good evening. i am dr. julie lewis professor and adviser of the universe city of central missouri's award winning student news outlet, the mule skinner.

welcome to yukon's author talk, which will be soon on c-span, u.s. oms, communication and digital media production department will be facilitating our evening. tonight, two of our you seem mule skinner students will be asking our questions then if time permits our audience will get the chance to ask questions. so tonight, new york times best selling author andrew visits schools all over the country to talk about his books and his writing and are honored. he is here tonight. warrensburg, missouri. he takes sports history and deeply layered stories that resonate with both young readers and adults. now in the book inaugural ballers, he walks us through journey of women's athletics in the first women's u.s. olympic basketball team. you seems women's basketball coaching legend millie barnes was part that journey as she is credited with layering and

laying the foundation for women's athletics. and she is also here with us tonight. we are thrilled tonight interview andrew ridley and can't wait for you to read his new book inaugural ballers. hello, everyone. hello, everyone my name is dillon seckington. i am the opinions editor for the uconn student newspaper, the mule skinner. so to start things off, it's a pleasure to be here. thank you for doing this. and to start off, i was kind of wondering what kind of inspired to become a writer. all right. well, first, let me say before i answer that question, an honor and privilege, it is to be here. this today with millie barnes jones, who is really one of the most important in the history of american and i don't know if that is fully appreciated by

people. i've gotten the feeling here in warrensburg that is certainly appreciated here. but when you think about every women's olympic basketball game that has ever been played every woman who has ever on that usa uniform played in the olympics. it all goes back to millie as the first woman who is a part of usa basketball who was charged with hiring the coach for the first us olympic team, ran the tryout camp here at central missouri and led the selection committee for that very first team and only that, and i use this line in the book, millie literally wrote the book on women's basketball, modern women's basketball. there was, you know, in the old days, they played half court. they said that women couldn't run up and down a full basketball court. and millie knew was ridiculous. she played full length lacrosse and field hockey with no time outs. she knew this. a crazy rule in basketball. and eventually, as the head of

the rules committee that made all the rules for girls women's basketball at all levels around the country. she had the the rule changed. you know it's a full court five on five. and she wrote the first instruction manual for girls and women's basketball coaches on that five on five games. so not only did she have such an instrumental role in that first u.s. olympic team, she changed the way women's basketball is played in this country forever. and it's not often you get a chance to give 92 year old woman her flowers. you know, and i think we all over a round applause for the role she's had. but back to your question so i write books about sports and and social issues and. one of my books was on the first men's olympic basketball, which played at the 1936 olympics in nazi germany. and half of that team came from mcpherson, kansas not too far from here. and so i was at a middle school

in desoto, kansas, outside of kansas city speaking about that. and there was a girl, the audience, who stood up and said, okay, this is the story of the first men's team. what's the story of the first u.s. women's olympic basketball team. and so it was standing on that stage, not too different from this at that middle school that i realized that's a book that i went to write. and all i knew at the time was the team had played at the 1976 olympics in montreal, which is the first olympics that i remember. i was six years old that year, but i realized that in telling the story, you could talk about you not just women's basketball, but the context of that would be women's rights movement of the 1970s. title which had been signed, was still sort of being implemented, not even fully implemented in 1976. and so you would have that is the backdrop of this story. that's why it appealed to me to write it. that's a really kind of amazing, especially because it's, you

know, the first one that you remember and then you go to write a book about it. why do you it's important for this story to be told now? well, you know, has been, you know, recognized as the 50th anniversary of title nine this year. and i think that that discussion has been a lot about how much progress has been made over those 50 years. and there certainly been a lot of progress. the women, you know, merely up her high school in the high schools that she taught at before she became, a college coach, didn't offer the varsity sports for girls. even when she was a star athlete in college at boston university, they didn't have varsity athletics for there weren't athletics. and i know we have the the basketball team here today and other student. there weren't scholarships for women to play sports in days. there certainly wasn't professional sports. there weren't there was an olympic basketball until 1976. so a lot has changed. but i think the story this year

is that there still is unfinished business. there are still inequities across all levels of sports. and so i think it's important for younger people and adults as well to recognize that, you know, and one of the things that became clear me in working on this book is that different generations of women understood that they were taking the baton from one generation and it off to the next, you know, and they were their part with what they could at, their moment in history. but every has its challenges, its battles to win and that's why i think it's important for all us to understand where we came from. throughout the history of basketball to the 76 olympics and where we still could go and still need to go. and that's what this book hopefully will accomplish. yeah, definitely. what do you hope that your readers will kind of get from this book? some of the feelings and what do you hope people get out of this? yeah, well, some of it is what we just talked about. another thing i hope they'll take from this book is

