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CHAPTER 1
New Recruit
February 1930
Doll Harris crouched in ready position, took a deep breath, and focused on the basketball now in enemy territory. More than anything, she wanted the ball back. Doll's high school team, the Cement Lady Bulldogs, was battling its archrival, the Fletcher Lady Wildcats, for the Southwest Oklahoma district championship and the right to play in the regional tournament. Doll was a senior and the Bulldogs' star forward. The game, in its final seconds, was tied, 28 – 28. The hometown crowd of 350 leaped to their feet when the Bulldog guards fought hard for the ball, the rubber soles of their Converse high-tops rendering sharp chirps with every move. The referee, expecting the tangle of players to commit a foul at any minute, held his whistle ready.
"Get the ball to Doll, you all," the pep squad chanted.
"Ball to Doll!" the crowd joined in.
Members of the boys' basketball team, scheduled to play directly after this game, were on their feet stomping against the bleachers, the racket thundering against the gym's redbrick walls. Rumor had it they were all in love with Doll. Part Irish and part Cherokee, she was petite — not much over five feet tall — with an athletic figure and thick shoulder-length black hair. For such a small girl, she had large hands. This strange attribute, the boys whispered among themselves, helped her to guide shots magically over the rim and into the basket. Doll made almost half of the field goals she attempted and nearly all of the free throws.
With twelve seconds left in the game, Doll and her teammates did the drill that would set up the final shot. The Cement forwards passed the ball to each other, keeping it in play to run down the clock. The frustrated Wildcat guards couldn't get their hands back on the ball. Finally, with three seconds left, Doll jumped to catch a wild pass from her teammate. With one second left, she made the shot. As if answering a magnetic call from the basket, the ball whooshed cleanly through the net. Cement had won, 30–28.
Cheers shook the gymnasium's rafter bolts. Farmers, ranchers, oil-rig workers, and their families who attended all the games leaped skyward. Schoolkids hugged each other, and the heroic Lady Bulldogs, still feeling the effects of the adrenaline rush, danced in circles while holding hands. A unifying spirit took hold, driving away thoughts about the plummeting crop prices, rising foreclosures, and growing food scarcity. These worries evaporated in the warmth spread by the delight in winning.
After more than fifteen minutes, the jubilant shouts dwindled to buzzing murmurs, and the boys began warming up on court for the next game. The crowd settled in to root for their team one more time.
Doll was on her way back to the locker room when she heard someone call her name. She glanced back to see her coach, Mr. Daily, motioning her over to where he was standing with a broad-shouldered man wearing a black suit and a silk tie. He stuck out like a sore thumb in the midst of all the people milling about in work overalls and cotton dresses. As she walked back toward them, the stranger fixed his collar and smoothed a hand down the front of his jacket. Mr. Daily introduced the well-dressed man as Sam Babb, coach of the Cardinals at the Oklahoma Presbyterian College for Girls in Durant, 150 miles east of Cement. Doll lifted her eyebrows and stared at Mr. Babb. His thick black hair was cut in a flattop above a high forehead and bushy eyebrows. He had a broad, stern face; a straight nose; and a prominent chin that turned double when he stared down at her. She never would have guessed he was a basketball coach. He looked more like a banker from the city. And she knew all she needed to know about bankers — her father, a sharecropper, hated them because they were always raising interest rates. As Babb took a couple of steps toward her, she noticed that he had a pronounced limp.
Babb greeted Doll in a smooth baritone voice. When he reached out to shake her hand, his solemn face lit up with a smile. He said he'd like to tell her about the basketball program at OPC, that he was looking for a talented forward to add to the Cardinals' offense. "I need players willing to work hard. Are you willing to work, Miss Harris?"
"I'm a competitor."
"But are you a team player?"
"I can be a team player."
"Good girl. Then I am prepared to offer you financial aid."
"Financial aid? To play basketball?"
"Yes, it would pay for your education."
Doll's jaw dropped, and she looked at Babb in disbelief. Being offered the chance to attend college and play basketball was a dream come true. For the past couple of years, Doll could never stop thinking about being recruited by a women's industrial team like the Dr Pepper girls in Oklahoma City or, even better, the Dallas Sunoco Oilers, last year's national champions. These big companies hired the best coaches and players to work in the factory and play basketball at night and on weekends. Winning sports teams generated lots of good publicity. Thousands of screaming fans flocked to their games, and ever since she was a kid playing on a homemade dirt court with a peach-basket goal, Doll had dreamed of glory.
Her heart pounded so hard, she thought it might just launch itself right out of her chest. Maybe this wasn't playing for an industrial basketball team, but in a way, it was even better because she'd be able to go to college, too. She folded her arms, leaned back on her right leg, and began to tap her left toe out of sheer excitement.
"Doll, listen to Mr. Babb," said Mr. Daily, putting a hand on her shoulder to calm her fidgeting.
"Yes, sir." She inhaled a deep breath.
