NCAA Women’s Basketball Tournament
TRIVIA Question: Who is the winningest Division 1 basketball coach of all time? Clue → it is NOT in a men’s basketball program and it is NOT a man.
Answer: Pat Summit, Head Coach Emeritus with the University of Tennessee “Lady Vols” basketball team. “She kept her elite program in the winner’s circle for almost four decades, producing a mind-boggling record of 1,098-208 (.840) that included the most victories in NCAA basketball history. During her tenure, the Lady Vols won eight NCAA titles as well as a combined 32 Southeastern Conference tournament and regular season championships. Tennessee made an unprecedented 31 consecutive appearances in the NCAA Tournament and produced 12 Olympians, 34 WNBA players, 21 WBCA/Kodak/State Farm All-Americans earning 36 honors, and 39 All-SEC players earning 82 recognitions. Along with the success on the court, Summitt’s student-athletes had tremendous productivity in the classroom. Coach Summitt held a 100 percent graduation rate for all Lady Vols who completed their eligibility at Tennessee.”[i]
The Lady Vols along with UConn (Connecticut), South Carolina and Notre Dame are again a number one seed in the 2014 NCAA Division 1 Women’s Basketball Tournament with 1st round games beginning this weekend. Although Pat won’t be on the sideline for Tennessee (Holly Warlick now coaches the Lady Vols), other familiar coaching icons will be at t
he tournament including Geno Auriemma from UConn, Tara VanDerveer with the Stanford Cardinal, and Kim Mulkey, coach of the Baylor Lady Bears. These 4 coaches have produced over 3260 victories, winning 20 national championships in a combined 115 years of coaching, and each has become an institution at their university.
In total, teams from 30 states will be participating in the women’s tournament with New York having the most teams (6), followed by California and Tennessee with 5 each. Seven other states (Georgia, Indiana, Iowa, Louisiana, Oklahoma, South Carolina and Virginia) have 2 schools in the tournament. This should give you plenty of opportunity to generate competition for your residents – especially in those situations where you have both large (i.e. major conference) and smaller schools competing (e.g. Stanford vs Cal State – Northridge; LSU vs Northwestern LA, or Texas vs Prairie View).
- A special mention should be made for the “Black Knights” women’s basketball team of the U.S. Military Academy. Although located (and counted as a NY school) at West Point, NY, this team is really a “national” team and should receive support from across the country.
- Kudos to Connecticut and Notre Dame who are each undefeated in regular season and conference tournament play going into the NCAA tournament.
- There are 5 additional states (Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, South Dakota and West Virginia) that were not included in the Men’s NCAA tournament. {See “Forget the Activity Calendar. . . ACT NOW!” for suggestions about utilizing the NCAA tournament as the basis for an enriching resident activity program and marketing event}
- Five schools — Akron, North Dakota, South Dakota, Winthrop and Wright State – are all making their first NCAA tournament appearance
- 25 of the teams join their male counterparts at the Big Dance. The Women’s Tournament adds post-season play for 39 additional teams and gives you 5 more states to build resident support around.
How about a competition between the Men’s and Women’s teams for the 25 colleges with both teams in the SHOW? Who will go farther in their tournament?
The NCAA Women’s Basketball Tournament offers some challenges, but many more opportunities for meaningful dialogue and interactive programs with the predominantly female population in today’s senior living communities. One of the challenges is that the NCAA tournament has only been organized for women since 1982 so it’s unlikely any of your residents ever played in the tournament.
TRIVIA: Kim Mulkey played on the first championship team from Louisiana Tech in 1982 and is the first person, man or woman, to win a basketball national championship as a player, assistant coach and head coach.[ii]
TRIVIA: Tennessee and Connecticut have won almost 50% of the National Women’s Championships with 8 titles a piece.
On the other hand, most of the 1st and 2nd round games are played “on campus” with attendance a lot less than at the men’s games. Therefore, if your community is near one of the 16 tournament sites you might have the chance to actually take a group of residents to see one or more of the games.
| Los Angeles, CA | Toledo, OH |
| Seattle, WA | West Lafayette, IN |
| Ames, IA | Knoxville, TN |
| Iowa City, IA | Chapel Hill, NC |
| Waco, TX | Durham, NC |
| College Station, TX | College Park, MD |
| Baton Rouge, LA | University Park, PA |
| Lexington, KY | Storrs, CT |
The Sweet 16 games will be played in Lincoln, NE; Stanford, CA; Notre Dame (South Bend), IN and Louisville, KY with the Final Four in Nashville, TN.
One of the biggest opportunities is to create an inter-generational sharing experience for your residents, their adult daughters (bobby-soxers and baby boomers), grand-daughters and great grand-daughters. The residents and their adult daughters lived through a cultural revolution started by the United States Congress’ passage of Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972. This legislation changed the face of women’s athletics across all levels and 10 years later led to the first NCAA Women’s Basketball Championship Tournament.
- In 1971, the year before Title IX became law, fewer than 300,000 girls participated in high school sports, about one in 27. In 2002, the number approached 3 million, or approximately one in 2½.[iii]
- In 1972, fewer than 32,000 women competed in intercollegiate athletics. Women received only 2 % of schools’ athletics budgets, and athletic scholarships for women were nonexistent. In 2008-09, a record number of 182,503 women participated in competitive college athletics, accounting for 43% of college athletes nationwide.[iv]
Along with the increased participation, the game of “girls” basketball itself has also seen significant change. Before Title IX (i.e. when all of the residents as well as the Bobby-soxers and many of the Baby Boomers were growing up), girls basketball was more a part of the Physical Education curriculum than a competitive sport. Today’s young girls would hardly 
recognize the half-court game, uniforms of Bermuda shorts and white blouses, and all foul shots thrown under-hand like Ollie in the movie Hoosiers! Fast breaks, rebounding “above the rim”, even dunks were foreign to the pre-1972 women’s game. SO, set up an inter-generational discussion group and encourage your residents (and prospects) and their older adult children to share their remembrances of girls basketball in the “days of yore”. Invite a local college or high school team to participate in the discussion and help them understand the legacy that they have inherited. Humphrey Bogart said, “Louie, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship“ in the movie Casablanca and you can build that same type of on-going relationship with a local school team throughout the coming year.
Finally, the Girl Scouts of America developed 
a new patch that members can earn with activities focused on the history, importance and media portrayal of women in sports. It was developed in conjunction with the 2014 NCAA Final Four in Nashville, TN and offers a tremendous opportunity for your residents to interact with the young scouts.
You have all the ingredients for a dynamite activity program and customized marketing event that demonstrates appropriate respect for the life accomplishments of the residents. The potential of getting multiple generations from the same family together in your building focused on a common interest – including participation in March Madness games as discussed in a prior article – is priceless.
Progressive Retirement Lifestyles 