The history of the WNBA in 60 seconds

Documenting the first year of the WNBA

The WNBA was launched in 1997, providing a historic opportunity for women’s basketball. Two weeks after the WNBA kicked off its inaugural season, NBC aired this hourlong documentary, giving viewers a behind-the-scenes look at the league’s first games. The documentary also looks at the first pro league, the All-American Red Heads, and provides stories of the premier players in the WNBA.

How the WBL set the stage for the WNBA

Nearly two decades before the WNBA began, there was the Women's Professional Basketball League, the first women's professional basketball league in the United States. Though it was only around for three years, it was groundbreaking, building the template for women's leagues and, eventually, for the WNBA.

How Title IX changed college basketball

Until Title IX was passed in 1972, the NCAA had little interest in women's sports because it didn't see them as profitable. This article explores how the AIAW was formed to govern women's basketball, and the massive fight the NCAA eventually put up to take over in 1982. Read about the legal battles it took, and how much money women's basketball is bringing to the NCAA now.

David Stern had a hand in starting the WNBA

For years, NBA Commissioner David Stern had been planning for an NBA-supported women’s basketball league. When the US Women’s Basketball Team captured gold at the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta, he began putting them into motion.

The inaugural WNBA game

On June 21, 1997, the Los Angeles Sparks and New York Liberty faced off in the inaugural WNBA game. The match-up was the perfect way to introduce the new league, thanks to the showdown between gold medalists Lisa Leslie and Rebecca Lobo. These highlights allow you to revisit the game and witness a nascent league, long before it became the powerhouse it is today.

Top 25 milestones in WNBA history

During the 2021 season, the WNBA celebrated its 25th anniversary, marking North America's longest-running women’s pro league. This ESPN interactive highlights 25 significant "firsts" and milestones that defined the WNBA's 25-year history.

See what women's tennis looked like through history

Women playing tennis today wear athletic clothing tailored to the demands of the sport. But when tennis started in the late 1800s, women were expected to play wearing long, Victorian dresses. Using historic photos, this Bustle article explores how tennis was brought to the US, what it looked like at the 1900 Olympics, and how the sport has grown since its inception.

The history of the Women's World Cup

The tournament began in 1991 with the US team winning. Since then, it's gradually become an international phenomenon. This resource from the National Women's History Museum traces how it evolved.

WNBA legend Sue Bird credits Title IX for her career

Few athletes are more decorated than Sue Bird, who’s won two NCAA championships, four WNBA titles, and five Olympic gold medals. In this interview, she explains how Title IX allowed her a successful career and why she believes the WNBA’s success is continuing to do the work that Title IX began.

Senda Berenson Abbott revolutionized women's basketball

In the late 1800s, college physical education programs were used to prepare post-Victorian Era women for the workforce. In 1890, Smith College built one of the country's largest and most well-equipped gyms and hired Senda Berenson to run its activities, which she did by revising basketball's rules so women could play while still meeting societal expectations.

In 2020, the league quarantined players in a 'wubble'

When the pandemic hit in 2020, the WNBA delayed the start of their season, choosing to play in a quarantine bubble for a 22-game season. Players choosing to opt in knew the decision wasn't just for them, but for their families. This TNT video explores what it was like for WNBA players to play, practice, and live together for nearly 100 days.

The economics of the WNBA

The 2024 WNBA season shattered attendance and viewership records, thanks in large part to rookies Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese. The league secured a record 11-year, $2.2B media rights deal. Yet players' salaries are low compared to the NBA. This CNBC video dives into the WNBA’s business model and explores why it may take years before the longest-running women’s sports league becomes profitable.

Breaking down the WNBA's expansion plans

The 2026 season features two new teams, the Portland Fire and the Toronto Tempo, with plans for franchises in San Francisco, Cleveland, Detroit, and Philadelphia by 2030. This ESPN explainer unpacks what that means for fans.

The original basketball was hand-sewn

When the first basketball landed in a peach basket in 1891, it didn't look like the leather Wilson ball you see on today's NBA courts. The basketball evolved from the nondribbling days, when a hand-sewn ball with stitching like a football was used.

Bowling was long male-dominated, but women pushed for change through the sport

The sport was often played on lawns attached to breweries and became a leisure activity for folks in taverns—mostly men, in the 1800s. But the game's highly communal nature attracted a more diverse set of participants who pushed for social change.

The women's suffrage movement spanned more than 70 years

The fight for women's right to vote formally began at the 1848 Seneca Falls Convention and concluded with the 19th Amendment in 1920—a seven-decade struggle led by activists including Truth, Susan B. Anthony, and Elizabeth Cady Stanton.

20 years of NCAA buzzers

The last few beats of the March Madness title game are among the most thrilling in sports. This video compilation collects the final five seconds of every women's championship from the first year of the tournament through 2022. The result is a fascinating document of celebrations, disappointments, and last-ditch efforts. It's also objective proof that basketball's style has evolved considerably over the decades.

Timeline of women in labor history

In 1866, newly freed black women working as laundresses in Jackson, Mississippi, formed a union and went on strike for higher wages. But it wasn't until 1974, that the Coalition of Labor Union Women was founded as America's only national organization for union women. Want to find out more about the history of women in the labor movement? Click here for the full timeline.

