I would like to welcome you to the san antonio book festival. The signature event of the library foundation. I we want to thank the library and the Southwest School of arts and craft for opening up their spaces for us today. Of and for helping us present this amazing day of literary events, which i hope you all have lots of time to enjoy for the rest of the day. We will be having a signing directly after the session if you would like to get a copy at the Barnes Noble Book tent and visit with lelia and get her signature. Ge we will do that immediately following this. We will have a little discussion and show you some pictures about the book and open it up for questions. I hope you are have some things to say and i want to introduce you to lidia who is the author of this great book. I will let her read the rest to make sure i get it. Its called the inspiringnspi story of the teen that barnes stormed its way to basketball glory, but we call it dustbowl girls. She grew up in oklahoma where this true story takes place. She is here today, this is her first book. A little bit of notice, she is the grandniece of the coach who is one of the main figures in this story. We will talk a little bit about how she came to this story and how she got this amazing book that we can read today and have a lot of things to say about whats going on in todays world. How did you bring these girls to life . You took these girls that live quite a bit ago and we were able to get inside their heads. It was kind of amazing. How did you make that happen . H . I read their diaries in their journals and the personal letters and talked to their relatives. I was able to talk to sick hundred six living players and starting at the beginning i didnt know what i had until i started talking to certain people. I realized this was a true epic sport story. Its also a character study about these girls during the Great Depression and their coach and how they truly became inspirational hero. To the small town and then to the country, in a way. So, i did read their diaries and it was very interesting. I know you got this slide to show us a poem that was inspired by them, as well. Yes. This is not in the book but this is the year after the story takes place and there was a parade in town. That town through a parade after the team would win. This took place in durrant, oklahoma which back then, had a population of 700,000. This is considered a good size city. I found this poem and ill go ahead and read it because i love it. It was written by rw dykes from wittenberg texas and i think it was a he, im not sure. As we traversed oklahoma we were impressed with durrant with its streets turned into glamour, with its buildings elegant. There were daily celebrating as their cardinals returned and durrant was sure elated, such distinction these girls had earned. Yes, we saw them pay thomas to their cardinals, so brave who were basking in the honor flags did wave. Girls and boys with perseverance will win the lord grant to these winners go that reverence, they now bask as champions of the land, durrant honored noble basketball team. They were known as the Oklahoma Presbyterian College cardinals. Obviously, this took took place in oklahoma at the Presbyterian College and so, how did they get there . Their coach was sam that he was my uncle and he traveled the countryside searching for talent that summer before. He also taught psychology at Oklahoma Presbyterian College. They had given him the chance to offer Financial Aid to these young women, basically, lived in cabins, but it was more like shacks. One of the main players farmer was a tenant farmer and sam would drive up to these places to recruit these young women that he had watched play, either at a game or in their high school or at a state championship, and some of the women i interviewed thought that a rich man had come to call. He would drive up in his ford roadster and calm and recruit them to go to school and play basketball which was truly unheard of back then. They had to make good grades to but finding a way to go to college was probably the most important aspect of being poor back then and improving your life. Did any of them ever say no . One of the main characters, lucille thurman, thurman, was 16 years old and from a tiny called town oklahoma, she was about 510 and eventually she played center but she wanted to be a teacher and didnt quite understand what he was offering her, so she said no. She probably thought at the time he was recruiting her to play on one of the industrial teams, back then. Thats two men and women played sports for the amateur Athletic Union. Industries like dr pepper or cocacola or insurance comedy sponsored these sports teams and they were going to work, make money and play sports. Maybe thats what she thought. At first, she said no but her parents, the next day, made her drive to durrant oklahoma and going to school there. They had to overcome a lot to get to where they were going. If you havent read the book the girls from the tiny town of playing against all of these Corporation Sponsored teams, made it to the nationals. They had to overcome a lot to get there. What kind of thing did they have to get through to get there . First of all, they had to make enough money. They were selffunded. There were 35 new recruits that first showed up and then bad would it make them practice every day from 4 00 a. M. To 6 0. At oklahoma profiteer in college they only had a halfcourt gym and it was on the fourth floor, very hot and pigeons would fly in and and they would have to clean up the poop in order to play there. They had to find a court to play on. He asked a nearby teachers college, southeastern teachers college, if they could use their basketball court. They