

“You always looked forward to it because it was the only sport you could play in the winter. 

“We were well supported by family and friends each weekend and the crowd numbers would really pick up during finals. 

“We got the very first junior competition started around 1968 with young primary school aged girls which was really exciting.” 

In 1970 ‘Women’s Basketball’ was officially renamed to netball in Australia and New Zealand. The organisation become the “All Australia Netball Association” and subsequently “Netball Australia” in the 1990’s. 

It took some years for small country clubs to catch on with the new name but by 1975, most local teams were referring to the game as netball. 

While the recorded history of women’s basketball is sparse, the incredible legacy of the game is proven with the sport of netball today having the highest level of female participation of any team sport in Australia.

If anyone has any local basketball history to contribute to Gwen Spencer’s research, please contact 0418 590 372.