Roamer Girls

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Revision as of 03:18, 9 April 2012

The Roamer Girls, an African American women's basketball team from Chicago, Illinois, who competed from 1921 to 1930. The team was formed in 1921 by track star Sol Butler, out of the Grace Presbyterian Church Sunday school. The Roamers played games against both black amateur teams--for example the Olivet Baptist Church Cosmopolitans--and white amateur teams--notably the Welles Park Royal Arrows, the Harvey Bloomers, and the Jewish People's Institute Girls--throughout the city and suburbs. Some star players of the Roamers included Isadore "Izzy" Channels, who was also a four-time national ATA tennis champion; tennis champion Lula Porter; and Virginia Willis. (The Roamer Girls in many basketball histories are often incorrectly listed as the "Romas Girls" or "Chicago Romas," but that spelling was never used in news reports in the Chicago Defender.)

January 1925 Defender clip

The first game the Roamer Girls played was in March of 1921, against the Olivet Baptist Church Cosmopolitans at the Eighth Regiment Armory, beating them 26 to 22. The original team consisted of Captain Margrete Lewis, Isadore Channels, Pollie Rickman, Esther Henderson, Lillian Speed, Nellie Hall, and Katherine Lindsey.

Channels was a student at Phillips, when she competed in tennis and basketball, but did not play inter-school girls basketball at the school. Channels played for the Roamers, and playing by men’s rules and in front of large boisterous crowds. When Phillips High would play a big intersectional game or a cross-state game, as against Armstrong from Washington DC and Peoria Spalding, the game was usually preceded by the Roamers playing another amateur team. Preceding the Armstrong game, in February 1925, for example, Channels led the Roamer Girls to a 29-3 victory over the Harvey Bloomers, scoring 19 of the Roamer Girls points. Channels played before her fellow students, but not in the uniform of Phillips, but in the famous Roamer Girls uniform.

By 1925, only Channels remained from the original lineup in 1921. She was ably assisted by the terrific track and field star out of Englewood High, Carmaline Carmichael; Corrine Robinson; Bernice Pegge; Irmah Mohr; and Ann "Red" Williams.

The Roamer Girls also competed in the Central AAU, but never got far in the Central AAU Women's Basketball Championships, usually being eliminated early by one of the three AAU powerhouses in the city--the Jewish People's Institute Girls, the Uptown Brownies, and the the Tri-Chis (who would later become the Taylor Trunks). For example in the 1926 tournament, the Roamer Girls were eliminated in the first round by the Tri-Chis, 24 to 2. The Jewish People's Institute Girls were a progressive organization and was one of the few white teams that frequently played the Roamers. The Roamers usually lost to them, but in 1924 beat them in overtime, 14-12.

Channels did not play with the Roamers much beyond 1926. In the 1926-27 season, the team may have been temporarily disbanded, as there were no reports in the Chicago Defender that season.

In the 1927-28 season, the team, apparently regrouped, consisted of the great Virginia Willis, who was recruited from the Olivet Baptist Church Cosmopolitans; Carmaline Carmichael, Ann Williams-Pope, Mignon Burns, Lillian Ross, Lula Porter, Bernice Pegge-Butler, Corrine Robinson, Margaret Mosley, and Ida Mae Griffin. Mignon had been a classmate of Channels at Phillips High, and had been picked up from the Metropolitan Community Church Girls, along with Porter, Pegge-Butler, and Carmichael.

The 1928 team played in an African-American league called the All-Around Athletic Club Basketball League, and playing against seven other teams in a round-robin schedule, the Roamers won the league title in late March. The league only lasted one season. In their annual contest against the Jewish People's Institute Girls, they lost a close one, 9-8.

Roamer Girls receive their trophy for winning the St. Elizabeth tournament in February 1930

In the fall of 1928 the team lost four star players--Robinson, Carmichael, Willis, and Porter--to the newly formed Savoy Colts, which was the sister team to the Savoy Big Five men's team. Also joining the Savoy Colts at this time was Philadelphia's star African American tennis and basketball player, Ora Mae Washington.

The Roamer Girls struggled on for a couple more years. Apparently their last season was 1930, and coming back into the lineup that season after an absence of a few years was the great Isadore Channels, but none of her great teammates from earlier years were on the team. Nonetheless, the team won a tournament held at St. Elizabeth's Hall in February of that year. That was the last notice on the team.

Notable Players

• Isadore "Izzy" Channels
• Lula Porter
• Corrine Robinson
• Virginia Willis

External Links

• Black Fives article