For the love of the game

by Kathy Tretter

Sometimes telling a story from Point A to Point B requires several detours to Point Q or Point Z.

Such is the case with the following tale — it stretches from Point A to Point Z but begins somewhere at Point G, so here goes. This writer promises it is an inspiring and completely true tale.

* * * * *

To begin in the middle: The phone rang in the news office recently and the caller at the other end identified herself as Faith (Therber) Fairhope, whose name rang nary a bell.

Faith explained her mom was Tillie Haynes, who attended Midway Grade School and her dad was Frank Therber of Rockport.

Still no bells.

Faith said in 1956 Frank moved his growing family to Nashville, Tennessee, but they religiously returned to Spencer County every summer for reunions and other special occasions. Faith was just two months old — the sixth child born to the Therbers with two more arriving after the move to Nashville, but she loved Midway, the whole family did.

Tillie, having lived there as a child, possessed such fond memories of her days at Midway Grade School, which by the way, despite closing its doors in 1967 is still standing. When the building went up for sale a few years and one subsequent owner later in 1979, Frank bought it for his beloved. “He thought they would fix it up,” Faith recalls. “He worked on it from time to time,” she adds, but no specific plan ever materialized and they did live in Tennessee after all.

“When Mom died in December of 1998 Dad lost interest,” Faith supposes. Frank lived to 92 1/2, passing away June 18, 2012, so Faith and her siblings began handling administrative duties. “I knew we would wait for Indiana last.”

The family held an open house in an effort to sell the iconic school and interest was generated but nothing came to fruition. Just FYI, anyone who may be interested can reach Linda at [email protected].

Last January (2022) Faith received a phone call from Brian Hanson of Boonville, who uses a metal detector and a Go-Pro camera attached to his cap to seek out interesting treasures from out of the way places and shares the results on his YouTube channel. He was seeking permission to use this equipment at the Midway School, not exactly expecting treasures but hoping to find some unique memorabilia. Faith gave him the go-ahead.

He did indeed find an interesting treasure, though its value cannot be counted in dollars.

Hanson’s metal detector began beeping and he unearthed a mason jar with a thick metal lid. Inside was a sheet of lined paper — the kind every student has used for generations — with the names of all 1950 graduating class members completing eighth grade that year and this was, apparently their very own time capsule, probably long forgotten by the classmates who penciled their names on the list.

One name stood out — Linda Yearby — daughter of the first Ferman Yearby and his wife, Nanny, who owned and operated the General Store in Bloomfield. Legend has it Bloomfield was often referred to as Yearbyville.

Fairhope learned all she could about Yearby and was amazed by her spirit of determination. How she blazed a trail and paved the way for ALL women in sports! 

“She was in the game from about 1956-1976 and then continued to coach and share her love of the game with younger generations. She did it all, from playing basketball, coaching, helping recruit, driving the vehicle, etc.” Faith explains, which was what prompted her to call the Leader.

And here we can possibly go back to Point A.

Walter Parker coached the Midway boys basketball team. According to Spencer County Historical Society President Steve Sisley, Coach Parker was one of, if not the best coach ever to serve in Spencer County and beyond. Readers may remember his son Dr. Clyde Parker, who played both basketball and baseball through high school and college.

Born in 1935, Linda Yearby, who stood 5’ 2” (in fact still stands about that same height, although rumor has it she added two inches to make herself taller so she may be only 5’), had four brothers and two sisters. She possessed a love of sports, especially basketball. Her dream in seventh grade was to play for the Midway team — but she was too shy to ask Coach Parker. Eventually she got up the nerve to ask and he allowed her to join the 1949-1950 boys basketball team when she was in eighth grade.

Think about it — there were no sports for girls at the grade or high school level which is almost unimaginable today.

Linda may have had one advantage with her height. According to Darrell Stephens, who moved to Rockport in 1968 with his family, heard his new teammates in Rockport talk about the Midway Gym with its very low ceiling and wished he could have played there, but the school closed a year earlier so he missed his chance.

Whether that low ceiling was a benefit or not, Linda was a stellar player despite her height, usually alternating between playing forward and guard.

Unfortunately she wasn’t allowed to play at Chrisney High School except during class tournaments, but Linda Yearby had a dream and she was determined to pursue it!

After high school, at the age of 18, Linda found her niche when she tried out for and joined Dempsey Hovland’s World Famous Texas Cowgirls basketball team. She had heard the Cowgirls would be playing in Mt. Vernon so she went there and showed her talent and skills. They wanted her to join them immediately and travel to Kentucky the next night.

“My Dad said okay but my Mom said no,” Linda recalls with a chuckle.

The next night Linda Yearby of Bloomfield, barely a blip on the map, found herself playing the sport she loved in Kentucky and she never looked back.

The Cowgirls were Hovland’s creation, along with famed professional sports promoter Jack “Doc” Kearns in 1949. Hovland kept them going for nearly 30 years, until his death in 1979.

The Cowgirls were a lot like their male counterparts, the Harlem Globetrotters, as neither team ever had a home court — they were barnstormers! The Globetrotters were never based in Harlem, New York, and the Texas Cowgirls had no roots in Texas, they were run out of either South Beloit or Rockton, Illinois during their entire existence.

