Hoops: A Graphic Novel
Women’s sports teams still wrestle for pay and promotion to match those offered to male athletes, and the journey to equity can feel endless. Although the 1972 legislation known as “Title IX” demanded an end to discrimination on the basis of sex in school programs, the work is far from done.
Author-illustrator Matt Tavares builds from the true story of basketball player Judi Warren and the 1976 Warsaw, Indiana, high school girls’ basketball team. With bold graphics that perfectly convey the time period, Tavares introduces the 1970 hunger of a lightly fictionalized Judi for the competitive sport—and her disappointment in a mid-American culture where “girls are cheerleaders” if they want to be on the court at all.
But when Judi reaches her senior year of high school, thanks to Title IX expectations, Indiana finally offers a state tournament for girls. But the girls’ team that finally forms at her school does so without uniforms, transportation, or prime-time practice or audience.
To take part in the tournament and to gain what the girls will need to get there means Judi loses a long-time friend, forms new action bonds, and has to think creatively with her teammates, all while improving their game. Their coach reminds them, “Tough on defense. Fast breaks. Outrun them. Outlast them.”
Cheering on the exploits of both Judi and the “Wilkins Lady Bears” turns this rich graphic novel into a page-turner where determination and hope fill every page. Basketball history was being made in Indiana in 1976, and Tavares makes it into an irresistible adventure. No need to know what a foul line is or how to rack up points—a plunge into the story shows that both the sport and the history are a matter of heart.
