James Naismith had invented basketball in 1891, but it took almost ten years for the game to make its way to the South. On Saturday, January 13, 1900, it is said that Eleanore Norvell initiated the first women’s basketball game at UT. The Ideson and Whitis coed teams played four rudimentary 10-minute quarters in the basement of the old Main Building. Whitis won by a final score of 3-2. This first game set into motion the emergence of basketball as a popular sport at UT, especially among women.

 

Photo credit: Dolph Briscoe Center for American History, The University of Texas at Austin,di_07883; Whitis Basket Ball Team, circa 1900 from the Cactus