So why the name Texas Cowgirls? According to Linda, all the teams bore a southern moniker because for some reason it seemed to have more cachet to be from the south and the name drew larger crowds, especially in the north.

The Cowgirls played more than 5,000 games all over the United States as well as far-flung locales such as Spain and Morocco. For many years, they were the opening act for the Globetrotters. In 1957 and 1958, the Cowgirls opened for the Globetrotters when their most notable attraction was Wilt Chamberlain.

It was Marques Haynes, however, who taught Linda how to dribble for show. A member of the Globetrotters, Haynes was known for his ability to dribble the ball and keep it away from defenders. According to the 1988 film Harlem Globetrotters: Six Decades of Magic, Haynes is considered the world’s finest dribbler and could dribble the ball as many as 348 times a minute. She also considered Meadowlark Lemon a good friend.

Most of the time, however, the Cowgirls were the main attraction. They played teams made up of major league baseball players and pro football players, occasionally playing before NBA games to help boost the crowd. The Cowgirls also played lots and lots of local all-star teams and school faculties.

You’ll know from reading this the Cowgirls almost exclusively played against men and according to Linda, the ladies almost always won. Linda was serious about basketball and not as much into the theatrics. “For me it was really about playing the game,” she explained during a phone interview from her home in Florida. “But we had to say we were from Texas.”

She didn’t really enjoy that deception, nor was she as thrilled with the “show” spectacles required of her and all the barnstorming teams.

And how much did she get paid for this work?

According to Linda, “We got five dollars a day.” Hovland covered lodging, but out of that $5 the girls had to pay for their meals and other living expenses.

“We were happy because we loved playing basketball,” Linda remembers. “For dinner we could get a couple of hamburgers for 50¢.”

Linda said that some of the travel was to far flung US military bases where they entertained the troops. The team was given an honorary ambassador award from Robert McNamara, the U.S. Secretary of Defense, because of all the goodwill they created playing at military bases.

When they played on the military bases it was pretty much always against men and often dignitaries would make a point to come see them play.

“We stayed in the barracks,” she remembers. “But they took us sightseeing in Madrid.” They even played on a base in Alaska.

Hovland had one rule — his players had to be single. If they decided to get married, they were off the team. He also promoted Negro American League games, magicians and country western singers and founded barnstorming baseball teams such as the Caribbean Kings and Havana Cuban Giants.

A Texas Cowgirls game could feature a halftime show of Negro League great Satchel Paige giving a pitching exhibition or Hank Williams singing.

Linda was a Texas Cowgirl from 1958 to ‘64.

Hovland, also created the New York Harlem Chicks basketball team — the first all female African-American basketball team in the USA, a female version of the Harlem Globetrotters.

The problem? He couldn’t find a coach so he asked Linda if she would take it on and she did. Part of her challenge was finding places where the Chicks could stay and dine, especially in the segregated south.

The Harlem Chicks barnstormed North Dakota, South Dakota, Washington state, Minnesota, Nebraska and Wyoming. They played teams like the Missouri Redheads, Hazel Walkers, Arkansas Travelers, Philadelphia Tribune Girls, the Chicago Romas, Iowa Colored Ghosts, and the Harlem Queens.

In 1964 Linda left Hovland’s stable to establish hew own team — the Shooting Stars with Elvira “Peps” Neuman, in order to have more control over wages and conditions. They soon changed their team name to the Arkansas Lassies in hopes of attracting larger crowds. 

Linda stayed with her until 1975 and then coaching well into her 70s.

Here is an excerpt from the Arkansas Women’s History Archives: “Before the Women’s National Basketball Association, female professional basketball players barnstormed the country playing and often defeating men’s teams. Players such as Hazel Walker, Patricia Ann and Betty Lou Johnson, Joan Rupp, Linda Yearby, and Leeone Evans became folk heroes to many high school and college players … These are the teams that laid the foundation for the creation of the Women’s National Basketball Association.”

Linda says there are very few things she would change about her career. She loved basketball and devoted her life to the sport. She still keeps in touch with one of her players from the Lassies, Linda Fancett.

So does she attend a lot of girls games as an audience member today?

“What I really love is to watch college basketball,” she says with a smile, “the boys.”

Going Forward

Faith Fairhope and Brian Hanson want the world to know about Linda Anne Yearby and her amazing lifetime contributions to women’s basketball, so they are doing everything possible to get her story “out there” and for her to receive the local and National recognition she so deserves. 

Linda will be formally inducted into the Indiana Sports Hall of Fame at their banquet on August 12th (https://inshof.com/).

Linda will also be formally inducted into the Greater Evansville Basketball Hall of Fame at their banquet in October (www.gebbhof.com).

An engraved brick with her name and jersey No. 6 will be placed in each Hall of Fame! 

To see the YouTube video footage of Brian Hanson finding the time capsule visit https://youtu.be/lizkmVNw070.

Linda plans to donate her basketball memorabilia to the Spencer County Historical Society. She wants the basketball history that she helped pioneer to be available for future generations. Linda hopes her story of determination and grit will inspire other women to go after their dreams!