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SiG MT SiG MT 37 Bonnie (Morrow) Cook poses alongside teammates as a senior in 1969. This was the second-year women's informal pick-up basketball games were offered at Fort Benton High school. Bonnie (Morrow) Cook polishes up her starting footwork during track practice. She competed on the first collegiate team at Montana Western in Dillon starting her sophomore year. In 1971 the track program was added to the list of women's sports at the college, proving to be a memorable year in athletics for women. Cook would shoot hoops with the boys during her junior high years but had no formal training for any contact sports due to the lack of women's sports program in the 1960s, though she was active in track and field. "ere were women before me that played basketball in very early days," Cook said. "Women continue to make history in many ways and inch by inch. Lile girls need to continue to dream and push for what is right and equal." Fort Benton High School did not offer women's basketball her freshman year but Cook and another classmate suggested starting a women's team to their physical education teacher. In 1968, Cook's junior year, informal women's pick-up basketball games began. Fort Benton girls could now play against other schools who also had women's basketball, including Great Falls. e rules for basketball were different compared to today. In 1968, women's basketball called for six players against six, but only two could play defense, two on offense and the remaining two could run back and forth. "I guess they figured girls didn't have the stamina to run … only two off each team could (play) full court," Cook said. Today, girls play with a ball sized for them, but back then Cook remembers playing with the larger ball used by the boys. Cook graduated from Fort Benton High School in 1969 and went on to aend Eastern Montana College (now known as MSU-Billings), which did not have a women's basketball team. Cook said basketball wasn't big in Montana yet, but it didn't take long before she started organizing women's basketball games her freshman year. Judy Gleason, her former FBHS PE teacher, now taught at the University of Montana-Western and encouraged her to transfer there, where she could play several collegiate sports. UMW had a women's basketball team, which Cook started on her sophomore year despite having no prior experience playing for a formal basketball team. L to R: Sheila Smith, Debbie Place, Pam Janssen, Bonnie Morrow, Donna McSweeney, Cheryl Singer, Janice Morrow, Mary Beth Knecht, Cindy Cook, Renae Swensgard. e NAIA division of today did not exist, so Cook played against the Bobcats (Montana State University) the Grizzlies (University of Montana) and even Flathead Community College in Kalispell. Cook played for UMW during a Northwest tournament in Pullman, Washington, where they took home second place in 1972. She was later recognized and inducted into the UMW Athletic Hall of Fame for basketball in the late 1980s, alongside two other teammates. In addition to basketball, Cook, being a multi-talented athlete, competed in volleyball and track while at UMW. She graduated in 1973 with a teaching degree in physical education and moved to Lewistown where she taught and encouraged young women to play sports. "I've Photo courtesy of Bonnie Cook Photo courtesy of Bonnie Cook

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