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State: A Team, a Triumph, a Transformation
Set against a backdrop of social change during the 1970s, State is a compelling first-person account of what it was like to live through both traditional gender discrimination in sports and the joy of the very first days of equality—or at least the closest that one high school girls’ basketball team ever came to it.
In 1975, freshman Melissa Isaacson—along with a group of other girls who’d spent summers with their noses pressed against the fences of Little League ball fields, unable to play—entered Niles West High School in suburban Chicago with one make a team, any team. For Missy, that turned out to be the basketball team.
Title IX had passed just three years earlier, prohibiting gender discrimination in education programs or activities, including athletics. As a result, states like Illinois began implementing varsity competition—and state tournaments—for girls’ high school sports.
At the time, Missy and her teammates didn’t really understand the legislation. All they knew was they finally had opportunities—to play, to learn, to sweat, to lose, to win—and an they were athletes. They were a team.
And in 1979, they became state champions.
With the intimate insights of the girl who lived it, the pacing of a born storyteller, and the painstaking reporting of a veteran sports journalist, Isaacson chronicles one high school team’s journey to the state championship. In doing so, Isaacson shows us how a group of "tomboys" found themselves and each other, and how basketball rescued them from their collective frustrations and troubled homes, and forever altered the course of their lives.
Special educational materials for classrooms are available from Agate Publishing.
In 1975, freshman Melissa Isaacson—along with a group of other girls who’d spent summers with their noses pressed against the fences of Little League ball fields, unable to play—entered Niles West High School in suburban Chicago with one make a team, any team. For Missy, that turned out to be the basketball team.
Title IX had passed just three years earlier, prohibiting gender discrimination in education programs or activities, including athletics. As a result, states like Illinois began implementing varsity competition—and state tournaments—for girls’ high school sports.
At the time, Missy and her teammates didn’t really understand the legislation. All they knew was they finally had opportunities—to play, to learn, to sweat, to lose, to win—and an they were athletes. They were a team.
And in 1979, they became state champions.
With the intimate insights of the girl who lived it, the pacing of a born storyteller, and the painstaking reporting of a veteran sports journalist, Isaacson chronicles one high school team’s journey to the state championship. In doing so, Isaacson shows us how a group of "tomboys" found themselves and each other, and how basketball rescued them from their collective frustrations and troubled homes, and forever altered the course of their lives.
Special educational materials for classrooms are available from Agate Publishing.
320 pages, Hardcover
Published August 13, 2019
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October 26, 2019
As a teenager in the 1990s I was privileged to watch my home basketball team win six championships. Almost as thrilling as the victories was reading about them in the newspaper the next morning. Waking up at dawn I would race to be the first one to obtain the paper and immediately grab the sports section. Much to my delight, the lead reporter covering the Chicago Bulls was a Jewish woman named Melissa Isaacson. I would always read her columns and stories first and fantasize about having a similar profession in adulthood. While covering my favorite sports teams never panned out, I am still an ardent fan and still followed Isaacson’s work at both the Chicago Tribune and later at ESPN. A few months ago I discovered that Isaacson had written a memoir about her high school experience in winning the Illinois state basketball championship. I knew that while this book was not written with me in mind, it was one that I had to read for myself.
Melissa Isaacson grew up in Lincolnwood Illinois, an area I know well because my grandparents lived in Skokie and my parents moved there, and still live there, after I finished college. The Lincolnwood purple hotel was a landmark of my youth because by passing it, I knew that I was close to my grandparents apartment. I pass through Lincolnwood each time I visit my parents and can envision the neighborhood that the Isaacsons called home. Melissa was the youngest of four children, and, with two brothers closest in age to her, turned to sports rather than typical girl behavior. In the 1960s the feminist movement was on the cusp of achieving equal demands for women, but for a girl like Melissa it meant no organized sports for the first part of her childhood. Most girls were happy playing with dolls and later thinking about boys, but for Melissa and her friends, they were happiest on the softball field or shooting hoops in the driveway. A few of her teammates’ mothers wished that their daughters cared about boys, makeup, and prom, but the 1970s were a time of change for girls and the activities they chose to participate in as teenagers. Opportunities for female athletic hopefuls changed in 1974 when President Nixon signed Title IX into being. This law, which is still relevant today, made it illegal for public institutions to discriminate funding on the basis of gender. What it meant for female athletes at all levels of competition is that they would have a chance to participate in sports that prior to Title IX were only available to boys and men. For a sports loving girl like Melissa Isaacson it meant that when she entered high school, she would have a chance to play organized team sports for the first time in her life.
