Letter to the Standard's Editor

To the Editor:

I want to alert you to a terrific musical that, I predict, will travel all over Iowa in the coming months and years. It's “Six-on-Six,” the story of the end of six-player basketball in Iowa.

Two Waukon Sr. High graduates, Joel Hagen and Adam Wishman, were in the cast of the play's world premier this past weekend in Fort Dodge. Iowa Central Community College staged this delightful musical comedy. Hagen (a high school vocal teacher) played a basketball coach in the doomed six-player version and Wishman (a college student) played a flamboyant member of the sport's governing board.

In the tradition of “Music Man” and “State Fair”, this story is pure Iowa. Set in 1993, the last year of six-on-six, it spins a fictitious end to the grand sport I loved to watch. True to Iowa values though, it brings the “spirit of enthusiasm”, “fair play”, and “love will conquer all” to the front and center of the stage.

I can't think of a better time than right now, girl's tournament time, than to point to an Iowa musical, written by an Iowa native, Robert J. Ford, about the fine evolution of women's basketball. Iowa is the only state in the nation where girl's basketball has been continuously played and a state tournament annually held, since 1920.

Good luck to the Waukon girls this week. I hope they feel just a bit of the tradition and pride Iowa women have built for them starting with the game of six-on-six. Congratulations to the actors and production staff of the fine musical “Six-on-Six”. I bet that you will see this musical in our corner of the state, soon.

Respectfully,

Russ Hagen

Waterville alum

(State basketball qualifiers 1934-35-36-37-38-40-41-48)