Battle Of The Sixes

Women's Basketball In Arkansas Changed Foerver in 1980

Before 1979, girls basketball in Arkansas was played halfcourt three-on-three. Players could not cross the center line. In this photo taken at the West Fork Tournament on Feb. 26. 1972, players stand at midcourt waiting on the ball to get to their end of the court.

Before 1979, girls basketball in Arkansas was played halfcourt three-on-three. Players could not cross the center line. In this photo taken at the West Fork Tournament on Feb. 26. 1972, players stand at midcourt waiting on the ball to get to their end of the court.

Tuesday, January 1, 2013

— The lights accidentally went out the last time an official 6-on-6 girls basketball game was played in Arkansas, delaying the end of an era by around 30 minutes.

All Jim Stafford could do was stand and wait for the electricity to come back on inside Tucker Coliseum in Russellville.

Much of the talk heading into the 1979 Arkansas high school girls basketball all-star game centered around the changes that were to go into effect the following season to the way the girls game would be played.

After years of resistance, Arkansas became one of the last states to abandon half-court 6-on-6 basketball — which designated that only three female players could be on offense while the other three were relegated to defense — in favor of the full-court, 5-on-5 game that it is today.

Women had earned a bit of equality on the basketball court, starting in 1980, but it came with controversy.

“Everybody wanted to talk about it,” said Stafford, who had been selected to coach the South team in the 1979 all-star game. He’s now Huntsville’s boys basketball coach. “Every time they interviewed a coach at the all-star game, that was the first question: ‘How do you think you’re going to like it?’”

Changing The Game

As hard as it might be to believe nowadays, high school basketball coaches in Arkansas had serious concerns 34 years ago as to whether teenage girls were physical enough to play both offense and defense during a game.

“People laugh today. I mean, our kids that I’m coaching, they laugh about it and they just can’t imagine it,” said Springdale Har-Ber coach Sandy Wright, who starred in 6-on-6 basketball at Elkins in the late 1970s.

“But it was still an opportunity, and at the time we had a lot of pride in it.”

Title IX, which helped level the playing field for collegiate women’s sports, was passed in 1972. Six years later, though, Arkansas schools still hadn’t changed the rules that made girls basketball much different than the boys game.

With 6-on-6 basketball, the three defensive players weren’t allowed to attempt any shots during a game, including free throws. The offensive players did all the scoring, but they weren’t permitted to cross halfcourt and defend the basket. If they did, it was considered like a backcourt violation nowadays.

The 6-on-6 game seemed outdated, especially since most states — and colleges — were playing 5-on-5 before Arkansas made the switch in 1980. Iowa got rid of it in 1993, and Oklahoma became the last state to update the girls game in 1995.

“I’d say the (Arkansas coaches) that were in it very long resisted it,” said Charles Berry, the longtime Huntsville’s girls basketball coach. Coincidentally, he was selected to coach the North team against Stafford in the 1979 all-star game. “Now I’m sure that there were some that could (not) care less.”

Claude Fulmer, who won a pair of state championships at Vilonia in the 1970s and finished as the state runner-up two more times, certainly cared. Rather than adjust to the full-court game, he decided to retire from coaching after winning his second state title in the final year of 6-on-6 basketball in 1979.

“Most of the established coaches were bitterly opposed to it at first,” Stafford said. “And now you hardly ever talk to anybody that doesn’t think it’s a great thing.”

Scoring In Bulk

Wright, whose maiden name is Scranton, graduated from Elkins in 1977 — three years before Arkansas reduced the number of players who could be on the court at one time from 12 to 10.

Wright said she knew heading into the spring of her senior year that she was going to sign to play basketball at Arkansas. To prepare for the transition from playing halfcourt to full-court, she practiced with the Elkins boys team.

“We all played with the boys and went full-court in the spring, trying to get ready,” Wright said. “And that helped me a bunch, but being a forward offensive player, it wasn’t that big of a transition for me.”

Berry said the college prospects who came out of Arkansas were almost exclusively the offensive players in high school. Since only three players on each team were allowed to take shots and score, it wasn’t uncommon for someone to finish with 50 or more points in a game.

Teams didn’t have the type of balanced scoring that they do nowadays.

Wright laughed as she recalled how she reached her career high of 54 points on three occasions. She said she averaged 35 points per game during her senior season, which came well before the 3-point line was introduced to the game.

“There was probably a lot better one-on-one skills at that time because you had more space to work,” Wright said. “It enabled forwards to maybe score a few more points, the ones that got to shoot free throws, which I luckily was one of those people.

“I got to shoot everybody’s free throws.”

For the most part, players during the 6-on-6 era didn’t need to worry about beating multiple defenders. With only three players allowed to guard the basket on each team, offensive players typically stood helplessly at halfcourt and encouraged their defensive teammates.

“If you had a good post girl, they were always going to have to double her,” Stafford said. “You clear out the weakside help. It was definitely an offensive game.”

Not surprisingly, all five of the highest-scoring games by a Arkansas female player came during the era before 5-on-5 basketball, according to the Arkansas Activities Association’s record book.

Fort Smith’s Helen Smith set the state’s single-game scoring record of 120 points in 1930, and Doris Anderson of Strong had 106 points in a game that same year. No player has come close to scoring 100 points since the state abolished 6-on-6 basketball following the 1979 season.

Adjusting To Change

Berry said it took some time for players to transition to the 5-on-5 game when the change was made. All of a sudden, defensive players — who had never worked on their shooting in practice because it wasn’t necessary — were forced to play offense as well.

“We had a little trouble the first year or two, especially the kids that had played defense all the time,” Berry said. “You’re asking them to play offense.”

It’s hard to find someone nowadays who’d argue against girls basketball going full-court. However, Berry and Stafford admitted they were reluctant at first to the change.

As it turned out, Stafford’s last game coaching girls basketball was the 1979 all-star game. He said his decision to move over and coach male players had nothing to do with the rule change in 1980. He simply wanted to avoid coaching his daughter in high school.

Stafford won the final 6-on-6 game officially played in Arkansas, thanks in part to a power outage that came as the North team was mounting a late comeback.

“We would have won,” Berry said, laughing. “But the electricity went off.”

And the lights went off on an era of girls basketball with it.