Ayana Howard brings a famed family name to organizing the Rumph Classic women’s games

When you come from the Howard family, it’s no surprise that the Rumph Classic is a big part of your life.

Mo Howard, the family scion, was a star at St. Joseph’s Prep and Maryland and now runs Philadelphia’s Black Basketball Hall of Fame. Ashley, one of Mo’s sons, also is well-known on the local hoops scene through his years at Drexel, La Salle, and Villanova. The other son, Ky, is now making his way through the college coaching ranks.

Their sister, Ayana, has taken her path through the sport. She played high school basketball at Cardinal O’Hara, then switched to volleyball in college at La Salle, and now works as a trainer for athletes at the Elite Sports Factory in Roxborough.

She also has been a fixture at the Rumph since it started in 2005, and in 2023, she helped take it in a new direction by adding a women’s pro showcase event. This year’s edition will be the third, with semifinals on Saturday and the final on Sunday at Drexel’s Daskalakis Athletic Center.

As more players from the Philly area started to make it as pros in recent years, whether in the WNBA or overseas, Howard credited the Rumph Foundation’s Mike Morak and Sharif Hanford for seeing “that we had to embody and embrace the women’s side of the game.” They asked Howard to run the Classic’s women’s division, since she had connections through a program she runs at Elite Sports.

“They saw that it was becoming more popularized,” Howard said. “And they wanted to have an avenue for our younger girls when they finished college and became pros, that they would have something to return back to and be proud of.”

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She jumped at the chance when it came.

“There’s so much talent from Philly, especially when it comes down to overseas players, that we give them this opportunity to share the stage with the men,” Howard said. “I think I’ve been going to the Rumph for 20 years. So for us to be able to have a platform for the women, who I also know have been coming to the Rumph games and supporting the men for so long, it’s super important.”

Because the Rumph happens during the WNBA season, players can’t take part like their male counterparts can during the NBA’s offseason. There’s no expectation that Natasha Cloud, Kahleah Copper, or Betnijah Laney-Hamilton will show up like James Harden, Jayson Tatum, and Jalen Brunson have over the years.

But players who make their pro homes overseas do show up — in fact, right before many of them head back abroad.

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“This year, we’re cutting it pretty close,” Howard said. “The women will play this weekend, Saturday and Sunday, [then] a lot of them on Monday will be packing their bags to go back overseas.”

Asked if the women’s part of the Rumph might move someday so WNBA players can participate, Howard indicated that while it’s a great dream, it likely won’t become reality. Doing so would sacrifice the chance for everyone playing elsewhere.

“It would be really difficult to try to put something on that allows [all] the women of the city to be able to participate,” she said.

Many of the players this year won’t be familiar to everyone, but a few might be. Philly native Brittany Hrynko is a Rumph veteran and a former WNBA and Harlem Globetrotters player. Lancaster’s Kiki Jefferson was a WNBA draft pick last year who ended up going to Spain. Imani McGee-Stafford is a league veteran who played last season in China and is spending the summer in town.

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“These women who have names and have stats and have done amazing things for the women in this area, to be able to showcase that in front of young girls and just young kids in general has been amazing,” Howard said.

Last year, the teams were named for recent local products like Cloud, Copper, and Maggie Lucas. This year, the event will honor the region’s past: Linda Hester, a Big 5 Hall of Famer from La Salle; Laura Harper, who’s from Cheltenham, won a national title at Maryland, and is now the head coach at Towson; and Yolanda Laney, a legendary player in local girls’ hoops.

“Just make sure that we represent those women that came before us,” Howard said. “There’s so many women from the city that have done so much for this sport, and because they didn’t have a platform, or the platform wasn’t as big, they’ve kind of been forgotten history. So that is our goal for the Rumph, to remember and honor these women that came before us — and get those women to come out and celebrate and experience the Rumph, because a lot of them haven’t.”

Howard admitted that she didn’t know much of that history growing up. For all of her family’s basketball fame, most of her exposure to the sport came through the men’s game.

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“For me to do this research and find out about the things that Yolanda’s done, what Linda’s done, what [Trenton native] La’Keisha Sutton has done, there’s so many women from this area that have put on for just the sport,” Howard said. “Not for just women, but the sport in general. … Even if the women that are currently in the ‘W’ can’t celebrate with us, we want to make sure that we celebrate them.”

They know that the biggest celebration will come in 2030, when Philadelphia’s WNBA expansion team launches. Howard hopes this year’s Rumph can capture some of that buzz — and just as important, show the many elite high school players around the region what could await them in the future.

“For us to have so many girls that could look forward to playing for or being drafted to the 2030 Philly WNBA team is amazing,” she said. “I think there’s a little bit more excitement for us to put this on right after the announcement of a WNBA team. And I think just from reaching out to organizations and inviting them to come support the women, I think there’s such a great buzz about it and about what the city is doing for women.”

If the inspiration goes beyond that too, all the better. Howard noted that Ashley’s daughter, Journey, has gotten into playing basketball, after being “a baby in a car seat going to these games” before the women’s event started.

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“Being a Howard and being able to again honor Danny [Rumph] — and Danny was a really good friend of my brother — being able to go from being a fan at the Rumph and then now being a part of it, I hope I’m making my family proud,” Ayana said. “I hope I’m making all the little girls in this area proud. I hope I’m giving them one more reason to pick up a basketball.”

It is, she added, “for giving the women a platform, but it’s also to inspire and encourage these younger girls. That they need to see that there are women from the city that are still playing, and still active, and are still doing amazing things.”