When Melissa entered Niles West High School (another landmark I know well because my grandparents took me swimming there) in the fall of 1975, the athletic department still hadn’t warmed to the idea of girls as athletes. The state championship for girls basketball would not exist for another year, and tryouts for volleyball, basketball, and softball were still in their rudimentary stages. The Boys Gym was sacred to boys and the idea of girls practicing there was foreign to male teachers and coaches. The passage of Title IX was noble in its ideology but enforcing it was another story. Yet, Melissa and her friends were thrilled to be able to compete in sports other than cheerleading, synchronized swimming, or gymnastics. On the day of basketball tryouts her freshman year, Melissa showed up with her new friend Connie Erickson of Morton Grove. The youngest of eleven children, Erickson was Niles West royalty. Even as a freshman, she was noticed by seniors who knew her older siblings, and she excelled at sports as well, making the varsity volleyball and basketball teams her first year. Melissa would make the junior varsity team but by the end of the inaugural first year, would be practicing with the varsity squad. Through the persistence of her coach Arlene Mulder and principal Dr. Nicholas Mannos as well as gymnastics coach Judi Sloan, there were bigger and better things in store for the girls basketball team in the next year.
Dr. Mannos convinced the Illinois High School Association (IHSA) to add a girls basketball state championship for the 1976-77 school year. Over 600 member schools fielded a team, and the time was ripe for the girls to have a championship to compete for. The IHSA had had a boys tournament for decades and is known to be home to America’s original March Madness. The 1970s, Title IX, and the overall women’s movement gave the girls a chance to compete in their own state tournament, and Melissa, Connie, and their teammates were eager for the chance to become the first tournament champions. The bulk of the memoir focuses on the team and their quest to win a title for their school. In their freshmen year, the girls did not have enough uniforms for everyone. Warmup gear was out of the question, and the only time the girls could use the main gym was at 5:00 in the morning. So the varsity girls basketball team would wake at 4:00, carpool from Lincolnwood and Morton Grove, and arrive at school in time for predawn training. This dedication over the course of three years would lead to the special season of 1978-99 that lead Isaacson to track down former teammates and work on this book over the course of twelve years.
Coach Arlene Mulder told Melissa’s friend and teammate Shirley Cohen that it was never just about winning. Basketball saved many of the girls on the team from difficult home situations and provided others with college scholarships in the early days of women’s sports under the NCAA umbrella. A few of the girls had alcoholic parents, others turned to drugs, and Isaacson’s own parents were both in the early stages of Alzheimer’s but did not know it yet. Reading about these home situations was gut wrenching, yet basketball gave the girls an outlet, making winning a championship that much sweeter for them. Isaacson notes that of the thirteen girls on the team, twelve have chosen sports related careers, either coaching, teaching, physical therapy, or, in Isaacson’s case, sports journalism. Perhaps, the teammates would not have made careers out of sports if the team was not successful, but Isaacson and her senior class teammates went out on top, influencing younger teammates and future generations of Niles West athletes, including Mulder’s two daughters, in the process. While basketball might not have only been about winning, being successful changed the lives of these pioneering athletes for the better.
Today Melissa Isaacson still lives in the Chicago area and teaches as Northwestern’s Medill School of Journalism, following successful career stops at the Chicago Tribune and ESPN. She also attends reunions of her high school basketball team, organized by former teammates and her school. When I followed her as a Tribune reporter, I was fortunate to have organized park district softball available to me, something Isaacson did not have until her later teenaged years. I was also fortunate that my school won back to back girls high school basketball titles when I attended; not having athletic skills, I did the team’s stats at home games. By the time the girls at my school won, college scholarships for women athletics had become the norm. Title IX had been around for a generation, and girls being afforded the same opportunities as boys had become commonplace. Today women are even assistant coaches in the National Basketball Association, something Melissa and her friends could not begin to fathom as teenagers. During the 1970s, they were thrilled to play sports for their school and be given the same chances as their male peers. State was Isaacson’s labor of love and a special book for myself as one who knows the area well. As one of the two women I wanted to be when I grew up, I was giddy to read Melissa Isaacson’s memoir, and it proved to be quite the story.
