Watching Women's Basketball

And celebrating our PC team making it to the Big Dance

We’ve had Title IX on the books now for over 50 years. Representative Patsy T. Mink of Hawaii was the lead author and champion of the law that radically transformed higher education for women, ensuring that federally funded institutions granted equal access to academic and athletic programs regardless of sex. Mink was the first woman of color and the first Asian American to serve in Congress. She fought for women and children (she also authored the federal childcare bill that Nixon vetoed despite the approval of both houses of Congress in the 1970s—imagine the state of care if it had passed).

It’s the work of Mink and countless others that have made it possible for us to be really celebrating and appreciating women’s sports right now. I grew up playing sports in the 1990s, and had a wide variety of options available to me through the school systems and private leagues (unlike my mother in law, who was reflecting while we watched my kids playing their first soccer games at the YMCA last week that the only thing she could do in high school in New York in the 1970s was go out for cheerleading). But even though it was possible to play sports in the 1990s, we never watched or appreciated or talked about women’s collegiate or professional sports. Only men’s sports were on television, and it was widely accepted that women’s sports just couldn’t be entertaining, that women were always already amateur.

Things started to shift with the dominance of the women’s Olympic soccer team, starting in 1996 in Atlanta (the first year they had women’s soccer at the Olympics). The WNBA began play a year later, in 1997, and I remember the litany of racist and sexist jokes about the league that continued for years. Students regularly did research projects on the sexism in women’s sports—the lack of funding, the small audiences, little media attention, and the glaring misogyny in the comments section, truly horrible ridicule and abuse from men incensed we would start to cover women’s sports in a serious way.

1996 U.S Women’s Soccer team at the Olympics.

It is really only in the last few years that things feel like they have finally started to change. We were out having pizza a couple of weeks ago and I glanced over at a large group having beers and completely glued to the televisions. Fully expecting a broadcast of men’s sports, I was delighted to see they were watching the Lady Gamecocks win the SEC women’s basketball championship. Greenville hosted the tournament, and the city was packed with fans.

USC women’s basketball celebrating the SEC championship.

Presbyterian College women’s basketball was also working its way through our conference championship, and it has been so joyful to watch my students and advisees on the team win the Big South and secure a bid to the NCAA tournament (the NCAA only began recognizing and incorporating women’s sports into the organization in 1981 and it was only two years ago that they approved the use of the March Madness brand for the women’s tournament). We played Sacred Heart Wednesday night, and we were able to stream the game on ESPN. Sitting down and watching women’s sports in a serious way with our children hopefully marks a real generational shift and I want them to remember us hushing them so we could focus on the game (they were up past their bedtime).

Tilda Sjökvist and Dennaye Hinds celebrating the win over Sacred Heart.

PC won the game, and we advance to play the best team in the country, our own University of South Carolina Gamecocks. Their coach, Dawn Staley, makes millions of dollars a year and has really built up a basketball powerhouse. We play today (Friday) at 2 p.m. and it’s a very lopsided matchup, even with some of their star players out this game. Nonetheless, I can’t wait to watch and cheer them on. They have so much heart and have worked so hard without much attention, and I’m so glad our coaches and players are getting a moment of recognition now. Enjoy March Madness, and don’t forget to pay attention to the men. I guess they’re playing too?

Love this interview with our head coach Alaura Sharp. We’re all here for it, Coach! Thanks for your dedication to our incredible student athletes and the field of women’s sports.

Happy weekend! Share the Madness of women’s sports and our cinderella story—we’re the smallest school to win a game in the NCAA tournament!