Wednesday, December 22, 2010

UConn't deny that 89 wins is amazing

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When I was at Marquette, one of my fellow students was a female basketball star named Kathy Andrykowski. She was a prolific scorer whose feats were touted by the P.R. department every time she surpassed one of the men's stars on the Warriors' all-time points list. At the time, I considered every such mention to be beyond ridiculous.

Men were men and women were women and to compare the two was dopey. One of the starting guards on our women's team was a good friend of mine and I beat her several times 1-on-1. And I pretty much sucked. So, in my immature mind, that proved a female's athletic accomplishments shouldn't be mentioned in the same breath as those of a male jock.

So here we are, some three decades later, and UConn's women's hoops team just won its 89th straight game. Which, of course, is one more victory than John Wooden's early-70s UCLA team's storied record of 88.

And while I still think it's kind of an apples-and-oranges deal, I truly do appreciate the amazing accomplishment of Geno Auriemma's Huskies.

I don't care if it's men, women or hermaphrodites. Eighty-nine wins in a row is 89 wins in a row. The Huskies deserve to be celebrated ... and if it all engenders some discussion of gender roles in sport and society, all the better.
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