*5 star read *
Melissa Isaacson grew up in Lincolnwood Illinois, an area I know well because my grandparents lived in Skokie and my parents moved there, and still live there, after I finished college. The Lincolnwood purple hotel was a landmark of my youth because by passing it, I knew that I was close to my grandparents apartment. I pass through Lincolnwood each time I visit my parents and can envision the neighborhood that the Isaacsons called home. Melissa was the youngest of four children, and, with two brothers closest in age to her, turned to sports rather than typical girl behavior. In the 1960s the feminist movement was on the cusp of achieving equal demands for women, but for a girl like Melissa it meant no organized sports for the first part of her childhood. Most girls were happy playing with dolls and later thinking about boys, but for Melissa and her friends, they were happiest on the softball field or shooting hoops in the driveway. A few of her teammates’ mothers wished that their daughters cared about boys, makeup, and prom, but the 1970s were a time of change for girls and the activities they chose to participate in as teenagers. Opportunities for female athletic hopefuls changed in 1974 when President Nixon signed Title IX into being. This law, which is still relevant today, made it illegal for public institutions to discriminate funding on the basis of gender. What it meant for female athletes at all levels of competition is that they would have a chance to participate in sports that prior to Title IX were only available to boys and men. For a sports loving girl like Melissa Isaacson it meant that when she entered high school, she would have a chance to play organized team sports for the first time in her life.
When Melissa entered Niles West High School (another landmark I know well because my grandparents took me swimming there) in the fall of 1975, the athletic department still hadn’t warmed to the idea of girls as athletes. The state championship for girls basketball would not exist for another year, and tryouts for volleyball, basketball, and softball were still in their rudimentary stages. The Boys Gym was sacred to boys and the idea of girls practicing there was foreign to male teachers and coaches. The passage of Title IX was noble in its ideology but enforcing it was another story. Yet, Melissa and her friends were thrilled to be able to compete in sports other than cheerleading, synchronized swimming, or gymnastics. On the day of basketball tryouts her freshman year, Melissa showed up with her new friend Connie Erickson of Morton Grove. The youngest of eleven children, Erickson was Niles West royalty. Even as a freshman, she was noticed by seniors who knew her older siblings, and she excelled at sports as well, making the varsity volleyball and basketball teams her first year. Melissa would make the junior varsity team but by the end of the inaugural first year, would be practicing with the varsity squad. Through the persistence of her coach Arlene Mulder and principal Dr. Nicholas Mannos as well as gymnastics coach Judi Sloan, there were bigger and better things in store for the girls basketball team in the next year.
Dr. Mannos convinced the Illinois High School Association (IHSA) to add a girls basketball state championship for the 1976-77 school year. Over 600 member schools fielded a team, and the time was ripe for the girls to have a championship to compete for. The IHSA had had a boys tournament for decades and is known to be home to America’s original March Madness. The 1970s, Title IX, and the overall women’s movement gave the girls a chance to compete in their own state tournament, and Melissa, Connie, and their teammates were eager for the chance to become the first tournament champions. The bulk of the memoir focuses on the team and their quest to win a title for their school. In their freshmen year, the girls did not have enough uniforms for everyone. Warmup gear was out of the question, and the only time the girls could use the main gym was at 5:00 in the morning. So the varsity girls basketball team would wake at 4:00, carpool from Lincolnwood and Morton Grove, and arrive at school in time for predawn training. This dedication over the course of three years would lead to the special season of 1978-99 that lead Isaacson to track down former teammates and work on this book over the course of twelve years.