had a mens while team and a nice fieldhouse where the court was and they said yes, but the only Time Available is 4 00 a. M. To 6 00 a. M. Every morning because that was the only Time Available when the men werent using the court or the women werent in classes. They would get up at 330 in the morning and drive over in this quick start bus that was driven by a teammate, in freezing cold weather, and practice at the fieldhouse and the heat was not turned on in the fieldhouse until 5 00 a. M. They would sit with blankets around them and then go out and take the court and practice for two hours. They would go to classes, some had parttime jobs, then they had to come back and shoot 100 free throws every day and they had to mark down how many they made an they had to make 93 throws. Then they had to run at least 1 mile every day. He taught them perseverance. They practiced very hard and of those 35 new recruits, when they actually start their barn storm tour, there were 16 girls left. They all boarded a bus and this bus was a crank start, ancient greek start bus. Ancient must have been mid 20s . It didnt have heat either and it was always needing a push. One of their players was a mechanic and she would drive the bus and bring her wrenches along and prepare the bus along the way. They drove through and played games in texas and arkansas and louisiana throughout the christmas break. Barnstorming, plain forecast, but, but along for way they start winning games and it was unexpected, this Little Church school suddenly had a winning basketball team. They were playing desperate when they got noticed they were playing the houston green doubles. They played a doubleheader and after they won and the second game, sam took them to galveston and they swim in the ocean for the first time. It was quite a growing up experience for these girls. This was happening during the Great Depression and the dustbowl. How did that influence what was happening at the small school . None of the girls had any money. They probably had one or two dresses and one pair of shoes. Their parents would give up eating so that their girls could have special shoes. The school itself, Oklahoma Presbyterian College, was a missionary school for the. And how its a great school and high school for native American Kids back then. If you were seminole, toft powell, to thaw, turkey thaw, cherokee you could go to school there for free. Part of the duties of the young women who were they are back then was to sit at lunch with a group of Young Children who were very poor, native children and teach them table manners. One, lucille, wrote that one little boy she sat with didnt have how to use anything and was terrified of his food. She had to reassure him that his food would not kill him and then teach them how to use utensils. This is all going on while they were learning to play basketball. Very interesting. Do you want to talk about some of the girls that were there . You have some great pictures. Sir. This is coral and her sister, who i interviewed her sister thelma, coral had passed away. This was in they were in high school in cash oklahoma. Pearl became a star forward for the cardinals. Actually all of them had played basketball and lucille, coral and lucille were best friends. She was born with a basketball in her hand. They were all like that. Coral was fast and tall and the only blonde on the team so she stood out very much. The other great player we could talk about lera. She was 6 feet tall, redheaded and hurt when played forward and guard. Back then it was half quart basketball so the offense stayed on one end and the defense on the other. It was six on six. There were a lot of girls on the court when they were playing. Lera and vera eventually went on to found the allamerican redheads. I dont know if anyone had heard of that team but they became the allamerican redheads because lera and vera had red hair and everybody decided to dye their hair red. The next is lucille thurman. She was the youngest girl on the team. She was from cookie town, the shyest girl, she would go around telling everyone that she was from the littlest town and that she was no better, that she could never make the team. She didnt think she would do well. She ended up becoming one of the greatest best ballplayers of her era. In this story she truly becomes an adult as she travels along and finds her power by winning the best while games. Of course, stall harris was a year older than the other players and she was from a little town called cement, oklahoma. Her father was a tenant farmer and probably the poorest girl on the team but she had the most bravado. She was small, 5foot two but she could shoot from half quart and was the star player for her high school best while team. One of her best friends wrote in her yearbook, stall, always gets what she goes after. Stall would dress up for games and wear pink ribbons in her hair but she was aggressive on court and the year that i wrote the story in 1932 she was she was actually named the Associated Press best woman basketball player of the year. She was a standout. These girls were amazing, they had barnstorming their way through the southeast undefeated and made it to the nationals against the top teams in the country, right . And yet, when the press was they are they were not focused on the cardinals. Right . It was interesting because the cardinals kept winning games. They started winning games on their barn storm and when they got back they kept winning games but the local newspaper, even the Oklahoma City newspaper, would run articles about this. They were known as the mighty cardinals and the payday fast brand of escrow. They also talked about how pretty they all were and ladylike and things like