The history of women’s basketball in the United States goes back to the late 1800s, when Smith College teacher Senda Berenson introduced students to the sport and refereed the first official women’s game in 1893. Two years later, hundreds of women’s teams existed across the country.
The first intercollegiate game between two women’s teams took place three years later, when Stanford faced off against Cal-Berkeley.
In 1971, the women’s game shifted to the five-player, full-court experience that players enjoy today, and women’s basketball was introduced in the Olympic Games in 1976. Interest in the sport surged, and two years later Bill Byrne established the Women’s Professional Basketball League (WBL) with eight teams.
The league would eventually spawn 17 teams, including the California Dreams, New England Gulls and San Francisco Pioneers. Though it was short-lived—the first game was played on December 9, 1978, and the last on April 20, 1981—hundreds of women played their hearts out despite a lack of media attention, an audience or even paychecks they could count on.
Muffet McGraw’s California dream
For many fans of women’s basketball, Muffet McGraw is Notre Dame’s most successful coach of all time. When she retired in 2020, McGraw had coached for…
