I saw my first game in the early 80's just after getting out of HS, during the Jackie Swaim era. I didn't attend UT but went a few miles up the highway to SU in Georgetown. But I always followed the program, and still have my Statesman from when the team won the NC in 1986. And it wasn't just BB, though Conradt and company were certainly my favorite team. I was drawn to Longhorn women's sports in general, much moreso that the men's teams, perhaps because they seemed to come out of nowhere to become the top women's athletics department in the country. Football was king in Texas, and UT seemed like such an unlikely placed for women's athletics to take hold as quickly as it did. I recall a Conradt interview where she talked about women's BB players still wearing skirts well into the 1970's, yet less than a decade later her program had become a very big deal, and was drawing crowds that dwarfed those showing up for the men's games. By the late 80's we led the nation in attendance, and the last time I checked current NCAA attendance a year or two ago, only 4 programs were averaging as many or more fans as the Horns were three decades ago. For all the talk about the explosion of the game, and growth in popularity and talent and attendance, Texas was ahead of where most teams are today 30 years ago. During the 80's, under the leadership of Lopianao, and others, Texas was the athletic department all others looked up to, and followed as they built their own programs. I had this image of a brash, NY feminist showing up in Austin and bulldozing her way through the old boys network, and demanding things be done a different way. Of course I don't know if that's how it really happened, Donna was probably much more diplomatic in her approach, but I loved the idea that she'd come in like a wrecking ball and turned the place upside down. During the 80's our women's athletic department won the NC in basketball, and also made the championship game during the final year of AIAW play. And won 8 national titles in swimming, 4 in indoor track, 2 in VB, 1 in outdoor track, 1 in cross-country, and then added several more in track and 2 in tennis during the early 90's. There were a lot of firsts also. Obviously, the first undefeated season in BB, but in 1986 we won the outdoor, indoor and cross-country titles in the same season. No other program has ever done that, in any combination of seasons, much less in the same year. Oh well so much for the history lesson. Let's go make some more history tonight!
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