Popular Culture Review Vol. 8, No. 2, August 1997 | Page 98
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Popular Culture Review
routines played on the humor of male/female role reversal and role
conflict.
Comedy Routines
Comedy routines exploited the differences between the sexes
and flirted with sexuality. At some point in the game, one of the
women players would stop playing and yell to the ref: "Hey ref, he's
committed a personal foul -- a very personal foul." Eventually, as
play came to a standstill, the ref would inquire, "What did he do?"
snd the woman would repeat, "A very, very personal foul, ref. He
pinched me." The accused male player would look perplexed, because
he hadn't done anything. And the fans loved it. Another ploy was to
have one of the taller Red Heads players lean over and plant a kiss
on the bald head of one of the refs -- sexual harrassment in reverse.
Another crowd pleaser occurred when one of the men slipped on the
court. A Red Heads player would quickly grab his arm and help him
up. This was a nice reversal of the traditional role of manly strength
and feminine frailty. Other pranks were also used to keep the male
players off balance. A Red Heads player might run up behind one of
the men and just scream. Lynn Holst, a guard who played in 1972-73,
recalls doing this: "1 used to sneak up behind men and scream. One
man was so scared he just fell to the f l o o r O f t e n while the men
were distracted a Red Head would score a basket.
"Entertainment was the primary objective in every game,"
according to Dolores Clack Peterson, who played in the 1950's. Pat
Overman, whose career spanned ten years in the 1960's and '70's,
stated: "Our goal was to out-smart the men ~ we couldn't out-run
them, but we could outshoot them."^^
Coach Charlene Ammons, a former player turned coach,
stressed to the players that some of the men might be stronger and
able to jump higher, but the key to winning was strategy. She used to
say, "You have to outsmart 'em to beat 'em." And the Red Heads did
just that, winning about 80% of their games and, on a good night,
scoring as many as one hundred points.^^ For fifty seasons, the key to
the Red Heads' popularity and financial success was their emphasis
on showmanship and femininity. This form of marginal adaptation
made them acceptable to the male sports establishment. The
emphasis on showmanship and femininity was also the reason for