1979 Iowa Cornets v Houston Angels Womens Basketball League Finals Program #FWIL

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1979 Iowa Cornets v Houston Angels Womens Basketball League Finals Program #FWIL
1979 Iowa Cornets v Houston Angels Womens Basketball League Finals Program #FWIL
From the FunWhileItLasted.net collection (#FWIL) of defunct sports team memorabilia...
This is a truly incredible find for the hard-core Women's Pro Basketball collector or historian:
This modest four-page sheet is a game program from the first ever championship of women's pro basketball in the United States!  The 1979
WOMEN'S BASKETBALL LEAGUE
championship series between the
IOWA CORNETS
(1978-1980) and the visiting
HOUSTON ANGELS
(1978-1980).
Interesting story behind this program. Unlike the other teams during the inaugural season of the WBL, the Cornets had chosen to barnstorm all across their state during the regular season. In addition to playing games at big arenas in Des Moines and Cedar Rapids, the team also played a half dozen or so games at high school gyms around the state in places like Ottumwa, Ankeny and Council Bluffs. They even played one game in a junior high gym.
For the playoff semi-finals, Cornets management angered league officials by hosting games their home games against the Chicago Hustle at a high school gym in Ankeny. This decision reportedly cost the league a chance to have a playoff televised in the important Chicago market because WGN TV, the cable superstation who broadcast some Hustle games, wouldn't set up production in a small town gym (but had been willing to broadcast from either Des Moines or Cedar Rapids).
So for the finals, league officials forbade the Cornets from playing in Ankeny again. On short notice, the Cornets move Game #3 (April 23, 1979) to the sparkling new Five Seasons Center in Cedar Rapids and Game #4 (April 26, 1979) to Veterans Memorial Auditorium in Des Moines. But all of the ad space had already been sold to small businesses in Ankeny (which, while close to Des Moines, is over 100 miles away from Cedar Rapids).
It's not clear whether this program was sold at the 4/23 game (played before an announced crowd of 2,250 in C.R.) or the 4/26 game (before 2,317 in Des  Moines).  Either way, it's a remarkable find and a rare relic from the earliest foundations of the women's pro game in this country.
Rosters for both teams.
4 pages. Very Good condition. The numbers "41" and "51" are written in a ballpoint pen on the interior roster sheet. There is a light vertical crease on the back page.
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