It’s a hoops story almost too good to be true
Bo Ryan, ‘Hoosiers’ screenwriter to help author tell of mom’s prep playing days
Brian Borland had no idea his mother, Carolyn, was a star from a bygone era, a basketball player who lit up gymnasiums in small-town Iowa with her shooting and passing, who set scoring records that stood for years.
Borland knew his father, Glenn, had been a team captain at the University of Wisconsin in the late 1950s, known for his signature left-handed hook shot. But his mom? There was no reason to suspect she had a competitive bone in her body.
“All of her friends in Madison, her bowling buddies, her bridge club buddies, they had no idea she ever played one second of sports,” Borland said.
In January 2006, he heard his parents talking about an upcoming 50-year reunion in Des Moines, where the 1956
Iowa girls state championship team would be honored.
“I was like, ‘What state championship, mom?’ ” Borland said. “She said, ‘Oh, 50 years ago me and your Aunt Glenda played basketball and we won the state tournament.’ I had no idea. She never talked about it.”
Borland accompanied his parents to the reunion and the weekend “changed my life.” He learned that Carolyn (Nicholson) Borland had been a big deal. A very big deal. She was a 5foot-4 dynamo who scored 3,079 points in high school – 52 in one game! – and was most valuable player of the 1956 state tournament, when she and her 5-11 sister Glenda led tiny Maynard to the title.
He also learned that six-on-six girls’ basketball in Iowa was hugely popular years before Title IX, with 700 schools fielding teams. The girls who played six-on-six – three players on defense, three on offense – were heroes in farm communities across the state. The ’56 title game drew 15,000 fans.
Three years later, when Carolyn was dying of cancer, Borland quit his job in computer sales to be with her and to write a book about Maynard’s title run and sixon-six girls’ basketball, which ended in the early 1990s – ironically, its demise precipitated by Title IX.
Initially, his goal was simply to preserve family history. But his selfpublished book, “Maynard 8 Miles,” tells such a powerful story that it is now in the hands of screenwriter Angelo Pizzo, who wrote the screenplays for “Hoosiers” and “Rudy.” And former UW coach Bo Ryan is on board as a producer.
“I think it’s better than ‘Hoosiers,’ ” said Ryan, who read “Maynard 8 Miles” in one sitting. “I told Brian as soon as I read it that this should be a movie. Hopefully, this is something that will move a lot of people the way it moved me.
“It just mirrors life. Stuff like this, you just can’t make up.”
He’s right about that. The story is almost too good to be true.
Carolyn Nicholson grew up on a farm in Maynard, population 350. She and her three sisters played basketball on a makeshift court in the hayloft and dreamed of leading Maynard High School to the state championship. In the ‘50s, there was nothing bigger than girls’ six-on-six.
“It was a phenomenon,” Ryan said. “No question, it was the best show in Iowa.”
When Carolyn was 8, she wrote on her bedroom wall, “Maynard state champs, 1956.” There was just one problem. Maynard didn’t even have a team. The school was too small. But when the Fish family – with four daughters – moved into the area, Nicholson’s father petitioned the school board and a team was formed.
Carolyn started as an eighth grader and by the time she was a senior she was one of the best players in the state. She played “out forward,” the six-on-six version of point guard. With the rules allowing for only two dribbles before a player had to pass or shoot, the job of out forwards was to get the ball to the two post forwards camped under the basket.
With her quick first step and athleticism, though, Nicholson revolutionized the position. From the top of the key, she could get to the basket in two dribbles or pull up and shoot. She also was a terrific passer. Carolyn and Glenda both scored 1,000 points in 1955-’56, a first for teammates in Iowa six-on-six history.
“I talked to somebody who saw Carolyn play in the state tournament,” Ryan said. “They described her as being electric. She was quick, athletic, fundamentally sound. She was the first out forward who drove and created.”
Maynard not only won the one-class state tournament in ’56, but finished second, first and second over the next three years. Virginia (Henniges) McBride, who lives in Brookfield, was a key member of those teams.
Carolyn had offers to play in college, but she was smitten with a young man from neighboring Oelwein, 8 miles away (hence the book title). Glenn Borland, two years her senior, already was playing at Wisconsin; they married and she joined him in Madison, where they lived the rest of their lives.
Before Carolyn succumbed to cancer in 2009 she made one last trip to Maynard to visit the farm and the high school, its antiquated basement gym the scene of her exploits all those years ago. She held the state scoring record for out forwards for 13 years.
“I saw the plaque on the wall that said ‘Carolyn Nicholson, 3,079 points,’ ” Brian Borland said. “I said, ‘Why wouldn’t you ever tell us?’ It was no big deal to her. She just turned the page. She wanted to be a mother and a good wife.”
Six-on-six ended in 1993. Iowa girls who wanted college scholarships had to learn how to play traditional fiveon-five basketball.
Thankfully, though, Borland’s book has forever preserved that era. And with Pizzo working on the screenplay, it’s just a matter of time before “Maynard 8 Miles” is playing at a theater near you or streaming on Netflix.
“I don’t know how it’s going to shake out,” Borland said, “but it’s exciting.”