Womansight: News for North Texas Women, Volume 1, Number 6, November 1980 Page: 4
6 p. : ill. ; 39 x 30 cm.View a full description of this newspaper.
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4
DALLAS DIAMONDS STILL
COURTING BASKETBALL FANS
Susan Melnick
Greg Williams, the Dallas Diamonds new
basketball coach, says it takes pioneer blood to
be a player in the Women's Professional Basket-
ball League (WBL) today. Nowhere was that
more evident than in the Dallas Diamonds' first
year.
During the first 12 months in the now two-
year-old league, the Diamonds changed owners
and coaches. Several players quickly came and
went. Audiences yo-yo'd in size from 2,500
to 500 people in the Dallas Convention Center.
Before the season opened the team's public
relations director, Nancy Nichols, received nu-
merous calls from men wanting to challenge the
team.
"I came into this business kind of paranoid
with people challenging me because I was a
woman in sports public relations; and challen-
ging the Diamonds because they were women."
The challenges stopped after opening night
when more than 2,500 people watched the Dia-
monds take their first win over the California
Dreams in the Dallas Convention Center.
"After opening night it all changed," Nichols
said. "I was there with the skeptics and they
said 'hey, she's really good' (the players). That
was one of the best nights of my life. It was
like winning the Superbowl."
The season did not go as well as the first
game. The team won only seven of their 35 games
and the audiences dwindled in number. By the
end of the year the Diamonds were in last place
in the league, and Judson Phillips, the original
owner, was questioning his financial ability to
carry the team.
"Jud was a good-hearted sportsman who wan-
ted to own a franchise." Nichols said. "But he
wasn't a Lamar Hunt or a Clint Murchison. He
was wealthy and wanted to be involved in sports.
But he was short-sighted in that he really didn't
know what it took to run a team."
So late last spring the team was purchased
by Michael Staver, another Dallas businessman.
Nichols said the ownership change is for the best.
Staver is more "promotion-minded" than was
Phillips, and he has more money with which to
back the team.
During the last season the Diamonds not
only had to worry about winning but also about
whether the owner would even have enough
money to continue the team. Throughout the
WBL teams came and went in the middle of the
season. This year the league has only nine teams
compared to 14 last year, Nichols said.
Teams which had folded as of Sept. 30 were
the Houston Angels, the Iowa Cornets, the New
York Stars and the Milwaukee Express. But
Nichols said she does not think a smaller league
will damage women's basketball. It's a good sign,
she said, because it means these teams will not
drop out during the middle of the 1980-81
season. "That happened last year and it really
hurt," she added.
Last year marketing was also a problem.
Ideas were discussed but never implemented,
said Nichols. Some of the half-time shows con-
ducted to attract fans during last season can
Above: Valerie Goodwin (22) struggles for the ball during a Diamonds game last season.
At right: Anne Meyers of the New Jersey Gems grabs the ball despite the efforts of
Diamonds Valerie Goodwin (22), Cristy Earnhardt (42) and Carolyn Bush-Roddy (20).
Photos by Larry Reese.
Womansight November 1980
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Womansight, Incorporated. Womansight: News for North Texas Women, Volume 1, Number 6, November 1980, newspaper, November 1980; Dallas, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc1484202/m1/4/?q=Lamar+University: accessed June 8, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting UNT Libraries Special Collections.