Forgotten Champions

The two teams played for national championships on basketball courts about 250 miles away. While the players on the winning teams cut down the nets, they had only an inkling that the day—March 28, 1982—represented a seed change for women’s college basketball.

Rutgers defeated Texas, 83-77, in Philadelphia, the final Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (AIAW) Championship. Louisiana Tech beat Cheney, 76-62, in the NCAA’s first women’s
championships in Norfolk, Va.

Perhaps, only in retrospect, can that era be recognized and savored for its poignancy and historical significance. That has been reflected 40 years later in the documentary, Forgotten Champions, whose
editor and photographer is Neal Bennett, an assistant professor of professional practice in journalism and media studies at SC&I. Bennett is an RU alum along with co-executive producers Geoff Sadow and Jon Newman.

The doc, celebrating the anniversary of the Lady Scarlet Knights’ championship, premiered in wide release on the Big Ten Network in March 2022 after a replay of the title game. Earlier, the team had
gathered for a viewing and a panel discussion with former Rutgers head coach Theresa Grentz to discuss the 50th anniversary of Title IX and their place in Rutgers women’s basketball history.

Dom Savino, a former student of Bennett’s, is credited with the germ of the idea for the documentary. As a former general manager at WRSU, he directed the 35th-anniversary coverage for radio. According to Newman, “He contacted Geoff Sadow, Jim Berman, and me to participate in that production. That led to the concept and eventual film.” Savino is the principal Rutgers play-by-play voice on B1G+.

Scriptwriter and co-director Sue Hovey and the film crew did an excellent job of depicting RU’s AIAW championship amid the turbulent period, climaxing with the 1981-82 season when both the AIAW and NCAA represented women’s basketball. The AIAW’s efforts through the courts and negotiation failed, giving way to the deep-pocketed and media-rich NCAA. Many of the top-ranked
women’s programs—aware of the potential offered by the NCAA under Title IX—decided to forgo the AIAW’s final tournament and participate under the NCAA.

With the battle over the control of women’s sports as a backdrop, it’s easy to see why the Lady Scarlet Knights’ championship might be considered a historical footnote. However, the documentary
clearly portrays the obstacles they had to overcome to reach the title during that season and the stiff competition they faced.

“Those kids meant an awful lot to me,” said Grentz toward the end of the documentary. “And they gave me far more than I ever gave them.”