Coach Arlene Mulder told Melissa’s friend and teammate Shirley Cohen that it was never just about winning. Basketball saved many of the girls on the team from difficult home situations and provided others with college scholarships in the early days of women’s sports under the NCAA umbrella. A few of the girls had alcoholic parents, others turned to drugs, and Isaacson’s own parents were both in the early stages of Alzheimer’s but did not know it yet. Reading about these home situations was gut wrenching, yet basketball gave the girls an outlet, making winning a championship that much sweeter for them. Isaacson notes that of the thirteen girls on the team, twelve have chosen sports related careers, either coaching, teaching, physical therapy, or, in Isaacson’s case, sports journalism. Perhaps, the teammates would not have made careers out of sports if the team was not successful, but Isaacson and her senior class teammates went out on top, influencing younger teammates and future generations of Niles West athletes, including Mulder’s two daughters, in the process. While basketball might not have only been about winning, being successful changed the lives of these pioneering athletes for the better.
Today Melissa Isaacson still lives in the Chicago area and teaches as Northwestern’s Medill School of Journalism, following successful career stops at the Chicago Tribune and ESPN. She also attends reunions of her high school basketball team, organized by former teammates and her school. When I followed her as a Tribune reporter, I was fortunate to have organized park district softball available to me, something Isaacson did not have until her later teenaged years. I was also fortunate that my school won back to back girls high school basketball titles when I attended; not having athletic skills, I did the team’s stats at home games. By the time the girls at my school won, college scholarships for women athletics had become the norm. Title IX had been around for a generation, and girls being afforded the same opportunities as boys had become commonplace. Today women are even assistant coaches in the National Basketball Association, something Melissa and her friends could not begin to fathom as teenagers. During the 1970s, they were thrilled to play sports for their school and be given the same chances as their male peers. State was Isaacson’s labor of love and a special book for myself as one who knows the area well. As one of the two women I wanted to be when I grew up, I was giddy to read Melissa Isaacson’s memoir, and it proved to be quite the story.
*5 star read *
February 29, 2020
So much to love about this book... high school girls, getting their first taste of competitive basketball, post Title IX. I have had a court-side seat to that Title IX journey, which started for me in 1978, not as an athlete, but working in the sports information department at Wake Forest, calling the Winston-Salem Journal and BEGGING them to run a box score after every women's basketball game. A box score, not even a recap. Fast forward to working for the WNBA Chicago Sky, and sitting across a desk from Sylvia Fowles as she did the press conference call for the US Olympic team. This book is a loving tribute to the very start of that arc, with a girls team that practices at 5 in the morning because that's the only time they can have the gym. Because she's writing about teammates and friends, Isaacson writes their stories carefully, which makes it slightly awkward sometimes, like it was written by high schooler trying to hide the true story. But the basketball parts are fun and inspiring -- the coaches, the practices, the games. I'm glad this story is written down, as a reminder of how far we have come.
September 26, 2019
Overall this book was well written and told a story of the times. If you are from Skokie (which I am) than you’ll enjoy reading about your home town and school district (especially, if like me, you were in high school at the same time). It just had a bit too much of the mundane for me to rate it higher.
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August 12, 2019In 1975, freshman Melissa Isaacson – along with a group of other girls who’d spent summers with their noses pressed against the fences of Little League ball fields, unable to play – entered Niles West High School in suburban Chicago with one goal: make a team, any team.
Title IX had just passed three years earlier, prohibiting gender discrimination in education programs or activities, including athletics. As a result, states like Illinois began implementing varsity competition – and state tournaments – for girls’ high school sports.
State: A Team, a Triumph, a Transformation (Agate) is Isaacson’s compelling first-person account of an unlikely group of high school girls who came together to win one of their state’s first high school basketball championships. The author shares what it was like in the 1970s for her and her teammates to live through both gender discrimination in sports and the joy of the very first days of equality – or at least the closest that one high school girls’ sports team ever came to it.
At the time, Isaacson and her teammates didn’t fully understand the legislation. All they knew was that they finally had opportunities – to play, to learn, to sweat, to lose, to win – and an identity: they were athletes, a team.
The rest of the review: https://booktrib.com/2019/08/this-ins...
