Women's Basketball Hall of Fame
In 2007, the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) celebrated its tenth anniversary. But women have been playing basketball since long before the WNBA was born—and Tennessee fans have been cheering them on for years.
Knoxville: Home to the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame
From local high-school teams to the much-loved University of Tennessee's Lady Volunteers, Knoxville is mad about women's basketball. It's only natural, then, that the city is the home to The Women's Basketball Hall of Fame, which opened its doors in 1999.
The Women's Basketball Hall of Fame doesn't just honor WNBA players. It celebrates women basketball players of all levels, from all around the world. It also honors coaches and sports reporters, both men and women, who have helped make the sport a success. Tennessee is well represented with high school coach Jim Smiddy, college coach Pat Head Summitt, and players Doris Rogers, Holly Warlick, Daedra Charles-Furlow, and Bridgette Gordon.
Basketball History
A Canadian teacher named James Naismith who taught in Springfield, Massachusetts invented men's basketball in 1891. Naismith needed a winter sport that could be played indoors. He wrote the first thirteen rules of basketball and took his team around New England and the northeast to demonstrate the new sport.
Just a year later, Senda Berenson Abbott adapted the rules for women and introduced the game to the women students of Smith College in Massachusetts. Like Naismith, she stressed cooperation instead of competition and helped make basketball a popular team sport. Senda Berenson Abbott is considered the “mother of women's basketball.” She was elected to the first “team” of women named to the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame. To honor Naismith for his role in creating the game, the men's Basketball Hall of Fame is named after him.
Early basketball wasn't quite like today's game. In fact, the very first basketball players dribbled a soccer ball down the courts. Women didn't play on a full court, and there was a limit to the number of times they could dribble. Early nets didn't have holes in the bottoms, so someone would have to reach in and retrieve the ball after every score. Over the years, the rules and the equipment evolved.
In 1955, the U.S. women's basketball team played in the first Pan American Games competition, and took home the gold medal. In 1976, women played basketball at the Olympics for the first time. Eight years later, in Los Angeles, the U.S. women's team won their first Olympic gold.
Coach Summitt
One reason basketball is so popular in Tennessee is the success of Pat Head Summitt at the University of Tennessee. Summitt, the head coach of the Lady Volunteers, nicknamed the Lady Vols, is a member of both the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame and the Naismith Hall of Fame. In fact, in 2000 Summitt was named the Naismith Coach of the Century.
Summitt has the best coaching record in college basketball. In 2005 Summitt passed Dean Smith, the holder of the men's coaching record, when she posted her 880th win of her coaching career. By the end of the 2007 season she had added another 67 wins and a seventh championship.
The Stars of the Game
Women's basketball has had many stars and many outstanding athletes. So far, nearly 100 people have been initiated into the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame. In 2007, two former Tennessee Lady Vols champs were inducted into the Hall: Daedra Charles-Furlow, who helped the U.S. team win an Olympic bronze medal in 1992, and Bridgette Gordon, a member of the 1988 gold medal-winning U.S. Olympic team. They join other basketball standouts from around the world.
If you are in Knoxville, it's hard to miss the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame. Sitting atop the building is the world's largest basketball, 30 feet long and weighing 10 tons. It's a basketball nearly as big as Tennessee's love of the sport.