rights legislation, universities took it to mean just
that and adjusted scholarship budgets to accom-
modate the burgeoning women’s athletic scene.
Women’s basketball programs saw an initial upswing
in funding and development, only to see it halt with
the Supreme Court’s 1984 ruling that Title IX did
not apply to athletics and, therefore, that universi-
ties were not required to fund women’s athletics in
the same manner as men’s. Finally, in 1988, Con-
gress passed the Civil Rights Restoration Act, which
reinstated Title IX and marked the start of unprece-
dented funding and appreciation for the women’s
game.
Another change within women’s college basket-
ball arose because of the NCAA’s increased desire to
administrate women’s college programs. Previously,
women’s college basketball was controlled by the
Association of Intercollegiate Athletics for Women
(AIAW). In 1982, the NCAA announced the imple-
mentation of an alternate tournament to the annual
championship presided over by the AIAW. Univer-
sities now had to decide which tournament to join.
Though the AIAW had been integral in the promo-
tion and facilitation of the women’s game, the
NCAA had superior resources. Affiliation with the
NCAA was construed by some as an act of betrayal
against the AIAW, but, as Pat Summitt—the legend-
ary women’s basketball coach at the University of
Tennessee—put it, “I knew realistically that the only
way the sport could grow... was under the umbrella
of the NCAA.” By the summer of 1982, the AIAW was
defunct.
The most dominant women’s collegiate basket-
ball force of the 1980’s was the University of South-
ern California Trojans. Not known as a traditional
powerhouse, key early-decade recruiting landed
twin sisters Pamela and Paula McGee, Los Angeles’s
own Cynthia Cooper, and, most important, Cheryl
Miller. The team won back-to-back championships
in 1983 and 1984 and often drew comparisons to
the hometown Lakers for its style and dominance.
Miller, nicknamed “Silk” for her smooth shooting, is
considered the greatest women’s basketball player
ever.
Olympics: Waiting for a “Dream Team” The 1980’s
was the last decade in which amateur players would
suit up for the U.S. Olympic team. In 1989, the Inter-
national Basketball Federation (FIBA) voted to al-
low professionals to participate in international
competition. With one act, the United States—with
its stable of homegrown NBA talent—became the
force to be feared on the international scene. How-
ever, at the beginning of the decade, this was not the
predominant concern of the U.S. Olympic team.
The American team hoped to avenge a controversial
loss to the Soviet Union in the 1972 Games. Because
of the American boycott of the 1980 Summer Olym-
pics and the subsequent Soviet Bloc boycott of the
1984 Summer Games, the two teams did not meet
until 1988, in Seoul, South Korea. The Soviet Union
dominated the semifinal match and advanced to
beat Yugoslavia—the 1980 gold medalist—to win the
gold medal.
Impact In the 1980’s, basketball experienced a
surge in popularity and prosperity and became a
prominent entity in the marketplace and the enter-
tainment-driven society of the subsequent decades.
The success of basketball during this time was fueled
by players who exhibited superior athleticism and
made-for-the-media personalities. The popularity
of the college game rivaled the NBA, while the
women’s game developed into its own entity—epito-
mized by the fact that the University of Texas aver-
aged greater than seventy-five hundred fans per
game by decade’s end. The foundation laid by the
innovations of the era’s players, coaches, and execu-
tive body steadied the edifice that basketball became
in the 1990’s—a global phenomenon and a financial
institution.
Further Reading
Bondy, Filip.Tip-Off: How the 1984 NBA Draft Changed
Basketball Forever. Cambridge, Mass.: Da Capo
Press, 2007. An extensive analysis of the events
leading up to, and the repercussions of, the 1984
draft. Discusses in detail the stories of the drafted
players and the motivations of the coaches and
executives who helped shape the future of the
league.
Giglio, Joe.Great Teams in Pro Basketball Histor y. Chi-
cago: Raintree, 2006. Written for an adolescent
audience, this book gives brief overviews on some
of the best teams in the history of the NBA. In-
cludes short chapters on four teams from the
1980’s: the Boston Celtics, the Detroit Pistons, the
Los Angeles Lakers, and the Philadelphia 76ers.
Grundy, Pamela, and Susan Shackelford.Shattering
the Glass: The Remarkable Histor y of Women’s Basket-
ball. New York: New Press, 2005. A historical over-The Eighties in America Basketball 97