Women's Basketball: The Early Years

Women’s basketball at Lehigh was founded in 1974 by Helen Bond. She was the assistant director of women’s athletics at Lehigh and was responsible for founding many of the women’s sports teams here. Bond explains the first few years of women’s basketball by noting that “it was hard to make other schools aware that the University had a women’s team.” The women’s team was forced to seek out any competition that was available to play competitive games. Initially the team had open tryouts an accepted any girl who came to the school with prior basketball experience. Their first game was played on January 29, 1975 against Centenary, which Lehigh won 48-21. The team ended up with a record of 2-5 that first year. All of their home games before playing 1979 when they moved to Stabler Arena were played in Taylor Gym.