KinSource - Tale of the Week - St. Paul Central Tastes Of Defeat

KinSource

Minnesota Tales

The Minneapolis Tribune, March 8, 1902, p. 5

ST. PAUL CENTRAL TASTES OF DEFEAT.

Minneapolis Central Girls Defeat Down River Team 16 to 9.

Game Was an Exciting One, Miss Grygla, Minneapolis, Injured.

In an exciting game, the equal of which has seldom been seen in St. Paul, the Minneapolis Central girls' basket ball team defeated the St. Paul Central high school aggregation, yesterday afternoon, at the latter school's gymnasium, by a score of 16 to 9. From the moment the ball went into play until the referee's whistle blew at the close of the contest, both teams were continuously in the game. It was a nip-and-tuck struggle throughout, and the best team won.

Near the close of the second half Miss Grygla, of the Minneapolis team, was struck in the right jaw by one of the St. Paul girls, and was obliged to quit the game, Miss Genieve Wales taking her place. This was the only serious accident, although with few exceptions every member of both teams was badly bruised and scratched.

The ball was in play less than one minute when Miss Wales, of the Minneapolis team, threw a goal. She repeated this performance twice in quick succession. Miss Pringle, of the St. Paul team, then brought the ball down the field and scored a very difficult basket. Miss Wales then did a like turn for her team, and Miss Ohage repeated the trick for the Saints. Just before the whistle for the close of the first half blew Miss Van Bergen scored another goal for the Minneapolis girls, making the score 10 to 4.

The second half was closely contested. Spectacular runs and throws were numerous throughout this half, and before either side scored time was almost up. In the last five minutes of play the St. Paul team scored two baskets and one free throw and the Minneapolis girls two goals, making the score 16 to 9 in favor of Minneapolis. The line-up was as follows:

Minneapolis Central		St. Paul Central
Britana Streeter......	center	......Lillian Goodenow
H. Van Bergen......	forward	......Ursela Pringle
Gertude Wales......	forward	......Louise Ohage
Hazel Brown......	guard	......Minnie Beyer
Grace Grygla......	guard	......Gladys Bracley
Genieve Wales

Referee, L. F. Jackson; umpires, Howard Kayser, William Smith; timekeepers, H. D. Barnett, R. O. Stoddard; time of half, 20 minutes.

CLAIM ROUGH PLAYING.

"We are finished with the St. Paul Central high school. The game this afternoon was disgracefully rough and unladylike and our team is not going to be subjected again to any such treatment so long as I remain manager. For the last three years we have had a basketball team and during all that time we never were handled as roughly as we were this afternoon." So said Miss Edna Whitney, [manager] of the Girls' basketball team of the Minneapolis high school at the close of yesterday's game.

"We were not defeated, so people cannot say we are complaining because we have an inferior team. On the contrary we won the game by a comfortable margin and so far as the score is concerned we had things quite our own way from the start. But that makes no difference. The team was misused and mistreated and several of our players are badly bruised and scratched. Miss Grygla has a jaw twice its usual size as a result of the game, and several others are in nearly as bad a plight.

"There is no necessity for roughness in basket ball. Occassionally some one is hurt in a clean game but there is no [excuse] for using football tactics in a gymnasium, especially where ladies are playing the game."