When UTEP introduced its women’s basketball program in 1974, it marked a pivotal moment not only for the university, but for women’s athletics nationwide.
Only two years earlier, Title IX had been signed into law, an act that would reshape opportunities for female athletes nationwide.
The program began in 1973, when UTEP students Wayne Thornton and Don Lewis, who had been coaching an intramural women’s flag football team, began to envision more.
“We were coaching girls from Kelly Hall, and we thought, ‘You know, there’s no basketball here, wouldn’t it be cool if we had a women’s basketball team too?