History of the WBL

Below are some highlights of the WBL's second season.  (Click on the blue frames to see full-sized images.)  Please e-mail me with any corrections or additions.

Second Season

1979-80

June 1979

The league moves its offices from Columbus, Ohio, to New York City, after an earlier planned move to Los Angeles has been tabled.

June 12, 1979

The second WBL draft is held in the Terrance-Oval room at the Hotel Roosevelt in New York City.  The pool consists entirely of college seniors, no free agents.  The six expansion teams pick first, in order of admission, followed by the existing teams in order of win-loss records.  Pat Colasurdo (later Mayo) of Montclair State is the number one pick.  The draft is commemorated in Sportscaster trading card series 85-15, featuring Colasurdo in her college uniform.

August 1979

Former NBA official and Hall of Fame inductee John Nucatola becomes supervisor of officials for the WBL.  Twelve WBL officials arrive from the NBA, which has switched from three officials to two.

August 30, 1979

Ann Meyers, four-year All-American from UCLA, signs a contract with the NBA's Indiana Pacers for $50,000 and tries out for the team.  The WBL's No. 1 draft pick in 1978, Meyers has earlier declined to join the WBL in favor of the 1980 Olympics.  Meyers' NBA tryout is controversial among some sportswriters and women's basketball fans.  "Wrong League," a TIME Magazine headline reads.  New Orleans Pride General Manager Steve Brown issues a $5,000 wager to the Pacers that Meyers cannot win a one-on-one shootout against a WBL player.

Fall 1979

WBL public relations director Meg Griggs prepares a league media guide, which debuts at the National Sporting Goods Show in New York City.

The Milwaukee Does hire Larry Costello as head coach.  Costello has previously coached the Milwaukee Bucks to an NBA championship.  Other ex-NBAers to join the WBL include the New Orleans Pride's Butch van Breda Kolff, former coach of the New Orleans Jazz and Los Angeles Lakers, Nat Frazier, former assistant with the New York Knicks; Dean "the Dream" Meminger, former New York Knicks player; Dave Wohl, formerly with the Philadelphia 76ers and other NBA teams; and (the following year) "Jungle Jim" Loscutoff, former Boston Celtic.

Lawrence Kozlicki, owner of the California Dreams, sends his players to the John Robert Powers modeling school.  "That was a riot," says Dreams player Patti Bucklew.

"You have to spend a lot of time playing basketball to make it to the pros, and that means you've never had the chance to sit around learning makeup techniques," Kozlicki is quoted.  "I thought the girls would be grateful for the chance."  (The school adapted their program somewhat for the players, adding media training and related subjects.)  Player Mariah Burton (Maggie) Nelson boycotts; Ms. Magazine lampoons the experiment with a sarcastic cartoon.

Katie McEnroe becomes the first female general manager in professional team sports when she takes the helm of the Iowa Cornets.

New York Stars players (and twins) Faye and Kaye Young are featured in the first national television commercial to star a professional woman basketball player, and become widely known as the "Dannon Yogurt twins."

November 1979

Iowa Cornets General Manager Katie McEnroe devises the most successful promotion in the WBL's three-year history:  posters of attractive Cornets guard Molly Bolin. The two posters, one of which shows Bolin in a classic 'Farrah Fawcett' pose, generate controversy, publicity -- and sales.

November 14, 1979

The New Jersey Gems sign Ann Meyers after Houston and New York balk at Meyers' demand for $50,000, the amount of the guaranteed contract with the Indiana Pacers that she will be giving up to play in the WBL.  Some predict that Meyers will receive more than her share of elbows in the WBL; others express optimism that Meyers will bring exposure to the fledgling league.

November 17, 1979

The second season opens with 14 teams:  California Dreams; Chicago Hustle; Dallas Diamonds; Houston Angels; Iowa Cornets; Milwaukee Does; Minnesota Fillies; New Jersey Gems; New Orleans Pride; New York Stars; Philadelphia Fox; St. Louis Streak; San Francisco Pioneers; Washington Metros.

The league adopts the three-point basket, a controversial addition to the NBA the prior season.  The distances are the same -- 23' 9", and 22' 0" in the corners -- in both leagues, and the shot is not a potent weapon in the WBL.  One team (Houston) does not attempt a single three-pointer during the 1979-80 season; another (Chicago) makes only 2 of 33 attempts.

November 26, 1979

Chicago Hustle fans are shocked when favorite Janie Fincher is traded to the financially shaky Washington Metros.  (Two weeks earlier, a Chicago sportswriter has urged fans to stop viewing Fincher as a sex symbol -- while noting her "blond hair, her delicate features, her model's figure, and her extra-short shorts.")  Fan outrage over Fincher's plight forces management to acknowledge that the trade was a mistake, and Fincher ends up back with the Hustle.

December 19, 1979

The league dissolves the Washington and Philadelphia franchises, and realigns the remaining 12 teams into three divisions.  Two Philadelphia players later file antitrust suits against the WBL.

December 28, 1979

Iowa Cornets player Connie Kunzmann achieves a league record 11 steals in a single game.