that. Back at the center of attention was really do you think that factored into their drive and determination when they were getting pressed and when it came to pass while they were getting the attention . Dietrich then was 19 or 20 back then and she was blaming for the dallas golden cycles. The coach of the cyclones had discovered her, her father was a tenant farmer as well and she was getting ready to participate in the 1932 olympics while this was going on and she had become very famous. She was also like to show off and be the center of attention. She would also send the money she made back to her family. It was all because she knew she had to support her family back home. The dallas golden cyclones, she had taken him to the National Championship the year before so, they were extremely popular. The National Magazines would cover them and talk about what they would do during the day and if they had boyfriends, did they really they were supposed to work for the Insurance Company that sponsored the team doing typing or filing and they said do you really work for them. They would demand more money she felt like she was worth it. They really did overshadow the cardinals who were all very young. For these Industrial League teams, most most of the women had played together for years. They were one of the youngest one on the team. The cardinals were playing against teams that had played together for five, ten years, some of the players. They were a little older and they were also much better funded and there really werent any other College Teams playing in the aau. Another factor working against them, in the background, was the Womens Division. What do you want to talk about that . Back then, the amateur Athletic Union was gaining a lot of power over womens athletics. They were organizing the women who were going to be the olympians and they were having track and field events, sponsored softball teams, they were becoming a powerhouse for womens athletics. Back in the mid 20s, the government decided that we wanted a governing body over womens athletics that actually was sponsored by women. So, they started the Womens Division of the National AmateurAthletic Federation and they appointed lou henry hoover, mrsp that division. Most of the other members were made up of womens physical education teachers from all across the country. They got together and said that we will do all that we can to prevent women from becoming highly competitive athletics. We dont want them to become like men. We dont want them to beat gambling. We dont want it to become invested with crime like the mens teams were supposedly back then. Instead of saying lets organize a Competitive Division along with supplying athletics to regular women, they said, no, were outlawing competitive athletics altogether. They came out against the 1932 olympics. This is in is in 1928. They knocked heads against the aau, saying that women should not be allowed to play in the olympics. In fact, women should not be allowed to play competitive sports at all. Mrs. For, even was quoted, one of the books that the Womens Division had published saying that, women should be good allaround athletes but they should not be, cannot become highly competitive because theyre not pioneers to know enough about what they really want. By the time the cardinals started playing, they had actually become more of a Pr Organization and they would go, especially hated basketball and they would go around talking about how terrible basketball was and how it would possibly break a girls back or they would had fits because their emotions couldnt handle it and they would give speeches to this. This was kind of the governing body for womens sports back then. On the other hand, they did bring athletics to young women who werent competitive. They would sponsor play days and set a sport for every girl, and a girl for every sport. It was wonderful but then they outlawed womens competitive athletics. It was very interesting you talked about how some girls were worried that it would be too stressful for their bodies but hard labor in the fields back home was fine. What was interesting is that these were the women who were more upperclass, uppermiddleclass women and they didnt really have an idea of what these rural women who play basketball could do. If you worked on the farm one of the players, hazel vickers, would run would run the giant plow horses to the field. She did that when she was 12 years old. Others picked cotton or top cotton which is even harder, so, they knew they could do anything that the boys could do on the basketball court. Nobody thought it was strange that women played basketball in these rural areas. Its completely different. On another note, talking about the times and, i think, all of the different factors going in, did the girls worry about being feminine or how voice would view them . Was that an issue . Summed it and some didnt. One player, mona lassiter, actually asked coach babb during his psychology class if played last fall would prevent her from being a lady and he told her that played basketball teach her to be a better lady because she would learn teamwork and perseverance. For these young women, they didnt feel like it from them at all. At the same time, they had to maintain a certain femininity about them. Doll harris would wear ribbons in her hair. Otherwise, they might be persecuted in the press or otherwise because babe didrikson was. Even School Teachers would hang pictures of her and say this is what you should not become. She was boyish and she was a tomboy. Eventually, she started wearing dresses and acting more feminine. It was a fine line that these women walked. When they were winning their awards zero, will you talk about the