Women’s college basketball stealing headlines from men creating Title IX success stories

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Drexel University's Women's Basketball

PHILADELPHIA - The 2024 Women’s College Basketball Championship marks a new day for women’s basketball and potentially for women’s sports. 

Members of Drexel University’s Women’s Basketball team worked on their passing, setting picks and 3-pointers in the Drexel University gym the day after women’s basketball endured a coming of age. 

Amy Mallon, Head Coach of Drexel University’s Women’s Basketball, believes "coming of age" is an apt description of what happened this weekend. 

"I think just to where it has come from to be part of it, Title 9, see all the things all the opportunities I’ve had as a player, play professionally, an opportunity to get a scholarship and now all the opportunities beyond that for women’s college basketball." Mallon told FOX 29’s Jeff Cole,

The head coach has lived the rise of the game she loves. A college standout, a professional player in the U.S and overseas, and now leading Drexel’s program, Mallon, in her early 50s, wondered if the day would ever come. 

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"I don’t know if you thought it would actually happen, but you always had the hope--continue to fight for certain things. You just want equal opportunities," she said. 

But the day did come in the form of a women’s college championship series starring Philly’s own Dawn Staley, head coach for the South Carolina Gamecocks and the phenom from Iowa, Caitlin Clark. 

The women’s games became "appointment-viewing" for women and men, drawing record viewership with its stars appearing in commercials during breaks in the action. 

Coach Mallon believes Staley’s coaching style of sharing the ball and putting the team above all else, are part of the draw as she said young girls were watching. 

Malon said, "they think I can do that. I can be that. You talk about the Michal Jordan commercials, Be Like Mike. Girls say I want to be like Caitlan Clark. I want to be Dawn Staley."