Re-Asserting Small-Town Exceptionalism: Facebook and Iowa Girls’ Six-Player Basketball

Iowa girls’ high school basketball is unique for many reasons, not the least of which is the longevity of the half-court, two-dribble version of basketball colloquially known as “six-on-six.” Small town and rural schools continued to support, celebrate and play six-on-six until 1993, even though national basketball rules changed to the full court, five-player game in 1971. Although the ties between traditional notions of community and six-on-six have withered since the game’s discontinuation, new, transitory communities have emerged to sustain its remembrance. For this purposes of this paper, we are particularly interested in a Facebook page titled “I Played 6 on 6 Basketball in Iowa”, which fostered a virtual kinship of over 7,000 members. This seemingly ephemeral community actively sustains the game and promotes occasions to gather (e.g., reunions, recreational leagues) thereby developing new connections, renewing long-lost relationships and, above all, breathing life into a specific sport that refuses to die. In the wake of school consolidation, farming crises, urbanization, and the decline of rural populations, we argue that ephemeral communities, such as this Facebook page, are essential for not only remembering the six-player game, but for simultaneously re-asserting small-town exceptionalism.