X-Nico

3 unusual facts about Milwaukee Does


Milwaukee Does

Milwaukee mayor Henry Maier issued a proclamation likening this first game to the first professional football game, played in Latrobe, Pennsylvania, and the first pro baseball game, played in Cincinnati.

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, as surmised by the Chicago Tribune.

The league played its first game on December 9, 1978, between the hometown Does and the Chicago Hustle at the Milwaukee Arena, with the league's inaugural game attracting four minutes of coverage in the previous night's CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite.



see also