When I started playing basketball in 1975, I was called a tomboy. Girls had gotten their first opportunity to play organized sports for our school a couple years before that, and while volleyball was perceived as a “girls’ sport,” people weren’t sure what to make of those of us who chose to play the “boys’ sport” of basketball.

But James Naismith, who invented the game, would have thought it was quite appropriate:

Despite support from physical educators like Naismith, women were mostly excluded from sports until the 1970s. But Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 protects people from discrimination based on sex in education programs or activities which receive Federal financial assistance. Title IX states that:

No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance.

I had just started junior high when Title IX was passed and got to be part of the change. Before Title IX, if girls at our high school wanted to participate in extracurricular physical activities, they joined the Girls Athletic Association (GAA). I joined the club as a freshman and recall going bowling once a week. We could also go swimming, hiking or take part in occasional “play days.” Our advisor (who was one of the girls’ PE teachers) set up volleyball nets on one side of the gym, and we had access to all of the gym equipment to organize our own games for the afternoon.

As girls’ sports teams gained momentum, GAA faded away, which is unfortunate. Not every girl is interested in organized sports, but all of them can find a way to have fun being active. Many of the GAA activities were what would now be called “life sports”—sports we can learn while young and continue throughout adulthood. GAA was fun, but I am grateful I also had the chance to play an organized sport.

An overdue thank you to Lusia Harris

I got to play basketball, but other than the older girls on our team, I had very few female athlete role models. I had watched Billie Jean King beat Bobby Riggs in the Battle of the Sexes, and I had seen women compete in the Olympics—when they were shown. There was far less coverage of their events than men’s.

The only female athlete I saw in person was Lusia Harris. She was a guest speaker at the basketball camp I attended before my senior year. She was only six years older than me. Lusia was a graduate of Delta State where she was an All American and had set a scoring record with 58 points in a single game. She was also a member of the 1976 silver medal U.S. Women’s Basketball Team. I’m sure she was introduced with great fanfare.

I imagine I listened with awe as she spoke.

And then I went home and never heard of her again.

Lusia Harris was a good enough player to be drafted by the NBA, even if it was mostly a publicity stunt. In 1992, she was one of the first two women to be inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.

I never got to see her play on TV, there were no posters of her I could hang on my wall and I couldn’t buy a jersey with her number on it.

But I have no doubt that for that week of basketball camp and in the weeks following, while I practiced what I had learned in my driveway, I was inspired by Lusia Harris.

Help a girl find a role model

Although women’s sports receive only 4% of sports media coverage, young girls today can find role models in a wide range of sports. If a girl in your life is interested in sports, help her find one. Search sports and teams online to learn about players. Find a book about her favorite sport or player. Watch a game together on TV. Or, if you can, take her to a local college women’s sports event. The price of admission is usually low and often free. And the rewards can last a lifetime.

Read more 

Black Past – Lusia Harris 

She Made History – Lusia Harris 

Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame – Lusia Harris-Stewart

The James Naismith Reader – Basketball in His Own Words, edited by Douglas Stark