The apocalyptic chaos of the first women's basketball world championships

#FromtheArchives: In Chile in 1953, Team USA battled rain, fire, power outages, and rock throwing on the way to their first world championship win.

Sep 30, 2022

Hi, friends! What a week. I hope that all of you are doing well, particularly those of you in Hurricane Ian’s path of destruction.

Right now, the FIBA Women’s World Cup is finishing up in Australia — the United States faces China for the gold at 2:00 a.m. ET Saturday morning and Canada faces Australia for the bronze medal at 11:00 p.m. ET on Friday night. (In the United States, the bronze-medal game will air on ESPN+ and the gold-medal game on ESPN.)

I’ve been thinking about women’s basketball history a lot lately, particularly since reading Andrew Maraniss’s wonderful book Inaugural Ballers, on the first U.S. women’s Olympic basketball team in 1976. (I interviewed him for Burn It All Down, and you all should definitely listen.) This all made me curious about the first official women’s world championship, which happened in 1953.

So, I took a peak in the archives to see what I could find. And friends, WHAT A JOURNEY.

Here’s a photo of the team meeting Chilean officials

Let’s set the stage with a visual. This picture was published in The Daily Times of Davenport, Iowa on May 6, 1953. And yes, it’s notable that the team was all white.

CHILEAN OFFICIALS MEET U. S. GIRLS' ment recently. On the U. S. team was Betty Clark CAGERS Here is an official photograph sent to The Daily Times from the U. S. Department of state, following the successful tour of the American women's basketball team to Santiago, Chile, where they won the first international tourna- of LeClaire, former A. I. C. star. Shown in the photo are: Front, left to right, unidentified Chilean official; Mrs. Claude Bowers, Ambassador Bowers, and Mrs. Irvin Van Blarcom, Wichita, Kan., a chaperon; and back row, unidentified Chilean official, Agnes Loyd, Tennis McGhee, chaperon, Betty Clark, Janet Thompson, Agnes Baldwin, Katherine Washington, Fern Gregory Nash, Pauline Bowden, Betty Ann Murphy, Mildred Sanders, and John Head, coach.

Okay, now onto actual basketball.

The United States beat Chile 49-36 in the final game to clinch the first world championship

Here’s an AP report published in The Daily American of Somerset, Pennsylvania, on March 26, 1953 about the final game.

US Wins Womens World Basketball Championship oiNTTinn Chile. March 2 (If)' The United Sates won the Women's World Basketball Championship to night by defeating unue, -oo, the final game. The Americans, aided by the sharp shooting of Katherine Washington and Pauline Bowden of Nashville, rrnn tnnr the lend in the second quarter and never relinquished it. Chile got off to a o-u leau iuiu led 9-6 at the first quarter. But at halftime tne Americans were uui in front, 26-19. In the third quarter the game was halted briefly when the partisan Chilean crowd shouted protests at the disqualification on, fouls of one of the local stars. The spectators chided the referee for cnilinfi. a fifth Personal on one Sima Reyes. Play resumed after the crowd quieted down. The spectators sang the national anthem at the start of the fourth quarter, apparently in effort to stimulate the local girls to greater efforts. But the Americans, playing a ball-control game could not be stopped. — caption...

The game had to be STOPPED because fans were so angry at referees. Incredible. Apparently today’s fans are tame!

Betty Clark, a guard on Team USA, describes rain, fires, and rock throwing during the title run

Oh March 27, 1953, sports columnist Jerry Jurgens published a letter from Betty Clark in The Daily Times of Davenport, Iowa, in which she described the atmosphere of the final two games of the tournament. This is WILD, my friends.

WILD.

Dear Jerry, Hurrah! The U.S. gals came through with flying colors in beating Chile, 49-36, to win the first world's women's basketball tournament. You should see the trophy. It stands four and one-half feet high. There were times during the game when the yelling and whistling was so loud that the officials' whistles couldn't be heard. When the first Chilean girl fouled out, the crowd showered the floor with money, apples, rocks and anything else the people could grab and throw for some distance. Fires were even started in the stadium by lighting newspapers. When two countries play against each other, it is just like being at war with each other. Other ranking of the teams is: Chile, France, Brazil, Paraguay, Argentina, Peru, Mexico, Switzerland, and Cuba,, in that order. We have had a wonderful trip, and winning the championship was a wonderful way to climax it. I am sorry we have to return to the states so soon, as we have had to turn down many offers to play in different countries before returning. Ever hear of playing basketball in the rain? That's exactly what we did in one of our last games. It started sprinkling about five minutes after the game started. The floor became slick as ice. At halftime the floor was cov ered with a tarpaulin, and the game was delayed about an hour. Sincerely, BETTY CLARK — caption...

