EPISODE 408: "Shattering the Glass" - With Pamela Grundy & Susan Shackelford

The story of women’s basketball in the United States is one of grit, activism, and transformation. From barnstorming road shows to the bright lights of the WNBA, the game has mirrored - and often propelled - larger social changes in American life.

We journey through that history with the help of Pamela Grundy and Susan Shackelford, authors of the newly expanded edition of "Shattering the Glass: The Remarkable History of Women’s Basketball." Drawing on years of research and oral histories, they guide us through some the game’s pivotal chapters:

  • Barnstorming pioneers: How teams like the All-American Redheads and Hazel Walker’s Arkansas Travellers brought women’s basketball to audiences across the country when mainstream platforms were closed to them.

  • College roots: The rise of organized play on campuses and the role of the Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women in carving out space for female athletes.

  • The 1970s: The seismic impact of Title IX, the fight for the Equal Rights Amendment, and the first women’s Olympic basketball tournament in 1976.

  • Coming of age: The ambitions and struggles of the Women’s Professional Basketball League (WBL: 1978–81), and the eventual NCAA takeover of women’s college championships in 1982.

  • The 1990s: How 1996 Olympics success inspired the launches of both the American Basketball League (ABL) and the NBA-backed WNBA - to rejuvenate the professional landscape, and set the stage for the modern era.

Grundy and Shackelford help us frame women’s basketball not only as sport, but as a cultural battleground where issues of equity, representation, and identity have played out for generations - where women players, coaches, and advocates continually broke barriers in the process.

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Shattering the Glass: The Remarkable History of Women's Basketball - buy Book Here

EPISODE 339: Early-Day WNBA - With Marie Ferdinand-Harris

It's a celebration of women's hoops this week, as we look back at the "early days" of the Women's National Basketball Association - including stops with the oft-forgotten Utah Starzz and San Antonio Silver Stars - with three-time league all-star Marie Ferdinand-Harris (Transformed: The Winning Side of Losing).

A first-round pick in the WNBA's fifth-ever draft in 2001, Ferdinand was a dominant shooting guard at LSU prior to her 8th-overall selection by Utah - a formidable presence inside the paint and outside the arc, skills honed from leading title-winning teams at Edison High School, in the heart of Miami's historically poor "Little Haiti" neighborhood.

After a stellar 11-year pro career (including turns with the league-original LA Sparks and Phoenix Mercury), Ferdinand-Harris is one of the unsung pioneers of the WNBA, part of a first generation of players that helped solidify the foundation for an organization whose success was not guaranteed at the time - but now is firmly rooted in the American pro sports infrastructure.

Transformed: The Winning Side of Losing - buy book here

EPISODE 198: Johnny Buss

We sit down with the eldest scion of Los Angeles' legendary Dr. Jerry Buss family sports empire for a wide-ranging discussion about its early construction, day-to-day operations, eventual unwinding - and its ongoing legacy via the current NBA World Champion Lakers, of which (along with his five siblings) he is a part-owner.

Along the way, Johnny takes us through his personal adventures in places like:

  • the original mid-1970s World Team Tennis (the Los Angeles Strings, Jerry's first pro sports ownership endeavor);

  • Inglewood's "Fabulous" Forum (the eventual hub for Buss family-owned assets acquired from Jack Kent Cooke in 1979);

  • the MISL's Los Angeles Lazers (where Johnny was president for the team's first three seasons); and

  • the WNBA's Los Angeles Sparks (again president, from the team's/league's inception in 1997 until 2006 - including back-to-back league titles in 2001 & 2002)

Buss also sheds some light on the often-challenging family dynamics both under father Jerry's watch and even more so after his passing - as well as hints at the sport that still intrigues him enough to potentially come out of retirement to make another go at it.

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