Anne Goldstein

From Hoopedia

(Difference between revisions)
Jump to: navigation, search
Revision as of 02:51, 29 March 2012
Rdpruter (Talk | contribs)

← Previous diff
Revision as of 21:38, 30 March 2012
Rdpruter (Talk | contribs)

Next diff →
Line 45: Line 45:
[[category:Spencer Coals|Goldstein, Anne]] [[category:Spencer Coals|Goldstein, Anne]]
[[category:Recreational/Church/YMCA Players|Goldstein, Anne]] [[category:Recreational/Church/YMCA Players|Goldstein, Anne]]
 +[[category:Jewish Americans|Goldstein, Anne]]
 +[[category:Players From Chicago|Goldstein, Anne]]

Revision as of 21:38, 30 March 2012

Anne Goldstein, 1932
Anne Goldstein, 1932

Anne Goldstein (unknown birth – unknown death), a women's amateur basketball player of the 1930s. Goldstein was the mainstay of some of the great women teams in Chicago during the 1930s, notably the Jewish Peoples' Institute Girls, Spencer Coals, and Bill Rand Girls, all ranked among the most famous women's teams in the history of Chicago basketball.

Anne Goldstein developed her basketball skills at the Jewish Peoples’ Institute, and there became the star guard for the Jewish Peoples’ Institute Girls. By 1931, the team's players included Gertrude Edelcup, Dot Boyce, Mildred Christensen, Rose Olbur, Henrietta Schoenfield, Fannie Schoenfeld, and top players Anne Goldstein and Captain Rae Levine. The last women's tournament that the Jewish Peoples' Institute Girls participated in was the the Cental AAU meet in the spring of 1932, where they were eliminated in the quarterfinals by the May & Malone Girls, who went on to win the championship that year. With the apparent termination of the JPI Girls program, three of their top players--Anne Goldstein, Rose Olbur, and Rae Levine--found a new home with a newly formed team in the fall of 1932, the Spencer Coals. The Spencer Coals was coached by Mark Singer, who with every women's team he coached in the 1930s turned them into champions.

With the Spencer Coals

By the end of December 1932, Spencer Coals had won 18 straight games. In March the team led by Goldstein's playmaking edged the Six Points Co-eds for the American tournament title 17-16. By early April, the Spencer Coals had won the City of Chicago and Cook County championships, and had become the top amateur team in Chicago.

The Spencer Coals met their first setback on April 9, 1933, when the Six Point Co-eds beat them 26-22 for the Central States AAU women’s basketball title. Goldstein helped the team avenged the loss less than two weeks later, narrowly defeating the Six Point Co-eds for the Central AAU championship, 42-40. The Spencer Coals ended the season with a 60-2 record, no small part to the work of Goldstein.

The 1933-34 season for the Spencer Coals was as successful as their first season. But it began with a setback. In October 1933, the Spencer Coals met the National AAU champions, Oklahoma Presbyterian College Cardinals, but lost to them 24-18. The game was played at the 132nd Regiment Armory, and was intended to be a part of Chicago's Century of Progress exposition. The team entered two teams in the American Tournament, for the open title and for the girls rule title, Anne Goldstein and her teammates all playing on each. The team easily won the girls rules title, 24 to 10 over Empire Sportsverein, but lost a tight game, 17-19, for the open title to the Rickett's Restaurant Girls.

With Goldstein leading the team the Spencer Coals went on to win the Central AAU championship for the second year in the row, beating the Great Northern Debutantes, 40-20. Besides Goldstein, the Spencer Coals at this time had Lillian Rozhon, Rae Levine, Mary Fandell, and Helen Weise on their roster. Both teams went on to Wichita, Kansas, to compete for the National AAU “Tomboy” championship, a men's rules competition held simultaneously with the National AAU women’s championship under women’s rules. Spencer Coals beat the Shaw-Stevens team of Maplewood, Missouri, 28-19, to win the title.

Later in May, Goldstein went with the Spencer Coals up to Edmonton, Canada, to play for the Underwood Trophy, emblematic of the international women’s basketball championship. They lost the three-games series to the Edmonton Grads in two games, the first 100-39 the second 46-37.

Jewish Peoples' Institute Girls, 1931, with Anne Goldstein kneeling far left
Jewish Peoples' Institute Girls, 1931, with Anne Goldstein kneeling far left

Goldstein led the Spencer Coals to another successful season in 1934-35. The team had their four veterans in Goldstein, Rozhon, Fandell, and Weise, and were augmented by an excellent new player, Ione Murphey. In the American Tournament, the Spencer Coals lost the major girls title to the Andy Frain Usherettes, which was also for the Central AAU title.

The Spencer Coals disappeared as a team at the end of the 1934-35 season. Mark Singer left and took Goldstein and the entire team with him to play as the T. J. Bowlers to become a new team sponsored by a Democratic political leader, Thomas J. Bowler, replacing an unsuccessful women's team called the T. J. Bowler Boosters.

With the T. J. Bowlers

In the 1935-36 season, Goldstein had a new name. She got married and was going by the name of Anne Goldstein Gomberg. In the T. J. Bowlers, she joined a formidable team with Lillian and Mabel Rozhon, Julia Stluka, Marge Quilter, Cassie Martin, Rae Levine, Betty Reidl, Ione Murphey, Dorothy Dennison, and Hazel Kelfstrom. In April of 1936, ten players of the T. J. Bowlers team, including Goldstein, were banned by the Central AAU, on the grounds that Coach Mark Singer used ineligible players, notably Goldstein, who was working as physical education director (and therefore deemed a professional).

The T. J. Bowlers had their eligibility restored for the 1936-37 season, and Goldstein was valuable to the team in its competition in the Windy City League, a league of industrial and club teams—amateur and probably semi-pro—where the women’s amateur games would open the men’s semi-pro games. The team did well during the season, and when they were eliminated in the semi-finals by the Queen Anne Aces in the American Tournament, 19-17, it was considered an upset. The team was essentially the Spencer Coals of a couple of years earlier, with such former Coals besides Goldstein, that included Cassie Martin, Lillian Rozhon, Ione Murphey, and Rae Levine.

 Anne Goldstein, 1938 top veteran player on the Bill Rand Girls team
Anne Goldstein, 1938 top veteran player on the Bill Rand Girls team

With the Bill Rand Girls

In the 1937-38 season, Goldstein found a new home with a powerful new team, the Bill Rand Girls, built with some of the top female talent in Chicago, which besides Goldstein included Marion and Mercedes DeSutter, Lorraine "Babe" Sisk, Ruby Ryba, and Natalie Young. The team played in the women’s division of the Windy City League, the most prominent amateur basketball circuit in Chicago in the 1930s.

Goldstein in the 1938-39 season helped the Rands achieve a championship season. Despite being perhaps the oldest player on the team and having diminished skills, she played an active role in the Windy City League competition and in the annual American Tournament, and helped the team take second to the Queen Anne Aces for the women's free-lance title, 18-14. The Rand Girls proved to have greater mettle in the Windy City League, winning the championship by defeating the Taylor Trunks in the title game as part of the Central AAU tournament that year, 25-23. Indicative of Goldstein lessened contribution to the team was a January game played against the Taylor Trunks, where the Bill Rand Girls won 35-22. Despite the great amount of scoring, Goldstein contributed no buckets and committed four penalties.

The 1938-39 season was the last for Anne Goldstein, who throughout the 1930s decade proved to be one of the finest women basketball players the city ever produced.

Personal tools