For several minutes, Babb continued telling her about OPC, a women's college, but housed on a campus where poor Indian children also went to elementary and high school, paid for by the Presbyterian Church, of course. "OPC is nationally accredited, one of the best in the region, known for its quality of higher education," he said. Then he told her he wanted to meet with her parents, the next day if possible.
"Meet my folks?" Doll's voice cracked when she spoke.
"Is something wrong?" Babb said.
Yes, there was something wrong. While Doll was listening to Mr. Babb, thoughts of home began to percolate at the back of her mind. She saw the pail she used to milk the cow every morning, sitting in its corner in the barn, made of galvanized metal so heavy she couldn't lift it and had to drag it along the ground when she was a little kid. Her sister Verdie's long auburn hair braided with wild honeysuckle. The desperate look on her father's lean, tanned face when he told his family last October that because of drought, the wheat crop had shriveled to dust. Her shock when she found out that her parents quit eating the eggs from their chickens, selling them instead so that Doll could have new basketball shoes. She and her sister sometimes went without eating meat and eggs, too. Sinking into these thoughts, she stopped breathing — she knew she could never leave Caddo County.
The Great Depression was under way, and poverty lived like a king in western Oklahoma. Months of dry weather had lifted the crops right out of the ground as if the hand of God (or the devil) had pulled up row upon row of every corn, wheat, or cotton plant, exposing the roots and killing them. Fields and pastures had turned dead brown and seemed to rise on the wind like spirits yearning toward heaven, filling the air, sometimes, with sand storms and suffocating grime. Money for food and clothing was scarce. Many families ate what they could grow and supplemented that with what little they could hunt for. Where drought was worst, they gathered weeds — dandelions, sheep sorrel, and lamb's quarters — and ate them steamed with canned beans and lard. Squirrel hunting became an art. The hunter would scope out a squirrel's nest high in a cottonwood. Then he, or she, would lie on the ground and face the sky with a .22 rifle pointing at the nest in its sights. Sometimes they'd wait an hour or more for the squirrel to show its eyes. Squirrel gravy on eggs was considered a delicacy.
But not all was tragic in these wide-open spaces. Country girls like Doll grew up surrounded by endless acres of crops; pasture; and wild, open plains. They ran footraces with coyotes and horses, crawled effortlessly across the wooden beams holding up barn roofs, and created secret tunnels with hay bales. They played alone and with brothers, sisters, cousins, and friends. At night, the stars glistened a brilliant, bleached white in an immense black sky. The only noises were crickets and wind.
Doll couldn't leave her life on the farm. Everyone depended on her. She'd marry a farmer or an oil-rig worker like her sister did and have children of her own. But she also couldn't disappoint Mr. Daily, who had arranged for Mr. Babb to watch her play. So she said, "No, nothing's wrong. Come by tomorrow morning, early." And then she gave Mr. Babb directions to her home.
CHAPTER 2
The Making of a Coach
When Sam Babb scouted players, he'd watch their moves on the court and knew in an instant whether or not they had the strength of character to play for his team. He could sum up people by the way they walked through a crowd, could spot the kind of person who would sell you a blind plow horse without an ounce of regret. Thirty-nine years old in 1931, he walked with purpose and precision, but also with a stiff-hipped swagger. Most people didn't realize at first that he was missing a leg and wore a prosthetic. By then, they were already caught up in his forceful charisma.
While scrutinizing Doll, Babb was struck by her ability to steadily play her heart out. She never exhibited any anger toward a teammate and only showed frustration when, in a rare moment, she missed a shot. Her focus stayed on the unfolding action. Except for a bright tilt of her chin upward after sinking the final basket, she never gloated or bragged after winning. Even when he asked her to come and play for the Cardinals, she hid her emotion, clasping her hands together until her fingers turned purple. He could tell she had reservations about leaving home, but so did most of the girls he interviewed.
When Babb came shopping for talent in his spiffy 1929 burgundy Ford roadster with the brown leather rumble seat, most thought a rich man had come to call. He drove without any special equipment for a one-legged man, operating the brake and gas pedals easily after years of practice. In addition to being the coach of the Cardinals' basketball team, he also taught psychology at OPC, located in southeastern Oklahoma twenty miles north of the Red River and the Texas border in the bustling town of Durant. Searching for the best players from the high school senior girls, he often traveled the road alone, rambling down Oklahoma highways and back roads, from the Arbuckle Mountains to the Wichitas, the Red River to the Arkansas, humming "Livin' in the Sunlight, Lovin' in the Moonlight" or "Big Rock Candy Mountain" in his tone-deaf way. He'd grown to appreciate the rugged landscape where Doll lived, part of the ancient Keechi Hills in southwestern Oklahoma that once harbored outlaws like Jesse James, Quantrill's Raiders, Belle Starr, and the Dalton Gang. Sometimes men could be seen on horseback weaving in and out of the granite boulders, still searching for the outlaws' gold rumored to be hidden deep beneath the furry sage grass.
