Milwaukee Does
Encyclopedia
Women's Professional Basketball League
The Women's Professional Basketball League was a professional women's basketball league in the United States. The league played three seasons from the fall of 1978 to the spring of 1981...
. Based in Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Milwaukee is the largest city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin, the 28th most populous city in the United States and 39th most populous region in the United States. It is the county seat of Milwaukee County and is located on the southwestern shore of Lake Michigan. According to 2010 census data, the...
, their name was a play on that of the NBA
National Basketball Association
The National Basketball Association is the pre-eminent men's professional basketball league in North America. It consists of thirty franchised member clubs, of which twenty-nine are located in the United States and one in Canada...
Milwaukee Bucks
Milwaukee Bucks
The Milwaukee Bucks are a professional basketball team based in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, United States. They are part of the Central Division of the Eastern Conference in the National Basketball Association . The team was founded in 1968 as an expansion team, and currently plays at the Bradley Center....
. The Does played in the first two of the WPBL's three seasons, 1978–1979 and 1979–1980, before disbanding. The team played its home games at the Milwaukee Arena and were coached for part of the 1979–1980 season by Larry Costello
Larry Costello
Lawrence Ronald "Larry" Costello was an American professional basketball player and coach....
, who had coached the Bucks from their inception, including an NBA championship in 1971.
The league played its first game on December 9, 1978, between the hometown Does and the Chicago Hustle
Chicago Hustle
The Chicago Hustle was a team in the Women's Professional Basketball League from 1978-1981. Their team colors were orange and blue. Its radio broadcaster was Les Grobstein....
at the Milwaukee Arena, with the league's inaugural game attracting four minutes of coverage in the previous night's CBS Evening News
CBS Evening News
CBS Evening News is the flagship nightly television news program of the American television network CBS. The network has broadcast this program since 1948, and has used the CBS Evening News title since 1963....
with Walter Cronkite
Walter Cronkite
Walter Leland Cronkite, Jr. was an American broadcast journalist, best known as anchorman for the CBS Evening News for 19 years . During the heyday of CBS News in the 1960s and 1970s, he was often cited as "the most trusted man in America" after being so named in an opinion poll...
. Milwaukee mayor Henry Maier issued a proclamation likening this first game to the first professional football game, played in Latrobe, Pennsylvania
Latrobe, Pennsylvania
Latrobe is a city in Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania in the United States, approximately southeast of Pittsburgh.The city population was 7,634 as of the 2000 census . It is located near the Pennsylvania's scenic Chestnut Ridge. Latrobe was incorporated as a borough in 1854, and as a city in 1999...
, and the first pro baseball game, played in Cincinnati. The opening tip off was between Lynda Gehrke of Milwaukee and Sue Digitale of Chicago, who won the toss. Joanne Smith scored the league's first basket on a perimeter jump shot and an assist from Brenda Dennis, with the game ball presumably earning a place of honor in the Smithsonian Institution
Smithsonian Institution
The Smithsonian Institution is an educational and research institute and associated museum complex, administered and funded by the government of the United States and by funds from its endowment, contributions, and profits from its retail operations, concessions, licensing activities, and magazines...
, as surmised by the Chicago Tribune
Chicago Tribune
The Chicago Tribune is a major daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, and the flagship publication of the Tribune Company. Formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" , it remains the most read daily newspaper of the Chicago metropolitan area and the Great Lakes region and is...
. Milwaukee had trailed for most of the game, behind 13 points one minute into the fourth quarter, but defensive pressure by the Does led to a series of turnovers and Milwaukee tied the score at 81 with 5:28 left in the game. The Hustle's offense heated up in the last few minutes and held on for a 92–87 win in the league's first game. Kathy DeBoer and Joanne Smith led the Does with 22 points each, though Debra Waddy-Rossow of the Hustle lead all scorers with 30 points.
The team was rather unsuccessful on the court during its two seasons in the league. The team finished the 1978–79 season with a record of 11 wins and 23 losses, placing them in fourth and last place in the Midwest Division. In the Midwestern Division for the 1979–80 season, the Does finished with a record of 11 wins and 24 losses. Their coach for the 1979–80 season was Larry Costello, who had been the coach of the Milwaukee Bucks for eight seasons, starting in April 1968, and had coached the team to four division titles and an NBA championship in the 1970–71 season. Saying that he hadn't been paid any of his $45,000 salary since December, Costello left the team on February 6, 1980, and was replaced by Julia Yeater, the team's assistant coach, on an interim basis.
Players
- Gerry Lynn Booker
- Diane Brooks
- Mary Ellen Carney
- Brenda Chapman
- Cheryl Clark
- Beverly Coleman
- Theresa “Terri” Conlin
- Kathy DeBoer
- Patti Decker
- Brenda Dennis
- Cindy Ellis
- Carmen Fletcher
- Janice “Jan” Fuller
- Carolyn Gamble
- Lynda Gehrke
- Vivian Greene
- Denise Griffith
- Barbara Hostert
- Marguerite Keeley
- Margaret Kenndy
- Carol Koopman
- Cynthia Lundberg
- Charlene McWhorter
- Diane Morales
- Heidi Nestor
- Brenda Pitts
- Deb Prevost
- Joanne Smith
- Lisa Thomas
- Ethel White
- Shara Williams
- Laurie Wilson
- Dori Zwieg