ASUCLA By 1975, UCLA had a women’s basketball team
which shared the Pauley Pavilion main court with the men’s
team.
By Bruce Tran
Daily Bruin Contributor
From its humble beginnings in 1892 to the WNBA’s
“We’ve Got Next” campaign, from bloomers to
sports bras, from Senda Berenson to Pat Summitt, women’s
basketball has come a long way.
Only a year after Dr. James Naismith invented the game of
basketball, Senda Berenson adapted the same game for women at Smith
College. Nevertheless, the two genders have taken starkly different
paths. While men’s basketball took off and has become one of
the world’s most popular sports, women’s basketball has
relatively struggled to gather the same fan base.
In 1972, a landmark decision named Title IX mandated gender
equity in collegiate sports. It was only after this law that
women’s basketball has regained ground, and in the 30 years
since the law was passed, women’s collegiate basketball
underwent an evolution that figures to only gather more
momentum.
“Girls Play Basketball”
The common fear early on was that women were too fragile to play
sports. Thus, Berenson made a separate rulebook for women, which
adapted the men’s game for “female
shortcomings.”
For example, three women played defense only and three women
played offense only for each team, staying on their halves of the
court. Players were not allowed to cross the halfcourt line. So
concerned were the sport’s forefathers that women were
allowed only three dribbles before having to either shoot or
pass.
Former UCLA basketball coach Billie Moore played under such
rules, but had the added benefit that her father was the coach of a
men’s basketball team, allowing her to experience the
fullcourt game ““ a rarity for a female in the late 1960s.
“Back then, when I held clinics for other girls, some
asked me how to get the ball across halfcourt,” Moore said.
“It amazes me because, today, that’s considered a most
basic skill.”
“The fact that we play more physically makes the game more
competitive for us,” current UCLA junior point guard Natalie
Nakase said. “It’s faster and more entertaining to
watch now.”
Even while playing basketball, women were expected to continue
to uphold the ladylike ideals that society demanded of them. Women
were only allowed to expose to spectators their fingers, necks and
heads. Additionally, women were expected to wear dresses.
“During my first year of coaching at Cal State Fullerton
in 1968, we got to the national championship in Boston,”
Moore said. “We were the only team wearing shorts, and other
teams wore kilts and skirts. We were known as the wild California
girls for wearing shorts.”
It was becoming quite apparent that women’s basketball was
not garnering the same fan interest as men’s basketball.
Whereas men’s basketball evolved executable offenses and
scheme defenses, women’s basketball was still considered a
novelty. In 1897, “Girls Play Basketball” ran as a
headline in the New York Times. A full 16 years later, in 1913, the
New York Times ran the same headline again.
All of that changed with the induction of Title IX in 1972.
“Once Title IX came in, it was just a matter of time
before the major universities put money and scholarships into the
women’s basketball programs,” Moore said.
“That’s when the face of the women’s game
changed.”
She Got Game, Too
Title IX called for gender equity in sports, and many advocates
of women’s basketball point to the landmark decision as the
turning point.
“The law by itself probably didn’t have as much an
impact as it did by making schools and the public aware of the
inequalities,” Moore said. “I don’t think
women’s basketball would be where it is today without it.
Title IX created opportunities, which is why women’s
basketball has grown so much in the past 30 years.”
Still, despite Title IX, inequalities still existed. Although
most people had heard or spoken about women’s basketball, the
majority had never seen a game.
When the team moved to Pauley Pavilion in the late 1970s,
attendance reached all-time highs. UCLA, led by Moore and Ann
Meyers, who eventually became an NBA draft pick, won the national
championship in 1978. But fan interest has largely waned since.
Over 9,000 saw UCLA win the national championship live at Pauley,
and that figure has only been topped once, when UCLA played USC
during the Bruins’ Elite-Eight playoff run in 1999.
However, while women’s basketball continues to struggle to
draw fans at UCLA, in other pockets across the country, the
women’s game is becoming a phenomenon. At universities such
as Tennessee and Connecticut, women’s basketball games
regularly sell out. In 1996, the women’s Olympic basketball
team won the gold medal. Lastly, in what many consider to be a
crucial booster shot to the movement for women’s basketball,
the WNBA started in 1997, giving much-needed media exposure to the
sport.
We’ve Got Next
“People now see that women know how to play basketball,
and that women are athletic,” current UCLA head coach Kathy
Olivier added. “There are little girls who now have
women’s basketball players as their role models, and that was
not possible in the past. It’s a reality now.”
The women’s basketball movement trudges onward, advancing
not in leaps, but in steps. The women play in front of the growing
number of fans in the seats. They see the increased television
coverage.
“We now see women throwing up alley-oops and
behind-the-back passes,” said current UCLA assistant coach
Tia Jackson.
“In terms of the potential and the athleticism in women,
it’s unlimited. Hopefully, you’ll someday see a young
lady dunk a basketball at Pauley Pavilion. We almost had one last
year with Kristee Porter. We were that close.”
So, to all basketball fans, heed this warning:
They’ve got next.