FALL MEANS FORD SUV SEASON! FREE ISANTI-CHISAGOISANTI-CHISAGO Service Open 8 am - 5:30 pm M-F HWY. 65, ISANTI 763-689-5555 www.hayfordford.com THURSDAY, DECEMBER 3, 2020 VOL. 114 NO. 49 COUNTYSTAR.COM CHRISTMAS CHEER: Readers’ pictures of favorite holiday decorations to be featured. PAGE 2 The right place at the right time Braham graduate reminisces on historic 50 years of basketball BY JUDY HEGSTROM bors would come on bikes and
[email protected] even horses to play. While they played many sports, ironically If it wasn’t for Minnesota basketball wasn’t one of them. Governor Tim Walz’s im- She credits her parents, who posed pause on all organized still live in the area, for their youth sports until Dec. 19, “support and encouragement this Monday would have seen to play sports at a time when it thousands of teenage girls was not the norm for girls.” hitting the hardwood as gyms Sherri graduated from Bra- get fi lled with the rhythmic ham High School in 1971 where sounds of dribbling balls and she was a stand out basketball swooshing nets. In 2020, this player. That was followed by scene is common-place, how- more basketball in college, ever 50 years ago, it was more playing on a women’s profes- of an anomaly, to the point of sional team, coaching and being viewed as something of a teaching the sport at a wide sideshow attraction. But while variety of levels. those attitudes would be con- sidered extremely sexist based THE TIPOFF OF A NEW GAME CONTRIBUTEDCONTRIBUTED on today’s standards, back Braham actually briefl y had Braham graduate Sherri Mattson (fourth from left) had to dye her hair red while playing for the professional then, it afforded one Braham a girls’ basketball team during girls basketball team “The All-American Red Heads,” which was a Harlem Globetrotter-like traveling exhibition graduate opportunities of a the mid 1920’s for about four team, complete with trick skills.