How Far We’ve Come
Celebrating 50 Years of Women’s Sports at DU
“Be happy with what you have” is what women’s basketball head coach Doshia Woods recalls being told during her collegiate playing career in the late 90s and early 2000s.
“I think then it was just a lot of ‘be grateful that you have the opportunity’,” Woods explains, referring to the chance to play basketball beyond high school.
No longer is that the case. At a time when women’s sports are undeniably having a moment—at DU and across the country—Woods has seen that message she heard more than two decades ago at Western Illinois University transform into something much greater.
“Now female athletes are able to push the envelope a little bit more. You can say, ‘I’m grateful for this opportunity, but I also want to maximize the opportunity that I have,’ and they have a chance to do that,” says Woods, who is entering her fifth season at the helm of the women’s basketball team."
Fifty years after women’s teams started competing at DU, it’s time to look back at how far we’ve come—and where we’re going from here. Here's a decade-by-decade look at key events in DU's women's sports history.
1970s
’70 DU sanctions its first women’s varsity programs—basketball, field hockey, gymnastics, skiing and tennis—as members of the Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (AIAW).
Diane Wendt is appointed DU’s first director of women’s athletics and later as senior associate athletics director.
’79 DU launches its varsity women’s swimming program.
1980s
’81 Joy Burns joins the University’s Board of Trustees, serving as the first woman board chair from 1990-2005 and 2007-2009 before she retired in 2017.
’82 Gymnastics becomes the first women’s program to be crowned national champions.
’83 Gymnastics wins another national championship and becomes a Division I program in 1984—the first women’s sport to do so at Denver.
1990s
’92 Lacrosse has its first season.
’93 Basketball qualifies for the NCAA Division II Tournament for the first time.
’97 Burns is inducted into the DU Sports Hall of Fame.
’98 Golf enters its first season of competition.
’99 DU Athletics becomes a Division I program.
Melissa Kutcher-Rinehart is hired as the head gymnastics coach.
University of Denver Women's Tennis Player, between 1974-1980
University of Denver Women's Tennis Player, between 1974-1980
University of Denver Women's Field Hockey Match, between 1979-1983
University of Denver Women's Field Hockey Match, between 1979-1983
Pioneers women's gymnastics team member performs an arabesque on a balance beam in the DU Field House Arena between 1985-1990.
Pioneers women's gymnastics team member performs an arabesque on a balance beam in the DU Field House Arena between 1985-1990.
University of Denver Women's Swim Team, between 1980-1985
University of Denver Women's Swim Team, between 1980-1985
University of Denver vs. Colorado College Women's Soccer Match, 1985 September 29
University of Denver vs. Colorado College Women's Soccer Match, 1985 September 29
University of Denver Ski Team Member, between 1990-2000
University of Denver Ski Team Member, between 1990-2000
University of Denver Women's Basketball Game, 1982
University of Denver Women's Basketball Game, 1982
University of Denver Women's Golf Team, between 1998-2000
University of Denver Women's Golf Team, between 1998-2000
University of Denver (DU) Pioneers women's lacrosse player Erin Evans vies for control of the ball during a match against Whittier College in 2000.
University of Denver (DU) Pioneers women's lacrosse player Erin Evans vies for control of the ball during a match against Whittier College in 2000.
2000s
’00 The co-ed ski team earns its first D-I national title since 1971.
’01 Basketball and soccer advance to the NCAA Division I Tournament for the first time.
Gymnastics earns its first-ever bid to the NCAA National Championship.
Kutcher-Rinehart’s 26-season tenure has included 25 consecutive appearances at NCAA Regionals and six NCAA Nationals team berths.
’04 Golf wins the school’s first-ever Sun Belt Conference Golf Championship, and tennis finishes 20-2 on the season, earning its first-ever NCAA tournament appearance.
2010s
’13 Lacrosse advances to the NCAA Tournament for the first time in program history and records its first tournament win over Jacksonville.
’14 Volleyball qualifies for the NCAA Tournament for the first time in program history.
’19 Basketball wins its first NCAA postseason game in a Women’s National Invitation Tournament (WNIT) victory against top-seeded New Mexico.
Alicia Hicken-Franklin is hired to lead the men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams.
2020s
’20 DU welcomes women’s triathlon as its 18th varsity sport.
’21 Gymnastics wins its first Big 12 Conference Championship and lacrosse wins its first Big East Tournament title.
’23 Lacrosse completes a perfect regular season with a 17-0 record and advances to the program’s first-ever NCAA Championship Semifinal.
Looking ahead
Woods, along with fellow head coaches Liza Kelly (lacrosse), Alicia Hicken-Franklin (swimming and diving) and Melissa Kutcher-Rinehart (gymnastics), see a bright future ahead, for the female athletes at DU and women’s sports more broadly.
“As a woman in sport, for so many years, you never saw women on TV—that wasn’t a thing," Hicken-Franklin says. "So, just knowing the girls that are growing up now are seeing [female athletes on TV regularly] is powerful."
Woods sees this moment as time to build on the momentum and keep moving the needle forward to increase opportunity for women, at the collegiate level and beyond.
Kelly agrees. “I want young girls to dream bigger than where we are right now and know that they can stand on the shoulders of these incredible women who went first, that truly were pioneers, that pushed the envelope, that demanded attention and support—and to use their platform to continue to grow women’s sports.”
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