In the late 1940’s, my mother attended Folwell Junior High School in south Minneapolis. Throughout our childhood, she would share with me and my three siblings that she used to be the free throw shooting champion at Folwell. We figured she was joking. My childhood journey began in Duluth, had a two-year stop in the Battle Creek neighborhood of East St. Paul before returning full circle for my mother to south Minneapolis where I spent the majority of my formative years. As a student, yep, I attended Folwell, too. I spent plenty of time with co-curricular activities, before and after school, and wondered if my mother’s claims about being a free throw champion were true. Astonishingly, they were. Not only was it true, she also held a school record for consecutive free throws made. I can’t recall how many, but they were underhand kind of free throw, often referred to as “granny style.” It was recorded in a journal in one of the physical education offices. Her feat occurred during “sandwich time,” that span when organized basketball for girls had come to a halt and would not revive again until the passage of Title IX legislation in 1972. With a free throw resume like that, I think of what kind of prep career she might have had at Minneapolis Central High School. During that time, female students were relegated to playing in a gym, a park or if they were lucky, in an alley where someone might have a hoop, which was considered a luxury of the times.
