Women's Hoops Blog

Inane commentary on a game that deserves far better


Monday, October 26, 2009

File under "About friggin' time."

NCAA records to include more AIAW information

In addition to the five sports (basketball, field hockey, soccer, softball and volleyball) for which information currently is being added to records books, the statistics staff also has obtained AIAW championships results for cross country, fencing, golf, gymnastics, skiing, swimming and diving, tennis, and track and field.

In looking through those results, Senappe sees familiar names such as Nancy Lopez, who won an AIAW championship for Tulsa before the NCAA began sponsoring golf championships.

“It helps make their participation real,” she said. “Maybe down the line, while many of these former student-athletes are available, we’d like to go out and get some living histories, though I think that will be a few years away. We’ve thought it would be wonderful to talk with some of the people around the game as well, like officials, people who worked in the gyms, or media, to give us a look at women’s athletics 30 years ago.

“But for now, even if someone says, hey, my grandmother or my aunt played in that championship, it provides some information.”

What the article doesn't mention is that Joan Hult is writing a book on the history of the AIAW.

(h/t to Chris over at Notre Dame)