understanding some of the personalities that were involved with this team. i think what is it? nine members of the team are in the women's basketball hall of fame. many are also in the naismith basketball hall of fame. and these were women who i mentioned, you know were coming along at a time when they were told as a girl, you know, you shouldn't sweat, you shouldn't have muscles, you shouldn't be competitive. and. myers drysdale, one of the, you know, all time women's basketball players in history, told me story about at recess at school, she beat a boy in a foot race and her teacher, who was a woman, scolded and said, you should never beat a boy. you shouldn't be competitive with boys at school. they'll never you on a date. you know, if you do that. pat summitt pat summitt, who goes on to become know i know we have a ut fan here tonight one of the all witness coaches that any male or female at any level of basketball she learned how to play in a hayloft, the barn at her family farm and her family

had to move across county line so she could go to a school that offered girls basketball. nancy lieberman, another member of the 76 team and member of multiple halls of fame, her mother and grandmother resented the fact that she was interested in and wasn't wearing dresses and playing with dolls. and her mom punctured five basketball shows that nancy brought into their house with a screwdriver to try to keep her from playing basketball lucy harris, a great player on the team, was the first black player at delta university in mississippi the leading scorer on the 76 olympic team. and you thinking about that, where she came from in, mississippi, the poorest part of poorest state in the country, the same area of mississippi, where emmett till had been murdered, the same part of the state where robert f kennedy visited in the 1960s when he was studying poverty in the south. and to think that she came from those circumstances and, you know, starred on the international stage at the first

olympics, it's really remarkable stories of remarkable women who really haven't gotten their due. and so i hope will take that away from the book as well. it's extremely. but i think just being able to interview one of the amazing women that we're talking about today is a great opportunity just to kind of reach some things. hello, everyone. my name rachel becker and we're having a really good evening. i'm the editor in chief of the mule skinner here at university of central missouri. i would like to talk to millie about being such a significant part of mr. barnes story or sorry, mr. maraniss, this story. so what inspired your interest playing sports in the first place? that's hard to say. at the time i was growing up, there were no sports played by women. the culture was such that women stayed in the house and took care of the household chores and

spent a great deal time in the kitchen and, really lived in the house. they didn't have any opportunities except probably horseback riding and that was limited to. those who had money to participate in that sport sport, billie jean king, didn't come along for lot of time later. i had already decided what i wanted to play by that time, there were no role models, as you all have at this time. there was no media attention to any women playing sports because there any it was frowned upon at that time by to see a female wanted to do anything that was active you saw women as models for automobile sales. that was a place where it was acceptable.

i gymnastics cheerleading they were the other sports that women could participate but as time went i noticed that models around wanted to hold it and draw and do whatever with it that i could. so i really learned through that range and whatever other kids was playing with. we've come a long way from stage. we now have media attention, not the flood we'd like, but it's available. we have these instruments that can follow scores and, follow our teams and see who's doing the best and ready to enter the playoffs. it would. there's interesting story that relates to one title nine, which probably was the one major factor in developing sports programs across country.

it was not fully accepted by either or partly men or women. there were a lot of women at that period of time that did not want equal opportunity. they were quite satisfied research and they had the males at that time, not all of them, but good portion were against that issue. ncaa fought the title line passage and actually supported the amendment proposed by tower from tennessee, from texas, which led to another story. and that that the opposition for title nine through the tower amendment from tower who was a senator from texas and one of the main opportunists who

supported title was donal obiano, who was the women's aid at texas. so that presented texas had a very narrow path with which she take to keep donna, who was a very strong personality, who had a very strong personality on track. but donna and chris grant, who was an iowa and others before congress and got the tower amendment repealed. so that was very good for women's at least the tournament was to eliminate athletics from from the title. nine proposition. now at least we have equal or supposedly we equal opportunity

to the guys in sport. and i think that is what the things that should propel women into playing to a greater extent. it certainly has meant that we have a far greater number of athletes are playing female sports. rachel, can i interject one thing to asking about her interest sports? initially you told a story. students earlier today and i have an about this in the book. i just think it's wonderful. your first feeling of competitiveness as a four year old girl. and i wondered if you could tell audience here that story. now really a good story for you to say. i had a a disease that was affecting lungs and i was having a hard time breathing and. i finally decided there was a boy down the hall who also had

