Brian Borland knew that his dad was a phenomenal basketball player as he was growing up. What he didn't know was that his mom, Carolyn Nicholson, was an Iowa high school basketball superstar.
"I was at my parents condo in 2006, and I heard them talking about going back to Des Moines for the 50th anniversary of Maynard winning the state championship in 1956. And I was like 'what state championship?'" he explains. "She said, 'well me and your aunt Glenda played basketball and we won a state championship when we were younger. Do you want to come with me?'"
That weekend, he says, changed his life.
"There was a lot of push back against girls playing sports. And there weren't a lot of girls playing sports in the 50's," he says. "I wanted to tell that story.
During this hour of Talk of Iowa Borland talks with host Charity Nebbe about basketball, his mom, and his book Maynard 8 Miles. The book is being turned into a screenplay by Angelo Pizzo, best known for writing the films Rudy and Hoosiers.
Iowa high school girls played the the last six on six basketball game in 1993, but the Granny Basketball League is bringing the game back to life with gusto. Later in the hour Nebbe talks with Barb Tomlinson-Trammell, the president and founder of Granny Basketball.
