San Francisco Pioneers

Women’s Professional Basketball League (1979-1981)

Tombstone

Born: 1979 – WPBL expansion franchise
Folded: Postseason 1981

First Game: November 15, 1979 (W 94-73 @ Washington Metros)
Last Game: March 31, 1981 (W 122-61 vs. Minnesota Fillies)

WPBL Championships: None

Arena

San Francisco Civic Auditorium (5,141)
Opened: 1915

Marketing

Team Colors: Columbia Blue & Gold

Ownership

Owners: Marshall Geller, et al.

mad seasons

The Story of the First Women’s Professional Basketball League, 1978-1981

by Karra Porter

As the popularity of women’s basketball burgeons, Karra Porter reminds us in Mad Seasons that today’s Women’s National Basketball Association, or WNBA, had its origins in a ragtag league twenty years earlier. Porter tells the story of the Women’s Professional Basketball League WBL, which pioneered a new era of women’s sports.

Karra Porter brings to life the pioneers of the WBL: “Machine Gun” Molly Bolin, who set lasting scoring records—then faced an historic custody battle because of her basketball career; Connie Kunzmann, a popular player whose murder rocked the league; Liz Silcott, whose remarkable talents masked deeper problems off the court; Ann Meyers, who went from an NBA tryout to the league she had rebuffed; Nancy Lieberman, whose flashy play and marketing savvy were unlike anything the women’s game had ever seen.

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Background

The San Francisco Pioneers were an expansion franchise in the Women’s Professional Basketball League. The team opened for business with the league’s sophomore season in the fall of 1979. The WPBL was the first attempt to start a professional women’s basketball league in the United States, so the Pioneers nickname was apt.

Stockbroker Marshall Geller and his partners – who included actors Alan Alda of M*A*S*H* and Mike Connors of Mannix – acquired the club for a $100,000 expansion fee.

1979-80 Debut Season

The Pioneers came on strong at the end of the 1979-80 season and made the playoffs with an 18-18 record. They defeated the defending champion Houston Angels in the quarterfinal round before losing to the eventual champion New York Stars in the semis. Former UCLA star Anita Ortega finished fourth in the league in scoring with 24.1 points per game. Marshall Geller was named the league’s “Owner-of-the-Year”, as the Pioneers finished near the top of the league in attendance at the San Francisco Civic Auditorium.

Sophomore Season Turmoil

Internal conflicts roiled the club during the Pioneers’ second season. Geller fired Head Coach and General Manager Frank LaPorte two months into the season and replaced him with former NBA player Dean Meminger. Meminger was the league’s Coach-of-the-Year the previous season after leading the New York Stars to the 1980 WPBL title. But the Stars went out of business leaving Meminger available. Pat Mayo, a tri-captain and fan favorite featured on the cover of the team’s 1980-81 yearbook (top of page), was so disgruntled with the situation that she retired from basketball at age 23 shortly after Meminger’s arrival. Meminger soon dismantled the rest of the unhappy bunch. By the season’s midway point only four players remained from the Pioneers’ opening night roster.

One new arrival was “Machine Gun” Molly Bolin, one of the league’s top scorers and self-promoters. She printed up posters at her own expense and sold them at games. The posters of the attractive blonde star became sought after souvenirs in cities around the league. Bolin was available at mid-season because she had signed on with a rival women’s league called the Ladies Professional Basketball Association in late 1980. The LPBA went belly up after just a handful of games and Meminger quickly called Bolin in to San Francisco in January 1981. Bolin was so highly regarded in the league that she was picked for the February 1981 WPBL All-Star Game in Albuquerque. This despite playing in the league for less than a month after her return from the LPBA. She led all scorers in the game with 29 points.

The End

The late season tinkering wasn’t enough to right the ship. The Pioneers finished out of playoff contention a disappointing 14-22 in 1980-81. Following the season, the WPBL drifted into a state of limbo. The league cancelled its college draft in June 1980 and various clubs quietly shut down. No formal announcement was ever made, but the Women’s Professional Basketball League was done after three seasons.