The best Philly sports stories of the week
As we do every week, let's take a look back at some of our best sports stories — but with a twist.
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Just a day after the sports world celebrated the 50th anniversary of the landmark Title IX legislation that, in part, helped establish women’s college sports as we know them, the country took a 50-year step back when the Supreme Court officially struck down Roe v. Wade, the decision that protected abortion rights for women in this country.
After such a week, we’ve decided to use this space to highlight only our stories about women, as opposed to our regular wide-reaching look back at the week in sports. Sorry NBA draft analysis, reactions to the latest Eagles signing, Phillies takes, and Flyers coaching debates, you’ll have to wait your turn.
Since the news was a little heavy to end the week, we’ll start with something a little lighter: Maria McIlwain’s interactive look back at how women’s uniforms have evolved.
Over the last 50 years, women’s sports have changed a lot, and the uniforms female athletes wear have evolved right alongside the strategies themselves. From the pre-Title IX days to today’s high-tech digs, take a look at the different uniforms from various women’s sports across the city (and state) throughout the ages.
Temple Women’s Basketball, 1924 vs. Now
It’s been nearly 100 years since the first Temple women’s basketball team, and a lot has changed since the Owls suited up in sweaters, skirts, and tights. Use the slider below to compare the uniforms worn by the second Temple team, in 1924, with those sported by Mia Davis and the Owls today.
Temple Women’s Basketball, 1966 vs. 1983
Between 1966-83, the Owls ditched the uniform dresses, accessories and all, and pivoted to more modern short shorts and T-shirts.
— Maria McIlwain
To check out the full story, click here.
Best of the rest
There was no shortage of women’s sports coverage on our site this week.
Most recently, we had reaction to the reversal of Roe v. Wade from around the sports world, including several local athletes. We also had comments from Megan Rapinoe of the U.S. women’s national team, who did not hold back.
Speaking of Rapinoe, Jonathan Tannenwald caught up with the veteran soccer star, who discussed taking on a new role on the USWNT and offered up some thoughts on her fiancée Sue Bird’s retirement. Meanwhile, former national team goalie Briana Scurry opened up about her new memoir — while also sharing her opinion on the USWNT roster.
In the final week of our look back Title IX on its 50th birthday, we examined several different storylines in addition to our look back at the uniform evolution. First, Mike Jensen wondered what starting Title IX from scratch in the year 2022 would look like. He also spoke to some experts about how Title IX and NIL work together, while Andrea Canales took a look at how a pair of local athletes dealt with added pressure during banner seasons.
There’s also this powerful video from Astrid Rodrigues in which several local athletes discuss how Title IX has impacted them and what they hope for the next generation as well as a visual look at Title IX’s legacy in Philadelphia, as told by those its impacted the most.
Want to feel old? Vaughn Hebron’s daughter, Sanaa, graduated this year from Neshaminy High School and is headed to the University of Miami to run track. Hebron, a three-time state champion who recently competed in the New Balance Nationals at Franklin Field, proves the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.
Abby Sharpe, who won a state title at Plymouth Whitemarsh, is heading to Penn next season. Joey Piatt wrote about her basketball journey — and how an early setback proved to be a make-or-break moment in her young career.
Worth the time
Finally, we cap off this post with a long read that you might not have had time to consume during the busy week. This one comes from Mike Sielski and focuses on an icon not just in women’s sports, but in sports in general: former Immaculata coach Cathy Rush, who continues to inspire the next generation.
The word legacy is used so frequently when discussing sports that it has become banal, although there’s no consensus on what, in practical terms, it actually means. What is Jackie Robinson’s legacy? Easy enough. But what is Michael Jordan’s legacy? The six championships? The sneaker sales? Is John Madden’s legacy his brilliant coaching mind or his brilliant entrepreneurial mind? Will Barry Bonds’ alleged steroid use forever blot out his 762 home runs in our collective memory? Is an athlete’s or coach’s legacy merely the thing you think of first whenever you hear his or her name? And what if someone else thinks of something different? There’s rarely anything tangible that one can see and touch and say, There. There it is. There is my legacy.
Cathy Rush can. Every summer weekend, she drives 105 miles north from her home in Ventnor to Doylestown to visit Michael’s family. So let’s pause here, 50 years since the passage of Title IX, to understand this dynamic between grandmother and granddaughter and the symbolic significance of their relationship.
Here is Cathy Rush, a basketball revolutionary who coached Immaculata College to three national championships in the Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women, at the time an all-distaff counterpart to the NCAA. Who wasn’t a product of Title IX but predated it — the first of those championships came in March 1972, three months before President Richard Nixon signed the bill into law. Who wasn’t yet 30 years old when, after guiding the Mighty Macs to those three titles and six consecutive AIAW Final Fours, after winning 149 games and losing just 15 at Immaculata, she retired from coaching in 1977 to raise her two sons and continue building her camp business into something close to an empire. Who was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2008 and whose groundbreaking Immaculata teams were inducted in 2014 and who got to see her story depicted Hollywood-style in the 2009 movie The Mighty Macs.
Here is Cathy Rush, and here with her is Julianna Rush: Cathy’s own flesh and blood, the walking, talking, dribbling, shooting manifestation of her life and life’s work. Julianna is just one girl, but she is also more than just one girl. She represents something bigger, a drop of water in a wave that Cathy helped start to swell. ...
“As much as I look up to her, they look up to her,” [Julianna] said. “They whisper, ‘That’s your grandma?’” — Mike Sielski
To read Mike’s full story, click here.