Rules

Under rules enacted in 1934:

• Each team played six players at a time, three offense/forwards and three defense/guards. (The 6 on 6 wasn’t new, but the roles of the players had been shifted.)

• Each player could play only on half of the court. The offense/forwards only played offense on one half of the court and the defense/guards only played defense on the other half of the court when the other team was on offense.

• An offensive player could only dribble two times before she had to pass or shoot and she only had three seconds to make that decision. This rule made for fast-paced games.

• After one team would make a basket, a referee would quickly take the ball and pass it to the other ref at half court, who would hand it to one of the offensive players on the other team to re-start play.

• If the offensive team missed and the other team got the rebound, those offensive players would press or try to keep the other team’s defensive players from getting the ball to half court for the transition pass to the offense. Like the offensive players, a defensive player could only dribble two times before having to pass the ball.

These were the rules that were in place in the 1950’s during Maynard’s run to glory. During this time guards were encouraged and coached to play physical, and were taught how to aggressively steal the ball, tie up the ball, and block shots.The game was very physical, competitive and exciting.