Women’s basketball began the year after the game was invented. The history of women’s basketball success is a long one: collegiate and professional teams, intercollegiate competitions (and their critics) as well as the sad history of many failed attempts at professional leagues; women’s basketball at the Olympics.
1892 first women’s basketball team organized by Senda Berenson at Smith College, adapting Naismith’s rules to emphasize cooperation, with three zones and six players on each team.
1893 first women’s college basketball game played at Smith College; no men were admitted to the game (March 21).
1894 Senda Berenson published article on women’s basketball and its benefits in the Physical Education journal.
1896 Stanford and the University of California at Berkeley played the first women’s intercollegiate game; Stanford won, 2-1, and men were excluded, with women guarding the windows and doors to exclude men.
1970 five player full court game adopted for women’s basketball.
1976 women’s basketball became an Olympic sport.
1999 Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame opened.
