American School Kikungshan (ASK)
an isolated and picturesque locale in central China
Years Represented: 1920s and 1930s
Margaret Lindell, Minneapolis, provided this story about her high school playing days in China:
"The popularity of girls basketball in the early years of the last century is convincingly demonstrated by the fact that it was even being played by girls in a little mountainside school in China.
In the 1920s and 1930s, Margaret Lindell (nee Sovik) was a student at the American School Kikungshan (ASK), a school set in an isolated and picturesque locale in central China. ASK was a small boarding school for the children of missionaries and the faculty was made up of women who had attended college in the United States.
One aim of the school was to make the student experience as "American" as possible and in those days that meant they would have a girls basketball team, complete with a coach from Minnesota, Miss Alice Anderson, to teach them the game. It also meant the girls would sport the standard basketball uniform of bloomers and blouses, with a big bow ribbon to complete the ensemble. The girls' uniforms, including their shoes, were not purchased from an athletic supply company but were fashioned by local Chinese tailors and styled according to the latest information available from the United States.
Chinese tailors created most of the rest of the students' attire as well. When Margaret Lindell looked at the girls basketball uniforms depicted in the book, Daughters of the Game, she noted that their own uniforms, like the rest of their clothes, were usually five to ten years behind the fashion in the United States. One way in which they did not lag behind their American counterparts is that, according to a history of the school, even these girls had to be monitored to be sure they did not pull their bloomers too high above the knee!!
In the first photo, Margaret Sovik Lindell and Rebecca Hompland are adjusting their uniforms.
Since the school was perched high on a remote mountainside, the girls would ordinarily have no one to compete against except each other. However, these were violent and turbulent times in China. Warlords, robber bands, communists, Chang Kai-Shek's forces, and more were clashing all around them. In the 1920s the students were forced to flee for their lives on several occasions and the school forced to relocate itself, then return, relocate again, even close for a year, and relocate again. In 1931 the students and teachers packed up everything once more, from dishes to textbooks to gym shoes, and moved their school to Kuling (now Lushan), an alpine village near the Yangtze River some 200 to 300 miles southeast of Kikungshan.
In their new location they were situated in the vicinity of another missionary school, the Kuling American School. This had several advantages including that now students from both schools had an outside opponent to compete against. Athletic contests took on an even more American flavor as a friendly, but intense, interschool rivalry developed. Furthermore, girls basketball could be played in the standard American format of a half-court, six player game featuring two forwards, two guards, a side center and a jumping center. The games were played outside on a dirt surface, between uniformed teams and before a bleacher full of cheering students.
In the second photo, players are identified from the left: Golda Jean Fielder (left forward); Dorothy Edwins (Side Center); Ruth Vikner (Jumping Center); Louise Lindbeck, (Right Forward); Rebecca Hompland (Left Guard); Margaret Sovik (Right Guard).
The girls competed in tennis, volleyball and basketball. In regard to basketball, the 1933 Kikungshan yearbook reports, with only slightly concealed pride, that while their own school was very much the smaller, they lost to the Kuling girls only once - and that by a single point.
In 1934 the school moved back to Kikungshan, though only briefly, and the school's new graduates went on to study in the United States.
Of the nine girls who were on the basketball team, eight came to study in Minnesota: Rebecca Hompland and Julia Daehlin to Concordia, in Moorhead, Ruth Vikner and Louise Lindbeck to Gustavus; Dorthy Edwins and Margaret Konsterlie to nurses training in Minneapolis; Irene Hompland to St. Olaf and Golda Jean Fielder to Baylor University in Texas. Margaret Sovik's destination was St. Olaf College from which she graduated and then (after marrying classmate Paul Lindell) settled in Minneapolis where she still lives today.
Margaret Lindell is known far and wide for her life long dedication to world missions, and not for her basketball prowess, and probably few of her admirers are aware of this episode from her youth. Characteristically, she now insists that she was only on the team at all because "our school was so small they needed every girl to play." Be that as it may, Margaret did play and her story enriches and broadens our understanding of the place of girls basketball in our history."
Editor's note: Margaret indicated that she would be contacting her teammates. We invite them to contact us to share their stories and photos. Our email: mcjohnpublishing@comcast.net., or McJohn Publishing, PO Box 390043, Edina, MN 55439-0043.
