Why Wichita women’s basketball trailblazers see NCAA Tournament as golden opportunity
Some of the best women’s college basketball players in the country are coming to Wichita later this week with the NCAA Tournament coming to Intrust Bank Arena.
It’s the first time the city has hosted the Sweet 16 and Elite Eight rounds of March Madness, which not only puts women’s basketball on an elevated stage but also stimulates the local economy.
But the biggest impact the NCAA women’s basketball tournament can make won’t be measured in television ratings or revenue generated.
Can you put a price on the experience for a young girl to witness the athleticism, the strength and the grace of the women’s game firsthand?
It’s great that the upcoming generation can watch highlights of their favorite women’s players in TikTok clips or Instagram stories. But seeing greatness in person can never be matched. It’s a different experience to see the speed, feel the intensity and marvel at the style in person.
“It makes me so glad that they’re bringing the tournament to Wichita because I know there will be somebody in the audience that will leave with an indelible mark on their mind,” said Lynette Woodard, Wichita’s very own women’s basketball trailblazer. “They will sit up in those stands and say to themselves, ‘I want to do that someday.’ And the seed will be planted. That’s how the magic happens.”
Girls no longer have only the NBA greats to idolize. The WNBA has nearly three decades worth of legends, a list that continues to grow. The next superstar could very well be coming to Wichita this week.
The chance to witness women achieving greatness on the basketball court cannot be understated for young girls. Fifty years since Title IX was introduced, the women’s game is exploding in popularity but has so far to go.
That’s why representation, like the kind that will be on display this weekend at Intrust Bank Arena, matters so much.
“I was lucky when I was growing up to be able to look up to Tina Thompson and Lisa Leslie,” said Wichita native Angela Buckner, a former Wichita State women’s basketball standout. “Watching them play in the WNBA gave me the dream of playing after college, just like the boys could dream about going to the NBA. That was so important to me because you have to see what you want to achieve. If you don’t see it, then you’re not going to know that you can do it.”
Here are the stories from four different perspectives of generations in the Wichita women’s basketball scene on why the NCAA Tournament’s return to the city can be so important.
‘That was just some guy trying to hold us all back’
Growing up working on a farm in Udall during the 1960s, Linda Hargrove was instilled with the belief from an early age that girls could do anything boys could.
“My father had three daughters and we were all his farmhands,” Hargrove said. “Anything a boy could do, my dad thought the girls ought to be able to do the same. And we did. I never thought along those lines that I shouldn’t be able to do something just because I was a girl. That set the tone for me real early in life to never come up with an excuse not to make something happen.”
When she was in middle school, Hargrove competed in a county-wide running competition for school children. Up against the boys, Hargrove won every foot race.
Soon after, Hargrove adopted the hurdles and became so fast in the event that she would set a national high school record during her junior year in 1967, although she wouldn’t find out about the record until three years later (“That’s just how it worked back then.”).
Hargrove was so good that she earned a ticket to Los Angeles to compete in the 1968 U.S. Olympic Trials. Not that her path was easy.
“There were people who questioned me every step of the way, if I should even be running and hurdling and jumping like that,” Hargrove said. “They seriously thought it might be psychologically damaging for women to do that. There were just all these myths out there and now I look back on it and that was just some guy trying to hold us all back.”
Defying outside expectations became something she greatly enjoyed, which is why when the Cowley College president called in 1972 following the Title IX bill being passed into law, Hargrove accepted the challenge of starting the women’s basketball program.
When she started in 1972, Hargrove also coached the volleyball team. And the track and field team. And the women’s tennis team. And the softball team. And the cheerleading team. Oh yeah, she also was the director of admissions, taught classes, all the while finishing up a second degree and raising two children.
“When I told him that I didn’t know very much about basketball,” Hargrove said, “He said, ‘I don’t care what you don’t know about basketball. I know you’re extremely competitive, you work hard and you’ll learn what you need to know.’”
While Title IX opened the door for women’s sports, Hargrove said those early years still presented uphill battles.
No money was provided for uniforms, so she had to go to the school bookstore to purchase T-shirts and then would iron on numbers. She would drive as many players as she could fit in her personal car to take to games.
Back then, men were skeptical that women could play a game of 5-on-5, full-court basketball. So almost all of the players Hargrove recruited in her early years were only used to playing 3-on-3 half-court games.
“When Title IX passed, at the time, I honestly didn’t really know if it was doing anything for us,” Hargrove said. “Looking back now, it’s obvious the impact that it had. It was huge. It opened doors and gave us opportunities. But we still had to fight for them. When you’re going through it, you don’t really even think about it.”
