Hide Article Text (OCR)
6 • Gazette Weekly • Wednesday, Nov. 8, 1978The Weekly! £TV, playoffs, all-star games in Cornet future?Bv Mark Dukes We will be the onlv team in the ieaeue that will - • ............By Mark DukesGazette soortswriferThere’s a chance — only a chance — the Iowa Comets will be aboard a $30,000 remodeled Greyhound bus next April en route to a televised Women’s Professional Basketball League playoff game.That seems pretty premature for a team that hasn’t even shot its first free throw and for a league that won’t stage its first game for another six weeks. Then again, new things like the WPBL are produced with possibilities in mind.The Comets rolled into town last week in their $30,000 vehicle, which is equipped with 8-track stereo sound system, color television, restroom facility and dining area.And then Comet Assistant Coach Bruce Mason started talking about television, playoffs and all-star games.I understand Pepsi is in on it and the package is 90 percent together,” Mason said. It would be a televised game between the two division champions.And there’s also a possibility of an all-star game in Las Vegas. I guess television is really getting interested in showing women’s sports.”Almost half of the 14 Comets at Coe College for last Tuesday’s press day didn’t play five-girl rules in high school — Iowans Connie Kunzmann (Everly), Rhonda Penquite (Ankeny), Molly Bolin (Moravia) and Mary Schrad (Sioux City), along with Denise Sharps of Muskegon, Mich., and Kathy Hawkins of Omaha, Neb.But Coach George Nicodemus, a long-time advocate of six-girl basketball, thinks it will be an advantage.We will be the only team in the league that will have Iowa girls playing,” Nicodemus said. It’s saying something if half the girls that were good enough to make your team never played five-girl high school ball.I believe that a good athlete is able to adjust, and we have some good athletes. To me, that shoots down the idea that six-girl ball is no good.”The Comets opened practice Oct. 12 at the Des Moines YWCA and have had only one organized scrimmage. The Whites defeated Green squad 77-63 at Buena Vista College, with Robin Tucker (Grov^City, Ohio) scoring 21 points.Nicodemus said Joan Uhl (5-11) from Buena Park, Calif., probably will start at post or a wing. He added that Kunzmann (6-1) could play any of the other four positions.Nicodemus said the Comets have yet to sign Charlotte Lewis and Monica Havlka, the Nos. 1 and 3 draft picks, respectively. Each team is allowed 17 women on the active roster, 12 on the traveling squad.The Comets will be in the Midwest Division with Milwaukee, Chicago and Minnesota. The Eastern Division will include New York, New Jersey, Houston and Dayton, Ohio.Two exhibitions in Mississippi have been scheduled before the Dec. 15 opener at Minnesota. The Comets will play Dec. 1 at Biloxi and Dec. 2 at Jackson. Work also is being done to get two games at Dayton in late November. Iowa will play three of its 17 home games at the Five Seasons Center in Cedar Rapids— Jan. 27 (New Jersey), Feb. 12 (Chicago) and March 23 (Milwaukee).Gazette photo bv John MclvorThe Iowa Cornets of the new Women's Professional Basketball League will travel in a $30,000 Greyhound bus this season. Team is shown here in front of the plush bus, which includes television, refrigerator, eight-track stereo system and dining area. George Nissen of Cedar Rapids, principal owner of the team, is at far left, front row.
Newspaper Details
The Gazette Weekly News Magazine
Cedar Rapids, Iowa, US
Wed, Nov 08, 1978
Page 3
Full Page
Clipped by
Molly K.
USA 04 Jan 2024
Other Publications Near Cedar Rapids, Iowa
Cedar Rapids Gazette
Cedar Rapids Republican and Times
Cedar Rapids Republican
Cedar Rapids New Cosmos
Cedar Rapids Cosmos
