Most people -- even fans of the women's game -- are surprised when I tell them women have played basketball since 1892. They are also suprised to learn that in the 20's and 30's, Lou Hoover (wife of president Hoover) and the Women's Division of the National Amateur Athletic Foundation led an effort to ban state high school tournaments because they considered playing competitive basketball unhealthy and inappropriate.

Boy, were they successful. By the mid-30's most every state had ceased sponsoring tournments though Iowa, rather famously, proved the exception.

That didn't mean everyone was as enlightened as John Agans who, in 1925, told the Iowa High School Association, "Gentlemen, if you attempt to do away with girls' basketball in Iowa, you will be standing in the center of the track when train runs you over." Consider what Jewel Chapman heard 45 years ago:

Playing basketball isn't ladylike. That's what Jewell Chapman's high school principal told her in 1961 when he banned the girls basketball program.

"We were very frustrated," said Chapman, a forward for her high school team in Des Moines.

Nearly 50 years later, Chapman is back on the court. She's 62 and plays for the Hot Pink Grannies, joining about 10 other women on a team whose uniforms are black bloomers and hot pink socks. They play in the Iowa Granny Basketball League.

And if you ever wondered what "modern" women do with their love of basketball after college, check here.