the same disease. and one of the. efforts to improve ventilation was to blow bubbles. one big jar to another. and so the two of us did this. and i thought to myself that boys going to beat me. and so every day we struggled and. every day they told me i won. now, to this day, i don't know if he there or not, but it helped cure man. i had no problem there after my son. but i think that's a great segway into about how you became involved with the first u.s. women's olympic basketball. i've been very lucky throughout life and being in the right place at the right time. i think and i think that has to

go back to a time when no, i was playing lacrosse at wellesley college in a message tutored and the head of the physical education department whom i did not know suggested that i would become a member of the women's basket ball committee. and this was connected with gw at the time. and fortunately i was appointed to that committee. and so as a member of that committee, i was able to help in the rule writing process. and there were five or seven of us on the committee. i wasn't the only one that was doing the work and we met, the people were from all over the country and we met in chicago one time. and i remember we met at we couldn't find a place to we didn't have any money to do this. and we stayed at a y, a and at the y, we had to have lights out

at 10:00 at night. well, normally our meetings went on until like 2 a.m. and so put lights out and then we rolled into one room and continued meetings. so whatever it was, but, but i think in terms of at time too, i was also as a rules interpreter. so that was interpreting rules for high schools and colleges through about a three three year period. and in 96 and 99, i think 69 to 60 6 to 69 anyway. i think it was through experiences like that that helped me attain notoriety, good or bad, and and there was a change in the ioc practices at around that time indicated that a multi athletic group could no

longer be the governing body for. an activity from the united from anywhere. at that time it was a that was sponsoring so many of the competitions for men women track softball basketball you know you name it and so a you could no longer do that. and so individual organizations, nations, some of which already existed, others but like basketball all did not of our organization formed amateur basketball association and then at that time ncaa, the aba usa and, other, the college association, the high school, they all named people to serve on that olympic committee and having a point on the aba, usa

executive committee, i was the one that was named to be that olympic committee. and so i think that all that about has a long story, but i think that was it. what an honor. so what's it like for the team to be so closely linked to the university of central missouri? i mean you guys practice on this campus over the summer while our gyms were not in use. explain to me a little bit about the. well, at that time i became chair of that olympic basketball committee and. no one else put a bid in to host the the the final practice, the trials for the team. and so we were granted that permission unanimously and some people didn't know or said. but missouri was but they learned pretty quickly.

the gals came. there were two, but we had trials, so we had a large number of players, maybe 80 or 90 here. and it was cut down to the final 12 and they stayed in one of the dormitories and we held practices, love and jam the gym that's in the education building. you don't know the other name and garrison. and one of the interesting things, garrison by far a better gymnasium and was full court it was a one floor everything was better from a coaching point of view and a learning point of view. but players wanted the education building. and if you don't know what that looks like, it's a short court. the end line is about a foot or a foot and a half from the stage that's at end of the court and

when i was coaching the team here, i hated to go to that gym. sometimes we were kicked off by the guys who needed garrison and so we couldn't practice there, so we had to go with the education gym. it was just there's way that that olympic team should have been able to practice as well as i did with that short of between the end line and the stage they had, you know, cut their speed down, going in for a layup, but they preferred that it had air conditioning and very garrison didn't have air time. so we played we practiced a good deal at the time. and that education gymnasium and as a sports writer from the paper indicated he had talked the big beaux arts in our audience and they it answer the

question what what do they do when they have some free time? they said they can't get in much trouble here before or there's nothing to do. and i think the players appreciated that to some extent they didn't. all of the interruptions that distract fans that they might have had in a large community, i'll say that writing the about the tryout camp here, warrensburg was my favorite part of working on the book. you know, i interviewed women that were here that, were cut from the team, you know, and had their their hopes dashed. and then women who saw their olympic dream come true here, you know, and millie and billy moore, the coach coach of the team and people like vick and others that were just in the community and what it meant to have the olympic tryouts, like all of a sudden here on your in your hometown, your campus, and, you know, you of the olympics, it's such a big international bright light type of stage. but to have the real proving ground happen on small campus in

the middle of missouri created a really interesting opportunity to tell the stories of this group of people that came together to try to make something happen that had never been done before in history. and i think that's that's very interesting. and, you know when we went on our tour, we got to see the place where they practice and that was a special moment for me. and i'm sure it's special for you as well, considering it was your favorite chapter. what if some of the surprising or exciting reactions that you've gotten so far about your book? so it came out a couple of weeks ago and that the first event that i did was at springfield in massachusetts, where basketball was invented, and they had an event to celebrate this being the 50th anniversary of title nine, specifically looking at the history of women's basketball. and i was really lucky that the folks that joined me on the panel that day were in meyers drysdale and julian and julian was the co-captain of the team

