AAU Women's National Champions

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AAU Women's National Champions

The first Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) Women's national tournament was held in 1926, in Pasadena, California. There were only six teams in the field. The game was played under men’s rules, which at that time was the norm for female AAU teams. The first tournament was won by the Pasadena Athletic and Country Club. Wichita, Kansas, hosted an unofficial national AAU tournament for women a few weeks after it had hosted the men's tournament. The title game results in this unofficial national championship, had the Trezevant & Cochran team of Dallas, Texas, beating the Cockerill Robins of Pittsburgh, Kansas. The official resumpsion of the AAU tournament took place the following year, when 25 teams were invited to Wichita. This time the tournament was held under women’s rules, with six players to a team and the court divided into three sections. The tournament and stayed in Wichita for the next eleven years.

Each year the tournament named the Most Valuable Player, who would part of other players selected for first and second team all-stars, called All Americans by the AAU.

The first decade of the tournament saw domination by schools of the Southwest, from the states of Arkansas, Texas, and Oklahoma. Dallas, Texas, dominated early, with Trezevant & Cochran winning in 1928, Schepp's Aces in 1929, and Sunoco Oilers (the same team as the Aces) in 1930, all coached by Howard Allen. The most noteworthy of the Texas champions was the 1931 winners, the Golden Cyclones of Dallas, Texas. The star of that team was Mildred "Babe" Didrikson, who scored 106 points in five tournament games.

Because in some regions of the country, such as Chicago, AAU women teams still played under men’s rules, the AAU in 1934 created an alternative competition under men’s rules, egregiously called the “Tomboy championship,” run concurrently with the regular national championship. The Spencer Coals of Chicago won the Tomboy championship in what proved to be a one-year experiment. To make the women’s game less static, the AAU introduced a roving player with the 1936 tournament. In 1940, the tournament was moved to St. Joseph, Missouri, where it stayed for the next decade until 1951, when Dallas, Texas, hosted the tournament.

In 1937, and again in 1941 and 1942, the national championship was won by the Lewis and Norwood Flyers, of Little Rock, Arkansas, led by one of the greatest women’s basketball players in history, Hazel Walker.

The early 1940s saw the rise of teams from Iowa, notably the American Institute of Business Secretaries team from Des Moines, and the American Institute of Commerce Stenos in Davenport. They played each other in the 1943 title game.

The war years saw the emergence of the Vultee Aircraft Bomberettes, from Nashville, Tennessee, which took two consecutive titles in 1944 and 1945 under that sponsorship. When war production ramped down at the end of World War II, Vultee Aircraft reduced its female workforce and disbanded the Bomberettes. The team regrouped and found a new sponsor in a beer distributor of Goldblume Beer, and the Goldblumes went on to take three more national titles during the 1940s.

In 1952 and 1953, the tournament was hosted in Wichita Kansas, and from 1954 through 1967, it was hosted in St. Joseph, Missouri.

One of the greatest of the AAU women’s teams was the Hanes Hosiery Girls, sponsored by Hanes Hosiery Mills, of Winston-Salem, North Carolina, winning three consecutive national titles, 1951-1953. And then shockingly, they disbanded at the end of the 1954 season. The remainder of the 1950s saw the domination of the extraordinary Wayland College Flying Queens, from Plainview, Texas, noted for their travel by airplane to meet their competition. Also emerging during the decade was the [[Iowa Wesleyan College Tigeretttes}], which never won a title, but took two seconds, six thirds, and two fourths from 1952 to 1964. The 1960s saw the dominance of Nashville Business College, in Tennessee, with such great players as Nera White and Joan Crawford.

The AAU women's program went into decline in the late 1960s, as private industry withdrew from supporting company teams and the colleges started building their own women's program. For example, Nashville Business College, which had the most successful program during the 1960s, disbanded its team after the 1969 tournament.

