| From
the March 9, 2006, edition of “Northwest This Week.”
The 1925 Kittykats basketball team.
The following is excerpted
from “Transitions: A Hundred Years of Northwest” by
Dr. Janice Brandon-Falcone. An illustrated history of the University’s
first 100 years, “Transitions” is available from the
Bearcat Bookstore on the first floor of the J.W. Jones Student
Union. The book can also be purchased online at www.nwmissouri.bkstore.com
or by calling (660) 562-1246 (ext. 1246 on campus).
In the 1920s, women were as athletically
active as men; women played tennis, organized a hiking club (the
Husky Hikers), formed a golf team, and later created intramural
sports teams in field hockey, soccer, volleyball, basketball,
swimming, tennis, track, and basketball.
The real triumph came with their intercollegiate
basketball team. In 1922, the women won every game in a short
seven-game season with other colleges. In response, the men challenged
the women to play against them. According to Mattie Dykes, “The
girls accepted the challenge provided the boys would dress in
long skirts – the girls were wearing middies and bloomers
in those days. AS was expected, the girls’ team won this
game and also won the respect of the men …”
By 1925, the women had not lost a game in
five years of play. There seemed little that could stop them,
but the number of women’s teams to play was limited.
In 1926, intercollegiate basketball
for women at Northwest Missouri State Teachers College came to
an end, and the school developed a system of intramural sports
for women. But for a few years, the teams known as the Kittykats
were champions.
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