Presented by VETERANS PLUMBING.
This Day In Sports…November 13, 1985, 40 years ago today:
In a game played at Spokane, Lynette Woodard becomes the first woman to play for the Harlem Globetrotters. She had scored 3,649 career points at Kansas—the most in NCAA women’s college basketball history—and was the captain of the US team that won the gold medal at the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles. Woodard scored seven points as the Globetrotters defeated their perennial opponents, the Washington Generals, 81-65.
It’s been 99 years since the Globetrotters were founded (in Chicago, ironically) by their legendary owner, Abe Saperstein. When the team was formed, it would still be 20 years before Black players were allowed in pro basketball. The Globetrotters had a corner on the market, and they were wildly popular. Saperstein died in 1966, and the lack of continuity that followed shifted the Globetrotters’ appeal from great to merely good.
The organization needed a spark to set itself apart from the rapidly-growing NBA and other entertainment options as society evolved. So in early 1985, current owner Metromedia put out a call for tryouts for women’s basketball players. The original list of 60 women who responded was whittled to 20, and Woodard was at the top of the list. She had started playing basketball with her brother as a youngster and was inspired by her cousin, legendary Globetrotter “Geese” Ausbie.
“I can remember when I was very young,” Woodard told NPR, “(Ausbie) coming to our house and showing our family a lot of ball-handling tricks, and I was just so amazed … it’s been a dream to, you know, possibly play for the Harlem Globetrotters one day.” Woodard played with the team for two seasons before going overseas to play pro ball in Italy and Japan. And, by the way, her NCAA women’s scoring record stood until superstar Caitlin Clark broke it at Iowa two seasons ago. Woodard was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame in 2004.
Just for fun, here are the eight players who have had their numbers retired by the Globetrotters: Wilt “The Stilt” Chamberlain, Marques Haynes, Fred “Curly” Neal, Charles “Tex” Harrison, the aforementioned Hubert “Geese” Ausbie, Meadowlark Lemon, “Sweet” Lou Dunbar and Goose Tatum.
(Tom Scott hosts the Scott Slant segment during the football season on KTVB’s Sunday Sports Extra. He also anchors four sports segments each weekday on 95.3 FM KTIK and one on News/Talk KBOI. His Scott Slant column runs every Wednesday.)
