A Tribute To My Great Aunt Helen

When my Great Grand father William Northup decided to move his family from Michigan to Arcadia Florida right before his children were born. It was what he thought he wanted and he was moving away from his place of birth. He felt something was not right or missing. He decided to move his family away from Florida to another country. Both of his children are considered to have been born in Florida. My Grand father Ralph Gordon Northup and his sister were only late elementary age children. When they moved away from the country of their birth. They crossed the American-Canadian border in the early 1900's and settled in Edmonton Alberta Canada.

This is actually about my great Aunt Helen Northup Alexander. My grand father Ralph Gordon Northup sister. From an early age my great Aunt Helen loved playing basket ball. She played in high school and when she turned eighteen she got accepted on one of the best basket ball teams in the world. The team was the Edmonton Grads. Where she would play for six years.

The Edmonton Grads was a woman's basket ball team. The team was led by J. Percy Page. A local teacher here in Edmonton Alberta Canada. The Edmonton Grads only lasted as a team from 1915-1940. They had to disband the team due to world war two and give up their gym to the Canadian Military and was used has a base during the second world war. The team is considered a legacy. When they went on their short span as a team they went on to become one of the woman's best ever basket ball teams . They won ninety five percent their games. The grads were national and world champions. The team won the underwood trophy for seventeen years straight an American-Canadian champion ship trophy and was undefeated in 24 matches. The Grads are considered to have played over four hundred games and only losing twenty of their matches. They also hold the North American record for woman's sport team with the best winning percentage.

James Naismith the creator of basketball often would say. They were unbeatable and the best team that ever played. Basket ball was created by the late 1890's young women started playing basket ball in Alberta in the early 1900's. After graduating high school a group of young women started playing the sport and decided to make a team it was called The commercial graduates and eventually the grads. The Edmonton Grads they would call themselves. They would practice twice a week. My Aunt team even got to play in the olympic games. They twenty four games but got no medals cause basket ball was not considered a official sport back then. They became an official olympic sport in nineteen seventy six.

My Great Aunt Helen Northup Alexander passed away on May fifteen two thousand and nine leaving behind a legacy in her and her name as playing for one of the worlds best basket ball team ever. She played from nineteen thirty four too nineteen fourty. The Edmonton Grads never came back has a team after world war two. The Edmonton Grads are a Legacy in the sport world.