| Banned in 1924 by the University Senate, women's basketball at the University of Kentucky did not regain varsity status until 1974. UK women's basketball serves as one example of a national phenomenon. Relegated to play days, intramurals, and club teams, women lost the opportunity for intercollegiate competition. The contradictory legacy of early women physical educators, combined with society's belief that sport was a male activity caused early conflicts over women's participation in sport and women's governance of sport. UK women's basketball began again in 1971 under Campus Recreation. Nationally two nascent developments surfaced in the early 1970's that fundamentally altered women's intercollegiate sports. First was the emergence of the Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women, a national governance organization designed by women for women's sports. The second was a 1972 federal law Title IX, aimed at ending discrimination against females. Title IX forever changed sport for women.; Propelled by the promise of Title IX, the AIAW, and determination, women's basketball seemed poised to ascend to national prominence and partner with UK's claim of basketball supremacy created by Adolph Rupp. Women's basketball regained varsity status (1974), hired its first full-time coach (1976), awarded women's athletic scholarships (1976), and gained national recognition (1976-77). In 1982 UK women won the Southeastern Conference championship. The program began to emerge from shadows cast by UK men's basketball.; The contradictory effects of Title IX gave promise for women's participation in intercollegiate participation in sports yet diminished women's control. The advancement of women's sports fueled the predatory nature of the NCAA which eventually conquered both the AIAW and governance of women's sports.; At UK, the early successes retreated into obscurity. By 2002 the women's basketball program was a 'women's hoops Siberia'. The central question driving this study is: What circumstances moved UK women's basketball from benchmark status in the 1980's to SEC 'cellar dweller' as the twenty-first century dawned?; Keywords. AIAW; intercollegiate athletics; Title IX; University of Kentucky; women's basketball. |