Like, CAN SOMEONE MAKE THIS INTO A MOVIE??? Outdoor basketball in the rain. Fans so mad at ref calls they are setting fires and throwing rocks during the game. The cheery tone of the letter is quite the contrast to the world she’s describing. I’m obsessed.

More info on the rain game, in which the U.S. defeated Paraguay 41-31

Here’s an AP article published in the Arizona Daily Star on March 22, 1953, which describes Team USA’s second-to-last game in the tournament.

They had to play outdoors in the rain through a power outage. I’m pretty sure that was the plot of an episode of Friday Night Lights.

Women's Quint Nears Cage Title SANTIAGO, Chile, March 21 JP) The United States moved clostr to the women's world's basketball championship tonight, defeating Paraguay, 41-31, for its third victory in four games. The tournament ends tomorrow with the United States meeting Chile. Playing on an outdoor floor, made slippery by the rain, the United States took an early lead and never was headed. The Americans were in front 10-3 at the end of the first quarter and built up a 21-6 margin at the halltime with Mildred Sanders of Nashville, 'Betty Clark of Le Claire, Iowa, and Janet Thompson of Iowa Wesleyan clicking. "rtie floor was dried out during the half-time intermission and the lights, which had been short circuited, were repaired. The American girls were outplayed during the third period as the speedy South Americans were able to stepup the tempo but the U.S. still 4ed 32-18 at the end of the quarter. Katherine Washington and Pauline Bowden, both of Nashville, found the hoop consistently through the last half and ended up as high scorers with 13 and 10 points, respectively

I desperately need to see video footage of this.

More info on Betty Clark, the Moline office girl

Finally, here’s a profile on Betty Clark after the tournament, published in The Dispatch in Moline, Illinois on April 2, 1953. It was hard to find a lot of details about the tournament itself, so I thought you’d enjoy this write-up.

Moline Office Girl Tells of Playing On International Champion Cage Team "Wouldn't have missed it for the world," Betty Clark said yesterday. She was referring to the excursion she and eight other American women basketball players made to Santiago, Chile, where they captured the first international Amateur Athletic Union cage title. Tfie 5-foot, H-inch girl from Le-Claire, la., won her spot on the trip through stellar play last year in the national AAU tourney in Wichita, Kan., where she was named to the all-star team. She plays for the Davenport AIC Stenos, runnerup in that cage show. The trip down and back con sumed about six weeks for the 21- year-old main-office employee of Deere & Co. The tourney started March 5 and ended March 23 with the rest of the time for traveling and for five exhibition games the girls played in Peru and Chile, j "Even though we won the tour ney, we found that the rules there are different than we had played in the United States," Betty said. Boys' Rules "In South America, the girls plry boys rules as we know them here. And, in addition to taking in some expense money, we needed the games for the experience with the different rules." The tournament brought teams from three continents. North and South Americas and Europe. The winning U. S. team played six games in winning. the 5Vfe-foot silver trophy in the round robin affair including the 44-32 victory over Chile, in the final game. And although the round robin didn't call specifically for a cham- lonship game, Betty said, their final with Chile- took on all the aspects of one with each team having lost only once. The U. S. girls won theirs from Argentina. The length of the halves (20 minutes in U. S. college style) was tiring for the girls after playing the usual 16-minute halves (high school style), Betty said. And she added that those last four minutes pere a cnore Sprains Fingers The itinerary for Betty took her if NttwlJw MS- "WOULDN'T HAVE MISSED IT"--.Betty Clark, LeClaire, above, says she "wouldn't have missed the South American tour for the world" after returning home following her cage team victory in Chile. , . to Miami, where the team met, then into South -America where they played two games in Peru, one in Antofagasta, Chile one game in Maria Elena, Chile, the site of a nitrate camp where there were a number of Americans, and Chuquicamata, Chile, where the largest copper mine in the world is located. A guard, Betty isaw plenty of service with the U. S. team until the final game when she rode the bench part of the time with a pair of sprained fingers. She picked up the injury .in the pre-final game with Paraguay. The trip to Santiago was the second that Betty can attribute to the basketball skill she developed in LeClaire High School. The first came when she went through Mexico and Central America with the 1951 Stenos squad.

Also, do we think Betty and Caitlin Clark are related?

Finally, we love this headline from The Wichita Eagle on March 22, 1953

Perfect.

Have a great weekend, friends! See you in your inboxes next week.

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