Grannies. She has 10 teammates whose uniforms are black bloomers and pink socks and they play in the Iowa Granny Basketball League. banned the girls basketball program.
"We were very frustrated," said Chapman, a forward for her high school team in Des Moines. for women over 50 that have sprung up across America. For some, it's an opportunity to exercise and socialize; for others, it's a once-denied chance to national competitions and more recreational leagues," said Michael Rogers, an associate professor in sports studies at Wichita State University.
"In the future it will be commonplace to have leagues like this." from 16,000 in 1995 to nearly 131,000 a decade later. "I think I'm tough," says Hot Pink Granny Colleen Pulliam, 69, flexing her biceps at opponents in a game against the Strutters, known for their brilliant Seconds later, she dives for the ball as it slips from a player's hand and tosses it over her head to the forward waiting under the basket.
the country, including California, Connecticut, Louisiana, New Mexico, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Washington, D.C. It's part of a larger movement toward organized sports by older Americans, said Dr.
Wojtek Chodzko-Zajko, head of the kinesiology department at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. "Gradually, as the boomers grow older we're going to have a cohort of people who have the expectation of remaining active," said Chodzko-Zajko, who studies aging and physical activity. "And a majority of those people are going to want to do that in competitive sport.
" Unlike men, however, middle-aged women who want to play have had to create post-Title IX era. That 1972 ruling forced public schools to offer equal athletic programs for males and females. Senior Games in Pittsburgh.
And in response to growing interest by women, the time offer a women's competition at its May event in Coral Springs, Fla. to Audrey Pastore, who established the Senior Women's Basketball Association of San Diego in 1998. Today, her league has about 100 members who play three-on-three games on 18 teams.
Three of those teams won gold medals at the "It's going to get bigger and bigger," said Pastore, 66. There are even basketball camps for women 50 and older. Deb Richards of Portland, Maine, launched her Not Too Late basketball camp last year and drew more than 50 women from 11 states.
Richards, 52, plans another camp this August at Southern Maine Community College. But there are risks. Because basketball is such a physically demanding sport, doctors say older players risk cardiovascular problems, and some may aggravate existing arthritis Women also are more susceptible to painful knee ligament injuries, said Dr.
Kathleen Weber, director of the women's sports medicine program at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago. condition," Weber said. "They need to do conditioning.
" joining, but clearly having a good time is a priority. Each team sports eye-catching attire, and they flap their arms to 1920s swing music at halftime. Many of their games raise money for charities, and there are stunt games like "I'm having fun and I love it.
We have a nice bunch of girls here," said 78-year-old Phyllis Huxford of Des Moines.
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