Undefeated in 1939-1940 girls basketball play, the Kirkptrack Girl's team had fans that followed the team school to school and often played to standing room crowds in the gyms around Marion County. It would also be the last for the small school. In 1939, the Marion County School Board voted to eliminate girls contact sports, countywide, save for normal gym classes.
The motivation behind this was a surprising source - Eleanor Roosevelt, the nation's First Lady. Roosevelt actively campaigned for an end to high school contact sports for women. She reasoned that such sports were a source of physical harm to the maturing bodies of girls on the verge of womanhood, and could harm their reproduction chances.
The campaign drew spotty results nationwide. While Marion County stopped their funding of the girls team sports, Crawford County to the north continued to play for both boys and girls. Ohio had no statewide directive on the matter, leaving systems to decide for its own. While Scott Township had its own "Board of Education" and Superintendent, they deferred to the county decision.
One of the smallest and poorest systems in Marion County, Scott Township closed the school by the end of the 1940s and students could choose Martel, Caledonia, Claridon, Marion or Grand Prairie systems.
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