Timeline: Here are some of the most notable moments in Kentucky women’s sports history
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How Title IX changed KY sports
Not one of the 37 words in Title IX directly references athletics. Yet it reshaped the sports world by unlocking school-sponsored athletics to females. This is how it changed the playing field in Kentucky.
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‘There was nowhere for a girl to go.’ How Title IX improved athletics across Kentucky.
Timeline: Here are some of the most notable moments in Kentucky women’s sports history
Donna Murphy: It wasn’t easy as a female sports star in Kentucky just after Title IX
Celebrating the 50th anniversary of Title IX in Kentucky
Why gender equity in sports matters so much
Thursday marks the 50th anniversary of Title IX, a transformative law in creating opportunities for women in sports. On Sunday, we looked at why that legislation mattered so much and visited with some of the individuals in Kentucky who served as trailblazers for those who came after them.
Today, we examine some (not all) of the notable moments in the history of women’s sports in Kentucky:
1903: On Feb. 21, a women’s basketball team representing the institution now known as the University of Kentucky plays a game for the first time.
1904: Laska Durnell becomes the first female owner to start a horse in the Kentucky Derby. That horse, Elwood, wins the race.
1920: Paris High School defeats Nicholasville 32-10 at the Kentucky Wesleyan College gymnasium in Winchester to claim the championship of the first KHSAA-sanctioned Girls’ Basketball State Tournament.
1924: Coached by Bart Peak, the UK women’s basketball team completes a perfect 10-0 season and is recognized as both the champions of Kentucky and of the South.
1924: The University of Kentucky Senate passes a proposal to abolish women’s basketball because, in part, the game is deemed to be “too strenuous” for females.
1929: Coached by W.B. Jackson, Ashland High School beats Oddville 23-10 in the Girls’ Basketball State Tournament finals in UK’s Alumni Gym. It is Ashland’s fifth state title in nine years.
1931: Lexington golf star Marion Miley wins the Kentucky Women’s Amateur title for the first of what will be six times.
1932: Woodburn, a school in Warren County, runs its winning streak to 61 games and wins back-to-back state championships by beating Paintsville 25-20 in the Girls’ Basketball State Tournament championship game at UK.
1932: Prodded by U.S. First Lady Lou Henry Hoover, society turns against highly-competitive female sports. The Kentucky High School Athletic Association subsequently ceases to sponsor a girls’ basketball state tournament.
1937: Mary Hirsch becomes the first female trainer to saddle a horse in the Kentucky Derby. No Sir finishes 13th.
1941: On Sept. 28, golf star Marion Miley, 27, is shot and killed at the Lexington Country Club in an attempted robbery.
1942: Helen Hay Whitney becomes the first female owner to win the Kentucky Derby twice when Shut Out triumphs at Churchill Downs. Whitney had also owned 1931 Derby winner Twenty Grand.
1952: When Hill Gail wins the Kentucky Derby, Lucille Wright Markey of Lexington claims the first of what will be four Derby victories in her time as owner of Calumet Farm. Iron Leige (1957), Tim Tam (1958) and Forward Pass (via a disqualification in 1968) would also win the Kentucky Derby for “Mrs. Markey.”
1968: On Nov. 21, Penny Ann Early, a 23-year-old jockey, is slated to become the first woman to ride in races at Churchill Downs. Male jockeys, however, foil her breakthrough by boycotting.
1968: On Nov. 27, Penny Ann Early becomes the first female to “play” in a men’s professional basketball game. As a publicity stunt, the Kentucky Colonels of the American Basketball Association sign the 5-foot-3, 110-pound aspiring jockey. With the Colonels up 33-29 on the Los Angeles Stars, Early is inserted into the game. She inbounds the ball to Bobby Rascoe, who immediately calls timeout. Early is promptly replaced. As she leaves the floor, a crowd of 5,345 in the Louisville Gardens gives Early a standing ovation.
1970: At age 21, Diane Crump becomes the first female jockey to ride in the Kentucky Derby. She finishes 15th aboard Fathom.
1972: On June 23, President Nixon signs Title IX of the education amendments of 1972. The act proclaims that “no person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving federal financial assistance.”
1973: Businessman John Y. Brown Jr. buys the Kentucky Colonels professional basketball team. and installs his then-wife, Ellie, as chair of a 10-person, all-female board to run the Louisville-based franchise. At 33, Ellie Brown becomes the first woman to chair the board of a major American professional sports team.
1974: With Sue Feamster as head coach, the University of Kentucky gives women’s basketball varsity designation. UK goes 16-9.
1975: For the first time since 1932, the KHSAA holds a Girls’ Basketball Sweet Sixteen. Coached by Peggy Fiehrer and starring Valerie Owens, Butler beats Barren County 60-43 to win it all.
1975: McDowell High School star Geri Grigsby rifles in a state girls’ basketball single-game record 81 points vs. Feds Creek. Forty-seven years later, the record still stands.
1976: Newport High School’s Donna Murphy, the breakout star of the 1975 state tourney, is named the first Kentucky Miss Basketball.
