Before women’s basketball was officially established in 1996 and the association began in 1997 a gentlemen by the name of Dr. James Naismith invented basketball in December of 1891. James was a born in Canada and was a physical education teacher at the Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA) at a training …show more content…
He also was urged to create a game such as basketball so that his students had a skilled physical sport that could keep them indoors within a generally small space during the winter months. Although Senda Berenson organized the first women’s basketball team in 1892 at the Smith College where she taught, that was not a professional basketball team. The first team of women to play as a professional basketball team in the United States occurred 44 years later in1936. It was in this year that the All American Red Heads basketball team was formed as the first professional women’s basketball team. They toured the country for nearly 50 years playing professionally against men’s teams while using their rules of the game. The name of the first professional basketball league for women was the Women’s Professional Basketball League (WBL) in the United States; easy right? The league played their first game on December 9th 1978 at the Milwaukee Arena between the Milwaukee Does and the Chicago Hustle. As for the first WNBA game ever played took place on June 21st 1997 at the Great Western Forum located in Los Angeles against the Los Angeles Sparks and the New York Liberty teams. The New York Liberty team won the game by 10 points; 67 to