Basketball
1800's
1892 - Gymnastics instructor Senda Berenson introduced basketball to Smith College.
1896 - The first women's basketball championship was played
before a crowd of 700 women.
1900's
1901 – Spalding put out the first women’s basketball rule book.
1914 - Women's basketball rules changed to allow half-court
play.
1924 - The Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) held the first
national basketball tournament for women with six teams.
1926 - The AAU sponsored the first national women's basketball
championship, using men's rules.
1953 – The USA women’s basketball team won the
gold in the first international basketball game.
1966 - The first intercollegiate women's basketball tournament
was played in Pennsylvania.
1971 - The five-player, full-court game and the thirty-second
shot clock was introduced to women's basketball.
1974 - Ann Meyers was the first high school player to
make the women's national basketball team.
1975 - On January 27th, the first-ever nationally televised
women's college basketball game aired.
1976 - Ann Meyers became the first female recipient of
a full athletic scholarship at UCLA.
1976 – Basketball became an Olympic event for women.
1977 - Lucy Harris was the first woman to be drafted by
an NBA team.
1978 - Ann Meyers was the first woman to sign a contract
with an NBA team.
1978 - The first game of the Women's Professional Basketball
League (WBL) was played on December 8th.
1978 - Carol Blazejowski set a collegiate scoring record
(male or female) in Madison Square Garden with fifty two points in a single
game.
1979 - Ann Meyers was the first player taken in the Women’s Professional
Basketball League draft. She is named the league’s first MVP at the
end of the season.
1982 - The first NCAA college basketball championship
for women was held.
1984 - Georgeann Wells-Blackwell was the first woman to
dunk a basketball in a collegiate game.
1984 - Senda Berenson Abbott, Bertha Teague and Margaret
Wade became the first women to be inducted into the Basketball Hall of
Fame.
1985 - Lynette Woodward and Jackie White became the first
women to play for the Harlem Globetrotters.
1986 - Three-point field goal was introduced in women's
basketball.
1986 - Nancy Lieberman-Cline became the first woman to
play in a men's professional basketball league.
1989 - Judith Davidson became the only woman athletic
director at a Division I school in charge of all sports including men's
football and basketball.
1990 - Bernadette Locke became the first female Division
I coach of a men's basketball team.
1991 - The women's Final Four of college basketball was
televised live for the first time.
1993 - Ann Meyers became the first woman inducted into
the Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, Mass.
1993 - Basketball player Lynette Woodard was the recipient
of the Women's Sports Foundation's Flo Hyman Award.
1994 - Ground was broken for the Women's Basketball Hall
of Fame in Knoxville, TN, the first sports hall of fame devoted solely
to women's athletics.
1995 - Sheryl Swoopes had an athletic shoe named after
her by Nike, the "Air
Swoopes."
1995 - Kerri McTiernan was the first woman ever to coach
a men's college team at this level.
1996 - Basketball player Teresa Edwards was the first
US player to compete in four Olympics.
1997 - Dee Kantner and Violet Palmer were the first women
to work regular-season games as referees in the NBA.
1998 - The US National Women's Basketball Team won the
gold medal at the 1998 World Championships.
1999 - Chamique Holdsclaw became the first woman basketball
player to win the Sullivan Award.
1999 - The Women's Basketball Hall of Fame opened it's
doors on June 5 in Knoxville, TN. It is the first Hall of Fame dedicated
to any
woman's sport.
1999 - The first-ever WNBA All-Star game was played.
1999 - Sheryl Swoopes recorded the WNBA's first triple-double
with fourteen points, fifteen rebounds and ten assists on July 27.
1999 - The Houston Comets completed a "3-peat," establishing
themselves as the first WNBA dynasty.
1999 - Billie Moore, the first woman's coach to win
national championships at two schools was inducted into the Basketball
Hall of
Fame.
1999 - forty-seven-year-old Pat Summitt became the youngest
coach in college basketball history to win 700 games.
2000's
2000 - Identical twins Kelly and Coco Miller became the first athletes in the Sullivan Award’s seventy-year history to be nominated as a joint entry as the nation’s top amateur athlete in 1999
2001 - thrity-two-year veteran Texas Longhorn coach Jody
Conradt, fifty-nine, became the first women’s basketball coach to
work 1,000 games.
2001 - The United States won basketball gold at the
World University Games, defeating China.
2002 - Lisa Boyer, was the only woman assistant coach
in the NBA.
2002 - Lisa Leslie, became the first woman to dunk
in a professional basketball game.
2003 - Pat Summitt became the first coach in women's
basketball to win 800 career games.
2003 - The Lady Huskies of UConn had the longest
home winning streak at seventy games of any college basketball
team, men or women.
2004 - Candace Parker won the McDonald's High
School All-American dunk contest competing against five boys.
2004 - Ashley McElhiney, became the first
female head coach of a professional men's basketball team.
2005 - Anne Donovan became the first female
WNBA coach to reach 100 victories.
2006 - Epiphanny Price set a new girls'
high school basketball scoring record with 113 points
in a game.
2006 - Violet Palmer, forty-one, became the
first woman to referee an NBA playoff game. She is
currently the
only female
official in the NBA.