The Birth of a New League

In 1891, Dr. James Naismith was asked to develop a game that could be played indoors during the winter season. After doing some research on such games as, soccer, football, and field hockey, he created what is to be called basketball. From there basketball spread through the cities and even into high schools and colleges. Sendra Berenson tailored the game and added rules to coincide with women’s athletic and physical abilities. It was believed that women could not play at the same pace or intensity that men could, so they had their own set of rules. But it was the women who had the first set of uniform rules for the game, not the men. Though the women had the first set of rules, the men would have the first professional league. Today, women have taken the game to great lengths and refused to be ignored any longer.

From the time basketball was invented, some one hundred years ago, only recently there has become a professional league for women. The idea for a Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) was introduced to the NBA Board of Governors on April 24, 1996. The NBA Board of Governors approved the idea and the WNBA was set to commence in June of 1997. The twenty-nine member teams of the National Basketball Asso

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But the Los Angeles Sparks would break their record, by winning their first WNBA championship in 2001. Each logo varied from the next in slightly different ways. They had to find a station, or stations, to broadcast the events. The size of the hips, or a shoe in a different place, made the decision making tough. The WNBA has a partnership with the National Alliance of Breast Cancer Organizations (NABCO), to draw national attention to the issue of breast cancer.

The birth of this new league has created a bright addition to women’s sports. The league announced its broadcast partnerships with NBC, ESPN, and Lifetime, even before a player was signed. Ackerman, became the first President of the WNBA in 1996. Sparks guard, Penny Toler scored the first basket in WNBA history, but the sparks fell short to Liberty 67-57. WNBA Be Active is a grassroots program that targets boys and girls ages 11-14 with the goal of encouraging them to be physically active. So he has integrated the WNBA white and orange Spalding basketball, into each teams logo with the exception of three teams. Just one of the many things the WNBA does to get the community involved. The organization has many ways for the fans to get involved with the teams. One of the reasons they decided to make the season during the summer was because they could televise the games live and on prime time TV. The one that caught their eye was of course, the alternating orange and white.

Approximate Word count = 1484
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)

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