NSAA girls state basketball tournament marks 50th year

By Eric McKay

NORFOLK, Neb. — This is a historic year for high school sports in Nebraska, the 50th NSAA girls state basketball tournament.

Eric McKay spoke with Greg Mays, the man behind the social media account “Suiting Up Varsity,” about the long and sometimes complicated history of girls basketball in the state.

“Yes, it was a big step for Nebraska,” Mays said. “Track got going early in the ’70s. Volleyball got going. Tennis got going. Basketball had an extra hurdle.”

Mays noted that while this is the 50th NSAA girls state basketball tournament, there were actually 2 girls state tournaments held in the 1920s. Those events were run by businessmen in Lincoln, held in Havelock.

In 1927, what is now the Nebraska School Activities Association voted to outlaw girls basketball.

“That was a result of a conflict that was happening nationally,” Mays said.

Mays said the debate in Nebraska centered on two influential women at the University of Nebraska, Mabel Lee, who led the physical education program for women, and Louise Pound, a prominent early athlete and advocate for competitive sports.

“Mabel Lee believed in athletic activity for women, but she believed it shouldn’t be competitive,” Mays said. “Louise believed in getting in and competing. They clashed.”

Mays said that philosophical clash mirrored a national debate over women’s athletics, and in Nebraska, Lee’s view prevailed.

Mays said girls basketball was outlawed in Nebraska following that debate. He said a rule at the time penalized schools whose girls teams competed, and that policy remained in place until the early 1970s.

“That’s one of the reasons Nebraska was late to the story,” Mays said.

Now, five decades after the first NSAA-sanctioned girls state basketball tournament, teams once again compete to make history.

Live coverage of select quarterfinal and semifinal games begins at 9 a.m. CT Thursday and continues through the Class B semifinals Friday evening on NCN.