One
day I was visiting my hometown of Southern Pines and I happen
to run into an old high school friend who I hadn't
seen in about 25 years. We wandered off to a local watering
hole, got to talking about the "Glory Days" [thanks
for the title Bruce, that's Springsteen of course] and the
subject of high school athletics came up.
Arguably Southern Pines was the state's most prolific six-man
football team but did not fair as well in basketball as
did our down-the road [four miles] rivals, Aberdeen. The
Red Devils girl's basketball team, also, was arguably the
most prolific female basketball team of the two-divisional
era.
The next day, I made a phone call to the NCHSAA and was
told that for some reason, probably because it involved
mostly small county schools and a female athletic program,
which other than basketball, were virtually non-existent.
As a result the game did not receive the same attention
that the men's game did. Consequently, the records for the
two-divisional game were sketchy at best.
Having
grown up in this exciting time and have been one of the
hundreds of sports minded and community orientated people
attending regular season games and thousands attending state
championship games, of which I witnessed all four, I just
couldn't allow this era to disappear without making an effort
to preserve the memories.
Being
somewhat of a military historian [author or co-author of
seven books on WW2 memorabilia] and former editor of two
martial art publications, I launched "The History of
Girl's Basketball in North Carolina - project 1945-1970
The Two-Divisional Game" through my non-profit organization's
[Eastern North Carolina Sports Development] research and
development department.
I
first contacted some of my old classmates, friends and players
looking for any information, such as pictures, newspaper
articles, scrapbooks, etc. I have visited numerous libraries
and looked at thousands and thousands of
feet of newspaper microfilm looking for information.
The
information you are seeing here at our web site is just
the tip of the iceberg.