Title IX had just passed three years earlier, prohibiting gender discrimination in education programs or activities, including athletics. As a result, states like Illinois began implementing varsity competition – and state tournaments – for girls’ high school sports.
State: A Team, a Triumph, a Transformation (Agate) is Isaacson’s compelling first-person account of an unlikely group of high school girls who came together to win one of their state’s first high school basketball championships. The author shares what it was like in the 1970s for her and her teammates to live through both gender discrimination in sports and the joy of the very first days of equality – or at least the closest that one high school girls’ sports team ever came to it.
At the time, Isaacson and her teammates didn’t fully understand the legislation. All they knew was that they finally had opportunities – to play, to learn, to sweat, to lose, to win – and an identity: they were athletes, a team.
The rest of the review: https://booktrib.com/2019/08/this-ins...
April 3, 2020
I really enjoyed this inspiring story of a brand new girls basketball team shortly after title IX was passed. We get to know their first female coach, the members of the team, the hardships they go through in their home lives and what basketball means to each of them. It was great having Isaacson narrate the audiobook herself as it made it more personal. I didn't grow up in the suburbs of Chicago, nor did I play basketball, but I could still identify with Isaacson and her friends who are only a few years older than I am. I loved the references to popular culture in the 70's and early 80s, and the depictions of teenage girls--their fashion and their social lives at the time.
I followed this audio book with Ronan Farrow's Catch and Kill... these books couldn't be more different. Isaacson became an award-winning sports reporter for the Chicago Tribune, covering the Chicago Bulls during their championship years. I'm so thankful stories like hers are being told. Maybe she will write a sequel to this.
I followed this audio book with Ronan Farrow's Catch and Kill... these books couldn't be more different. Isaacson became an award-winning sports reporter for the Chicago Tribune, covering the Chicago Bulls during their championship years. I'm so thankful stories like hers are being told. Maybe she will write a sequel to this.
August 19, 2019
Great book about women's basketball going back to Title IX. The author was a team member of her high school program that documents their journey to Illinois State tourney. I was amazed at authors ability to remember details of that journey. Especially insightful was the difference between her 1st coach (woman) and her 2nd one (man) and how the girls reacted to each.
May 3, 2019
"Basketball was really everything, wasn't it?"
State is an excellent work of sports journalism, women's history, and personal memoir. A love-letter to team sports, while also about so much more than "just" sports, I cried about seventeen times.
State is an excellent work of sports journalism, women's history, and personal memoir. A love-letter to team sports, while also about so much more than "just" sports, I cried about seventeen times.
January 11, 2023
This is a wonderful, encouraging, and compelling story about girl’s athletics. The focus is a specific high-school basketball team in the late 70s. To stumble upon my father’s name during the read was a big bonus!
December 14, 2019
Since "triumph" and "state" are in the title, i hope it won't be too much of a spoiler to say it's the tale of her high school basketball team's winning the Illinois state championship in 1979 after a couple years of being very good but not quite making it "downstate" in the tournament.
As another class of 1979 basketball player who had long been obsessed with the game and, like the author, got a lot more playing time earlier in career and was a benchwarmer by senior year (still mad at all the late bloomers who passed me by in terms of height, strength, skill or all of the above), I could readily relate to her story and to the cultural/historical references (TV shows, music, that it was a huge deal when they played Jackie Joyner-Kersee's team........).
The angle that made this different from just going over my own yearbooks, diaries, memories of summer basketball camps, etc. is that she was on a girls team just a few years after Title IX and just as girls' sports were gaining attention and support -- holding championship tournaments, playing as long a season as the boys, in her own school gaining access to the real regulation-sized gym, and so on.
Some of the small details really struck me -- going to play pickup and having a hard time enforcing your call of "next" unless you glommed onto a boy's group. On one level it sounds like it must have been 300 years ago or in a really backward place, but........I played basketball year-round and nearly every day from the time I made my first shot in our driveway [age 5] through high school, and i can remember playing serious pickup game involving at least one girl about 3 times. Author and her friends were definitely in the vanguard being so into it.
warning: if you aren't really into basketball, there's quite a bit of "so then in the second quarter we came out in our full-court press and immediately Peggy stole a pass and converted a layup to put us up by ten, and.." game recap to wade through to get to the stuff about how they felt about their coach, funny pranks, poignant stories of troubled family situations, etc.
