é

psychology on your part in the training and coaching of
the Grads? To what extent, if at all, is strict discipline
necessary in the training and maintenance of your
teams ?.

Mr. Pace: From the very commencement of the girls’
associations with me as the supervisor of their school
studies and their basketball activities, I seek to win their
respect. I accept them as members of my own family and
treat them as such, expecting them to give to me that re-
spect and confidence and loyalty they would give in their
own homes. We are therefore a large family, all growing
up together in an understanding, loyalty, and friendship
that completely does away with the necessity for any rigid
form of discipline. The girls know exactly what I expect
of them. They know that to stay with the family they
must at all times so conduct them- ©
selves as to reflect credit on the whole.
Any difficulties arising, and there
have been extremely few, have been
completely ironed out before they
reached any serious proportions.

“+ PLACE no restrictions on the
girls’ movements. At home or
abroad, in the matters of diet, con-
duct, recreational diversion and so
forth, there have never been any mis-
understandings. In all my experience
with the Grads I have never known a
single member to smoke. Not that I
have ever said, ‘Don’t!’ My advice
has been, at all times, to remember
that as world’s champions it is up to
them to be ever conscious of the honor
which is theirs. But they are not
treated as small children, but as sensi-
ble grown-up members of my own
family. I am happy to say that I num-
ber them all, past and present, among
the very best friends I have ever had.”
Off the basketball floor these cham-
pions are all hard-working business
girls, stenographers in almost every
case. They are perhaps the most strictly amateur organi-
zation in the whole world.

Let me give you a peep at each one of them. Miss
Millie McCormack, once star flash with the front-string
Grads and now official scorer, helped me meet them. I
pass on Millie’s introductions.

MARGARET MACBURNEY: Present captain of the team
and world champion free-throw sharpshooter. Margaret
scored sixty-one consecutive penalty shots to annex the
above title. She has played nine years, scoring an aver-
age of 13.4 points a game. She is engaged full time as
a stenographer in an Edmonton office. Is a good swimmer
and an ace bowler.

GLADYS Fry: Genial center, who packs a permanent
smile together with a wicked sizzling shot. Miss Fry
is a graduate of Alberta University and is now a member
of the university staff. She is a keen tennis player.

Doris NEALE: One of the most dependable of the front-

string Grads players; a guard who stops them. Doris
can shoot with the best. She swims like a mermaid. Is
employed as a stenographer by an Edmonton radio sta-
tion.
ELSIE BENNIE: A former skipper of the Grads, one of
the best known players, a guard. Elsie is employed as
stenographer at the Edmonton civic offices. She is an
expert bowler and ice curler.

BABE BELANGER: Vivacious little brunette, one of the
classiest little forwards ever seen in the game. Babe is
also a stenographer in Edmonton.

HELEN STONE: A guard. She hasatwin sister, EDITH,
playing with her on the team. Both are stenographers.
Edith plays at substitute forward position, and if you
can tell them apart, go ahead. .

MABEL MUNTON: One of the stanchest guards the
Grads have ever had. Mabel is also a stenographer.

Nort MACDONALD is the youngest member in point of
service and the “ hero” of the Tulsa-Grads games, Noel
is one of the tallest members of the team; is still going

LIBERTY FOR DECEMBER 29, 1934

BEHAVE YOURSELF
By Della T. Lutes

 

_ KNIFE LEANERS

The way some people use a knife
Makes me at times incensed.

You’d think it was a lamp-post
For men to lean against!

Or a crowbar!

to school, and when not playing basketball is a member
of a topnotch baseball organization.

EVELYN COULSON and JESSIE INNES are two smart little
ladies who complete the playing complement of the
champs’ team. Both have given some wonderful perform-
ances as alternates. Both are stenographers with city
firms.

Mrs. J. Percy Page, wife of the coach, acts as chaperon
to the team away from home.

On three different occasions the Grads have visited
the Olympic Games—at Paris in 1924, at Amsterdam in
1928, and at Los Angeles in 1932. Unfortunately, bas-
ketball was not a competitive sport event at any of these
games. But in both 1924 and 1928 a series of games,
comprising fifteen contests in European centers, was ar-

ranged by the Fédération Sportive In-
ternationale, the world-wide govern-
ing body of women’s athletics. The
Grads won all fifteen contests by over-
whelming margins and were awarded
the coveted title of World’s Cham-
pions.
In all, the Grads have traveled well
over 77,000 miles in defense of their
many championship titles, visiting
Paris, Lyon, Luxembourg, Stras-
bourg, Milan, Roubaix, and other
European cities, and Cleveland, De-
troit, Chicago, Windsor, Toronto,
- Winnipeg, Vancouver, and other
points.

At one time they chalked up a rec-
ord of seventy-eight consecutive wins
in official contests.

I asked Mr. Page to recount the —
most thrilling high lights in their his-
tory. Listen in:

“We are back a few years, at Chi-
cago, playing the worthy Taylor-
Trunks,” he said. ‘“ With but five
minutes to go we are six points down.
I nod to the team. The girls know
what, is wanted. We have our backs
dead to the wall when I pass the signal to call on that last
one of fighting reserve. We haven’t even thought of
a loss.”

He pauses, his eyes dancing. “We pull out of that
game five points to the good. And then in our last series
against Vancouver, at Vancouver, at three minutes to the
final whistle we are four points down. That is a tough
spot. On the face of it we are sunk.

“ But at the final whistle we emerge victors by a margin
of five points.”

And that, sports lovers will agree, is plenty of justifica-
tion for pride on the part of any coach.

O show further the fighting reserve of these Grads

girls, let me draw for you a more recent picture. Late
last summer the Grads were billed to appear in exhibition
games at Fort William, Toronto, Montreal, and Winnipeg.
The day before their train left Edmonton, Coach Page re-
ceived word that his captain and star forward, Miss Mac-
Burney, had been injured and would not be able to ac-
company the team. It left without her.

Then at Toronto Miss Doris Neale, that great guard,
was suddenly rushed to a hospital, where she underwent
an operation. The Grads were to face a classy all-star
team without the services of two of their most valuable
players. None the less, they romped home with a win
by a score of 49-12.

The scores for this entire trip follow:

At Fort William. ..Grads 106, Fort William 8

Winnipeg....... Grads 64, Winnipeg 4

Teron: oe Grads 49, Toronto 12

Montreal....... Grads 63, Montreal 6
POtaD e eS &, Grads 282; opponents 30

Thus the Grads justify the claim which is made for
them—Champions of All World’s Champions in the his-
tory of competitive sports.

THE END

17