Girls’ high school basketball in Kentucky was halted as a sanctioned sport after the 1932 season, and for decades, female athletes in the state’s small schools were pretty much limited to being on the cheerleading squad.
With the introduction of Title IX in the mid 1970s, female athletics returned to the KHSAA and girls took to the hardwood with enthusiasm all across the state.
Clinton County High School fielded its first modern-day girls’ basketball team 50 years ago this season, with the introduction of the Lady Bulldogs in the 1974-75 basketball season.
Under the leadership of Lois Haddix, the school’s first girls’ basketball coach, this group of athletes donned the blue and white Lady Bulldog uniforms and took on opponents from across the district, region and state in the initial season.
In recognition of this being the 50th anniversary of the restart of girls’ basketball in Clinton County, members of the original team will gather this Friday night in The Castle, to be recognized in front of the local crowd between the girls’ and boys’ varsity games with Monroe County.
Carol Bertram Peddicord, a member of that 74-75 team, has been working for the past several months organizing Friday night’s recognition of the original Lady Bulldog squad.
Peddicord remembered fondly her teammates from those first years of girls’ basketball and the efforts they made to not only learn the game as beginner members of an organized team sport, but their desire to improve throughout that first season and the following seasons.
She also spoke about her gratitude to Coach Lois Haddix, who, without any real coaching experience, agreed to take on the task of coaching the Lady Bulldogs the first year, while learning the ropes of the coaching profession, as well as the game itself, during her first experience from the sidelines.
Friday night’s recognition will follow the girls’ varsity game, which is set to tip at 6:00 p.m.