along with pat had summit ann meyers of course went on to become such a known figure in basketball. but it really meant a lot to me that they first of all that they came be a part of that. and second to hear that the book meant something to them, you know and to me that was very gratifying and on one hand and on the other little bit surprising know like i don't know if i had written a book about, the 1976 men's olympic basketball team, that any of the players would have come and that having their story told in the book would have meant anything to them. and i think part of that is indicate of one of the inequities that has existed between men's and women's sports in terms of the media coverage and. you know, i write books about sports. this is the first women's sports book that i've, you know, my bad to this point, you know, and but it meant something to them to have their story told and to exist forever. now, for people to read. and so that was really gratifying for me. and then i would say today to be

here with coach barnes, you know, and to walk around town and campus and feel like you're walking with santa claus, you know or the president or the queen or something way that people greet her, you know know, has been really just an amazing experience for me. and to how beloved, she is here and to have a chance to express what she has meant to women's athletics. yeah. and i think a probably a big reason for some of those reactions is just the amount of historical artifacts are in the book. there's newspaper clippings, historical photos, just some basketball facts, inaugural balls that, you know, layer the story very. well, i was wondering if there was a favorite kind historical piece that you found that was your favorite and kind of why that was. okay. oh yeah. there's a few historical nuggets in the book that thought were interesting, some of which relate to the state of missouri.

so in telling the history of women's olympic basketball, the 1976 team was the first team that played for a medal. but i went back to, you know, there's exhibition in sports and olympics where something is demonstrated to the world, but not a medal on the line. first time that women's basketball was demonstrated in the olympics was in the saint olympics in 1904. and the first women to win a at an olympic games were indigenous women from an indian boarding school. fort shaw indian boarding. and you know, we've learned these last few years especially about some of the horrors at these boarding schools and basketball was as a way of demonstrating the of the native americans students, you know, that were at these schools learning, you know, american game basketball. and so it was used as a public relations tool for. these schools and the girls, the

team understood that they were being used in that sense, but they also saw the chance to play basketball as a chance to illustrate their own personal and to strive for something that meant something to them. and so they went undefeated and, beat a team of white, all stars from saint louis that they were supposed to lose. they beat them twice in the olympics. so it's interesting to learn that history also at those 1904 olympics was fogg allen, who was playing on a boys team that this was before men's basketball was in the olympics i know fogg allen his coaching career starting here at missouri also he is known as dr. because he was an osteopath and as a young girl, billy moore had a bad back and her dad her to a doctor in lawrence, kansas named dr. allen, who was doctor fogg allen, who helped billy fix her back as a as a pre-teen. she goes on to become he's, you

know, instrumental in having men's basketball. added to the olympics in 1936. he's the driving force behind that and his patient grows to become the first coach of the us women's basketball team. so, you know, discovering that history was was pretty interesting too. yeah, but i'm going right back to those kind of historical pieces. i was wondering if there was any kind of that stood out to you as maybe. the toughest piece to find and kind of why that was the toughest one, the there was one challenge in working on this that was different from any of the others that i've it didn't have to do necessarily with any of the content of the book or the of doing the research. and research i think is by far the important part of writing nonfiction and much more important than, even the writing, every single every single part, a sentence has to come from some research you've done so interviewing people, going places, archival research, reading as many as you can find, or old newspaper articles on the

subject is really important. the challenge in this book is that i was working it during the the, the height of and so i wasn't able to do as much traveling as i would like to and typically i would go and interview in person this is today's the first day i've met coach barnes in person you know, i was only able to talk to her on phone and that was the case with everybody i interviewed for the book. it wasn't really a time you'd go talk to people in person and. so more so than finding out any aspect, the story i was just figuring out how to research a book without being able to go anywhere. can i going back to your book maraniss also notes that in in the 1960s and seventies, it was a time period when the female ideal was to be proper. so millie did players face that backlash? breaking that ideal? and being these female athletes that aren't as proper and prim as ideally, there was a time obviously women were looked

differently than they are now culturally. it's changed. and we've seen an improvement in recognition of women participating different activities than they could in an time. at one stage it. rather necessary for players getting on that bus to wear skirts. you didn't travel in pants. and so we had some objections to the skirt desire and on the bus. we had a checkout. i don't mean the coaches made the checkouts. i mean, the players checked the coaches to make sure they didn't have on slacks either. so we went through some of those rather minor issues as you might

say. but there was a difficult period time when i think, as i've indicated, that women's place was in the house not outside and they shouldn't be doing, you know, any of these you involved in my younger you didn't find any female lawyers doctors or construction or construction workers people women did not go into those professions or types work. things have changed. and so so has the apparel. everybody wears. so has some of the actions of dress and appearance and and. just the habitual the things that we do. we've seen a great transition in that respect, for better or for worse, who knows?

