Edmonton Grads

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The Edmonton Grads were a Canadian female basketball team, and the North American sports team with the best winning percentage of all time.

[edit] Introduction

When the McDougall Commercial High School of Edmonton, Alberta senior girls graduating class of 1914 decided to stay together as a team after graduation, they asked their high school coach J. Percy Page (who later became Lieutenant-Governor of Alberta) to continue to coach them. Thus the Edmonton Grads were formed, going on to become the North American sports team with the best win/loss record of all time. They compiled a record of 502 wins vs. 20 losses over the next 25 years - from 1915 until they disbanded in 1940 at the outbreak of the Second World War. They held 108 local, provincial, national and international titles and were undisputed world champions for 17 years in a row. The inventor of basketball Dr. James Naismith called them the "finest basketball team that ever stepped out on a floor."

The Grads won their first Canadian title in 1923 and that same year, they competed in their first international competition for the Underwood Trophy, (provided by the Underwood Typewriter Company), against the reigning American (and World) champions, the Cleveland Favorite-Knits, They defeated the Favorite Knits in a two game combined score match 55 to 33. For the next 17 years, from 1923 to 1940, the Grads never relinquished the trophy, defeating all challengers.

While dominating their sport in North America, the Grads also took on the best teams in Europe, ultimately defeating challengers in Paris, London, Amsterdam and Berlin. The Grads dominated four consecutive Olympic Games from 1924 to 1936, winning all 27 Olympic matches they played. This achievement would unfortunately go unrecognized on the medal podium as women's basketball was not an official Olympic event. It would not be until the 1976 summer games in Montreal that women's basketball would become an official Olympic sport.