Playing Like a Girl: The House That Rob Built

In an era when gender discrimination in sports was the norm, Coach Selvig built a "house" of inclusion and empowerment at the University of Montana by recruiting female athletes from ranches, farms and Native reservations.

Basketball and other sports offer fun and opportunity for girls growing up in small-town and rural Montana, where it can mean hours of driving just to get to a mall or a movie. Living where buffalo might be roaming on your ball fields, an athletic scholarship to go to the University of Montana represented a dream come true for many girls, including those on Native reservations.

When the Lady Griz of the University of Montana took on California's Stanford Cardinals at home in round 2 of the NCAA Division I Midwest regional tournament in March of 1988, an overflow crowd packed Dahlberg Arena to the rafters. A heart-stopping play at the buzzer would determine whether Montana could extend its hopes for a victory into overtime.

When Coach Rob Selvig took over the Lady Griz at the University of Montana in 1978, the NCAA didn't even recognize women's basketball. The release of the Title IX regulations, starting in 1975, meant that female athletes had access to playing time, uniforms, facilities, publicity, and scholarships -- and the Lady Griz could finally move out of their tiny weight room under the stairs.