Dempsey Hovland
Encyclopedia
Dempsey Hovland was a well-known national baseball
and basketball
barnstorming
entrepreneur and promoter and multiple sports team owner. He also founded the 20th Century Booking Agency, a sports booking management for arranging and marketing of barnstorming events and booking of venues. He and his wife Florence Holder Hovland owned the Miss American Teenager beauty pageant shows in the 1960s and 1970s.
Hovland started his sports promotion career as a member and manager of the barnstorming House of David basketball team in the 1930s. He was respected as a barnstorm icon being the only sports team owner to operate both male and female basketball teams teams throughout the United States. He also founded the baseball barnstorm team Caribbean Kings.
Hovland's world-famous barnstorm basketball team Texas Cowgirls (1949-1977) (full name Dempsey Hovland's World Famous Texas Cowgirls Basketball Team) originating from Chicago
, Illinois
touring worldwide in similar fashion to the Harlem Globetrotters
were the first female team to share double billing on the men's National Basketball Association
game schedules. Texas Cowgirls also broke ground and opened for the Harlem Globetrotters in the 1950s and 1960s, on their barnstorm tours. Hovland dismissed the racial barriers for female barnstormers, integrating his teams.
The world famous Texas Cowgirls were invited to play U.S. service bases overseas by President John F. Kennedy
. The team received an honorary ambassador award from Robert McNamara
, United States Secretary of Defense
1961-1968. CBS's Roger Mudd featured the team in 1974. The colorful sports commentator Heywood Hale Broun travelled with the team, documenting the life of young women living on the road in a profession dominated by males. The team called quits in 1977 just two years before the death of its founder Dempsey Hovland.
The New York Harlem Queens, an African-American female basketball team and yet another Hovland team barnstormed against off-season NFL teams and men's basketball teams like the barnstorming Texas Cowgirls.
Barnstorming basketball was the opportunity for women to play men's rules against men. At halftime the females would entertain the crowds with their ball handling expertise. As an international barnstorm promoter, Hovland also carried barnstorm entertainers on the road tours to entertain at halftime. Satchel Paige
, a Negro League and Major League Hall of Fame baseball pitcher travelled with the Texas Cowgirls providing exhibition pitching during halftime. Eddie Gottlieb
was instrumental in securing pre games for Hovland's female Texas Cowgirls on the National Basketball Association schedules.
Baseball
Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each. The aim is to score runs by hitting a thrown ball with a bat and touching a series of four bases arranged at the corners of a ninety-foot diamond...
and basketball
Basketball
Basketball is a team sport in which two teams of five players try to score points by throwing or "shooting" a ball through the top of a basketball hoop while following a set of rules...
barnstorming
Barnstorm (sports)
Barnstorming in athletics refers to sports teams or individuals that travel to various locations, usually small towns, to stage exhibition matches....
entrepreneur and promoter and multiple sports team owner. He also founded the 20th Century Booking Agency, a sports booking management for arranging and marketing of barnstorming events and booking of venues. He and his wife Florence Holder Hovland owned the Miss American Teenager beauty pageant shows in the 1960s and 1970s.
Hovland started his sports promotion career as a member and manager of the barnstorming House of David basketball team in the 1930s. He was respected as a barnstorm icon being the only sports team owner to operate both male and female basketball teams teams throughout the United States. He also founded the baseball barnstorm team Caribbean Kings.
Hovland's world-famous barnstorm basketball team Texas Cowgirls (1949-1977) (full name Dempsey Hovland's World Famous Texas Cowgirls Basketball Team) originating from Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
, Illinois
Illinois
Illinois is the fifth-most populous state of the United States of America, and is often noted for being a microcosm of the entire country. With Chicago in the northeast, small industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in central and northern Illinois, and natural resources like coal,...
touring worldwide in similar fashion to the Harlem Globetrotters
Harlem Globetrotters
The Harlem Globetrotters are an exhibition basketball team that combines athleticism, theater and comedy. The executive offices for the team are currently in downtown Phoenix, Arizona; the team is owned by Shamrock Holdings, which oversees the various investments of the Roy E. Disney family.Over...
were the first female team to share double billing on the men's National Basketball Association
National Basketball Association
The National Basketball Association is the pre-eminent men's professional basketball league in North America. It consists of thirty franchised member clubs, of which twenty-nine are located in the United States and one in Canada...
game schedules. Texas Cowgirls also broke ground and opened for the Harlem Globetrotters in the 1950s and 1960s, on their barnstorm tours. Hovland dismissed the racial barriers for female barnstormers, integrating his teams.
The world famous Texas Cowgirls were invited to play U.S. service bases overseas by President John F. Kennedy
John F. Kennedy
John Fitzgerald "Jack" Kennedy , often referred to by his initials JFK, was the 35th President of the United States, serving from 1961 until his assassination in 1963....
. The team received an honorary ambassador award from Robert McNamara
Robert McNamara
Robert Strange McNamara was an American business executive and the eighth Secretary of Defense, serving under Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson from 1961 to 1968, during which time he played a large role in escalating the United States involvement in the Vietnam War...
, United States Secretary of Defense
United States Secretary of Defense
The Secretary of Defense is the head and chief executive officer of the Department of Defense of the United States of America. This position corresponds to what is generally known as a Defense Minister in other countries...
1961-1968. CBS's Roger Mudd featured the team in 1974. The colorful sports commentator Heywood Hale Broun travelled with the team, documenting the life of young women living on the road in a profession dominated by males. The team called quits in 1977 just two years before the death of its founder Dempsey Hovland.
The New York Harlem Queens, an African-American female basketball team and yet another Hovland team barnstormed against off-season NFL teams and men's basketball teams like the barnstorming Texas Cowgirls.
Barnstorming basketball was the opportunity for women to play men's rules against men. At halftime the females would entertain the crowds with their ball handling expertise. As an international barnstorm promoter, Hovland also carried barnstorm entertainers on the road tours to entertain at halftime. Satchel Paige
Satchel Paige
Leroy Robert "Satchel" Paige was an American baseball player whose pitching in the Negro leagues and in Major League Baseball made him a legend in his own lifetime...
, a Negro League and Major League Hall of Fame baseball pitcher travelled with the Texas Cowgirls providing exhibition pitching during halftime. Eddie Gottlieb
Edward Gottlieb
Edward Gottlieb , known as "Mr. Basketball" and "The Mogul", was the first coach and manager of the Philadelphia Warriors in the National Basketball Association , and the former owner and coach of the team from 1951 to 1962...
was instrumental in securing pre games for Hovland's female Texas Cowgirls on the National Basketball Association schedules.