1981: On Jan. 20, Lexington skiing star Tamara McKinney earns her first World Cup victory by claiming the giant slalom at Haute-Nendaz, Switzerland. McKinney would go on to win 17 more World Cup races.
1981: Louisville product Mary T. Meagher sets world records in both the 100-meter butterfly (57.93) and the 200 fly (2:05.96) at the U.S. Swimming National Championships.
1982: Kentucky wins the SEC women’s basketball tournament for the first time in school history with an 80-74 victory over the Tennessee Lady Vols.
1982: Beth Bates, a Williamsburg High School junior, kicks five extra points for the Yellowjackets football team. She is believed to be the first female player to score points in a Kentucky high school football game. As a senior the following season, Bates becomes the first female to kick a field goal when she makes a 22-yard attempt vs. Lynn Camp.
1983: A crowd of 10,622 jams Memorial Coliseum to see Kentucky, led by senior stars Valerie Still, Lea Wise and Patty Jo Hedges, upset No. 6 Old Dominion, 80-66. At the time, it was the largest crowd ever to see a women’s college basketball game in the U.S.
1983: After 119 career games, Valerie Still departs Lexington as Kentucky’s all-time basketball leading scorer, women’s or men’s, with 2,763 career points.
1983: Tamara McKinney claims skiing’s World Cup overall title. Across various disciplines, McKinney would finish her career with five World Cup season titles.
1984: Mary T. Meagher cements her status as swimming’s “Madame Butterfly” by winning Olympics gold medals in the 100 and 200 butterfly as well as part of Team USA’s 4-by-100 medley relay in Los Angeles.
1985: On March 23, Western Kentucky defeats Mississippi 73-68 in the women’s basketball NCAA Tournament round of eight. It earns Coach Paul Sanderford’s Lady Toppers the first Final Four trip ever by a team from the commonwealth.
1986: For the first time ever (or since), the women’s NCAA basketball tournament Final Four is held in Kentucky. In Rupp Arena, Texas beats Western Kentucky 90-65 and Southern California blasts Tennessee 83-59 in the national semifinals. Texas then topples USC, 97-81, for the title.
1988: When she saddles 14th-place finisher Kingpost, Dianne Carpenter becomes the first female trainer to have started horses in multiple Kentucky Derbys. She also trained Biloxi Indian, 12th in the 1984 Derby.
1988: UK women’s cross country wins the NCAA Division I team championship. It is the first D-I national title ever won by a women’s team from Kentucky. Lisa Breiding, Valerie McGovern, Kristy Orre, Sherry Hoover and Denise Bushallow pace the champs.
1990: Former Georgia women’s hoops star Benadette Locke is hired by Rick Pitino as an assistant coach for the Kentucky men’s basketball team.
1991: Ex-UK golfer Nancy Scranton wins an LPGA Tour major championship when she takes the du Maurier Classic at Vancouver Golf Club in Canada by three shots.
1992: The WKU Lady Toppers earn their third Final Four appearance and reach the NCAA women’s hoops national title game before falling to Stanford 78-62.
1992: Casual Lies, trained by Shelley Riley, runs second to Lil E. Tee in the Kentucky Derby. It is the highest finish to date for a female trainer in the Derby.
1993: UK freshman gymnast Jenny Hansen wins the NCAA all-around championship. It will be the first of three straight NCAA all-around titles the Wisconsin native will win at Kentucky.
1995: Bernadette Locke-Mattox is hired as the first Black women’s head basketball coach in University of Kentucky history.
1996: Pulaski County’s Heather Baker sets a Girls’ Sweet Sixteen individual-game scoring record with 46 points in an 80-56 opening-round victory over Belfry.
1996: Fort Thomas Highlands girls’ basketball star Jaime Walz ends her career with a state-record, girls or boys, 4,948 points.
2002: At Kentucky Speedway for the Belterra Casino Indy 300, Indy Racing League driver Sarah Fisher becomes the first woman to qualify on the pole position for a race in a major American motorsports series with a then-track-record lap of 221.390 miles per hour. Fisher goes on to finish eighth in the race.
2003: The University of Kentucky retires the jersey of former basketball star Valerie Still. It is the first time UK has so honored a female athlete.
2006: Former longtime Tennessee basketball assistant Mickie DeMoss coaches Kentucky to a 66-63 upset of the No. 1 Lady Vols and her old boss, Pat Summitt, before 13,689 fans in Rupp Arena.
2009: Louisville women’s hoops star Angel McCoughtry scores 21 points and grabs 13 rebounds to lead No. 3 seed U of L over No. 1 seed Oklahoma 77-60 for a berth in the NCAA Tournament Final Four. It is the first of four Final Four trips (so far) for Coach Jeff Walz’s program.
2009: On April 9, U of L star Angel McCoughtry goes No. 1 overall in the WNBA Draft to the Atlanta Dream.
2010: On Jan. 24, ex-Morehead State bowling star Kelly Kulick becomes the first woman to win a Pro Bowler’s Association men’s event when she beats Chris Barnes 265-195 in the finals of the Tournament of Champions in Las Vegas.