Hargrove led Cowley to 11 of the first 12 conference championships, helping her achieve her Olympic dream by being included as an assistant coach on the 1992 Team USA women’s basketball squad that won a bronze medal.
She helped lead the Wichita State women’s basketball program to some of its golden years, then spent the next two decades working various roles in the WNBA as a head coach, a general manager and a scout.
That’s why the NCAA women’s basketball tournament coming to Wichita might mean the most to Hargrove, now a Derby resident. She was there before Title IX and now she has seen the rise of the game.
It’s emotional for her to think of how far the game has come in the 50 years since she was driving her own players to games and ironing on numbers to T-shirts. To see a women’s college basketball team punch their ticket to the Final Four in Wichita, Hargrove said will be a highlight in a life full of them.
“It has been so rewarding for me to be able to stay in the game long enough to go from not really having any women role models to having so many now,” Hargrove said. “The game has grown so much. To go from recruiting women who didn’t even know how to play in the full court to now you see multiple women being able to dunk in games, it’s just incredible. It’s such an exciting time to be a player and a fan and a coach right now, I feel truly blessed.”
‘These younger kids are dreaming even bigger now’
There’s never been a better time to be coming up as a young player.
Women’s college basketball is routinely on television, the popularity of the WNBA continues to grow and social media has expanded the reach of women’s players.
Not only are there legends in the sport like Wichita’s very own Lynette Woodard and Cheryl Miller, there are WNBA legends like Sheryl Swoopes, Lisa Leslie, Cynthia Cooper, Teresa Weatherspoon and Tina Thompson to look up to.
And now this generation has current stars like Diana Taurasi, Candace Parker, Sue Bird, as well as younger stars like Breanna Stewart, A’ja Wilson and Sabrina Ionescu. Even college players like Iowa’s Caitlin Clark, UConn’s Paige Bueckers, South Carolina’s Aaliyah Boston have become well-known names thanks to social media.
“It inspires me to keep working on my game because I can see the game is growing,” said Wichita Heights senior Zyanna Walker, who is signed with Louisville, the No. 1 seed in the Wichita regional. “That’s why I’m out there every day working to try to get better because the players in the women’s game are getting so much better. Girls are more athletic and the skill is getting better. It’s more entertaining and now people are starting to watch more women’s basketball.”
But just as important as watching star players on television is seeing players from your own community make it to the highest levels.
Andover native Tiffany Bias was the first Wichita-area player to break through to the WNBA in 2014, followed by another Andover native, Jaylyn Agnew, who plays for the Atlanta Dream and is averaging 15 points overseas in Israel.
Throw in Wichita natives Ericka Mattingly (Germany) and Kendrian Elliott (Serbia) and Cheney’s Merissa Quick (United Kingdom) and there are even more players playing professionally to look up to.
“Women’s basketball is definitely on the rise and it’s getting a lot more popularity,” said Andover Central senior Brittany Harshaw, who is signed with Creighton, another NCAA Tournament team. “It’s super fun to watch and I think people are starting to realize that more. I feel like the women’s game is getting more and more respect.”
Add in current college standouts like all-Big 12 performers in McPherson’s Taylor Robertson (Oklahoma) and Claflin’s Emily Ryan (Iowa State) and the Wichita-area is flush with local heroes.
With the booming popularity of girls basketball in the region, a local AAU girls basketball program director has noticed a difference in the aspirations of younger girls in today’s generation.
“In the age of social media, it’s helped the women’s game grow and progress like crazy,” said Dylan Evans, the director of Wheat State Elite. “These younger kids are taking note of that and they’re dreaming even bigger now. They see these girls like Emily and Taylor living out those dreams and accomplishing them and they’re saying, ‘OK, if I put in the time and the effort like they do, I can achieve the same things.’ Those stars represent what is possible to these younger girls.”
While Oklahoma and Iowa State won’t be coming to Wichita, some of the top talent in the country will be on display in the city. Whether they come from south central Kansas or not, Walker believes it can be just as beneficial for up-and-coming players to discover new college players to look up to this week at the NCAA tournament.
“I think you can learn a lot from watching basketball at that high of a level,” Walker said. “It’s really exciting to have it come here to Wichita. I’m going to tap in, whether it’s Louisville or not. But it’s definitely going to be Louisville.”
‘Envision themselves one day being in their shoes’
Opportunities for women interested in making a career in women’s basketball were still limited when current Wichita State women’s basketball coach Keitha Adams was growing up as a standout player in Oxford in the 1980s.
