Shoes, Ships, and Sealing Wax

Go girls go

The Mystics lost tonight, although since they were already out of the playoffs (and frankly it was a pretty poor season) it didn't really matter. The high point of the game was the halftime tribute to Vicky Bullett. Bullett played for the Terps when I was at Maryland (and since that was the post-Len Bias dark days of the men's team, the women's team actually got some of the recognition they deserved back then.)

I admit I am not a huge basketball fan. I like all sports (well, team sports...auto racing and golf bore me, for example) and I follow the hometown teams. But I really love the fact that professional womens' leagues even exist, and that's why I support the WNBA and WUSA even though basketball and soccer aren't my favorites. (If we had a NWHL team here, baby, I'd have center ice season tickets and be president of the fan club.)

Here's the thing. I was a pre-Title IX tomboy. Well, Title IX was passed when I was a kid, so I did have the chance to play sports. I got to play soccer, for example, with orange traffic cones instead of a goal, on uneven ground with unmowed grass. I got to play softball on the fields with no backstops. The girls' basketball season was four weeks to the boys' twelve.

What really impresses me is that women like Cami Granato, Vicky Bullett, and Michelle Akers kept playing anyway.

When I was six I wanted to be a hockey player. I got white figure skates for Christmas.

I remember being giddy during the 1998 Olympics, watching women's hockey as a medal sport, especially when the U.S. won the gold. (The U.S. men's team made their mark that year by trashing their hotel.) I actually cried watching that game. Not because of my missed opportunity (I am a klutz and lazy. Even if I'd had the chance, I would not have made a good hockey player), but because the opportunity is there now.

I went to the first WUSA game in 2001, since it happened to be in Washington. I was thrilled to see little girls on the Metro with their Mia Hamm replica jerseys...and in the jerseys of their own teams.

And at the Mystics games I have noticed something else that makes me almost as happy as seeing the women play and the girls have role models of their own, and that's watching the men and boys cheer just as loud.