Dolores Dyer played from 1952-1953 for the Texas Cowgirls, a barnstorming women's basketball team that provided a form of entertainment popular throughout the United States in that era. The story of Dyer's life demonstrates how a woman could attempt to achieve the American dream—a major theme in American history—through success in athletic competition. Dyer's participation with the Texas Cowgirls also provides a look into the circumstances that limited women's participation in professional sport during the mid-twentieth century. Women's sports studies, although some are very thorough, have gaps in the research, and women's barnstorming basketball is one of the areas often overlooked. In light of this gap, this thesis relies on a variety of sources, including primary documents from unpublished collections, archived materials, and original oral histories from several members of the Texas Cowgirls team. This thesis contains analysis of the socioeconomic factors that influenced Dolores Dyer's maturation into a professional basketball player, examines what the American dream meant to her, and evaluates the extent to which she achieved it. Overall, it constructs a social history that can serve as a foundational source for further study of women in sports during the twentieth century.

Monitoring external workloads and countermovement jump performance may be useful for coaches. PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to determine the effects of external load on player performance as measured by a CMJ and specific blood biomarkers throughout the preseason. METHODS:10 female division 1 basketball athletes had PlayerLoadTM (PL) monitored for all mandatory basketball training during six weeks of the preseason and CMJs were performed weekly. Blood biomarkers were collected before preseason and at the end of preseason. Data were analyzed via the Catapult Sport software (Openfield, Catapult, Innovations, Melbourne, VIC, Australia) to quantify all participant movement. Data from CMJs were analyzed via Sparta Science technology (SpartaTrac; SPARTA Performance Science, v1.2.4). Cumulative effect of physical activity (CTPL) was estimated as a sum of total PL up to each jump testing session divided by the number of days. Linear mixed-effects models were used to model data related to the efficacy of PL and CTPL. Athletes (id) and their positions were examined as potential random effects. RESULTS: The best fit model suggested a high-order polynomial pattern between PL and the number of days since the first jump testing session with a random effect for the intercept (marginal R2 = 0.290; conditional R2 = 0.471). The fixed effect for the slope of the first order term was found to be positive. There was a significant negative effect of CTPL on JH (p = 0.0037). The boot strapped model showed a marginal R2 of 0.0183 (95% CI [0.000952, 0.0744]) and a conditional R2 of 0.884 (95% CI [0.762, 0.956]). For RSImod, a significant negative association between RSImod and CTPL (p = 0.0039, 95% CI [-0.0002214, -4.597081e-05]). CONCLUSION: Workloads increase during preseason. CMJ height and RSImod may have limited utility in displaying the effects cumulative workloads. Position played did not impact workload or the impact of that workload on the player. PRACTICAL APPLICATION: Cumulative effect of physical activity may be tracked using CTPL derived from PL. Practitioners may be encouraged to monitor alternative countermovement variables to better understand performance response to the cumulative effect of physical activity.