Shattering The Glass: The Remarkable History of Women's Basketball is considered the go-to book of the history of women's basketball. The authors: Pamela Grundy and Susan Shackelford (both from Charlotte, NC) recently published an updated edition of their fine book in March 2025. This speaker series will place the vibrant history of Iowa women's basketball in the context of national developments that include the rise of high school basketball, the development of AAU competition, the passage and implementation of Title IX; the early years of women's professional basketball and the phenomenon of Caitlin Clark. Their subjects include the Iowa Girls' High School Association and its legendary tournament; AAU teams such as the American Institute of Commerce, American Institute of Business and Iowa Wesleyan; the prominent role played by the University of Iowa's Christine Grant in the passage and enforcement of Title IX; Molly Bolin and the WBL's Iowa Cornets; and the rise of Caitlin Clark.
Why is this part of the "Summer of the Little Sioux: Following the Inkpaduta Canoe Trail" series? You've heard the term, "there must be something in the water..." Well, the small town of Correctionville, right on the Little Sioux River, figures prominently in the history of this sport. In 1920, the Correctionville high school girls basketball team stood undefeated after three seasons of play, 69-0. They were one of 27 teams invited to the first ever high school girls' basketball tournament in the nation, held at Drake University. Despite the high school's decision not to fund the team's trip, they raised their own funds from local donors. They took an overnight train to Des Moines and won all five games they played in that two-day tournament. Because they had no funds for lodging, they slept on wrestling mats in the locker room. This and more stories like it will be shared.
Pamela Grundy has spent three decades studying the cultural history of American sports. Her work has included newspaper articles, museum exhibits, and books such as American Sports: From the Age of Folk Games to the Age of the Internet and Teaching US History Through Sports. She holds a PhD from UNC Chapel Hill, and is currently working on a biography of basketball and tennis great Ora Washington, to be published by Yale University Press, where Pamela earned her undergraduate degree.
Susan Shackelford is a lifetime basketball fan, and the first female sports editor of UNC Chapel Hill’s Daily Tar Heel. She has written on sports for the Associated Press, the Miami Herald, the Charlotte Observer, the Raleigh News & Observer and the Greensboro (N.C.) Daily News. She has recently completed Hoops and Heroes, a history of the Army women’s basketball team that began when women first arrived at West Point in 1976.
Pamela Grundy & Susan Shackelford