Historical question: Did sport divisions start segregating by sex because women were beating men in competitions?

[hajario]

@ZosterSandstorm

The six-on-six, no-dribbling, no-crossing-halfcourt variant of basketball was the standard version for high school girls at one time, and lasted until as late as the 1990s in Iowa and Oklahoma.

It was in Iowa!

@ZosterSandstorm

Remember also that the NCAA did not sponsor women’s basketball until 1981, and other seemingly permanent features of the game are surprisingly recent - the three-point line did not come to high school boys’ basketball until 1987, and most states still do not use a shot clock. The NBA Finals had no live TV coverage as late as 1981. Essentially everything about “modern basketball” dates to the popularity of Johnson and Bird in the 80s and would be unrecognizable to, say, a teenager in 1971 who is young enough to be around retirement age today.

For sure. I grew up in West Los Angeles and went to Laker games with my dad starting in 1970 or so and when I was in High School in the early 80s I went to lots of Laker games with my friends. I was there at the Forum when they won it all in 1982.

Unless they were playing the Celtic or the 76ers or something, lots of tickets were available on game day and you got half price tickets with student ID so it cost $3.50 for a cheap seat and you could always sneak down to better seats. I sat courtside once because someone didn’t show up.

As I mentioned above, I was at Game 6 of the finals when they won it all. My seat was at half court about right in front of the press box. I bought my ticket from a scalper for $35, about a day’s pay at minimum wage.

[OldGuy]

Here’s a history of women’s basketball rules. It was for a long time quite different from men’s.

http://fs.ncaa.org/Docs/stats/w_basketball_RB/2019/Rules_History.pdf

[msmith537]

@peccavi

One advantage that most people don’t think about can be demonstrated by the following competition:

Participants stand with up against against a wall. A piece of paper is placed on the floor about 2-3 feet from the wall (at least, I think it’s just a piece of paper- a bunch of bored grad students, including me, tried this one day). The challenge is to bend from the waist, keeping heels and butt against the wall and…pick up the paper.

It was amazing to see the fittest men fail while all the women accomplished it easily.

More a “curiosity” than “amazing” IMHO.

@Der_Trihs

Women have more flexible tendons, ligaments, and muscles than men in general. It’s an “engineering” tradeoff; greater flexibility in return for lesser strength, while men are stronger but stiffer.

Um…phrasing?

[DrDeth]

@Telemark

A common t-shirt at ultramarathons says Here for the Women’s Race.

DrDeth:

Okay. I see.