New England Gulls

Women’s Professional Basketball League (1980-1981)

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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 New England Gulls were a train wreck of a women’s basketball franchise that operated for two months in December 1980 and January 1981. It was no fault of the players, of course. And the Gulls had some outstanding ones, including 6′ 3″ center Althea Gwynn and Canadian National Teamer Chris Critelli. Former Boston Celtics star “Jungle” Jim Loscutoff was the Head Coach (briefly).

The Gulls’ problems started and ended with owner Joseph Reither. The Massachusetts liquor store owner was allergic to making payroll and had an antagonistic relationship with the Gulls’ players.

Player Protests

By the second month of the 1980-81 season, the Gulls were in disarray.  During the first week of January 1981, Loscutoff was either fired or quit with the team 0-6. 24-year old assistant coach Dana Skinner took over and led the Gulls to a couple of quick wins. But Skinner’s primary duty seemed to be to negotiate with Reither on behalf of the starving Gulls players. The team went unpaid for weeks. Many players couldn’t afford rent, gas or groceries.  During a January 8th, 1981 home game against the Minnesota Fillies, the Gulls wore black patches on their jerseys and walked off the court in protest.  They were coaxed back to play after Skinner was able to secure a few hundred dollars from the gate receipts.

One week later, the Gulls were due to play at the Cumberland County Civic Center in Portland, Maine.  According to a 2011 Boston Globe retrospective, Reither promised  to put some marketing muscle behind the event, a “home” game played far from their usual venue at Merrimack College’s Volpe Athletic Center in North Andover, Massachusetts.  A packed house in the big arena would allow the owner to get current on his salary obligations to the players. But when Skinner traveled up to Portland a week in advance to look at the building, he found that the Civic Center authorities had no idea what he was talking about. Reither hadn’t even booked the arena, according to Skinner, let alone organized the promised promotions.

On the night of the Portland match, only about 100 fans drifted around the arena.  For the Gulls it was the last empty promise.  Reither stood on one sideline and the Gulls’ players on the other in a standoff over playing the game.  Finally, Reither relented and offered the team the gate receipts of $500 – with the stipulation they had to pay the game officials out of their own pockets.  That was the last straw for the Gulls, who trudged back to the bus and rode home.  The game was ruled a forfeit in favor of their opponents, the San Francisco Pioneers.

Closure

Five days later, Women’s Professional Basketball League Commissioner Sherwin Fischer kicked the Gulls out of the league, The decision that was re-affirmed by an 8-0 vote of the other franchises one week later on January 27, 1981.  The Gulls became the league’s third franchise to fold in midseason in the span of 13 months.

The remaining members of the Women’s Basketball League managed to finish out the 1981 season but  the league went out of business soon afterwards.

In Memoriam

Center Althea Gwyn passed away on January 9th, 2022.

Downloads

1980-81 New England Gulls Game Results & Attendance

Links

“Disorder On The Court”, T.D. Thornton, The Boston Globe, January 16, 2011

Women’s Professional Basketball League Media Guides

Women’s Basketball League Programs

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