Tournament Champions, 1926-1979

Season	Champions	Team Location	Winning Coach	Score	Runner Up Team	Runner Up Coach	Tournament MVP
1926	Pasadena Athletic and Country Club	Pasadena, CA	Eddie Laurenson/Allean Allen	11-10	Anaheim
1927	No Tournament
1928	Trezevant & Cochran	Dallas, TX	Howard Allen		Cockerill Robins (Pittsburgh, KS)
1929	Schepp's Aces	Dallas, TX	Howard Allen	28-27	Golden Cyclones	Melvin J. McCombs
1930	Sunoco Oilers	Dallas, TX	Howard Allen	27-24	Sparkman Sparks
1931	Golden Cyclones	Dallas, TX	Melvin J. McCombs	28-26	Wichita Thurstons
1932	Oklahoma Presbyterian College Cardinals	Durant, OK	Sam F. Babb	35-32	Golden Cyclones	Melvin J. McCombs	Doll Harris
1933	Oklahoma Presbyterian College Cardinals	Durant, OK	Sam F. Babb	49-39	Golden Cyclones	Melvin J. Mccombs	Lucille Thurman
1934	Tulsa Business College Stenos	Tulsa OK		32-22	Oklahoma City University Cardinals	Sam F. Babb	Alberta Williams
1935	Tulsa Business College Stenos	Tulsa OK		28-16	Holdenville Flyers		Alberta Williams
1936	Tulsa Business College Stenos	Tulsa OK		23-22	El Dorado Lion Oil		Frances Williams
1937	Lewis and Norwood Flyers	Little Rock, AK		17-10	Galveston Anicos	Sam F. Babb	Frances Williams
1938	Galveston Anicos	Galveston, TX		13-8	Wichita Thurstons
1939	Galveston Anicos	Calveston, TX		21-8	Little Rock Flyers
1940	Little Rock Flyers	Little Rock, AK	Bill Dunaway	23-13	Nashville Business College		Alline Banks
1941	Little Rock Flyers	Little Rock, AK	Bill Dunaway	16-15	Nashville Business College	Leo Long	Alline Banks
1942	American Institute of Commerce Stenos (AIC)	Davenport, Iowa	Leo Schultz	42-25	Little Rock Motor Coaches		Hazel Walker
1943	American Institute of Commerce Stenos (AIC)	Davenport, Iowa	Leo Schultz	41-31	American Institute of Business Secretaries (AIB)	R. C. Bechtel	Helen Joura
1944	Vultee Aircraft Bomberettes	Nashville, TN	Billy Hudson	23-16	American Institute of Business Secretaries (AIB)	R. C. Bechtel	Alline Banks Pate
1945	Vultee Aircraft Bomberettes	Nashville, TN	Billy Hudson	22-20	Little Rock Dr. Peppers	Hazel Walker	Alline Banks Pate / Correne Jaax
1946	Goldblumes	Nashville, TN	Billy Hudson	26-20	Des Moines Dr. Swett‘s		Alline Banks
1947	Sports Arena Blues	Atlanta, GA	John McCarley	26-22	Goldblumes	Billy Hudson	Alline Banks
1948	Goldblumes	Nashville, TN	Billy Hudson	21-18	Sports Arena Blues	John McCarley	Margaret Sexton
1949	Goldblumes	Nashville, TN	Leo Long	35-17	Nashville Business College	John Head	Mary Jane Marshall
1950	Nashville Business College	Nashville, TN	John Head	29-28	Goldblumes	Leo Long	Alline Banks Sprouse
1951	Hanes Hosiery Girls	Winston-Salem, NC	Virgil Yow	50-34	Wayland College Flying Queens		Evelyn Jordan
1952	Hanes Hosiery Girls	Winston-Salem, NC	Virgil Yow	49-23	American Institute of Commerce Stenos (AIC)		Lurlyne Greer
1953	Hanes Hosiery Girls	Winston-Salem, NC	Virgil Yow	36-28	Wayland College Flying Queens		Lurlyne Greer
1954	Wayland College Flying Queens	Plainview, TX	Caddo Matthews	39-38	Kansas City Dons		Lurlyne Greer
1955	Wayland College Flying Queens	Plainview, TX	Harley Redin	30-21	Omaha Commercial Extension	Gene Agee	Ruth Cannon
1956	Wayland College Flying Queens	Plainview, TX	Harley Redin	39-33	Nashville Business College	John Head	Lometa Odom
1957	Wayland College Flying Queens	Plainview, TX	Harley Redin	36-33	Iowa Wesleyan College Tigerettes	Olan Ruble	Nera White
1958	Nashville Business College	Nashville, TN	John Head	46-42	Iowa Wesleyan College Tigerettes	Olan Ruble	Nera White
1959	Wayland College Flying Queens	Plainview, TX	Harley Redin	43-37	Nashville Business College	John Head	Nera White/Katherine Washington
1960	Nashville Business College	Nashville, TN	John Head	48-29	Wayland College Flying Queens	Harley Redin	Nera White
1961	Wayland College Flying Queens	Plainview, TX	Harley Redin	39-29	Nashville Business College	John Head	Laura Switzer
1962	Nashville Business College	Nashville, TN	John Head	63-35	Wayland College Flying Queens	Harley Redin	Nera White
1963	Nashville Business College	Nashville, TN	John Head	45-41	Wayland College Flying Queens	Harley Redin	Joan Crawford
1964	Nashville Business College	Nashville, TN	John Head	58-46	Wayland College Flying Queens	Harley Redin	Joan Crawford
1965	Nashville Business College	Nashville, TN	John Head	47-42	Wayland College Flying Queens	Harley Redin	Nera White
1966	Nashville Business College	Nashville, TN	John Head	59-33	Wayland College Flying Queens	Harley Redin	Nera White
1967	Nashville Business College	Nashville, TN	John Head	49-37	Raytown Piperettes	Alberta Cox
1968	Nashville Business College	Nashville, TN	John Head	56-43	Raytown Piperettes	Alberta Cox
1969	Nashville Business College	Nashville, TN	John Head	69-37	John F. Kennedy College	Bob Spencer	Nera White
1970	Wayland College Flying Queens	Plainview, TX	Harley Redin		Ouachita Baptist College	Carolyn Moffatt
1971	Wayland College Flying Queens	Plainview, TX	Harley Redin		Raytown Piperettes	Alberta Cox
1972	John F. Kennedy College	Wahoo, Nebraska	George Nicodemus		Ouachita Baptist College	Carolyn Moffatt
1973	John F. Kennedy College	Wahoo, Nebraska	George Nicodemus		Raytown Piperettes	Alberta Cox
1974	Wayland College Flying Queens	Plainview, TX	Dean Weese		????
1975	Wayland College Flying Queens	Plainview, TX	Dean Weese		General West
1976	General West	Fullerton, CA			Wayland College Flying Queens	Dean Weese
1977	Anna‘s Bannnas	Los Angeles, CA	Patty Meyers		Adidas		Ann Meyers
1978	Anna‘s Bananas	Los Angeles, CA	Patty Meyers		Washington DC. Sophisticated Ladies		Ann Meyers
1979	Anna‘s Bananas	Los Angeles, CA	Patty Meyers		Allentown Crestettes		Carol Blazejowski
1980-2003	Awaiting information
2004	Team Alabama				Charm City's Finest (MD)
2005-2007	Awaiting information
2008	United States Armed Forces				Team Jordan