Register to join the State Historical Society of Iowa and Iowa PBS at 1 p.m. on Saturday, October 19 at the State Historical Museum of Iowa for a showing of “More Than a Game: 6-on-6 Basketball in Iowa”. This one-hour Iowa PBS documentary takes a look back at the game and what it meant to generations of girls who played it. One of the most acclaimed sports in Iowa history, six-on-six was especially popular in small towns. It was there that young women became queens of the court.
A panel discussion will be held following the documentary discussing the history and importance of girls 6-on-6 basketball in Iowa with past 6-on-6 basketball players and coaches.
Registration requested but not required to attend the program.
Panelists
Lisa Bluder spent 24 seasons as the P. Sue Beckwith, MD, Head Women’s Basketball Coach at The University of Iowa.
As the all-time winningest coach in Big Ten history with an overall record of 528-254 and a Big Ten record of 262-145. Under her leadership, the Hawkeyes advanced to the last two National Championship Games and made 22 postseason appearances overall (18 NCAA and 4 WNIT), including 14 of the last 16 NCAA Tournaments. Bluder led the Hawkeyes to five Big Ten Tournament titles, and two shared Big Ten regular season championships.
Bluder was the Naismith National Coach of the Year in 2019, three-time Big Ten Coach of the Year (2001, 2008, 2010), three-time WBCA Regional Coach of the Year (2001, 2008, 2018, 2019), and had posted a winning record in 23 of her 24 years at Iowa, including 18 upper-division finishes in the Big Ten Conference. She had the third-most victories among active coaches in Division I women’s college basketball when she retired in 2024.
Bluder began her coaching career as head coach at St. Ambrose University for six seasons (1985-90) followed by a 10-year head coaching stint at Drake (1991-2000). Bluder and the Bulldogs won four Missouri Valley Conference Tournament championships (1995, 1997, 1998, 2000) and three regular season titles (1997, 1998, 2000).
Susan (Koering) Orvis achieved standout success in high school six-on-six girls basketball from 1989 to 1993, leading Lincoln Community High School to a 74-11 record and being named the 1993 Quad City Times Athlete of the Year. She finished with 3,521 career points, 40th in Iowa’s all-time six-on-six rankings. She went on to play at the University of Iowa, where she was a four-year letterwinner, team captain, and a member of two Big Ten Championship teams. Orvis spent eight seasons coaching at the collegiate level before leading the Muscatine High School program from 2009 to 2020.
Geri (Grimm) Dirth played six-on-six basketball at Maquoketa Valley High School in Delhi from 1968 to 1972, where she started every game of all four seasons of her high school career. She scored an impressive 3,333 career points in 100 games, which puts her 52nd among Iowa’s six-on-six scoring leaders. Dirth continued her athletic and academic pursuits at Luther College, where she was a two-year letter winner in softball and a four-year letter winner in basketball. She set the Luther basketball scoring record with 836 points and was inducted into the Luther College Hall of Fame. Dirth spent 34 years teaching and coaching at Apple Valley High School in Minnesota where she coached cross country, basketball, and track and field.
Lori Witt earned her Ph.D. in History from Loyola University Chicago in 2001, with an emphasis in American cultural history. She has been teaching full-time at Central College in Pella, Iowa, since 2003, where she teaches survey courses in U.S. history as well as topical courses on the history of sports in American culture and U.S. popular culture. She is also a Faculty Athletics Representative at Central. She has served on the board of the State Historical Society of Iowa since 2017, and is currently the Board chair. She is a Wisconsin native who, while traveling with her college choir tour in the Spring of 1981, sang in Ankeny on a girls’ tournament night. Her host family could not get home fast enough after the concert to watch the game, and that is how she learned of the tremendous popularity of Iowa girls basketball!