As another class of 1979 basketball player who had long been obsessed with the game and, like the author, got a lot more playing time earlier in career and was a benchwarmer by senior year (still mad at all the late bloomers who passed me by in terms of height, strength, skill or all of the above), I could readily relate to her story and to the cultural/historical references (TV shows, music, that it was a huge deal when they played Jackie Joyner-Kersee's team........).
The angle that made this different from just going over my own yearbooks, diaries, memories of summer basketball camps, etc. is that she was on a girls team just a few years after Title IX and just as girls' sports were gaining attention and support -- holding championship tournaments, playing as long a season as the boys, in her own school gaining access to the real regulation-sized gym, and so on.
Some of the small details really struck me -- going to play pickup and having a hard time enforcing your call of "next" unless you glommed onto a boy's group. On one level it sounds like it must have been 300 years ago or in a really backward place, but........I played basketball year-round and nearly every day from the time I made my first shot in our driveway [age 5] through high school, and i can remember playing serious pickup game involving at least one girl about 3 times. Author and her friends were definitely in the vanguard being so into it.
warning: if you aren't really into basketball, there's quite a bit of "so then in the second quarter we came out in our full-court press and immediately Peggy stole a pass and converted a layup to put us up by ten, and.." game recap to wade through to get to the stuff about how they felt about their coach, funny pranks, poignant stories of troubled family situations, etc.
December 12, 2019
As someone who was in the 8th grade the year Melissa Isaacson and her teammates won the third ever and last unitary Illinois girls state basketball title (the following year separate titles began to be awarded, based on school size), I remember the excitement it generated in the Niles West community. Hoopswise, it was quite a mad March -- that was the year Chicago's own DePaul made it to the Final Four, with Michigan State (Magic Johnson) and Indiana State (Larry Bird) facing off in a national championship game which will be remembered forever.
Yet not to be overshadowed, the Niles West girls'team captured the hearts and the imagination of almost everyone in this suburban area just over Chicago's northern border. It was a time when girls' interscholastic sports was still new, as the federal enactment known as Title IX, which mandated, among other things, gender equality in education and athletics, had only recently become law. This group of dedicated young athletes had to compete to earn the respect not only from their opponents on the basketball court, but also from their fellow students, teachers and school administrators. Waking up at ungodly hours in the dead of winter so they could practice before they were kicked out of the gym for the boys' teams, this Niles West girls' basketball team bonded together, endured second-rate treatment and worked fiercely toward their goal....a state championship.
Melissa Isaacson tells this story in a compelling and entertaining way. There's plenty of on court action -- Isaacson is an experienced professional sportswriter. But where the book really exceeds expectations is in its recounting of the personal stories of the players and coaches. We learn not only what they did on the basketball court, but also what brought them to the basketball court in the first place. It is an excellent depiction of what girls' athletics was like during the immediate aftermath of Title IX, but even without the Title IX angle, it is a story of growth -- young women who grew as individuals and as a team.
Yet not to be overshadowed, the Niles West girls'team captured the hearts and the imagination of almost everyone in this suburban area just over Chicago's northern border. It was a time when girls' interscholastic sports was still new, as the federal enactment known as Title IX, which mandated, among other things, gender equality in education and athletics, had only recently become law. This group of dedicated young athletes had to compete to earn the respect not only from their opponents on the basketball court, but also from their fellow students, teachers and school administrators. Waking up at ungodly hours in the dead of winter so they could practice before they were kicked out of the gym for the boys' teams, this Niles West girls' basketball team bonded together, endured second-rate treatment and worked fiercely toward their goal....a state championship.
Melissa Isaacson tells this story in a compelling and entertaining way. There's plenty of on court action -- Isaacson is an experienced professional sportswriter. But where the book really exceeds expectations is in its recounting of the personal stories of the players and coaches. We learn not only what they did on the basketball court, but also what brought them to the basketball court in the first place. It is an excellent depiction of what girls' athletics was like during the immediate aftermath of Title IX, but even without the Title IX angle, it is a story of growth -- young women who grew as individuals and as a team.
