Women's Hoops Blog

Inane commentary on a game that deserves far better


Sunday, September 20, 2009

It's been a while since I've said this: I'm a women's basketball history nut.

It's fun to blow people's mind by telling them women have played basketball since 1892. It's great to read books on the people and politics of the women's game. And while questions like Trivial Pursuit questions like ""Who was the first woman to sign a contract with the NBA?" may be a slam dunk for people like me, I know it's not true for most of the US sports world.

So "Yeah!" for any time we're reminded about the great past of women's basketball. Be it Jenny B. naming post-plays after Monarch greats, or Ken Tulio writing about Annie Meyers:
In September of 1979, Magic Johnson and Larry Bird arrived at their first NBA preseason training camps as two of the most eagerly anticipated college draft picks in the history of the league. That same autumn there was another rookie participating in a NBA preseason camp who also captured the imagination of fans throughout the country. However, there was one major difference: This player was a woman.

For three days, a 5-foot-9, 135-pound woman competed fiercely against men, most of whom were almost a foot taller and 100 pounds heavier. Over the years this feat has been buried beneath a barrage of blogs and 24-hour sports networks, but it still lurks in the public's consciousness - if only in a turn of a card.
Tullo is a Los Angeles-based sports TV producer who is writing a book and producing a movie about Meyers' tryout. I sure hope spends some time on Meyers' AAU years:
“Cypress was pretty packed. But Allentown was packed to the gills,” remembered Patty Meyers. Her sister Ann, though, wondered if they were there for another reason, namely their bright yellow uniforms. “When we ordered them, they were designed like a sports bra — it scooped in on your shoulders,” explained Meyers. “When they arrived, we had one medium top and bottom and the rest were small. Now, you’re talking about we had some good-sized ladies on our team. Believe me, we complained. ‘We can’t wear these!’ We were trying to stretch theses things out hoping we weren’t going to tear them. It was like, ‘Oh, maaaaaaan.’ But what were you going to do? We didn’t have any money. We were on a budget. This is what we ordered, this is what they sent and this is what we had to fit in to. And,” she added with a grin, “we were the team from California. You don’t think people came out to see us play?”

“Anna’s Bananas,” deadpanned Lieberman. “The team with a-peel.”