Senior women turn to basketball for fitness, fun

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That's what Jewell Chapman's high school principal told her in 1961 when he banned the girls basketball program. "We were very frustrated," said Chapman, a forward for her high school team in Des Moines. Nearly 50 years later, Chapman is back on the court. She's 62 and plays for the Hot Pink Grannies, joining about 10 other women on a team whose uniforms are black bloomers and hot pink socks. They play in the Iowa Granny Basketball League. It's one of dozens of basketball leagues for women over 50 that have sprung up across the country. For some, it's an opportunity to exercise and socialize; for others, it's a once-denied chance to complete. "You see more and more senior women's teams participating in state and national competitions and more recreactional leagues," said MIchael Rogers, an associate professor in sports sutudies at Wichita State University." In the future it will be commonplace to have leagues like this."