Women Sports Talk: Exactly What We Need!

It is amazing what will happen when determination, vision, knowledge, and passion align for a common goal. The expression that immediately comes to my mind is “Wow”! When I was briefed on the mission for the Women’s Sports Talk Show and website, it was akin to the feeling I had when I learned that my high school had begun to sponsor a girl’s basketball team, or when I first logged onto the internet. With each development, I felt the need to sing “You’ve Come A Long Way Baby”! Finally, there is a forum that provides broad base information and interaction relative to women’s sports; amateur to the professional ranks.

As a parent, I spent many hours trying to find information to share with my daughters relative to women in sports. There was not any particular one-stop source to tap into that allowed one to ask questions, read information, or hear from players with significant experience and knowledge. Most of the information I shared with them was what I had experienced or learned from family and friends. Thank goodness for family and friends! I have made it my mission to share as much information as possible with other student-athletes and their parents to alleviate reinvention of the wheel on an ongoing basis.

It is my goal to provide as much information as possible with the hope that others can learn and continue to build from my experiences as a sister, wife (formerly) and mother of athletes; amateur to professional. Years ago, I concluded that I was destined to support and observe versus participate. To be quite honest, it only took one pick-up game versus Basketball Hall of Fame athlete Lynette Woodard for it to be crystal clear to me that my game was not where it needed to be for me to consider playing at the collegiate level. Some of us (starting with me) are destined to be in the stands (an avid spectator) instead of on the floor or field. And that is where I have primarily spent most of my time for many years.

I remember going to my first football and basketball games at ..Sumner.. ..High School.. in ....Kansas City.., ..Kansas.... when I was about four years old. That was a very long time ago. Trust me. My oldest brother Kenny was a student-athlete who later played football at ....Washburn.. ..University.... (where I attended my first college football game). I met my first best friend (Kim Robinson) because our brothers were teammates in high school. We still share laughs about those days of attending our brothers’ games. My brother Leonard (fondly known as Hugie) played basketball (and football for a season or two) at Sumner as well. Through his experiences as a student-athlete, I had my first lesson in college recruiting. Imagine the recruiting rules then (or lack thereof) back in those stone ages. I also remember my mother and father doing all that they could to assure that their kids played sports, rather than sports playing their kids. They had very little tolerance for anything short of integrity and respect. Leonard eventually played Division I basketball at Kansas and Long Beach State, as well as professionally with the Seattle Supersonics before retiring due to an injury while with the Washington Bullets. I watched my brother Robert play basketball through high school (..Wyandotte..) and then in college at ....Wichita.. ..State..... He was a second round draft selection by the Sonics after his college days. My sister Pam was a member of the volleyball and track and field teams at ....Wichita.. ..State.... where she qualified for the NCAA finals in the shot put event. My sister Phyllis was a sprinter on the track team from middle school to college (....Arizona.. ..State....), and my sister Melanie had a season or two of high school volleyball. Me? I lasted a season of club basketball (a local team formed at the neighborhood church) when I was in the seventh grade, was the sports page editor in junior high school (one way to assure I made it to all the games), and then returned to my other love of baton twirling as a majorette in high school.

All of those experiences, along with the experiences gained while married to a professional football player assisted me with guiding my six children as they participated in sports. Each of them participated as student athletes at the Division 1 level. A few years ago, I attempted to calculate the number of sporting events that I had attended in support of my children. I finally stopped after I reached approximately twenty-two hundred sporting events! The thought of it exhausted me. I have also washed more sports uniforms than any team manager known to man. In essence, I have seen a few sporting events in my lifetime. I am currently enjoying my daughters’ final college season of basketball. Sure, I have enjoyed watching my brothers and sisters. I have immensely enjoyed watching my sons. When I take all of those experiences into consideration and think of how it has helped me to support my daughters; women who are twenty-one year old student-athletes…it gives me the chills! Therefore, I am committed to sharing with you via blogs and this website with the hope of continued growth, development, knowledge and passion for women in sports. Stay tuned.


Lynne Gray

WOMEN AS SPORTS FANS: Is it possible?

In reference to the question posed in the title of this blog, may I likewise respond with a question: Why wouldn’t it be possible? Why wouldn’t a woman also be a sports fan in the U.S. of A? Perhaps the next question is: How do women become sports fans?

This would make an interesting sociology study, I suppose, but for me it came very naturally. I have three brothers, with one of them being five years my senior. Face it, whatever my big brother did when I was growing up, that’s what the other three little duckies did. I remember learning how to play baseball when I was four years old. We just cut a broom handle down to make a bat, he would toss the rubber ball in my direction, and BAM…off I ran to first base, like I knew what I was doin’!!

Once my big brother got to junior high, the sports world opened up for me. He played small boys basketball, and could not wait to pass this essential knowledge and skill on to his little sister. He was a harsh task master, too, stressing the fundamentals. “Dribble to the side of your body”, “don’t look at the ball…know where the ball is”, and his favorite thing to bark at my sub-four-foot-tall self: “the free throw is NOT a JUMP SHOT”!! If I heard it once, I heard it thirty times. Thankfully he allowed the “granny shot”, so I was not in hot water very often.

One Saturday afternoon in the winter of my seventh year, my brother sat me down in front of our Grandmother’s black and white TV, and told me to watch the player with the number 14 on his jersey. I was to watch everything he did, because he was a point guard, and with my lack of vertical existence, that would be my position on the basketball team. Number 14 on the Boston Celtics was, of course, Bob Cousy, and he remains one of my favorite athletes of all time. His Mitchell and Ness away jersey from 1962 hangs in my home, along with an autographed basketball. My love affair with basketball continues to this day.

So that is baseball, and basketball…football wasn’t as popular at our house because there were only four of us. I must report here that I did develop an excellent spiral pass over time. When my brother became the manager of the track team, we made a track that went around the perimeter of the house. We even had hurdles to jump, and made a long jump in the sand pile out at the corner of the backyard.

Needless to say, even cards and board games were very competitive between the four siblings. Battle, Go Fish, and Monopoly were absolute throw downs! To this day I cannot play a board game with any sense of civility…it is pathetic. I will play Mexican Train, but sulk for hours on end when I lose…just a mess.

So, I guess my conclusion regarding how a woman can become a sports fan is based on having other sports fans to influence her during the formative years. My mother was a roller skater, and my grandmother was a musician and dancer. They appreciated the importance of an active lifestyle, and encouraged us to “play outside”. We would swim, and play some kind of ball all day during the hot Houston summers, only to stop for a quick bite of lunch.

So if some day you are ever to meet me, just make sure there isn’t a ball flying around the gym or field. It might look like I am being rude while talking with you, but in truth, if there is a sport being played, it will capture my attention. I am a woman, and an avid sports fan, and the twain have permanently met.

Tammy The Fan