beauty pageant as part of their National Basketball competition . The amateur as lytic union had a national tournament, basketball tournament for women every year, and along with the freethrow contest which was a great contest they had a beauty contest. Each team would choose its most beautiful player and if she wanted to compete, she would compete it was usually the second night during the semi finals they would have a beauty contest and they would walk around in their uniforms and they would have judges who were all anonymous choose the most beautiful player. Her award actually looked as big or bigger, her trophy, then the winning teams will be. She she would have her picture in the paper and be given a dozen roses and then that was that. Then they would go back to play best call. That was highly publicized and really popular, back then. Nicknames and names are a big part of your book. You have doll, babe, and a whole a whole bunch of other interesting nicknames. One of your techniques seem to be tell the story of these girls through their names and how they got these nicknames. Did you have any favorites . Or any interesting ones you felt . One neta parts had nicknamed herself bo peep because she had read about little bo peep and loved the story. Im sure they raised lambs on her farm, so she nicknamed herself bo peep. But she also would drive the truck for her family and she was the one who drove the bus when she and she would repair the brush too. That was one of my favorite nicknames. They would have other nicknames, hazel vickers. The Womens Division said they would outlaw nicknames for women in sports. During this time. Babe didrikson, someone went to talk to her and said what do you think about this . Are they coming out after you . Dave is my real name so they cant do anything about that. Maybe they were coming after her but it didnt work. Doll harris, her real name was velma bell, which she hated with a passion. She was a tiny little baby and her older sister had named her baby doll. She kept the nickname, doll and and when she turned 21 she made it official. Her real name was doll harris. It was very interesting how they used nicknames. The girls, going forward, what did they carry with them after this big win . They win and they have their big celebration, how did that Carry Forward to the rest of their academic career . For the cardinals, this was just the beginning. They were together for years and they won 89 negative games. They won the National Championship the next year and ended up traveling to edmonton alberta to play the Edmonton Canadian grads who were the womens World Championship team and they played by mens rules, they played fullcourt basketball. Next year, they had had to learn how to play fullcourt basketball and they Won Every Game against the edmonton grads. Then they went and competed in a womens world game and won them the next year. That was three years together and they ended up going from their little bitty farms to canada and to new york. They traveled on a ship and went to london. Coach babb them to paris and then when they came back, most of of them played for Industrial League teams. The College Closed and thats why they were disbanded. Obviously, they had trouble getting to the national temp in ship which just a couple states away. How did they make the money bounce training and was there when was easier to make money . Along the way, the bus broke down and coach babb decided they would not traveled by bus anymore. He actually got the car dealers in the town to supply three pretty large cars for them to travel in the National Championship. But they still didnt have enough money to go. They would play more games but he would also visit with the local businesses and say help me fund this team. And they would. Durrant played an enormous role in helping these women become the team that they did and to helping them to inspire the rest of the town. Eventually, the funds did run out but not for three years. Thats neat. Thats amazing. How do you think, im just thinking about some potential writers here, this is a a family story. This is your great uncle. How did you take the story that you grew up hearing and turn it into a story that we all wanted to hear . We probably have a story that weve heard and might want to share it with others. How do you make it relevant outside your family . You do have to find a relevance outside of your family. The story, coach babb died in the 1930s. He was very young when he died. He was my grandmothers favorite brother. He had six sisters and is probably why he was a good womens coach. [laughter] my grandmother was a schoolteacher before she she owned movie theaters. He showed her the ropes and how to be a good teacher. He was her favorite brother and in the late 1970s she decided that she would get him inducted into the oklahoma sports hall of fame. Because he had died so young, there was no history about this team, this Oklahoma Team. They beat a tech team and there was still no history about them. She campaigned to get him inducted into the oklahoma sports hall of fame in she contacted the players and they wrote letters to her. She found these newspaper articles and found the photographs and after he was inducted into the hall of fame, she filed all of that away in a folder and years later, she handed that folder to me and said you might want to write their story someday. She passed away soon thereafter but i filed it away myself and dug it out and started reading it and thinking, zero my gosh, this is quite a story, especially, babe didrikson and the Great Depression and mrs. Hoover and the Womens Division and so i got my parents, called them up and said lets go searching for a basketball team. We did. Eventually, this