Dust Bowl Girls

The Inspiring Story of the Team That Barnstormed Its Way to Basketball Glory

By: Lydia Reeder

Narrated by: Virginia Wolf

At the height of the Great Depression, Sam Babb, the charismatic basketball coach of tiny Oklahoma Presbyterian College, began dreaming. Like so many others, he wanted a reason to have hope. Traveling from farm to farm, he recruited talented, hardworking young women and offered them a chance at a better life: a free college education if they would come play for his basketball team, the Cardinals. Despite their fears of leaving home and the sacrifices faced by their families, the women followed Babb and his dream. He shaped the Cardinals into a formidable team, and something extraordinary began to happen: With passion for the sport and heartfelt loyalty to one another and their coach, they won every game.

For author Lydia Reeder, this is a family story: Coach Sam Babb is her great-uncle. When her grandmother handed her a worn, yellowed folder that contained newspaper articles, letters, and photographs of Sam and the Cardinals, she said, "You might want to tell their story someday." Now, with extensive research and the gathered memories of the surviving Cardinals, she has.

©2017 Lydia Reeder (P)2017 HighBridge, a division of Recorded Books

The trials and tribulations of sports

Easy to get into and certainly kept my attention. The story of a basketball team and their trials and tribulations. A good read!

A Heartwarming Story

A great story grit, determination, and hard work. Of affection, loyalty, and unparalleled team spirit during one of the most economically challenging times in American history. Hail OPC Cardinals!

Narrator killed it for me

I’m a regular Audible listener and this was the worst narrator I think I’ve ever heard - the accent and inflections completely wrong for the story. I had been looking forward to the book but had a difficult time listening. I think I’ll “read” it the old fashioned way instead.

Only A 'Nice' Story

I suppose the Publisher's Summary had me expecting something between "The Worst Hard Time" and "Hoosiers", but "The Dust Bowl Girls" is simply a nice story about nice girls doing something that girls rarely did at the time: play sports, particularly basketball.
There's not much in the way of strife, charisma, or challenges. As the Summary says, they win every game, so there's not really any suspense. Further, conversations are used only as a device to segue into exposition about women and sports, conventions of the time and the like.
Though Doll is the main player, Lucille comes off as more human, more likable. Doll is rather full of herself and her (admittedly) many abilities, to the point where I was wondering at what point Reeder would convert her into a warm personality, worthy of being a mainstay character/leader. But there's not much development or either her, or Babb, or any of the other girls, really.
Still, a fine story. But it could have been great...

Another Untold Story

I have been diving into the unknown stories of women throughout history lately. This is another wonderful story to add to that, and I don’t even like basketball, but loved this story!