but it was it was a period of time when we went through questions that you told me that even being out jogging would attract attention. there times when i was probably out of college for a couple of years, but i knew i was trying to stay fit because i was playing lacrosse at that time and i would go out and run on on streets or side streets, whatever and three times i had police stop me, wonder why i was doing that. some them thought somebody was chasing me, but i tried to explain them why i was doing that. and as a matter of fact, one time the policeman who stopped me, i had just run by a group playing a game of cricket. there was an english touring team in town and i said, i want to come see.

and anyway they, all let me go by and actually look the policeman bought a ticket, put the next cricket. but one women just didn't do that. and another time i chose to on a playground i elementary school playground because i thought that was a logical place to do that and i just finished running and a police car came up and asked me what was what i had been doing. somebody so somebody reported me that i was probably not doing what i was up, thought i was doing. so going over some of your crazy memories that you have both in warrensburg and around nation, what was your fondest memory of the 1976 olympics, whether the games actually preparing for it? well, actually i didn't to see

the 76 olympics we just the practice sessions and the training sessions and then the team went off off but to me i watching them practice those players worked so hard and they were determined, oh, they certainly were fit. they left here and i looked forward to learning how they melded as a team because we, we had just a few practices here where we played some men's teams. one was a group of guys on campus who had played basketball previously and they were pretty good. but at that time we had to be very careful. the eagle of, the male that might be beaten by the female, and we had the ncaa at that time was stationed in their headquarters in kansas city. and so we had several of the guys that worked for, the ncaa come and play and they were

absolutely amazed at how well the women blocked out. well, they were playing to play against teams that were much taller them and bigger. and so they had to learn how to block out or they'd would get a rebound. and i also thought how long those girls had been away from home and their friends and to see so many of them have friends or parents or come to montreal to see them, it had to be a marvelous experience and have no idea. when you think of an olympic team and, all they expense that goes through getting the team there and practicing being ready to play. how how miserable they're living a were you may not know but that

team actually called it the olympic team but they had not been included the olympic program because they had in kuala fide like a the same team played the 75 pan am games and the world championship that was held in columbia, south america and we came in eighth place. so results from that tournament did not indicate that we were going to be or may not even be in the olympics because we still had to qualify the teams qualified or there were all of the teams that had from the world games and for other reasons too and it automatically got the invitation because it was on their home land only two of the eight or nine teams that were in the pre-tournament were going to make the olympic to

play. so that was very competitive and there living accommodations were very. and not the total. said police regard for them was somewhat different than they have in the united states. they had a lot to put with, but they hard and they they came out first in that tournament and qualified for the olympics then from that point on, they had a hard time getting to montreal. there were no accommodations for them. no one had thought they would get there. so they were very lucky because somebody knew a man they'd love.

kodak, who had supported previous league and he found some rooms them. but it was at one point she was i mean they a suite for all players and they had bunk beds lined up every in that whole suite kids were brushing their and the kitchen sink. one bathroom they faced enormous obstacles but they overcame them. they didn't care. they wanted to play and they wanted win. and they did that very well. they came in second they got the silver medal. they were clobbered as everybody else was by russia. russia was bigger and everything they did was better than what we did and everybody else. what we learned from that and we came back the following time and we in 1980.

so it is with schools or, players who give all they had one goal in mind they worked to be teammates with one another to get along with each find the open player to games and whatever it forget it and they go on to win and that's the way of you need to play. i want to add a little of detail so it's really important what coach barnes said about sort of the status of american women's basketball at the time. now, we think about the most dominant program in the world that i think has won seven straight gold medals and never even loses a game along. the way to those gold medals as said, we had finished in eighth place in the world championships the year before, which was the primary way to qualify for the olympics. there was one last ditch qualifying tournament where the last two teams made it. as she said, usa basketball had so little faith that we would be one of those two teams that they had not budgeted for the time

