Lynette Woodard is a retired American basketball Hall of Fame player and former head women's basketball coach at Winthrop University. Woodard made history by becoming the first female member of the Harlem Globetrotters and who, at age 38, began playing as one of the oldest members in the newly formed American women's professional basketball league, the WNBA.
The Independent Women's Football League (IWFL) was the first women's American football league established by women players for women players. The league was founded in 2000, began play in 2001, and played its last season in 2018. Members of the original roster of the Austin Outlaws were the league's founders. Following the establishment of the league as a separate entity from the team, former Outlaws players Laurie Frederick, Jaime Bailey, and Sandra Plato became the original IWFL executive council.
The National Women's Basketball League, often abbreviated to the NWBL, was an organization governing professional basketball leagues for women in the United States. The league was founded in 1997 and began play in the Fall of that year. The league held its season during the off-season of the WNBA. During the WNBA off-season, some WNBA players would play in the NWBL. The league ceased operations in 2007.
An expansion team is a new team in a sports league, usually from a city that has not hosted a team in that league before, formed with the intention of satisfying the demand for a local team from a population in a new area. Sporting leagues also hope that the expansion of their competition will grow the popularity of the sport generally. The term is most commonly used in reference to the North American major professional sports leagues but is applied to sports leagues in other countries with a closed franchise system of league membership. The term refers to the expansion of the sport into new areas. The addition of an expansion team sometimes results in the payment of an expansion fee to the league by the new team and an expansion draft to populate the new roster.
The American Basketball Association (ABA) is an American semi-professional men's basketball minor league that was founded in 1999.
The Women's Football Alliance (WFA) is a professional full-contact Women's American football league that began play in 2009. It is the largest 11-on-11 football league for women in the world, and the longest running active women's football league in the U.S. Since 2016, the league has operated with three competitive levels: Pro, Division 2 and Division 3. The league is owned and operated by Jeff King and Lisa Gibbons King of Exeter, California. Lisa King is also a wide receiver for the WFA's, Cali War.
The Negro Southern League (NSL) was one of the several Negro baseball leagues created during the time organized baseball was segregated. The NSL was organized as a minor league in 1920 and lasted until 1936. It was considered a major league for the 1932 season and it was also the only organized league to finish its full schedule that season. Prior to the season, several established teams joined the NSL, mainly from the collapsed Negro National League.
Robelyn Annette Garcia is a former collegiate All-American and professional All-Star basketball player. Garcia currently resides in Scottsdale, Arizona. She was the Big Six Championship Game MVP on the Kansas Crusaders of the Women's Basketball Association (WBA). Garcia was inducted into The Black Archives of Mid-America WBA Hall of Fame on February 22, 2020. Robelyn, nicknamed "Robbie" by her Junior College coach, also led the nation in scoring while playing at Dodge City Community College where she was inducted into the Athletic Hall of Fame.
The Women's Arena Football League (WAFL) was an 8-on-8 full contact professional American football league based out of Houston, Texas. Founded in 2011, games were played in the spring and summer months in arenas around the United States. The league is somewhat similar to the male-based Arena Football League and Indoor Football League, but with slightly different rules as well as no goalposts or rebound nets. It began play in 2012 with six teams. The founder and league president is Ivan Tompkins, Dwayne Ware Coach and former AFL player with the Houston Thunderbears and head coach of the charter Houston Lady Oilers. Their championship game is known as the Diva Bowl.
The North American Basketball League (NABL) was an American minor professional basketball league organization founded in 2016.
Jessie Kenlaw worked in collegiate and professional women's basketball between the 1970s to 2000s. After playing a year of collegiate basketball with Savannah State University, Kenlaw started playing professional basketball with the Women's Professional Basketball League in the late 1970s. Kenlaw later briefly joined the Ladies Professional Basketball Association and Women's American Basketball Association during the early 1980s. For her coaching career, Kenlaw started as an assistant coach for Lamar University from 1987 to 1988. After moving to the University of Houston in 1988, Kenlaw continued working as an assistant coach before being named head coach of the Houston Cougars women's basketball team in 1990. As Houston's head coach from 1990 to 1998, Kenlaw had 104 wins and 123 losses.
The Rivals Professional Football League (RPFL) is a low-level american football minor league owned by Quentin Hines and consisting of 12 teams in Michigan, Florida and Georgia.
