Football takes lengthy haitus

all three.

And there was women’s basketball at the Normal as far back as the late 1890s.

Men’s basketball made its debut in the 1911-12 school year, with games held in the first semester due to the absence of football and to allow for multisport participation.

“This is the first year that the Normal has boasted of a boys basketball team, and well we showed the Valley what could be done in one season’s work,” the student yearbook recounted.

John Spikes virtually guaranteed success in whatever sport he played or coached. He did both in basketball and baseball, teams that won Valley championships over three local high schools and Phoenix Indian School.

In a 15-14 basketball win over Tempe High, the school newspaper reported that Spikes “though rather crippled started to play (in the second half) after some little protesting by certain individuals whether or not he could play by being coach of the team.”

Spikes was 7-2 pitching and hit .407 for the 1912 baseball team, which clinched the Arizona Republican Cup with a 5-3 tiebreaker win over the Indian School.

At the conference track meet, Spikes was part of the winning team in the featured relay race.

The school paper wrote in verse about the baseball players, including Spikes: “First of all comes John a hero. With his bold and winning way. Winning greatness for the Normal. In the fastest, cleanest play.”

Spikes, the school yearbook praised, “as coach left nothing undone that could further our Normal team so we give this athletic hero a vote of thanks.”

Albert “Sam” Spikes, John’s brother from Douglas, also starred in basketball and baseball, as did Horace Griffen, the first Normal player to sign a professional baseball contract.

The women’s basketball team was in transition in 191112 after going 6-1 in the previous school year, including 2320 and 17-16 wins over the University of Arizona. Fred Irish, football coach from 1897 to 1906, later coached women’s basketball.