between that qualifying final qualifying tournament, the start of the olympics. so our team literally had nowhere to go, nowhere to live, no money for food. and it was only because kodak, which sponsored women's all-american team at that time, was based in rochester, new york, which was close to the tournament that we had a place to stay. and it was in dormitories at the university rochester, which were under construction and also had no air conditioning. and this is in the summer of, 1976. then the team shows up in montreal and as she said, the entire lived in one apartment. now the men's and women's basketball teams typically stay on a that's docked somewhere outside host city of the olympics they don't even in the olympic village anymore 76 we stayed in the village the entire women's team stayed in one apartment. we win the silver medal, which again now be considered a disappointment it was an incredible achievement back. then she said no one beat the soviets back then. they had a woman who was the center that was seven feet, two

inches tall that was unstoppable. and the other about the way the olympics were played that year. it wasn't like we lost the gold medal and settled for the silver. there was no gold medal game. it was strictly a round robin tournament. whichever country had the best record won the gold had the second best record would win the silver. so we played a game against czechoslovakia knowing that if we won that game, we win the silver medal. so the women had the experience of happiness of winning the game and receiving the silver medal, which was considered an incredible upset after winning, you know, finishing in eighth place the year before. so this was a great achievement. and as coach and was the woman that was responsible for putting this team together that, accomplished that and then set the, you know, paved the way for never not winning a gold medal ever, you know, basically ever. but billy are the coach of the team and she was the one that produced the and billy was an incredible coach. she had won a national

championship at cal state fullerton, went on to win a national championship at ucla. she lives out in southern california now. i was really so happy to have a chance to interview for the book, she, i guess you could say, if you think about pat and this, you know, demanding successful stern coach that was billy moore and pat summitt learned from her credits her as her role model, you know, and really a mentor, lifelong mentor in coaching. and so we were really fortunate that that's you hired to be the coach this team. she was the perfect person for the job demanding excellence from this group of women again to do something that had never attempted before. so yeah, and i think that's a great segue into, you know, we know when we've and we know that, you know, millie made some, you know, basketball on the court but your book about so

much more than that and if you could just talk a little bit about why you chose to approach your book that way. yeah. so with all of my books, i think it's i love sports. i'm a huge sports fan. i go to all sorts of sporting events, watch on tv, but i don't want to write books that are about what happens on the court or what happens on the field, or how many points somebody scored or how many they had. i the best sports books use sports to illuminate something else about life or you know, and so my first book is called strong. it's a biography of perry wallace, who was sort of the jackie robinson figure, southeastern conference sports. he was the first black basketball player in the sec. and so that book is about basketball, but really it's about racism in the south. in the 1960s, civil rights movement, the personal toll of being a pioneer in that situation. second book is the games of deception on the first u.s. men's olympic basketball team,

which a story again about basketball, but it's also about anti-semitism and fascism. and then the road to the holocaust. next book is called singled out. it's a biography of glenn burke, who was a major baseball player for the l.a. dodgers and the oakland a's. he's credited with inventing the high five, but he's also the first openly gay major league baseball player and. so that's a book that's about baseball, but it's really homophobia as well. and so with this book, again, i saw a chance to write about basketball but also, you know, sexism and misogyny and the women's rights of the 1970s and feminism, the way that basketball and athletics operated on kind of a parallel track, not necessarily always connected to each other. i think a lot of feminists in the seventies didn't really think about sports. a lot of the athletes didn't want to be associated with any sort of political movement at that time. and yet these women were accomplishing quite a bit, you know, in terms of women's rights

and how title nine fit into all of that. and i that's what makes a sports book more interesting, is to place it into a social context. and then again, with my books being targeted at teenagers and adults and way the world is today, i think these lessons about racism or or homophobia or about women's rights are really relevant. the story took place. they wrote about the 1960s and 1930s or 1970s. those issues still at the forefront today. absolutely. as we continue this fantastic conversation, why don't we go ahead and pivot right in this moment and that was if you're in the audience, if you you can have the opportunity to ask some questions as well. at this time, hasn't this been fantastic moment in conversation with our guest speakers thus far and this is bringing to life this wonderful book of the inaugural ballers and bring it to life even the history pieces of our own warrensburg and ucm.

