CHICO — Women’s basketball took headlines this year to the delight of many fans, and the barriers to achieving that attention can be traced to Chico State since the earliest days of the sport.
The official list of Chico State women’s basketball coaches begins in 1969, but the start of basketball at the university can dated to the earliest record of a team in 1896, according to Don Alger, former Chico State chemistry professor and author of “A History of Women’s Basketball at Chico State 1896-2016.” He spoke Saturday morning as part of the fall lecture series hosted by the Chico History Museum.
Around the turn of the 20th century, the nature of competition was discouraged in women’s basketball, according to Alger. Universities would mix and form teams, eliminating “the spirit of competition and violent play,” and courts at the time were divided into six, nine or even 11 sections, each with one player.
“They played the first game, they were spraining ankles and women were grabbing hair. It was brutal game. … new rules (were made) to solve the question of physical trauma that women endured,” Alger said.
Don Alger, who lectures for Chico History Museum, presents a photo of the 1902 Chico Normal School basketball team during his lecture about his book “A History of Women’s Basketball at Chico State 1896-2016” on Saturday, Sept. 14, 2024 at Chico History Museum in Chico, California. (Michael Weber/Enterprise-Record)
Chico State Wildcats Ciarah Michalik, Kaila Woo and Jordan Allred joined the lecture, and said they would play no such game today with such restrictive rules and an attitude supporting the idea of women’s fragility.
“Comparing it to the game now, it’s not even the game of basketball at all,” Woo said.
Alger said women’s basketball on the West Coast was off to a great start in 1896 — the year of first basketball game between two colleges, UC Berkley and Stanford University. Men’s basketball gained popularity in December 1891, and women’s just one month later in January 1892.
But as women’s basketball came to Chico State, a national attitude on women’s sports and pushes to discourage intercollegiate competition made its way to the university, according to Alger. Ideas of “women’s fragility” spread in the late 1800s, and sports authorities discouraged competitive play “to avoid physical roughness.”
“The two ideas — to protect the wellbeing of women, because they’re kind of fragile creatures,” he said jokingly, “and no competition except with just friends — prevailed for many years.”
Rigidity reversed
Few records were kept in the early days of basketball, save a few photos, but Alger said he believes the sport was killed by 1925, when a record in the Chico State yearbook said women’s basketball was cancelled “to avoid the sacrifice of an individual’s health for the sake of her participation in athletic competition.”
Alger cited as an example of exclusion in women’s sports how Cora Covey, Chico State’s women’s sports director in 1920, encouraged games like merry-go-round and handkerchief pickup. Traveling for sports competitions was also discouraged.
By the 1930s, opportunities opened — “not competition,” Alger said, “but interscholastic play. … They wouldn’t have interscholastic games against Stanford and Berkley, they would have play days or field days or sports days.”
Left to right, Chico State women’s basketball coach Brian Fogel, Wildcats Kaila Woo and Ciarah Michalik, Chico History Museum lecturer Don Alger and Wildcat Jordan Allred pose for a portrait Saturday, Sept. 14, 2024 at Chico History Museum in Chico, California. Alger presented a lecture at the museum on his book, “A History of Women’s Basketball at Chico State 1896-2016.” (Michael Weber/Enterprise-Record)
Rigid rules were in play, according to Alger, and play days were universal across the United States for 20 or 30 years.
But in 1938, Jane Shurmer — namesake of Chico State’s Shurmer Gymnasium — directed a movement towards adding interscholastic competition. Shurmer reportedly thought the idea of female fragility “was a bunch of junk,” as Alger put it.
Alger said games were played, but scores were not recorded consistently. From 1946 to 1970, Chico would compete against about 12 schools — and finally, by 1971, Chico State women’s basketball players could compete in their first conference.
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A line of coaches would carry women’s basketball going from 1969 to the current head coach, Brian Fogel, who also attended the lecture. Alger highlighted some local Chico State stars, including Marisa Bradley, Alexa Benson-Valavanis and Maddie Wong among others.
Michalik, who saw players and coaches who came before her, said “pretty much everyone that (Alger) brought up who played for Chico, it all came back to their discipline, and their commitment all came from playing a sport.”
Alger’s lecture on Saturday is the first lecture in a fall series at the museum, located 141 Salem St. The second, “What Shall We Do For Fun This Weekend? Entertainment Ventures in 20th Century Chico,” is scheduled Oct. 19. A list may be seen at chicohistorymuseum.org/events.
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