A legacy takes root : the beginnings of girls basketball in Cuba City

When young pharmacist Stanley M. Sorley introduced basketball to Cuba City in the 1910s, he could have had no idea how strongly the sport would take hold.* From the moment the equipment arrived in the fall of 1914, both male and female students showed an interest. The high school correspondent for the Cuba City News-Herald reported on October 9, 1914, that "the boys, (also some of the girls) have been busy practicing."

While the high school boys formed a team soon after the equipment arrived and were playing other schools by February 1915, any thought of a girls team seems to have remained in the planning stages. There was talk of organizing a squad in February 1915, and again on January 31, 1919, when the high school correspondent reported that "a High School girls basketball team has been organized and will soon be ready for a peppy game."

But, the first mention of the girls actually playing comes in December 1919, when two teams from Cuba City, the "Reds" and the "Blues," played each other before the boys game. Players were Edna Nicholas, Mollie Raisbeck, Gail Goldthorpe, Marjorie Kay, Rosa Willey, Ida Droullard, Fern Scott, Lucille Hogan, Mildred Brewer, and Rose Schuh.

Published in the Cuba City News-Herald (December 19, 1919).

The girls teams, whether they were competing against each other or another school, would often play before the main event: the boys game. They played either in the small gymnasium at the high school or at the larger Auditorium, located above the Ford Garage (across from City Hall).

Mentions of a Cuba City girls basketball team can be found occasionally through the 1920s and 1930s, but schedules were spotty and games were not nearly as well covered as those of the boys teams, making it difficult to determine if a squad even existed in a particular year. The 1922 team, pictured below, was an exception, and played against several area schools.

Cuba City High School's 1922 girls' basketball team. In front: Gail Goldthorpe. Second row: Mollie Raisbeck and Fern Scott. Third row: Evelyn Schuh, Lucille Hogan, and Maude Dent. Back row: Beth Richards, Vey Goldthorpe, Gladys Droullard, and Lavaun Dall. Photo credit: Rachel Idel Smith, Linda Lambert.

Despite showing some promise in the 1920s and 30s, girls high school athletics, apart from cheerleading, would be nonexistent for much of the mid-twentieth century. It was not until the 1974-75 school year that a varsity and junior varsity girls basketball team reappeared at CCHS.

As if to show the community what it had been missing, in 1977, the girls team made what would be the first of many successful trips by a Cuba City team to the state basketball tournament in Madison.

Image from the "Remember When" DVD put together by Beanie Loeffelholz and the City of Presidents.

In the years to follow, according to the WIAA's website, the Cuba City girls basketball team has qualified for the state tournament more than any other school (16 times) and has won more state titles than any other school (11).

 

 

*A February 24, 1937 Telegraph Herald article credits "Charles" Sorley with introducing basketball to Cuba City. The article almost certainly is referring to Stanley M. Sorley, a native of Weyauwega, Wisconsin, who the article also credits with serving as the first team's coach, trainer, and referee. Sorley was in town only briefly, working at the Barker Bros. drugstore, but he was very active in the community and also helped establish a Boy Scout troop and served as its Scoutmaster.