so for those you in our audience if you haven't have questions we have two microphones please on up at your leisure but now's the time your chance. ask questions to either emily barnes or andrew maraniss about either pieces or components that maybe have come to light for you. while we have discussing. so we'll go ahead and have that opportunity. so just come up, but we may go ahead and you have time for a few more questions here from our meal scanner reporters. and so we'll go ahead and do that. but come on up and we'll get you in for a question from our audience. and we really want to give you the opportunity to do that. and so we can maybe jump back in, maybe a few questions, but come on up and we'll you in for a question. well, yeah, i'd like to. oh, sure, absolutely. i'm just so excited that students from, the student paper that are moderating this discussion for me, i was high school baseball player, but i was also the sports editor of

our school paper. i went to college at vanderbilt on a sports writing scholarship, spent almost all of my time when i wasn't in class at the student. it was the most important of my experience as a student so i really admire what you all are doing. i think it's really important. i think it'll create lifelong memories and really valuable experiences and whatever career you go into. and actually my roots an author, go back to those student. also i wrote a paper about perry wallace for a black class when i was a student and then when i was sports editor of the college paper, i wrote some columns about him too, and argued that there should be a named after him on campus. and so i look back at my experience in student media as the most thing i did at your age. and so just want to express that to you. and i know that it'll mean a lot to you for the rest of your life as well. thank you so much for those thoughts. really fascinating.

all right. it does look like we have a question then i'm going. go ahead. thank you. my name is brenda wendling. i'm a broadcaster with espn. and and i'm working on my own docu series, if not for them, that i've interviewed coach barnes for. and i'm so appreciative of andrew and this book and the social as well. but coach barnes, my question for you is, as you look back on, your career and all you have meant to women's basketball, all women's sports, etc. , what are you most proud of of? that's a question to answer. i, i think in all my dealings with players and committees, and that type of thing, i really hope i had some kind of a positive influence those people

in terms how we can make together and solve problems with our constantly hoping teach them some lessons that they can carry through in the rest of their lives. that that was very important to me. you certainly done that. thank you so much for all you have done for women's sports. thank you, brenda. becker from carney, missouri. really, i have a question for you, having been such an integral part in the evolution of women's basketball, what is your perspective on this sport today? meaning do you think maybe we've some of the spirit of the game due to commercialism and influence of sponsors? or do see that as a vital partnership in the growth of the

sport. one of the things that i fostered was good sportsmanship, excellent play and and visibility and the teaching process of various sports. they were ridiculed at times because they often had suggested having a meeting of the teams to teams and parents or whatever following a game and refreshments served sort of some sort. and i, i kind of like that attitude. and some time later i was at texas, jody conradt was teaching and they had a marvelous experience for parents as well as students following a game the home team appeared in and they were social area and parents

could ask the students or players questions and it was an excellent atmosphere where parents learned some things about. the game as well as a as they were trying to learn what happened. the differences between, the players that part of the the social aspect aspect of the association with athletics has disappeared disappeared. it was terms of an anti position and against those refreshments areas or times it extra time for the players took extra time for people to clean up could begin for all of the maintenance people and so there were several why that type of arrangement was

discarded discarded. there's no question that with with ads with tv timeouts and notifications, newspapers and currently we're seeing more and more rather violent discussion about various of participation and i do not think that they are advantageous to the sport. i know how we eliminate that until we change some attitudes people. i think the games would become rougher. there's we used to call it basketball, a non-contact sport, but it certainly is not anymore. and the same is true when you at field hockey or certainly if girls are participating wrestling and football, they there's contact there. so it's expected but in some of these other sports, i think gone

a little far, others would say that it's the advancement of the game. the skills are better and so it's a perfectly accommodating sort. you'll all have decide for yourself which direction you prefer to go and you all may have at some point in time the ability to make changes in rules through the proper authorities. but it's that you need to look at ahead in the future and decide what direction we wish to go. oh, that was one of the main differences between the ncaa tournament and the aiw tournament. there were two things actually, you and i, aiw play. you could not recruit players

campus. so that was upgraded disadvantage was a disadvantage for players and coaches and there were no scholarships given so it was a much more even level play we hear you team we used to play big ten big 12 schools and when our share of them. as a matter of fact we won more of them than we ever lost. but now we could never do that scholarships are too important for individuals so. i think you all will have to decide how you'd like to see the sport continue to and improve and, decide which way we should go. one thing i would add to that answer is sometimes i think there's temptation to look back at the way were in the sixties or seventies and these women only played for the love the

game, you know, because there was no guarantee that there be a college scholarship for them or, a wnba opportunity, or even an olympic. so they purely played for the love of the game, and in some cases, some respects that's true. but also think it's a dangerous thing, say, because those women also it's not like they didn't want more opportunity, you know, they would have welcomed a scholarship, would have welcomed a chance to play professional basketball to, you know continue on with this skill that they had developed over the course of their life. and the other dangerous part of it is. i think that it diminishes the women who are basketball now. it almost sets it up or they must not be playing just for the love of the game. i'm sure that women in the back of the room on the jennings team now love being basketball players and are grateful for the opportunities previous generations created. for them, they're deserving of support and scholarship and a chance to play professionally if they can in the olympics, if they can.

