St. Louis Streak

Women’s Professional Basketball League (1979-1981)

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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 St. Louis Streak were a two-season entry in the pioneering Women’s Professional Basketball League (1978-1981), the first professional hoops league for female players.  The Streak entered the WPBL as an expansion franchise during the league’s second season and played their home games at Kiel Auditorium, the former home of the NBA’s St. Louis Hawks.

Liz The Whiz

The Streak’s finest player was a 28-year old first-time pro from Canada named Liz Silcott. “Liz The Whiz” had a tempestuous history in Canada. National Team officials there repeatedly dropped and reinstated her from the squad during the 1970’s. Silcott was viewed by many as an emotionally troubled, un-coachable player who loathed practice and had little interest in defense. She was also, without doubt, one of the most talented players of her era.  Silcott didn’t play during the first season of the WBL in 1978-79, but signed a $6,000 contract to play for St. Louis in the 1979-80 season.

“The Worst That Ever Lived”

Silcott’s dreadful habits were on full display in the Streak’s training camp. She quickly came to loggerheads with the team’s fire-breathing Head Coach Larry Gillman. Gillman was a 30-year screamer from the men’s college ranks. Streak players viewed him with a mixture of fear and loathing, according to Karra Porter, author of the definitive WPBL history, Mad Seasons.

“<Gillman> is the worst that ever lived,” former University of Maryland star Martha Hastings put it simply to Porter, describing her experience with the Streak in their first season.  Others were harsher.

“Let me tell you the man had “666” written across his skull,” former Streak player Ann Platte told Porter.

Silcott went home to Canada in training camp and the Streak started their debut season 0-4 without her.  Then Silcott returned in late 1979 and led the Streak on a 10-2 run, which included a league record 50-point performance at home against the Minnesota Fillies.  The local press began to take notice of the team. The attention offered a public platform for Silcott and Gillman to continue their bickering.

Silcott Trade & Aftermath

By February 1980, the Streak were contenders, but coach and star were at a breaking point.  Silcott, the WPBL’s leading scorer at 33.1 ppg, was shipped off to the San Francisco Pioneers for a lowly 5th round draft pick and a role player who refused to report to St. Louis.  Essentially, the Streak gave Silcott for nothing.  Without Liz the Whiz, the Streak collapsed and finished in last place with a 15-21 record.

Silcott finished the season on the suspended list for the San Francisco Pioneers after exhibiting the same recurring behavioral problems in her new surroundings.  She finished her rookie season as the WPBL’s second leading scorer  – and never played another pro game.  In 1986, a former college professor spotted Silcott living in Montreal’s Dorval Airport and muttering incoherently about confronting the Prime Minister of Canada.  She was later diagnosed with a long-standing psychiatric illness.  According to Mad Seasons author Karra Porter, as of the mid-2000’s, Silcott lived in a group home in Canada, on medication and a disability pension and with little memory of her basketball career.

Demise

The Streak came back for a second season under Larry Gillman and fielded a team with eight rookies.  The team started 1-13 and, despite a late season turnaround, finished out of the playoffs with a 14-21 record.  The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported (4/19/1981) that the Streak averaged 1,600 fans per game that year, which ranked fourth in the league. At the end of the 1980-81 season, the Streak folded along with the rest of the WBL.

Streak owner Vince Gennaro was a young businessman with a passion for baseball and data analytics.  He became an early champion of the Sabermetrics movement in baseball.   Today he is the President of the Society for American Baseball Research (SABR) and a consultant to Major League Baseball clubs.

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Links

Women’s Professional Basketball League Media Guides

Women’s Basketball League Programs

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