Dan Conrad, Minneapolis, interviewed Margaret for her story and provided the above information.
"The popularity of girls basketball in the early years of the last century is convincingly demonstrated by the fact that it was even being played by girls in a little mountainside school in China.
In the 1920s and 1930s, Margaret Lindell (nee Sovik) was a student at the American School Kikungshan (ASK), a school set in an isolated and picturesque locale in central China. ASK was a small boarding school for the children of missionaries and the faculty was made up of women who had attended college in the United States.
One aim of the school was to make the student experience as "American" as possible and in those days that meant they would have a girls basketball team, complete with a coach from Minnesota, Miss Alice Anderson, to teach them the game. It also meant the girls would sport the standard basketball uniform of bloomers and blouses, with a big bow ribbon to complete the ensemble. The girls' uniforms, including their shoes, were not purchased from an athletic supply company but were fashioned by local Chinese tailors and styled according to the latest information available from the United States.
Chinese tailors created most of the rest of the students' attire as well. When Margaret Lindell looked at the girls basketball uniforms depicted in the book, Daughters of the Game, she noted that their own uniforms, like the rest of their clothes, were usually five to ten years behind the fashion in the United States. One way in which they did not lag behind their American counterparts is that, according to a history of the school, even these girls had to be monitored to be sure they did not pull their bloomers too high above the knee!!
In the first photo, Margaret Sovik Lindell and Rebecca Hompland are adjusting their uniforms.
Since the school was perched high on a remote mountainside, the girls would ordinarily have no one to compete against except each other. However, these were violent and turbulent times in China. Warlords, robber bands, communists, Chang Kai-Shek's forces, and more were clashing all around them. In the 1920s the students were forced to flee for their lives on several occasions and the school forced to relocate itself, then return, relocate again, even close for a year, and relocate again. In 1931 the students and teachers packed up everything once more, from dishes to textbooks to gym shoes, and moved their school to Kuling (now Lushan), an alpine village near the Yangtze River some 200 to 300 miles southeast of Kikungshan.
In their new location they were situated in the vicinity of another missionary school, the Kuling American School. This had several advantages including that now students from both schools had an outside opponent to compete against. Athletic contests took on an even more American flavor as a friendly, but intense, interschool rivalry developed. Furthermore, girls basketball could be played in the standard American format of a half-court, six player game featuring two forwards, two guards, a side center and a jumping center. The games were played outside on a dirt surface, between uniformed teams and before a bleacher full of cheering students.
In the second photo, players are identified from the left: Golda Jean Fielder (left forward); Dorothy Edwins (Side Center); Ruth Vikner (Jumping Center); Louise Lindbeck, (Right Forward); Rebecca Hompland (Left Guard); Margaret Sovik (Right Guard).
The girls competed in tennis, volleyball and basketball. In regard to basketball, the 1933 Kikungshan yearbook reports, with only slightly concealed pride, that while their own school was very much the smaller, they lost to the Kuling girls only once - and that by a single point.
In 1934 the school moved back to Kikungshan, though only briefly, and the school's new graduates went on to study in the United States.
Of the nine girls who were on the basketball team, eight came to study in Minnesota: Rebecca Hompland and Julia Daehlin to Concordia, in Moorhead, Ruth Vikner and Louise Lindbeck to Gustavus; Dorthy Edwins and Margaret Konsterlie to nurses training in Minneapolis; Irene Hompland to St. Olaf and Golda Jean Fielder to Baylor University in Texas. Margaret Sovik's destination was St. Olaf College from which she graduated and then (after marrying classmate Paul Lindell) settled in Minneapolis where she still lives today.
Margaret Lindell is known far and wide for her life long dedication to world missions, and not for her basketball prowess, and probably few of her admirers are aware of this episode from her youth. Characteristically, she now insists that she was only on the team at all because "our school was so small they needed every girl to play." Be that as it may, Margaret did play and her story enriches and broadens our understanding of the place of girls basketball in our history."
Editor's note: Margaret indicated that she would be contacting her teammates. We invite them to contact us to share their stories and photos. Our email: mcjohnpublishing@comcast.net., or McJohn Publishing, PO Box 390043, Edina, MN 55439-0043.
Dan Conrad, Minneapolis, interviewed Margaret for her story and provided the above information.
Margaret Sovik Lindell and Rebecca Hompland
the girls basketball team
The boys watch the girls play