Mon, Dec 01 2008
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Published October 09, 2008 05:44 pm - Teacher recalls hoops glory ‘Hook shot artist’ recalls traveling the continent with team for four seasons By Wendy Burton Times Correspondent “It was a great four years of my life,” said Glenda “Okie” Hall McClain, former All American Red Head “hook shot artist.” McClain, who retired in 2004 after 28 years as a Fort Gibson physical education teacher, said a hook shot artist is a professional basketball player who pivots and shoots for the basket with an arm behind her head and does it exceedingly well. The All American Red Heads was a women’s professional basketball team that began in 1936. They traveled the U.S., Canada and Mexico, playing men’s teams by men’s rules and disbanded in 1986. McClain played four seasons, 1971 to 1975, and coached in her third season as well. “What a neat experience,” she said. “We didn’t have the opportunities then that there are for women now.” McClain graduated from Haskell High School. Owner Orwell Moore recruited her during the all star east/west basketball game in 1970. After completing a year in college at Northeastern State University, she joined the team in 1971. Other players quickly nicknamed her “Okie,” and she still goes by it. The Red Heads played about 200 games per season, from October to May. According to their Web site, http://allamericanredheads.com, they won more than 85 percent of the games. Jolene Ammons, former Red Head from 1960-1974 and McClain’s first coach, remembers the hook shot artist well. “Glenda was a great ball player,” she said. “She was the kind of person that a coach wanted on her team.” Not limited to playing basketball teams, McClain played against the Kansas City Chiefs football players in a 5-on-5 men’s rules game as well. The team also appeared on the game show “To Tell the Truth” in April 1974. Other famous people the Red Heads played against or met included Billie Jean King, Hank Aaron, O.J. Simpson, Cathy Rigby, Reba McEntire, Pete Rose and a few Harlem Globetrotters. 
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