by Scott Abramowitz, Class of 2023, History
After scoring a record 105 points in a high school game, Cheryl Miller became the most highly recruited female athlete ever. Garnering unprecedented media attention, Miller took her talents to second-ranked USC in 1982. Miller dominated her competition, physically, mentally, and athletically. Her fast-paced, aggressive style of play represented a departure from the traditional model of women’s basketball. Dubbed the “Women of Troy,” USC’s women’s basketball team won back-to-back championships and played an important role in the United States Gold Medal Team at the 1984 Summer Olympics. Miller’s career followed a similar trajectory to the Women’s Movement at the time — a promising rise was followed by a period of repeated failure. However, the progress made by Miller and the Women’s Movement laid the foundation for future generations to make incredible strides in women’s basketball and women’s rights, respectively.
The transformation that women’s basketball saw with Miller would have been impossible without the work of the Women’s Movement and the implementation of Title IX. Before Title IX, schools like Immaculata—a small catholic school in Philadelphia—were successful in women’s college basketball but had limited national exposure. The push for Title IX, which prohibits sex-based discrimination in schools or any education program, had a huge impact on women’s sports. Because schools were required to give an equal number of scholarships to men’s and women’s sports, big schools with a lot of funding began to develop successful women’s teams. Because big schools in big markets began to have the best teams, national viewership of women’s college basketball was able to grow exponentially.
There is no better example of the benefit of this shift than the National Championship Game between USC and Louisiana Tech. Everything came together to create the perfect matchup. Louisiana Tech were the defending champions and epitomized the era of conservative, simple, and predominantly white women’s basketball. Their more conservative and restrictive style of play is reflected in their constrictive, sleeved uniforms. In contrast, USC were the up-and-comers who played a flashy, exciting style of play with a predominantly black team. With the two top teams playing and Miller’s talents on full display, the game drew more viewers than any other in women’s basketball history up to that point. The promotion of the game was aided by the exposure Los Angeles gives. With Miller, USC, and the Olympics all being in Los Angeles, the city became the mecca of women’s basketball. As this was likely many viewers’ first time watching women’s basketball, the announcers often tried to put the game into the context of the more popular men’s basketball. Louisiana Tech’s success was compared to that of the John Wooden UCLA teams of the 1950s/1960s and USC’s exciting style of play was compared to that of the “Showtime” Los Angeles Lakers that were the talk of the basketball world at the time.
There is no better example of the benefit of this shift than the National Championship Game between USC and Louisiana Tech. Everything came together to create the perfect matchup. Louisiana Tech were the defending champions and epitomized the era of conservative, simple, and predominantly white women’s basketball. Their more conservative and restrictive style of play is reflected in their constrictive, sleeved uniforms. In contrast, USC were the up-and-comers who played a flashy, exciting style of play with a predominantly black team. With the two top teams playing and Miller’s talents on full display, the game drew more viewers than any other in women’s basketball history up to that point. The promotion of the game was aided by the exposure Los Angeles gives. With Miller, USC, and the Olympics all being in Los Angeles, the city became the mecca of women’s basketball. As this was likely many viewers’ first time watching women’s basketball, the announcers often tried to put the game into the context of the more popular men’s basketball. Louisiana Tech’s success was compared to that of the John Wooden UCLA teams of the 1950s/1960s and USC’s exciting style of play was compared to that of the “Showtime” Los Angeles Lakers that were the talk of the basketball world at the time.
Although Miller and the Women’s Movement enjoyed success, the era seemingly ending disappointAlthough Miller and the Women’s Movement enjoyed success, the era seemingly ending disappointingly for both. For example, the Women’s Movement failed to secure the passage of the Equal Rights Amendment and Miller’s career ended in injury and a lack of opportunity to play domestically. Although there was a lack of tangible success, the work they did for the Women’s Movement and for Women’s Basketball laid the groundwork for the significant progress that has been made today. As historian Bradford Martin writes, for example, although Geraldine Ferraro lost the general election, the next successful generation of female politicians implemented strategies Ferraro used to defend off the press. Similarly, although Miller didn’t succeed as a professional athlete, her achievements and infectious personality inspired wet the appetites of Americans for women’s basketball and inspired the next generation of young women who have gotten women’s basketball to where it is today. With the success of the NBA-backed WNBA and recent news that women’s sports TV sponsorship revenue soon to pass $1 billion globally, women’s athletics have never been better primed for continued growth.
Primary Sources
“1983 Championship USC vs Louisiana Tech,” Classic Basketball , YouTube, February 16, 2015, via https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DhNPED-DjEI.
Secondary Sources
Briggs,Laura. How All Politics Became Reproductive Politics: From Welfare Reform to Foreclosure to Trump. Oakland: University of California Press, 2017.
Martin, Bradford. The Other Eighties: A Secret History of America in the Age of Reagan. New York: Hill and Wang, 2011.
Strauss, Ben, and Molly Hensley-Clancy. “Women’s Sports Can Do at Least One Thing Men’s Can’t, Experts Say: Get Bigger.” The Washington Post, April 2, 2021. https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2021/04/01/womens-sports-growth-ratings-business/.
Women of Troy. Directed by Alison Ellwood. HBOSports. 2020.