SPOKANE, Wash. — This Day In Sports…November 13, 1985, 40 years ago today:

In a game played at Spokane, Lynette Woodard becomes the first woman to play for the Harlem Globetrotters . She had scored 3,649 career points at Kansas—the most in NCAA women’s college basketball history—and was the captain of the US team that won the gold medal at the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles. Woodard scored seven points as the Globetrotters defeated their perennial opponents, the Washington Generals, 81-65.

It's been 99 years since the Globetrotters were founded (in Chicago, ironically) by their legendary owner, Abe Saperstein. When the team was formed, it would still be 20 years before Black players were allowed in pro basketball. The Globetrotters had a corner on the market, and they were wildly

See Full Page