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The reigning queens of basketball

Broadcast Date: Oct. 21, 1991

The man who invented basketball called them the finest team ever to step on to the court. Edmonton Commercial Graduates Basketball Team begins in 1915 as a women's amateur squad culled from a local high school. The Grads soon dominate the sport not just in Canada but around the world. Canada's wonder team boasts 16 consecutive world championships and an unprecedented record of 502 wins and just 20 losses.

After a remarkable 25 year run, the team disbands in 1940 due to travel restrictions resulting from the Second World War. But in its heyday, a Grads game is the hottest ticket in town. The reigning champs regularly pack arenas and have adoring fans worldwide.

The reigning queens of basketball

• The Grads' last game was on June 5, 1940. It was their 522nd game and their 502nd victory.

• The best known Grad was Noel MacDonald, the team's star centre from 1933 to 1939.

• The remaining Grads still get together to reminisce about their glorious past. At the Grads 25th anniversary, MacDonald recalled some of the team's highlights including the dubious honour of sitting behind Hitler at the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin.

• MacDonald was named Canada's most outstanding woman athlete in 1938.

• Women's basketball became an official Olympic event at the 1976 Montreal Games. Men's basketball became an Olympic sport in 1936.

• A total of 38 women played for the Edmonton Grads but Percy Page was its sole coach. The Grads attributed the team's success to the Page's unrelenting commitment.

• Page died in 1973 after a distinguished career in politics, culminating in his appointment as lieutenant-governor of Alberta in 1959.

• Dr. James Naismith (1861-1939), who invented basketball in 1891, grew up in Almonte, Ont., just outside Ottawa.

The reigning queens of basketball

Medium: Television

Program: The Journal

Broadcast Date: Oct. 21, 1991


Reporter: Tom Alderman

Duration: 2:19

Photo: Canada's Sports Hall of Fame, reproduced from the National Library of Canada's website (www.nlc-bnc.ca).

Last updated:
Oct. 26, 2009


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