Farming could be difficult here, especially since Doll's father didn't own his land. He sharecropped several acres, backbreaking work that resulted in most of the money for his crops being given back to the landowner. On this chilly morning as Babb pulled onto the hard-dirt road that led to the Harrises' home, frost glinted off the dried Buffalo grass next to the road. The sun was just rising, turning the horizon burnt orange like the tip of a recently extinguished match. Built from oak logs and topped with a sod roof, the Harrises' small home looked more like a cabin. Babb set the brake, stepped out of his car, and watched as the front door opened and Doll and her mother poured out, followed by a half-grown pink pig that skittered around the side of the house. Farmers often nursed orphaned farm animals until they were big enough to join the other livestock.
Mrs. Harris was even more petite than her daughter, and she politely escorted him through the front door. The deep caramel smell of burnt sugar syrup filled the room, making Babb's stomach growl since he hadn't yet eaten any breakfast. The Song of the Lark, a school library book, sat next to a kerosene lamp on a small homemade oak table covered with a doily skillfully woven from feed- sack cloth. Doll wore a dress made from the same sturdy cotton, covered with tiny, colorful daisies. In the 1920s, the feed industry had seized the opportunity to expand business by printing fabric feed bags with unique patterns specifically to attract farmers' wives.
A corner fireplace with smoldering wood heated the front room. Doll's Converse All-Stars sat next to the fireplace. Girls who played basketball never washed their basketball shoes but let them sit in a warm place to dry out after games.
Just then, Mr. Harris, wearing faded overalls and an old blue work shirt, ambled through the front door, nodded at Mrs. Harris, and seemed antsy about getting back to his chores. A man of few words, he motioned toward the fireplace where two homemade ladder-backed chairs and an old rocker were grouped together. Babb politely refused a chair, preferring to stand. He may not have become a minister like his father whose job it was to save souls, but he did make it his business to change lives. To prepare for this task, he always stood to speak and chose his words wisely.
He began by telling Mr. and Mrs. Harris what a smart and talented daughter they'd raised and that she deserved a chance to make something out of her life by attending college. It was a speech he gave to all the parents of the girls he recruited. Doll was blushing the whole time he spoke about her. But Mr. Harris couldn't seem to absorb the fact that his daughter's schooling would be paid for by OPC. And even after Babb had explained several times that Doll would be receiving financial aid for her education, her father kept asking how a girls' school could afford to be this generous. But when it finally sank in that his daughter had achieved something so special that it was nearly unheard of, an excitement arose, an aura that Babb had often felt coming from the parents of his new recruits.
"She'll be the first Harris to go to college," said Mrs. Harris, her voice ringing with pride.
"Welcome to OPC," Babb said to Doll.
Any reluctance she had been feeling appeared to have vanished. Her face shone up at him like the full moon, soft and bright, a well of happiness and maybe even hope, a look that always made Babb's heart a little sore when he saw it on a new recruit's face. He hoped she made the team, kept up her grades, and graduated from college. Many didn't, but Doll seemed tough and driven on the court. She was one of the best he'd ever seen.
Satisfied that Babb would treat Doll like his own daughter while away at school, Mr. Harris insisted on showing off a picture clipped from a catalog of the Farmall tractor he hoped to purchase. Most sharecroppers aspired to own their land someday by purchasing farm equipment that increased production. Some did realize their dreams of land ownership, but most wallowed in debt and found themselves stuck forever plowing up someone else's land. But if Babb hadn't been scheduled to meet with another player's family in Lawton that afternoon, he and Mr. Harris would have spent the entire morning discussing farm equipment, broomcorn seed, and proper fertilization techniques. Babb listened with sincere interest to Doll's father because he identified with Harris's deep connection to the land.
Born December 18, 1891, on a farm near Buffalo, Missouri, Sam Babb was the fifth out of twelve children, six boys and six girls. Rhoda Ellen, Babb's mother, raised the children and ran the eighty-acre homestead. A practicing midwife, she knew about the healing qualities of plants and gathered fresh echinacea, jewelweed, dandelion, burdock root, and many other herbs for tinctures and medicines. It was said that if the family member of a sick person called the county doctor, he would first ask, "Is Ellen Babb there?" If the person answered yes, the doctor would say, "Don't worry. You're in excellent hands. Just do exactly as she says."
Babb's father, Joseph, was a circuit preacher in charge of establishing new places of worship for the Christian Church, a perfect job for this scarecrow-like man who could never slow down and hated farmwork. Joseph spent more time with Ezekiel, his saddle horse, Bible secured in his saddlebags while riding the roads and trails of Missouri, than he did with his twelve children.
(Continues…)
Excerpted from "Dust Bowl Girls"
by .
Copyright © 2017 Lydia Reeder.
Excerpted by permission of ALGONQUIN BOOKS OF CHAPEL HILL.
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