Oh, pioneers

Sporting News, The, Feb 5, 1996 by Ann Killion

Once upon a time, there was a little girl named Valerie who loved to play basketball.

She had posters of John Havlicek and Jerry West on her bedroom wall. She wore basketball shoes designed for boys. And when it came time to leave her home in New jersey and go off to college, she was one of the very first girls to get a basketball scholarship to Virginia, where she played small forward in relative obscurity before a handful of tans.

Val Ackerman grew up, graduated from Virginia. played professional ball in France, went to law school and eventually joined the NBA, where she is the league's vice president of business affairs.

These days, she is amazed to see how her basketball story has turned out. As the liaison between the NBA and the womens national team, the point person who oversees marketing and promotion, Ackerman has a front-row view of what the tides of change have wrought

She sees crowds of 6,000 and more at games. She sees young girls standing in line for players' autographs. She sees Sheryl Swoopes' Nike shoe being bought off the shelves. She sees the national television coverage. She hears male colleagues talking about how the Syracuse women's team upset Connecticut the night before.

There are days when I shake my head that all of this has come about," Ackerman says. "In my day, it was more than unthinkable."

By any account, the past four months have been a breakthrough period for women's basketball. Building on years of steadily growing popularity at the collegiate level the U.S. team has elevated the sport to superstar appeal with a 21-stop collegiate barnstorming tour. The wildly successful trip, part of a unique year-long training program in preparation for the Olympics, has brought out corporate sponsors, fans and the media. And, inevitably, expectations.

With a new professional league planned for next fall and advertisers perking up for the first time, 11 players can-y the future of women's basketball on their shoulders as they head to Atlanta. Will they have a fairy-tale ending, with a gold medal around their necks and their sport firmly entrenched in the American psyche? Or, if they fail to win the gold, will it be a setback to their dreams of a professional league in the United States?

There is absolutely tremendous pressure on this team," Ackerman says.

A good deal of that pressure stems from this grand experiment, the year-long training program. When the U.S. women lost to the Unified Team in Barcelona in 1992 and came home with the bronze, it was embarrassing and eye-opening for USA Basketball. Clearly the Americans were hurt by their system--if you could call pulling together women who had been playing the international game just a few weeks before the Olympics a "system."

"Basketball is a team game--you can't just say here's a ball and let's go,' current U.S. Coach Tara VanDerveer says. "You need time to be together."

The NBA, the marketing arm of USA basketball, used its vast resources and impressive track record to bring together a team of sponsors to bankroll the extended training period. Kraft, Champion, Tambrands, State Farm, Sears, Lifetime Television, Topps and Nike have pumped more than $15 million into the project The decision wasn't made simply because the U.S. had lost the gold in the last Olympics. The climate also helped.

"Timing is. one of the biggest factors in this,' Ackerman says. "Women's basketball is in a strong growth period. We couldn't have done this even five years ago''

In the past five years, the women's game has gained momentum. The skill level has risen steadily. Players have achieved name recognition --Jennifer Azzi from Stanford, Dawn Staley at Virginia, Lisa Leslie at Southern California. Attendance is up, topping men's programs at some schools.

"Things are definitely different," says Teresa Edwards, who has been playing overseas since ending her collegiate career in 1986. "The public is becoming well-educated."

The NCAA Tournament has provided steady drama as well. In'93, Swoopes scored a record 47 points in leading Texas Tech to the title; in '94, North Carolina won the championship on a shot at the buzzer; and last season Connecticut--propelled by Rebecca Lobo--capped an undefeated season by beating Tennessee. The last game provided a watershed for the sport, pulling down TV ratings of 5.7, surpassing those generated by an NBA game the same day.

"We've looked at the growth of women's basketball, the increase in popularity, and we feel there's significant growth potential," ESPN programming executive John Wildhack says. His network has exclusive rights to the women's NCAA Tournament this year and also is televising several national team games. "It's a very appealing sport"

Other factors have helped drive interest

Women have benefited from some fan disenchantment with men's professional sports. A quarter of a century after the adoption of Title IX, perceptions about women's sports are finally starting to change. Fathers are interested. And the product is easily accessible.