Marion Gunderson Art (and the Farmer's Daughter)

At the bottom of this post is video from the December 4, 1970, Rolfe vs (most likely) Rockwell City girls’ game.

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In the photo below are the most probable starters for the 1970-71 Rolfe girls’ basketball team. That team eventually played in the state tournament at the end of that same season. One of those probable starters pictured is Cynthia Lanning. She was a starter until she was injured early that 1970-71 season, after which she did not return to competition. I think I played just a little before she was injured; after she was injured I took her place as a starter.

The previous year I played forward. At the beginning of the 1970-71 year, assistant coach Dennis Duerling had a chat with me asking if I’d be willing to switch from forward (which I had played in my 1969-70 freshman year) and instead play guard. That was probably a good idea since I didn’t make very many baskets when I was a freshman playing on the junior varsity team. And, I don’t think I shot the ball very much during that freshman year. In fact, I think I shot the ball so little that for the JV game at Manson during my freshman year, my dad said he’d pay me for each field goal I made.

Man alive, I shot and shot and shot, not making any of those two-pointers. However, I did make five free-throws during that game…for which I did not get paid! (Free-throws were not a part of the bargain.) That was the only game there was ever even a hint from my dad that I should shoot more. That type of thing was not indicative of him, but I think it makes for a good story.

Further below is video from a game played in the Rolfe gym (now known as the RAM Event Center where we will have our community celebration on April 16th). Rolfe is in the white uniforms. A couple of us think the opposing team forward with the medium brown long pony tail is Teresa Bond. Teresa played for Rockwell City…so we think this video is of Rolfe vs Rockwell City on December 4th, 1970*.

That Rockwell City game was our fourth game of the season. In this footage (below) Cynthia Lanning is playing toward the beginning, and I’m playing later in the footage. The stats for Cynthia indicate she played 19 quarters that season, which makes me wonder if it was during this game that Cynthia was injured.

This photo is from the November 12, 1970, Rolfe Arrow. (Click on image to enlarge.)

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In the forward court for Rolfe (white uniforms) the players are as follows according to hair style: Laurie Brinkman (two shoulder length pigtails), Carol Wiegert (short dark hair) and Karen Brinkman (short medium brown hair). In Rolfe’s guard court it is a little more difficult to differentiate because we have three guards with about chin-length medium brown-to-blond hair. They are Michele Pomerenke, Joyce Baade and Cynthia Lanning. Later in the game I come into the picture (long dark hair) as Cynthia’s replacement.

At the mid-point of this video there is blank footage, which may appear to be the end of the video. It is not the end. There is about a 30-second segment of blank footage between the ~first 3 minutes of video (Rolfe’s forwards) and the ~last three minutes (Rolfe’s guards).

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*December 4th, 1970, also happened to be the night of Bill’s and my first date. I was a sophomore; Bill was a senior. What did we do on that first date? After the boys’ game, we took Bill’s “little” brother, Rich, home. Then Bill and I went to the high school dance in the Rolfe school’s basement-lunchroom where I’m pretty sure In-A-Gadda-DaVida was played.

A YouTube video of Iron Butterfly performing In-A-Gadda-DaVida is here.

(Click here to go to Louise Gunderson Shimon’s blog’s home page.)

This entry was posted on April 7, 2011 at 9:07 am and is filed under Girls' basketball, Iowa, Rolfe. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.