“Inaugural Ballers: The True Story of the First US Women’s Olympic Basketball Team” with Andrew Maraniss

From the New York Times bestselling author Andrew Maraniss comes the inspirational true story of the birth of women’s Olympic basketball at the 1976 Summer Games and the ragtag team that put US women’s basketball on the map.

“A League of Their Own” meets “Miracle” in the inspirational true story of the first US Women’s Olympic Basketball team and their unlikely rise to the top.

Twenty years before women’s soccer became an Olympic sport and two decades before the formation of the WNBA, the ’76 US women’s basketball team laid the foundation for the incredible rise of women’s sports in America at the youth, collegiate, Olympic, and professional levels.

Though they were unknowns from small schools such as Delta State, the University of Tennessee at Martin and John F. Kennedy College of Wahoo, Nebraska, at the time of the ’76 Olympics, the American team included a roster of players who would go on to become some of the most legendary figures in the history of basketball. From Pat Head, Nancy Lieberman, Ann Meyers, Lusia “Lucy” Harris, coach Billie Moore, and beyond—these women took on the world and proved everyone wrong.

Packed with black-and-white photos and thoroughly researched details about the beginnings of US women’s basketball, “Inaugural Ballers” is the fascinating story of the women who paved the way for girls everywhere.