and so i think sometimes that can you know, in comparing generations in the motivations that people had, the lack of opportunities, if that's purely, you know, a good thing that there were no you know, there was no money involved. i think it can be a dangerous road to go down. chinn as well. yes go ahead. go ahead. here with your question. hello, my name is michael flynn. i'm the sports editor for the newspaper here at school. this question is towards millie. what advice. would you give the u.s. in athletes today and for their ups in future sorry the advice you gave to the u.s. athletes about. well, for the woman like for the well advice women women.

first of all i, would say you've got it. we're talking basketball all you have a good coach. you need to follow the directions you need to play as hard as you can and they're listening. and practice on your own. you'll never get better unless you do some work on your own. you may find somebody else to work with you or you could just shoot or work against a any way that you could find that you need to improve and you need to ask questions. you know, what am i doing wrong? don't keep doing the wrong thing for a whole season. eat well, know the nutritional factors that you need to abide. stay high with your academics,

make sure you're doing that aspect. your career. look for any other resource that you can find that deals with, with the sport in which you're participating and watch videos on it, having access to the telephones and plenty of videos are found on instruments. play plenty of tv available now. do everything you can to make progress towards your ultimate goal. i would add in terms of making progress to understand that as athletes you have this window where you have a real platform whether that's just during your you four years in college or beyond that people on campus look up to you you have a voice, you should use it to further. we've talked about the generations you know, furthering women's athletics or just, you

know, rights for women on your campus or in your state or your country like you have. an opportunity now where people are looking at you, a spotlight on you to develop your voice, practice using it while you're in college. and that can set you up for the rest of your life also. but have a unique opportunity as student athletes to develop that. well, i definitely think that's honestly advice we can all use in our lifetime as well. so thanks so much. well for the jeni's basketball team, you know our time's of wrapping up here. but of course, we maybe want to make sure andrew millie, is there anything else you like to share? anything we should know when it comes to the the the book or as we are jumping into the world of female athletics as well. yeah. any. well i'll say, well the you all you need to remember the heritage of your sport from, the

time you've grown up until the time you finish your career. if you think of your days, you if you were good basketball players you ought to remember the accomplishments of those who preceded you and how they have made it better for you. even though you think there are some things that need to be done, still people in the past lived on a meal ticket of two bucks for dinner. i'm sure you do better than that. you ought to recognize that we've won to now. the women have won two national championship tips and basketball, softball they've won the national championship soccer. we won and we know ben stevens have won some as well. but you did remember heritage that you exist in today. and look back over those years how well other students have

done and how well you can conduct yourself so that you could produce those same kind of activities. in the men's field. but had several outstanding men's coaches who have also helped the image the of ucm and that basketball actually. so if you just think about somebody who played you and how well they did think yourself as developing and playing and in doing that will improve the the existing james forever but. if we want that one time forget we'll slide back and then we'll have to recover the substance we've lost so i hope you all remember those things remember title and how it has helped you get onto the playing field and

make that that law still exists as you move forward. the only thing i would like to add well, first of all, just want to say thank you again, for the university and for everybody for coming out today and for millie for agreeing to be a part of this. the two other things i'd like to say. one is i think everybody here is supportive in sports, you know, just by the fact that you're here. and so maybe this is more directed people watching on tv, but show up by if you really support women's sports, go to the women's basketball games, go to the soccer games, go to the softball games. i think that's one of the biggest inequities that you still see is just attendance literally at games. watch on tv, watch. brenda announcing a game on espn and talk about it with your friends or at the office. you know, if you that's way very tangible to support women's sports is just showing and i think that's the case across the ncaa. the other thing you mentioned

about title nine, we've seen just because is a law doesn't mean it's going to be a law forever or that going to be enforced, even if it is a law. and so one of the lessons with title nine is if it matters, you know, equity in sports matters, especially this generation, needs to understand the history of what it was like before title nine and what it could be like without title nine and to work to strengthen it in the future. we thank you so much. and for those of you that are wanting to get your hands on a book your own book of inaugural ballers, we are going to have books available in the foyer as well as a signing moment with the author, the andrew and molly as well is going to actually gives get signatures and autographs as well. so be sure to catch that moment if you'd like to and but definitely thank you so much for everyone this evening and making your way here to you. sam's campus for also thank you and maraniss for bringing the

heritage to the to a textbook that we can use within our classroom so much valued research and historical components of it to showcase women's sports and also. millie, thank you so much for being part of our heritage here at ucm. let's and thank the thank them with a round of applause.