Ruth Olson Kleven played on the Milan girls basketball team from 1925-1929.

See Milan featured in "Daughters of the Game," pp 212-215.

Ruth said that the school had only one janitor to keep up with everything. Ruth said, "Sometimes the floor was pretty dirty and all of the girls on the team decided they should wash the floor. We were on our knees washing the gym floor before our game."

In 1927, the team had new uniforms with shorts replacing the bloomers. At the first game with the new uniforms, there was a big crowd with chairs all the way around the gym where the fans would sit. The out-of-bounds line was right at their feet and players would occasionally fall into someone's lap.

Ruth said it was the first time that the players' knees were visible to the public. Ruth said, "My mother got another mother to go to the game. They shook their heads and looked mostly at the floor."

Ruth is shown holding her beloved copy of "Daughters of the Game" shortly after it was published in 2005. She was 94 years of age. Ruth's daughter, Audrey Loehr, said that her mother carefully put her book into a drawer by her bed in her care facility so it would be safe.

She delighted in watching two great-granddaughters play basketball for Lac qui Parle Valley and Willmar.

(See the Events section on the home page of the website for the program to be conducted by the book's co-authors in Milan on November 7, 2009.)