The 1903-1904 Webb City High School girls basketball team had a great season. Local games for the boys and girls teams were played at the Blake Theater on Daugherty Street.
The undefeated girls team played an exhibition game against the Great Western College team. The Great Western Normal and Business College was located in Webb City near North College and West Austin streets, the current site of Hatten Park.
Three of the girls on the college team, Gertrude Atchison, Flora Rackerby and Ethel Tholborn, were former Webb City champions so there was great interest in the game.
In January, the Springfield High School basketball boys and girls teams traveled to Webb City to compete. The Springfield team was considered one of the best in Southwest Missouri, defeating dozens of cities throughout the area.
When the Springfield teams arrived at the train station they were met by the high school and college basketball teams, the college band and about 200 college and high school students.
The girls game was tied at the end of the first half but the Webb City girls pulled ahead in the second half, scoring 5 additional goals for a final score of Webb City 12, Springfield 7.
The Webb City boys team also attained a victory over Springfield. The next day the Webb City team members took the Springfield team members for a streetcar ride to Galena, Kan. The car was decorated with the red and black colors of Springfield on one side and the red and white colors of Webb City on the other.
Basketball games were played in the Blake Theatre (formerly across from the post office on Daugherty Street.
The Webb City Sentinel isn’t a newspaper – but it used to be, serving Webb City, Missouri, in print from 1879-2020. This “newspaper” seeks to carry on that tradition as a nonprofit corporation.
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