Edmonton Grads

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The Edmonton Grads were a Canadian women's basketball team. While now defunct, the team continues to hold the North American record for the sports team with the best winning percentage of all time.

Formally named "Commercial Graduates Basketball Club" the team was formed by members of the 1914 senior girls graduating class of McDougall Commercial High School in Edmonton, Alberta. Upon graduation, the team asked their high school coach J. Percy Page (later the Lieutenant-Governor of Alberta) to continue to coach them. The team soon became known informally as the "Edmonton Grads" and went on to a record of 502 wins and 20 losses between 1915 and 1940.

The Grads won their first Canadian title in 1923. Later that same year, the Grads competed for the Underwood Trophy (provided by the Underwood Typewriter Company), their first international competition. The Grads faced the Cleveland Favorite-Knits, who were the reigning American (and world) champions. The Grads defeated the Favorite-Knits in a two game combined score match, 55 to 33. The Grads held the trophy for the next 17 years, until 1940, 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 was unrecognized on the medal podium as women's basketball did not become an official Olympic sport until the 1976 summer games in Montreal.

The Grads disbanded in 1940 after the outbreak of the Second World War. At that time, the team held 108 local, provincial, national and international titles and had been the undisputed world champions for 17 years in a row. Dr. James Naismith, the inventor of basketball, called the Grads the "finest basketball team that ever stepped out on a floor."

In 1976 the Grads' successes were declared a National Historic Event, and Parks Canada dedicated a plaque in their honour in 1978.[1]