December 30, 1979

Three San Francisco Pioneers (Pat Mayo, Anita Ortega, and Debbie Ricketts) play all 48 minutes of a home game against the St. Louis Streak.

January 1980

The Board of Governors gives a unanimous vote of confidence to commissioner Bill Byrne, and votes to increase cost of a new franchise to $500,000 to ensure financial stability of owners.

January 19, 1980

Ann Meyers with the New Jersey Gems gets a triple double (19 points, 10 rebounds, 10 assists) against the Iowa Cornets, the first of four triple doubles for Meyers in the season.  But only 9 steals?  Come on, Meyers!  Other players to achieve a triple double in the WBL were Nancy Lieberman and Rosalind Jennings, both with the 1980-81 Dallas Diamonds.

January 30, 1980

The league holds its second annual All-Star Game in Chicago.  (Click here for some fun pregame photos.)  The game is hard fought and close.  The West defeats the East 115-112, the game ending on a controversial call against the East's Ann Meyers.

January 18, 1980

Dallas Diamonds owner Judson Phillips refuses to send his team to a game in California, and announces that he is relinquishing ownership of the team.  Contrary to published reports that the franchise is folding, the league finds a replacement investor.

January 20, 1980

President Jimmy Carter announces that the United States will boycott the 1980 Summer Olympics unless the Soviet Union withdraws from Afghanistan within a month.  The boycott is formally approved by the U. S. Olympic Committee on April 12, 1980.  WBL organizers have been counting on exposure from the Olympics to boost interest in women's basketball.

February 6, 1980

Milwaukee coach Larry Costello holds a press conference to announce that he is resigning due to non-payment.

February 8, 1980

Longstanding tension between St. Louis Streak All-Star Liz "the Whiz" Silcott and coach Larry Gillman culminates in Silcott's suspension.  Amid widespread speculation as to Gillman's motives and Silcott's eccentric behavior, the Streak give Silcott to the San Francisco Pioneers for a future draft pick.

February 1980

Chicago Hustle coach Doug Bruno "kidnaps" Milwaukee Does player Charlene McWhorter, who is not being paid, and drives her to Chicago, where she joins the Hustle for the rest of the season.

February 15, 1980

Eight players (Donna Geils, Ann Meyers, Willodean Harris, Donna Simms, Karen Smith, Gail Tatterson, Denise Craig, and Gail Marquis) foul out in a double-overtime game between the New Jersey Gems and the New York Stars.

February 27, 1980

California Dreams general manager Bob Joseph cancels a home game against Minnesota without notice, and is fired by owner Larry Kozlicki.  The two men offer different accounts of the circumstances, but all remaining games for the team are cancelled.

March 2, 1980

Molly Bolin of the Iowa Cornets scores a WBL single-game record 55 points in a home game against the Minnesota Fillies.  (Here's the Official Scorer's Report.)

March 7, 1980

During a St. Louis - Chicago game televised on WGN, Chicago coach Doug Bruno assaults official Mark Mano following a disagreement about a hard foul to Hustle guard Rita Easterling.  Bruno is suspended for the Hustle's two remaining games and fined $1,000.00, and later apologizes to Mano and to Hustle fans.  Mano doesn't hold it against Bruno because the two men had a good relationship and he knew Bruno "wasn't that kind of guy."

March 11, 1980

Denise Craig and Kathy Sanborn with the New York Stars each go 1-1 from behind the arc in a game against the Milwaukee Does.  This is the only known game in which two 3-pointers were made.  (The 3-point line in the WBL was the same as the NBA line.)

March 25, 1980

Eileen Fulton, star of the soap opera As the World Turns, helps promote the WBL.  "I have always been interested in the advancement of women in the dramatic arts and professional fields," she says, "and after seeing a Stars game in person, I am convinced that women have a bright future in professional basketball."  The following season, she travels to franchise cities at her own expense and sings the national anthem at a Minnesota Fillies game.

Fellow television actors Mike Connors (Mannix) and Alan Alda (M*A*S*H) are part owners of the San Francisco Pioneers.  (See photo)

March 29, 1980

Molly Bolin of the Iowa Cornets sets a WBL playoff record with 50 points scored against the Minnesota Fillies in a first-round contest.

April 1980

In the quarterfinals of the playoffs, San Francisco defeats Houston to take on the New York Stars, and Minnesota defeats New Orleans to challenge the Iowa Cornets.  New York and Iowa win the semi-finals, and New York ultimately wins the Championship.

Iowa Cornets guard Molly Bolin and New Jersey Gems guard Ann Meyers are named league Co-MVPs.  Bolin has led the Cornets to the championship finals, earning the league scoring title with 32.8 points per game and twice setting WBL single-game scoring records.  Meyers has placed high in four statistical categories:  scoring (5th; 22.2 ppg); assists (3rd; 5.9 apg); rebounds (6th; 10.3); and steals (1st; 4.9 spg).  Dean Meminger of the New York Stars wins Coach of the Year honors, and San Francisco Pioneers owner Marshall Geller is named Owner of the Year.