Dust Bowl Girls: A Team's Journey to Basketball Greatness

Elizabeth A. Smith: Perfect transaction

United States on Oct 04, 2023

ZuskasMama: Takes you right into the lives of Coach Babb and his players along with providing details about how parts of society viewed women in sports. Some of the details made it a bit of a slow read at times, but overall highly recommended for anyone who enjoys women’s basketball.

United States on Jul 10, 2023

Angela V: This book opened up a works I didn’t know existed. These girls were the same age as my grandmother. She, too, worked on a farm her whole life and never had an opportunity like the one these girls did.

Treat yourself to history and learn about a whole other side of America.

United States on Jun 25, 2023

LeeLee8081: Under coach Sam Babb's leadership, an unlikely basketball team from a tiny Oklahoma girls' junior college overcomes not just extremely limited resources, but entrenched discrimination against women athletes. The book went into significant detail describing prevailing societal attitudes in those days that discouraged and even forbade girls and women from participating in competitive athletics. It was an eye-opening reminder of the repressive, condescending, paternalistic treatment women faced back in the Depression era (and for many, many years before and after). We have certainly come a long way since then. I enjoyed the descriptions of the young women on the team, their discipline in both study and athletic practice, their commitment to each other and their team, and their respect for their coach. I was so impressed with Sam Babb, the indomitable, innovative, charismatic coach who identified and recruited girls with the skills and character to work hard and succeed. He brought out the best in each girl and they played their hearts out for him. Their remarkable accomplishments were the core of this inspirational book. I found the writing style uninspired and the extensive...

United States on Oct 08, 2020

BLThomas: Dust Bowl Girls by Lydia Reeder is not a "Hoosiers" type story; it is much more. I grew up in a place and time where women's sports didn't exist, and felt such an injustice was being done to the girls in my high school. Many were good athletes with their only outlet being physical education classes. Maybe that's why we had so many great female horseback riders.

This story explores the inner players and coach - how living a disciplined life, developing plans to succeed, and living with a clean sense of morals and ethics lead to success and happiness. The real catalyst in all of this is coach Babb, who, I believe, could make any group of motivated women successful, whether their passions are basketball, any other sport, engineers, soldiers, or any endeavor conducive to team goals.

Each character in this true story is has a compelling life of dreams and motivations. Another good book in the book is making Babe Didricksen a kind of bogeyman to add tension to the story. Ms. Reeder documents her research, which is nearly as interesting as the story. I will be recommending this book to my grandchildren as there are great lessons of life to learn.

As an aside: I was...

United States on Jul 24, 2020