The first photo we could locate was from the 1924 - 1925 team.  The girls tried out for this team on October 29, 1924.

Front row:  C. Conkel, Samson, M. Smith, Knore, Dever, E. Fenner, Rase, Montgomery, Middle Row:  Poole, Milam, O. Parks, H. Smith, Snyder, L. Fenner, Kuhns, L. Parks, M. Irwin.  

Back Row:  Coaches Wood and Violet.

OHSAA Bans Girls Basketball 
Information from the OHSAA.org website & The Portsmouth Times

"It was a major question of that day as to whether or not any kind of interscholastic athletic activity was good for our young ladies.  Some saw it as simply unlady-like.  Others had a sincere fear for the safety of the girls.  In 1937 the OHSAA sent out a questionnaire to its member schools, part of which dealt with the participation of girls in interscholastic basketball.  Fifty-five percent of schools said that they did provide this activity for their girl students.  However, when asked, 'Do you favor dropping girls basketball as an interscholastic sport?'  just over half of the schools responded that they were in favor of discontinuing this activity.  In September of 1939 a referendum was submitted to the schools to decide whether or not basketball would be continued as a girls sport.  By a margin of 2 - 1, the voting schools opted to discontinue interscholastic basketball for girls as of September 1, 1940.  This, in turn, led to the discontinuation of all interscholastic sports for girls in Ohio.

It would be another 25 years before interscholastic athletics for girls would begin their return, and 10 years beyond that before the girls would start getting their own state tournaments."  

OHSAA.org, Looking Back at the OHSAA's Basketball Championships - No. 1, A centennial moment, by Timothy L. Hudak, Sports Heritage Speciality Publications, www.SportsHeritagePublications.net.

The Portsmouth Times, February 25, 1940, p. 40 

Research by R. Lavender