After an all-state career at Oxford playing for Jim Littel, who would later become the head coach of the Oklahoma State women’s basketball team, Adams knew she wanted to coach basketball at the Division I level.
She was thrilled to be earning a $31,000 salary straight out of college, teaching and coaching sports year-round at Winfield High School. After five years, Adams was offered an assistant coach position at Independence Community College.
The job would get Adams’ foot in the door at the college level, but it came with a catch: she would have to take a $10,000 pay cut to make the jump.
“A lot of people thought I was crazy at that time to take that big of a pay cut,” Adams said. “I tell our players and our recruits this all the time now, but when you’re young and you know what’s important to you and you know what you want to do, sometimes you have to make sacrifices.
“I knew I wanted to coach and if I hadn’t taken that pay cut, I wouldn’t have ended up being the head coach at Independence three years later and I wouldn’t have ended up as the head coach at UTEP and I wouldn’t be where I am now.”
More than three decades later, Adams is now making more money than she could have ever dreamed of earning to coach basketball — her current salary at WSU is more than 10 times her original salary at Winfield.
While many young girls will dream of playing Division I basketball and beyond this coming week in Wichita, Adams hopes they will also take note that three of the top four teams in the region are coached by women.
“I ended up going further in this game than I ever would have imagined back then,” Adams said. “Anytime you can get young people watching a high level of basketball, that can motivate them and inspire them to dream and have goals and envision themselves one day being in their shoes.”
‘Having representation is so big’
Growing up in Wichita in the 1990s, there were no competitive girls basketball teams for Angela Buckner to join as a kid.
Her only option? To join an all-boys team.
“It was lucky for me and bad for them,” Buckner said, laughing. “I was a chunky, little girl who loved basketball and I was the only girl on the team. They didn’t like that very much. But once I went out there and put my big body on them, they learned real quick to respect me.”
Buckner went on to become one of the best women’s basketball players to come out of Wichita, an all-state career at Kapaun Mt. Carmel to go along with a record-setting career with the Shockers on her resume. She finished as WSU’s career leader in rebounds and has since been inducted in the Wichita Sports Hall of Fame and Shocker Athletics Hall of Fame.
She now runs the Lynette Woodard Recreation Center and takes pride in helping mentor, educate and inspire the next generation of girls through her work. Events like hosting the NCAA women’s basketball tournament only help by putting women in the spotlight.
“It’s so important for little girls to have someone to look up to and say, ‘Hey, that could be me someday,’” Buckner said. “Having representation is so big. I always tell my kids that the only person who can stop you from succeeding is yourself. There’s nothing you can’t get past. Where there’s a will, there’s a way. Don’t let anybody or anything stand in your way to achieve your goals.”
The importance of seeing top-notch women athletes compete at the highest level is something that Bridgette Gordon, a Kansas State women’s basketball assistant coach, stresses cannot be undervalued.
Gordon knows a thing or not about the game, having been a two-time national champion at Tennessee, the Final Four MVP, a 1988 Olympic gold medalist and a WNBA player who has been inducted into the women’s basketball Hall of Fame.
“I didn’t have that when I was growing up,” said Gordon, who was a WSU assistant coach from 2010-17. “I couldn’t reach out and touch my role models like these kids are going to be able to when they come to Wichita. I had to look up to Michael Jordan when I was watching TV in 1984. I looked up to coach (John) Thompson at Georgetown because we didn’t have anyone to watch in women’s basketball. It’s very important for young girls not only to watch their heroes play on TV, but for them to be able to see them in person, to reach out and touch them. You never know how much of an impact that can have on a young girl.”
One woman who has been inspiring female basketball players for generations now has been Woodard, a trailblazer, a Hall of Famer, an Olympic gold medalist, a four-time All-American for the Kansas Jayhawks and the first female player for the Harlem Globetrotters.
Even though she works as a real-estate agent in Lawrence, she still makes frequent trips back to her hometown to tutor high school students at her alma mater, Wichita North, and other Wichita public schools through Upward Bound Wichita Prep. Woodard was recently in Wichita to hand out the state championship medals for the Class 6A state champions at Koch Arena and plans on attending the NCAA Tournament games in Wichita.
There was never anything like this to look forward to when she was learning the game. Woodard is proud of how far the women’s game has come since her playing days, but is hopeful it’s not done growing. She views the tournament coming to Wichita as a chance to make a significant difference.
“It makes me so proud to have it coming to Wichita and I can’t say enough about how happy it makes my heart,” Woodard said. “It’s exciting not only for the ladies, but also for the little boys out there to see the showcase of talent and to see how well the girls can play. It’s going to be a beautiful thing and the time is now for Wichita.”
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