April 20, 2021
Based on autobiography, yet filled with some history regarding the effects of Title IX, hoop relevance, the essence of good teaching and coaching, and the emotional ties among players and coaches that bind forever, Melissa Isaacson's tome is a must-read for any basketball casual fan, aficionado, or fanatic. Her tale recalls the journey to the state championship by the girls' team at Niles West High School in Illinois in 1979. It is complete with excellent spots of humor, pathos, and the somber reality that, as much as that year forever fills the hearts of those team members, there is so much more to life. What is quite profound is the epilogue where Isaacson eloquently details the aftermaths of the team members.
Playing any sport for extended periods of years becomes a personal transformation for those involved. Thus, a perfect title for this well-written book. The author took twelve years to write and complete her book; you will finish it in fewer than twelve days.
Steve Kerr, current coach of the NBA Golden State Warriors, said, "A beautiful story of basketball and life." He speaks truth.
Playing any sport for extended periods of years becomes a personal transformation for those involved. Thus, a perfect title for this well-written book. The author took twelve years to write and complete her book; you will finish it in fewer than twelve days.
Steve Kerr, current coach of the NBA Golden State Warriors, said, "A beautiful story of basketball and life." He speaks truth.
December 24, 2021
“The love of basketball had sneaked up and enveloped Shirley as it had captured all of us. This was not our birthright. We did not have basketballs dropped into our cribs. We did not love the game the way you do a sibling, with no real conscious thought of how it all started.
Our relationship with the sport was one that we coveted and pursued, then allowed to grow and deepen over time. Basketball was, in many ways, one of our best friends, dependable and fulfilling and intoxicating in its unpredictability. It gave us a feeling of belonging and security and confidence we do desperately needed during the angst of adolescence. Unlike the average high school social group or clique, we had a common goal that would not shake us, withstood petty bickering, and deterred all the usual grounds for rejection like the wrong hair or clothes or body type.
We had come to love and understand and appreciate the game the way the boys did. And now for sure, we knew their heartbreak as well.”
Our relationship with the sport was one that we coveted and pursued, then allowed to grow and deepen over time. Basketball was, in many ways, one of our best friends, dependable and fulfilling and intoxicating in its unpredictability. It gave us a feeling of belonging and security and confidence we do desperately needed during the angst of adolescence. Unlike the average high school social group or clique, we had a common goal that would not shake us, withstood petty bickering, and deterred all the usual grounds for rejection like the wrong hair or clothes or body type.
We had come to love and understand and appreciate the game the way the boys did. And now for sure, we knew their heartbreak as well.”
February 6, 2020
This book really hit home with me. Graduating high school in 1968 and then continuing to be a Physical Education major in college, I never had the opportunity to participate in competitive sports (Title IX was passed right after I graduated college). I was hungry to be in all the sports that "boys" could participate in, and extremely jealous of the opportunities they had.
Isaacson does a fantastic job of conveying that hunger that generations of women felt. How fortunate to be born at a time where she and her teammates finally had that opportunity and experienced incredible success! This is a story that is an important and inspiring for all generations to read.
Isaacson does a fantastic job of conveying that hunger that generations of women felt. How fortunate to be born at a time where she and her teammates finally had that opportunity and experienced incredible success! This is a story that is an important and inspiring for all generations to read.
May 30, 2020
Awesome book! Brought me back to 1975-1977 when I decided to go out for basketball in Minnesota instead of cheering. This book had so much in it - songs we listened to, struggles with people trying to take women's basketball seriously, uniform problems, life in the 70's, man coach vs. woman coach, etc. The only difference is I wasn't nearly as talented as the Niles West players (don't think my 17 year old self knew that - lol). I want my 28 year old daughter to read as she played basketball through junior year in college and doesn't realize how far things have changed. My only question is why there were not any pictures included in the book?
