It’s 1892 at the all-women’s Smith College. The college’s physical education director just read an article about James Naismith’s new invention of a sport called “basket ball.” She’s Senda Berenson Abbott, the now proclaimed “mother of basketball.” After introducing the sport to her students and practicing it for a few months, the college hosted the first women’s basketball game.

132 years later, we wait for Selection Sunday to finalize our bracket for the 44th women’s NCAA basketball tournament.

But between Berenson’s introduction to the sport and the anticipated Bueckers buzzer-beating bank shots, there’s a history of women’s college basketball to lay bare.

Senda Berenson Abbott facilitates basketball at Smith College in 1893.

Four years after Berenson shared the game at Smith College, the game was spreading like wildfire. Cal played Stanford, and the University of Washington played Ellensburg Normal School, making them the first intercollegiate women’s college basketball games in 1896. Though the first of their kind, these games were played more as one-off exhibitions rather than the tournament structure we know today.

It wasn’t until World War II that a more competitive edge of women’s basketball formed. Men went to war, and women went to work. Sports that had thus far been played by men were moot, so women made a league of their own. Even when the war ended, the inkling of women’s desire to compete burned, and only grew stronger into the 50s and 60s with the backdrop of the Civil Rights Movement.

The Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (CIAW) became the governing body for women’s intercollegiate athletic competition in 1966, but within five years, it evolved into the Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (AIAW).

In 1972, the AIAW announced a national championship for basketball. Meanwhile, the NCAA had been the controlling body for most men’s collegiate sports for decades up until this point. Simultaneously, then-President Richard Nixon signed the Education Amendments Act of 1972, which included Title IX, which prevented sexual discrimination in education programs or activities for institutions that received federal financial assistance. The compliance deadline was 1978.

Stanford poses after defeating Cal in 1896.

The NCAA filed suit in 1976 challenging the legality of Title IX requirements, trying to exempt athletics departments since they allegedly did not receive federal funding. Just two years prior, they met with the AIAW with the hope that the Association would affiliate with the NCAA. After both an unsuccessful meeting and lawsuit, the NCAA started its own women’s championships.

Filled with promises and money, the NCAA wooed women's collegiate sports away from the AIAW.

1982 marked the first women’s NCAA basketball championship game: Louisiana Tech vs. Cheyney University, the first and only HBCU to make it to the tournament’s finals. The AIAW also held a tournament that year, but most of the top teams, notably AIAW defending champs Louisiana Tech, left for the NCAA tournament.

Louisiana Tech took home the victory with the help of forward Janice Lawrence Braxton and point guard Kim Mulkey, LSU’s powerhouse coach.

Kim Mulkey shows her passionate side as a player at Louisiana Tech

From 1982 to 1985, the women’s NCAA tournament had 32 teams competing. It then increased to 40 teams from 1986 to 1988 and 64 teams from 1994 to 2021. In 2022, the women’s tournament finally reached the same size as the men’s tournament, with 68 teams.

“March Madness” is a household phrase. The phrase was coined in 1939, but from 1982-2021, the term was only allowed to be used for the men’s basketball tournament. The NCAA announced it is extending the March Madness brand to the 2022 women’s tournament after a gender equality review, including huge discrepancies between the men’s and women’s COVID bubble tournaments.

Women’s basketball has been primed to explode for years. Last year, the women’s final garnered viewership than the men’s final.

This takes us to now. There is no going back – March Madness is for the girls and women. 132 years later, this March Madness is sure to bring all of the upsets, shock, and celebrations that the women’s tournament has always brought.