Ohio women's basketball coach Lynn Bria's most memorable moment in sports is one she would rather forget.
Sitting out for the semester as a transfer to the University of Charleston, Bria witnessed West Virginia's Georgeann Wells' career defining moment: the first slam dunk in the history of women's collegiate basketball. And the hoops milestone came against Bria's Golden Eagles teammates.
Every time people talk about the first woman to dunk
I just kind of cringe Bria said. It's something I don't talk about often unless someone brings up Georgann Wells' name.
With 11:18 remaining in the 1984 contest and a comfortable Mountaineer lead, according to the West Virginia 2003-2004 women's basketball media guide, Lisa Ribble took the basketball out after a Charleston basket. Capitalizing on a poor rotation by the Charleston defense, Ribble heaved a pass to a streaking Wells at the other end of the floor. Wells, a native of Columbus, leaped above the rim and threw down the basketball with her right hand, completing one of the most memorable two-point field goals in the history of women's sports.
As soon as she laid it in
I thought
'Oh crap
' said Bria's teammate, Sherri Winn. I saw it coming.
It was worse than losing the game
Bria said.
Winn, then the Golden Eagles' captain and current head coach at her alma mater, said the dunk was inevitably going to happen at some point for Wells.
It was no secret that Wells, a 6-foot-7-inch center, had the ability to do the impossible. She just needed the right situation. That situation lent itself on a December evening in a small gym in Elkins, W.Va.
They had been wanting to do it for a long time
wanting to do it in a game
Bria said. You could tell they had practiced it.
Charleston's late head coach, Bud Francis, knew what Wells could do; he just did not want it to happen to his team, Bria said.
The thing that Bud said was 'It's not going to happen to us.' Sure enough
it did
Bria said.
Bria and Winn agreed that women's basketball was perceived much differently in those days than it is now.
Winn remembers the less than intimidating setting for the game: the Elkins' Randolph County Armory during the Mountaineer Christmas Classic.
They gym was so small