March 3, 2022
Required reading for all sports fans. Or, people who like to see women succeed when we’re given the opportunity to do so. Title IX changed U.S. sports and our cultural landscape for the better. In State, you’ll go through the early days of one of the most influential periods of American history and hear firsthand what basketball was like for girls in high school during the law’s passage.
11/10. Give Melissa and her teammates all the flowers and awards. Happy Women’s History Month. :)
11/10. Give Melissa and her teammates all the flowers and awards. Happy Women’s History Month. :)
April 15, 2023
I like this book, Because It tell passion for basketball to me. Especially, It stuck a chord that the girls team practiced very hard until they get state champion and Connie found her future. So, I want to work harder like them.
However, It is very difficurt to me at first, Because, This book is no fiction and writing about author's s at that time. Still, I had a learn thing from them. So, I'm so glad I found this book!
However, It is very difficurt to me at first, Because, This book is no fiction and writing about author's s at that time. Still, I had a learn thing from them. So, I'm so glad I found this book!
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
April 15, 2023
This book is definitely one that tells an inspiring story, filled with hardship, thinking skills, and collaboration. The book in general was alright, I liked the main character Missy and her explanation of her life as a young athlete and how she progressed. I myself, prefer different types of genres of books to this particular one. I defiantly recommend it to someone who also is trying to become an athlete, they can defiantly learn a lot from this novel. :)
November 23, 2019
Really enjoyed this story looking back at a girls hoops state championship team in the early days of women's sports. Makes you think about how much has changed, and how far we still have to go, to provide equal opportunities for women. Enough character development to help you get to know the main players, and where basketball fit in their lives.
December 12, 2019
Fascinating account of the 1979 Illinois High School Girls State Championship basketball team from Niles West by former Tribune sports reporter and team member Melissa Isaacson. Books emphasizes the importance the opportunities and benefits of Title IX which, created women’s sports for high school and college women.
January 26, 2020
This book was not what I expected but yet I still enjoyed it. As a girls basketball coach I am keenly aware to the problems girls athletic have in comparison to boys. I expected this book to highlight some of those problems, but basically it read like a John Feinstein book. That is taking nothing away from the author, as it was very well done.
March 6, 2021
The author’s personal account of her team’s long march to an Illinois state girl’s high-school basketball championship in 1979. At a time when women’s athletics was struggling for equality in sports. It’s a heart-rending story of how the players, families, coaches and teachers played key roles in the final outcome of the story. Highly recommended. Isaacson was not only an exceptional basketball player, she is an exceptional writer.
December 11, 2022
I insist that anyone read this book if you don't understand the impact of Title IX. What a story, and you can see how the girls are treated unequally at the time even though they are thrilled to be playing. I wish in the end that playing the whole bench equally had won out - the finale of this story is kind of the opposite lesson to "Bad News Bears." Oh well.
April 12, 2023
I did not love this book because it isn't the type of book I normally like. I like when books take you to a different place not to remind you or show you the real world. I also did not like all the details about every game, yes, some were interesting but others I didn't think needed to be there. The book wasn't bad just not my type of book.
October 22, 2025
State by Melissa Isaacson was really well written. The story was exciting and kept me interested the whole time. I liked the characters because they felt real and had problems that made the story more interesting. The book talked about politics, but it wasn’t confusing, so it was easy to understand. I finished it fast because I wanted to know what happened next. Overall this book was a 10/10.
October 5, 2020
I did not finish this book. There was too much of tracking trivial details and not enough narrative thread. It seemed like after all her research and interviews, Isaacson never found a true thread to follow either in character or in the team.
April 26, 2022
Good book
Good book based on a high school girls basketball team in the 1970's. Very thought provoking in regards to title IX and how these girls many challenges that today's female or male athlete will never have to comprehend.
Good book based on a high school girls basketball team in the 1970's. Very thought provoking in regards to title IX and how these girls many challenges that today's female or male athlete will never have to comprehend.
December 28, 2023
It must be said that this book is pretty much like every other book about a team achieving great success against difficult odds. There is nothing here that makes the journey remarkably different than many others chronicled through the years.
November 9, 2019
4.5 stars
Read
February 12, 2020did not finish it...well written, local story but not my favorite topic
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