AATTA-12

Chapter 12

The Big Game

A fter the twins and the team jumped off the float, Ray looked at his watch and told his sister that it was only 3:15; they had lots of time to grab a bite to eat before the important game started at four. Roxy agreed and, on the midway, they ended up eating two seven-cent corn dogs each, followed by a bag of mini-donuts.

By the time they arrived inside the Horse Show Pavilion, thousands of people had already taken their seats around the basketball court and were shouting, “Let’s play ball! Let’s play ball!” Fortunately, Coach Percy Page was good to his word and two front-row seats had a large sign that read: “Reserved for Family Day Ray and Roxy.”

At 4:00 the players stopped practising and lined up at centre court for the start of the game. As each player sized up the woman standing across from her, the host of the event, Carol Wilson, welcomed the crowd to the first ever Women’s World Championship Basketball Game. She thanked the two major sponsors of the event, Underwood Typewriters, the sponsors of the Underwood Trophy, and Peter Prince, “the Lumber King of Calgary”. Roxy explained to Ray that Peter “Lumber King” Prince blasted a channel in the Bow River in Calgary to float logs down, which created an island. The island eventually became a park named after him—Prince’s Island Park.

Carol handed the microphone to Nellie McClung, a writer, member of Parliament, and one of the Famous Five. Nellie told the crowd how thrilled she was to be at the big game and then introduced the players from the Cleveland Favorite Knits team, including Meg and Courtney, “the mighty Murgatroyd sisters.” The approximately 500 Favorite Knit fans were a rowdy bunch and gave their team a standing ovation. The twins thought having their fans so loud would be good for the game; one fan, however, with sharp knitting needles sticking out of his greasy black hair, wore a “destroy the grads” T-shirt. He looked awfully creepy.

Full house for the big game!

Nelly handed the microphone to Cappy Smart to introduce the Edmonton Grads team. The fire chief began: “Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, how about a blazing round of applause for Canada’s team that’s going to light the scoreboard on fire…your one and only Edmonton Grads!” That was the cue for his fireman to start ringing the large bell on the fire truck. The crowd loved it and started yelling, “Light up the scoreboard! Light up the scoreboard! Go grads go!”

At last it was time for the official toss of the basketball. Cappy invited both Prime Minister Borden, Canada’s prime minister at the time, and Woodrow Wilson, the president of the United States, to come forward to centre court. They both shook hands and made a bet that the leader of the country whose team lost the game would have to march in the military tattoo, a special drum performance and arms display, with the 6,000 troops on parade waving the flag of the victor’s country.

After the leaders left the court, the referees told both sides to play hard and to play fair. And with that, the ref threw the ball in the air and the World Championship game began.

The first half of the game was a real battle to control the ball. Unfortunately, the Grads had more penalties than their opponents; the Cleveland team took advantage of this and led the game at halftime, 28 to 20. During the break, Roxy told her brother that the Grads would regroup in the locker room and come out strong in the second half to get the job done. After all, she said, Dr. James Naismith, the Canadian inventor of basketball didn’t call the Grads “the finest basketball team that ever stepped out on a floor” for nothing. She also answered Ray’s question as to why they didn’t sing the national anthem before this important, international game. She explained that singing the national anthem at sporting events did not occur until after it was sung at a Maple Leafs game at Maple Leaf Gardens after the end of World War II.

The fire bells rang to start the second half of the game, and you could tell from the look in the Grads players’ eyes that their coach had given them a great pep talk at halftime. The team was full of confidence, focus, and energy and, sure enough, it showed on the scoreboard.

With less than five minutes left in the game, the Grads were behind by only two points, trailing 48 to 46. The crowd was going wild, especially since the fire bell rang out every time the Grads scored!

With less than a minute to play, the scary-looking Cleveland fan, whom Roxy had dubbed “Needle-head,” did the unthinkable: he stuck his foot out in front of Connie Smith, the high-scoring Captain of the Edmonton Grads. She went flying head first into the second row wooden bench, cutting her eye. Fortunately, Dr. Thomas Blow, Calgary’s first eye specialist, was in the crowd, and he rushed over with his medical bag to stitch up the injured player.

The coach of the Grads called for a time out while “Honest” Tom Mackie, the former Calgary police chief, from 1909 to 1912, arrested Needle-head.

Roxy was so upset that she looked at Jasper, pulled on her left ear lobe, and pointed to the guy. Jasper rushed up to Needle-head and peed all over the leg that he had used to trip the star player. The entire crowd cheered Jasper on and booed the jerk as he was led away in handcuffs.

The coach was short a player, because the backup team member, Elise Bennie, was already playing for Kate Macrae who had twisted her ankle during the second quarter of the game. He pointed to Roxy and gestured her to come over to the bench. She was beside herself with excitement.

After Roxy had thrown on a jersey, the coach called all his players into a huddle and told them that less than 30 seconds remained in the game and, because they were down by two, they needed a three-point shot to win!

The whistle then blew, signalling that the time out was over. The Grads nervously went back to the court and, unfortunately, Meg Murgatroyd of the opposing team won the toss. Meg dribbled the ball 20 feet toward the Grads’ net and then passed it to her younger sister, Courtney. With 10 seconds left in the game, Courtney landed a perfect shot at the net. But just as the ball was about to go in and guarantee a win for the Favorite Knits, Roxy jumped up with her arms outstretched and caught it.

Roxy quickly passed the ball to Daisy Johnson and yelled at her to shoot. Daisy, however, was too nervous and passed it right back to Roxy, shouting, “Only four seconds left Roxy…Take the shot!” Roxy realized that this was a longer distance than the back of the Grads’ railcar, but she reached down deep and, with all her strength and energy, threw the ball at the Cleveland net. There were less than two seconds left in the game. The ball flew through the air and landed perfectly in the basket. Roxy looked up at the large white scoreboard to find that the Grads had won the World Championship game 61 to 60!

The crowd went wild and rushed onto the court. At the same time, the Edmonton Grads hoisted Roxy onto their shoulders; they realized that they wouldn’t have been the World Champions without her! When they let her down, Roxy took off her basketball shoes and handed them over to Hattie as agreed. She received her team sweater in return. They were both thrilled with the exchange and gave each other a big, warm congratulatory embrace.

After the Underwood World Champion trophy was presented and their coach was given a Chevrolet car by the local merchants, Cappy invited the entire team to hop on his fire truck for a victory lap around the exhibition grounds. The players had a blast taking turns ringing the bell and waving at the hundreds of celebrating fans. The Underwood Trophy, Roxy informed Ray, was the Stanley Cup of women’s basketball, and the Edmonton Grads won the series 114 out 120 times over the years.

Stars of the World Championship Edmonton Grads.

The coach was thrilled with the car that he had received. He confessed to the team that it was his first car ever and he had to learn to drive first before he could take it for a spin!

Ray and Jasper waited for Roxy to finish the victory lap. After she returned, she hugged her fellow team members one last time and then turned toward her brother. She remarked that there was only one thing sweeter than that victory.

“What’s that?” Ray asked.

“Donuts!” Roxy said. “Another dozen of those delicious mini-donuts with sugar!”