How Minnesota girls changed the game

A traveling Smithsonian exhibit called “Girlhood (It’s complicated),” on display at the Minnesota History Center through June 1, was created with the help of Dorothy McIntyre, a former Eden Prairie High School teacher and coach who played a pivotal role in developing girls’ and women’s competitive sports in Minnesota.

The creative, interactive exhibit invites attendees to “explore the ever-evolving concept of girlhood in the United States and how young women have influenced politics, education, work, health and fashion.” It features more than 100 artifacts from the Smithsonian Institution, interactive displays, historical photographs and more.

Launched at the Museum of American History in Washington, D.C., the latest and final iteration of the exhibit includes a major Minnesota component focusing on the history of girls’ basketball in the state. McIntyre played a key role in this segment, helping the Minnesota Historical Society with research and providing artifacts for display.

“Through stories of individual players and teams, this exclusive section of the exhibit, developed by the Minnesota Historical Society, demonstrates how girls who make a difference grow into women committed to supporting the next generations of female athletes as coaches, mentors, friends, and allies,” MHS said.  

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The exhibit explores how girls were the first to play basketball in Minnesota when the sport was introduced in the late 1800s, quickly catching on throughout the state. Early girls’ basketball featured high-energy games that drew large crowds in communities during the 1920s and 1930s.

“Everybody was excited about the teams, and they were heroes, just like anybody else today, and yet they were not able to get the real respect that they deserved,” McIntyre said. 

Starting in the 1930s, girls’ competitive sports programs began to be canceled across the state, based on mistaken medical opinions that competition was harmful to girls’ mental health. By the 1940s, the programs were mostly nonexistent.

An Iowa native, McIntyre was an EPHS teacher in the 1960s when she convinced the principal to allow her to organize girls’ sports scrimmages with other schools, provided she learned to drive their bus, which she promptly did. 

In 1968, McIntyre played a central role in getting the Minnesota State High School League to recognize competitive high school sports for girls after a decades-long hiatus. In 1970, she joined the MSHSL to direct the implementation of girls’ sports throughout the state. By the time federal Title IX legislation was passed in 1972, Minnesota’s girls’ competitive sports programs were already becoming firmly established.

According to the MSHSL, during McIntyre’s first seven years with the organization, she helped create 11 state tournaments for girls’ sports. Today, girls in Minnesota have access to nearly 30 co-curricular activities.

‘Daughters of the Game’ traces rich history of MN girls basketball

Coinciding with the exhibit, “Daughters of the Game: First Era of Minnesota Girls High School Basketball, 1891-1942,” a book McIntyre co-wrote with Marian Bemis Johnson, a former teacher and coach, has been re-released.Originally published in 2005, the book is an oral history of early Minnesota girls’ high school basketball, featuring personal recollections from athletes along with photos and memorabilia from the scrapbooks of the first “daughters of the game.”

McIntyre and Johnson traveled all over the state to collect research and stories for the book. “Our goal with this book was not to make money but to make sure young people knew their history,” Johnson said. “And I guess we accomplished just that.” 

Johnson said she strongly believes that being able to play competitive sports is incredibly important for girls. Historically in many towns in Minnesota, she said, “Women were often isolated in their homes, and women never learned how to work together to gain an opportunity. The first teams I coached at the college level had not played in high school, and they would kind of bicker and couldn’t bury the hatchet. Being on a team sport helps you cooperate with others.”

McIntyre said it was an incredibly special experience for the relatives of the women pictured in the exhibit.

“They’re able to see something they could never could imagine, and that is that their mother is in the Smithsonian, and so is our book now,” McIntyre said. Regarding the exhibit, she said, “We’re opening the doors for people to open their minds and see what rich history we have, and that it should be respected.”

“Girlhood (It’s complicated)” runs until June 1 at the Minnesota History Center in St. Paul. “Daughters of the Game” can be purchased through the museum’s bookstore.