Celebrate women's sports in Miami by honoring these incredible athletes, teams, and milestones
Women’s sports have unfortunately always been excluded from the mainstream narrative, and women athletes' achievements are not nearly celebrated enough. Miami's women athletes and women's sports, in general, deserve more recognition and acknowledgment, and we're going to do that by taking a look at some big moments over the past few decades.
Most prolific moments from women's sports in Miami that we need to celebrate more:
The University of Miami was the first to hand out athletic scholarships to women
University of Miami (UM) was the first-ever school to hand out athletic scholarships to women all the way back in 1973. They were the pioneers of athletic women's scholarships in the nation, giving women a chance to show off their skills and talent and share their athletic abilities with the world. They helped facilitate generations of women athletes and even many teams, including basketball, rowing, and many Olympians who started their professional careers here.
There's no denying the imperative role that UM played in furthering women's sports in Miami, and here's a tribute video by TMZ that talks about the Title IX scholarship.
The UM Basketball team built themselves up from nothing
As we mentioned, UM facilitated some of the best athletic opportunities in the world, including their women's basketball team, which has spent the last 50 years working its way to becoming champions. The team has been through multiple phases and stages of growth, including their foundation years from 1973-1978, becoming champions as members of the elite ACC and other opportunities. Today they're one of the most well-respected collegiate basketball teams, having produced some star players.
The first-ever Miami Open in Boca Raton featured an incredible sold-out match where the Navratilova-Evert rivalry came to a head. The iconic rivalry between these tennis stars peaked when Navratilova defeated Evert at the Miami Open, even though it has been continuing since the 1970s. It's considered the greatest rivalry in women's sports like tennis and the world of sports in general, and Miami Open got to witness that in one of the most intense forms, which is why it made incredible headlines. Out of the 80 matches these star athletes have played against each other, 60 were finals, including the Miami Open.
Kim Ng became the first female general manager of a Big Four leagues team
While it's not related to women's sports directly, we had to have an honorary mention for Kim Ng, who is the first-ever woman and person of East Asian descent in the role of a general manager in a Big Four leagues team. In 2017 Adweek ranked her as one of the most powerful women in sports today.
To say that these are some of the many iconic moments in Miami's sports history for women is an understatement. There are dozens of more incredible moments that we need to celebrate year after year.
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