team was inducted as the first Oklahoma Team of legend back in 2003. The story of finding the story itself was quite a story. If you want to write about your Family History there has to be a bigger story there than just somebody doing something amazing. You can apply it somehow to the rest of the world and how it might have changed history and then it becomes very much a bigger story were going to open it up to questions. If you have a question, we ask you to go to the microphone thats right in the center so we can hear you and answer the questions you have. You can go ahead. I do understand given the Historical Context of the team is all white and i know the profound importance for africanamerican young girls in high schools and their best ball teams. We allow them to get scholarships to africanamerican colleges and move on, its a great force of social mobility for rural africanamerican girls but i notice in this team that you said the school, of the. School was a missionary school and educated native americans in oklahoma. Could there be any native american girls on the steam . Doll harris was part cherokee and part irish. That was a question that i asked every one of them. The first player that i met was Virginia Hamilton and theres a picture of her, she was just a thought. She played for the team and had two sisters, all Three Sisters played for coach babb. I asked her about that and she avoided the question. No one wanted to talk about it. There was lena harris who was tran was father was a turkey chief. There were a number of native americans who played for a the team. She was the Team Historian and she had written profusely about them and kept track of all the players. She was like the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. Her granddaughter, came to the book event that we held in Oklahoma City and i got to meet her. There was a strong native american influence to this story do we have any other questions, if you do, step step up. Tell about your journey in terms of how you took that file and produced a book from your starting point. First of all, i drove to durrant oklahoma and started with the library there. The Oklahoma Presbyterian College had closed years earlier and, actually, back back then, theyre building a new headquarters but it housed the Indian Nation in the school was not there anymore. I went to the library and started doing research and applicant to ask the librarian, because i couldnt find much about it, have you heard of the oklahoma where the teary and College Cardinals and you need to talk to this person. She called up virginia and asked if it was okay if we came out and gave us directions to her home. Thats how we met virginia. Virginia gave us all the Contact Information to the other players. I took it from there. Oklahoma historical society, i went through a Million People articles in the Oklahoma Historical society, had all of the newspapers on microfiche and it was a great resource. Librarians in transport and elsewhere were great resources. You have to follow every nook and cranny to find it all. Go quick, as a sidenote, you mentioned that memorabilia. Did you get to see any of their trophies or metals . Doll harris had passed away six months before i started researching the book but a good friend of hers had inherited her bracelet. Every time she won an allamerican award or a National Championship they would give out golden basketballs to the young women and she had probably two dozen of them on her bracelet. We got to see that. There were metals, loera and vera, still had had a uniform that had turned from red to pink. Everyone had kept a scrapbook which now the oklahoma sports hall of fame has their scrapbook and probably that uniform and other things from there. They kept them 60 years. This changed their life and it was a lifechanging event for them. I was wondering what your own background was . Are you a writer or journalist or a mom . [laughter] i have worked for a couple of magazines that i did do writing for and i currently create elearning for a Nurses Association in denver, so i write for them. I probably wrote and rewrote this book a hundred times trying to find the right way to tell the story. I do have a writing background. And a creative background. I have a masters degree in communications and a masters degree in adult learning, as well. Do we have any other final questions . This was during the time of the dustbowl so were any of these families leaving because of migrating to california . How is that affecting the story . Thats a great question. The drought had just started and have been ongoing for maybe a year, two years, when the story starts. The Great Depression started a few years earlier. What i read in the newspapers back then was that they kept telling people, that things would get better. That things would change that this was just a bump in the road and not to worry. No one really started needing oklahoma till a couple of years later. Most people stuck it out for another two years. What i found out was a good deal of the people who left oklahoma for california or wherever were from durrant or that area and they were not in a drought. It was western oklahoma that was in the dustbowl. It wasnt just the drought the severe poverty that was afflicting the area back then. It was kind of at the very beginning and there was still a little bit of hope. Times were dire. I wanted to thank you all for coming. Lydia, thank you for coming out and sharing your story and writing this book. We appreciate it. Will be signing right after this in the Barnes Noble Book ten. You can follow over there. Thank you. [applause] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] next up from the san antonio book festival, tim h