2010: Coached by Matthew Mitchell and led by stars Victoria Dunlap and A’dia Mathies, No. 4 seed Kentucky upsets No. 1 seed Nebraska 76-67 in the NCAA Tournament round of 16. The win earned UK the first of what became three trips to the Elite Eight in four seasons.
2012: Jockey Rosie Napravnik becomes the first female jockey to win the Kentucky Oaks at Churchill Downs aboard Believe You Can. Two years later, Napravnik wins the Oaks again on Untapable.
2012: In her Olympics debut in London, Lexington product Lee Kiefer finishes fifth in foil fencing.
2013: In one of the biggest upsets in NCAA Women’s Basketball Tournament history, No. 5 seed Louisville stuns No. 1 seed and defending national champion Baylor, led by Brittney Griner, 82-81, in the round of 16. The Cardinals end up advancing to the NCAA finals where U of L falls to Connecticut, 93-60.
2013: Rosie Napravnik rides Mylute to a fifth-place finish in the Kentucky Derby. To date, it is the best finish ever for a female jockey in the Derby.
2013: On Dec. 22, 23,706 fans pack Rupp Arena to see No. 5 Kentucky play No. 2 Duke in women’s basketball. The largest crowd ever to see a women’s hoops game in the commonwealth went home unhappy after Duke’s 69-61 win.
2014: Coach Rachel Lawson and pitcher Kelsey Nunley lead Kentucky softball to the Women’s College World Series for the first time in school history.
2015: UK retires a leotard for former gymnastics star Jenny Hansen, the second Kentucky female athlete so recognized.
2016: Jenkins High School basketball star Whitney Creech ends her career with a state-record, girls or boys, 5,527 points.
2016: On July 22, ex-Kentucky track star Kendra Harrison sets the world record in the 100-meter hurdles running 12.20 seconds in the London Muller Anniversary Games. The record still stands.
2016: Louisville Cardinals swimmer Kelsi Worrell wins a gold medal in the Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro swimming the butterfly leg for Team USA’s 4-by-100 medley relay.
2018: U of L’s third trip to the women’s basketball Final Four ends with an excruciating 73-63 overtime loss to Mississippi State in the national semifinals.
2019: On Oct. 22, the National Women’s Soccer League announces it is granting an expansion franchise to Louisville. The team, eventually named Racing Louisville FC, would become the first “major-league” professional sports franchise in the commonwealth since the ABA’s Kentucky Colonels folded in 1976.
2021: Led by Coach Craig Skinner and National Player of the Year Madison Lilley, the Kentucky Wildcats women’s volleyball team wins the NCAA championship for the COVID-19-delayed “2020 season.”
2021: University of Kentucky golfer Jensen Castle defeats Yu-Chiang Hou 2 and 1 to win the U.S. Women’s Amateur Championship.
2021: In her third Olympics, Lexington’s Lee Kiefer defeats defending champion Inna Deriglazova of Russia 15-13 in the individual foil fencing finals to win the gold medal in Tokyo. Kiefer is the only American ever to win the event.
2021: Former University of Kentucky hurdlers dominate the Tokyo Olympics. Ex-Cats Jasmine Camacho-Quinn (Olympic record 12.26 seconds while competing for Puerto Rico) and Kendra Harrison finish 1-2 in the 100-meter hurdles. Former UK star Sydney McLaughlin wins the 400-meter hurdles in a world-record time of 51.46 seconds.
2021: Ex-Sacred Heart Academy swim star Brooke Forde wins a silver medal in the Tokyo Olympics after swimming in a preliminary round for Team USA in the 4-by-200 freestyle relay.
2021: On Sept. 15, Brescia University in Owensboro hires former University of New Orleans player Sarah Gayler as its athletics director and head men’s basketball coach. Gayler becomes the first woman to coach a men’s hoops team in NAIA history.
2021: In the regular fall season of volleyball, No. 1 Louisville reaches the NCAA Tournament Final Four with a 32-0 record but is upset in the national semifinals in a five-set marathon by No. 4 Wisconsin.
2022: Kentucky stuns No. 1 and eventual NCAA champion South Carolina 64-62 in the finals of the SEC women’s basketball tournament. Coach Kyra Elzy’s Cats win on a three-point jumper by Dre’una Edwards with four seconds left. It is UK’s first SEC tourney crown in 40 years.
2022: UK basketball star Rhyne Howard becomes only the ninth women’s player in history to be named a First Team AP All-American for a third time. Howard would end her Wildcats career with 2,290 points, the second-most, female or male, in school history.
2022: Louisville’s fourth trip to the women’s hoops Final Four ends with a 72-59 loss to South Carolina in the national semifinals.
2022: On April 11, UK Hoops star Rhyne Howard goes No. 1 overall in the WNBA Draft to the Atlanta Dream.
2022: Kentucky Wildcats track and field star Abby Steiner sets a collegiate record (21.80 seconds) in the 200 meters in winning the NCAA Outdoor Track and Field national championship. Steiner scores points in four events to lead UK to a third-place team finish.
This story was originally published June 16, 2022 at 10:23 AM.