Ann Meyers Drysdale was the first female athlete to receive a full sports scholarship

In 1974, Ann Meyers Drysdale earned a full ride to play basketball at UCLA. It was historic, but only the beginning of her pioneering life, which included a Silver Medal at the 1976 Summer Games and a contract with an NBA team in 1979.

US women got the right to open a credit card in their own name in 1974

Before that year, banks in the US were legally allowed to deny women credit or charge them higher interest if they failed to get a male cosigner.

Women were barred from MBA enrollment for half a century

In 1908, Harvard launched the first modern MBA—and only admitted male candidates. The first full-year traditional female MBA students wouldn’t enroll at Harvard until 1963. Learn more about the history of the first women to receive their MBAs on Harvard’s website.

How one Texas Western team changed college hoops

Texas Western, featuring college basketball's first all-Black starting five, stunned No. 1 Kentucky in 1966. Coach Don Haskins shrugged off the issue of race, but he received 40,000 pieces of hate mail after the game. This in-depth history relives the Miners' speed-driven triumph, their snub from Ed Sullivan, and a quiet revolution that sparked integration across the South's courts.

The history of New York's first hotel for middle-class women

March 2, 1903, marked the opening of New York's first hotel just for women, generally from the middle class. Prior to the establishment of the "Women's Hotel," it was difficult for solo women to find lodgings in the city. Seeing an opportunity, Charles Day Kellogg raised funds to establish the 400-room hotel, which exclusively served women until 1998. Read more about its history here.

100 years of NFL history in under four minutes

Founded in 1920 in Canton, Ohio, professional football has grown into the premiere sport in the US. Generating more than $20B annually, the NFL gained significant popularity after merging with the American Football League in 1970, a move which among other things established the Super Bowl.

The history of the iconic Barbie doll

The 1959 debut of the Barbie doll changed the culture of toys permanently, and its many iterations have come to reflect, in a certain way, the aspirations of women around the world. But Barbie's unrealistic looks and plastic substance have prompted...

Exploring the Larry Bird punch that almost changed March Madness

Brandi Chastain, the star of the 1999 US victory over China in the 1999 Women's World Cup, was a last-second choice to take the penalty kick that sealed the victory.

Long before Major League Baseball began allowing instant replay for balls and strikes, an umpire reluctantly used the technology to determine whether a hit was a home run, a move that inadvertently ushered in a new era for the sport.

Walt Disney's early film 'Alice's Wonderland' was a groundbreaking innovation in the silent film era

While the first exchange-traded fund (a 'basket' of different assets that can be bought and sold on a stock exchange) in the US only launched in 1993, the global ETF market has grown to more than $10T in the short time since.

The US Constitution is widely regarded as the longest-standing written national constitution still in force—see how it has influenced rights worldwide.

The story of Dollree Mapp, whose legal challenge over her 1957 conviction for possessing "obscene material" led to a major strengthening of the Fourth Amendment

NBA superstar Victor Wembanyama spent the 2025 summer training with monks in central China to enhance his body and mind.

A century of Billboard issues documenting the evolution of popular music.

American dance legend Martha Graham, sometimes called 'the Picasso of dance,' refused to perform at the 1936 Olympics in Berlin and conceived the piece 'Chronicle' in response to the experience.

Learn more about the history of fireworks, which dates back to an accidental invention during an alchemist's quest for information about immortality.

The idea for the Federal Reserve was conceived in secret in 1910—with bankers donning duck hunt gear for disguise while traveling to a remote country club on Georgia's Jekyll Island

The 1987 Nintendo video game 'Stadium Events' isn't known for being particularly fun, but its scarcity has made it a highly sought-after item that has sold for up to $35K at auction.

For centuries, Niagara Falls has been a magnet for daredevils seeking to conquer one of nature's most powerful wonders, with its 200-foot drop and water rushing at 32 feet per second with 280 tons of force.

The word 'jazz' evolved from 'jasm,' 19th-century American slang for 'energy'

Before the current East Wing ballroom project, only two White House renovations in the past 100 years cost more than $10M.

The hormonal disorder PCOS was renamed PMOS in 2026, a move designed to improve care and research by shifting the focus to the hormonal causes of this condition that affects 1 in 8 women.

The first line of 'immortal' human cells, which can divide indefinitely and are used in scientific research, was nonconsensually taken from a Black woman.

Up to a million Girl Scouts sell about 200 million cookie boxes every spring, generating $800 million, largely because refusing a child is frowned upon

Before humans, the Soviet Union and the United States sent animals—including apes, dogs, and cats—to space during the Space Race.

'Shogun,' a 1980s TV series, helped popularize sushi in the US by stimulating an American interest in Japanese culture.

To reduce wrinkles in clothing, research recommends gentle wash cycles with more water and tumble drying with smaller loads and longer times.

For centuries, it was common to sleep in two shifts: a few hours at the beginning of the night, and a longer period beginning around midnight

The first steps to rebuilding your credit score include getting to know exactly what's on your credit report and figuring out how far you are from the '700 club,' or 'good score' range.

See how Ebola tore through Guinea, Sierra Leone, and Liberia in 2014-2016.