1982 AIAW Championship game available to watch for first time (link)

[RUJON]

As some of you know, a group of Rutgers alums and I have been working on a documentary film on the 1982 "Lady Knights" who won the last AIAW championship, one of the few team championships in Rutgers history.

In our research we discovered the actual coaches film of the game. Since there was no TV coverage this is the only visual record of the game played against Texas at the Palestra.

We restored the film, digitized it and married it with the WRSU play-by-play of the game. We are planning to use it as a base of the film but given what is going on, the lack of sports and our collective March Madness void we have decided to make the game available for a limited time on YouTube.

Starting TODAY at 3pm ET the game will be available here

Members of the team will be live tweeting at 3 using the hashtag #1982AIAW

It will be live until Sunday April 5th.

Please enjoy. Also to find out more about the film and to make a donation please go to www.forgottenchampions.com

Best,

Jon

 

[Loyal_2RU]

Very cool Thank you.

 

[RUJON]

Bumping with updated info in original post

 

[RUJON]

Bump as we get close to 3pm. Enjoy.

 

[PiscatawayMike]

Thanks Jon! Enjoying this! The video quality is surprisingly good.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1982_AIAW_National_Division_I_Basketball_Championship

 

[hoquat63]

Great -thanks

 

[RUJON]

Thanks so much. It’s is the actual coaches game film that was in Coach Grentz’s basement for 35 years.

 

[ColonelRutgers]

Good stuff. Now about that officiating...jeez.

 

[rutger80]

Great job! Jogged a lot of old brain cells that's for sure.

 

[satnom]

As some of you know, a group of Rutgers alums and I have been working on a documentary film on the 1982 "Lady Knights" who won the last AIAW championship, one of the few team championships in Rutgers history.

In our research we discovered the actual coaches film of the game. Since there was no TV coverage this is the only visual record of the game played against Texas at the Palestra.

We restored the film, digitized it and married it with the WRSU play-by-play of the game. We are planning to use it as a base of the film but given what is going on, the lack of sports and our collective March Madness void we have decided to make the game available for a limited time on YouTube.

Starting TODAY at 3pm ET the game will be available here

View embedded media

Members of the team will be live tweeting at 3 using the hashtag #1982AIAW

It will be live until Sunday April 5th.

Please enjoy. Also to find out more about the film and to make a donation please go to www.forgottenchampions.com

Best,

Jon

If anyone knows what was the difference between AIAW and NCAA back in the day. I was thinking about this after watching the documentary of Cheryl Miller and USC program and their championships? In the documentary they showed the rankings I believe from ‘84 or ‘85 with LA Tech and USC 1 and 2 and noticed RU was 15 or so. Were there two separate champions in ‘82 or multiple?

GO RU

 

[RUJON]

1982 was the only year the two organizations existed for women’s sports.

At the beginning of that year schools decided which championship they would play for.

the AIAW ended after that season.

 

[rutger80]

1982 was the only year the two organizations existed for women’s sports.

At the beginning of that year schools decided which championship they would play for.

the AIAW ended after that season.

Most of the major powers at the time went to the NCAA tournament.

 

[satnom]

1982 was the only year the two organizations existed for women’s sports.

At the beginning of that year schools decided which championship they would play for.

the AIAW ended after that season.

Interesting. What was the crux for the split? Money, regions, exposure, conferences, school size? And why so short period of a split?

I remember Grentz was a highly regarded coach and then went off to the U. Of ILL.

GO RU

 

[Source]

Most of the major powers at the time went to the NCAA tournament.

There was no NCAA Women's Basketball Championship until 1982. The AIAW (Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women) began holding National Championships in 1972 and concluded with the 1982 Tournament.

Essentially, the NCAA didn't catch up to women's college basketball until the 1980s. They benefited off of the interest the AIAW created earlier. Once the NCAA decided to commit to women's basketball (and other sports) the AIAW quickly realized they were in no position to challenge the NCAA and folded the following year.

 

[hoquat63]

1982 was the only year the two organizations existed for women’s sports.

At the beginning of that year schools decided which championship they would play for.

the AIAW ended after that season.

Yes before that year the NCAA did not have a women’s tournament. When the NCAA got involved it killed the older tournament, just like the expansion of the NCAA tournament eliminated the NIT from being a major event

 

[RUJON]

1789 fans saw the game live 38 years ago. So far we’ve had the same number of YouTube views.

thanks to everyone who have watched so far.

 

[MadRU]

Strange seeing refs in skirts

 

[Antnee79]

Great job, Jon! The restoration and digitization of the film really made it an enjoyable watch, and Jim and Jeff's radio call on WRSU was terrific! As a WRSU sports department alum, I appreciated how accurate and descriptive their play by play calls were. Kudos to all whose labor of love brought this to fruition. Looking forward to the full documentary.

 

[RUJON]

Thanks so much @Antnee79. We all learned from the best. :)

 

[phlop87]

That was great to watch. Thanks for putting that together. I sent it to a friend ( who played here but had graduated a few years earlier) and was shocked to hear that her younger sister was on the team ... although didn’t play in the game

 

[RUJON]

@phlop87 Thanks so much. More than 2300 views so far.

 

[bac2therac]

thank you for this, even as a 12 year old, I was following the Lady Knights success in the 80s well before I became a fan of the men's team or was even aware of them. I know someone has a few games online of some of the games in the 80s and early 90s that used to appear on local cable....is there more of these games out there...is there a vid of that insane Caroline De Roose game vs Penn State and Tennessee too

 

[ImBadRU]

I was there. Graduated in 1981. Cried like a baby when we won. My friend from Columbus, Ohio and OSU graduate was like...wut is wrong with you? I said its our first national championship. He still didn't get it.

 

[hoquat63]

I was there. Graduated in 1981. Cried like a baby when we won. My friend from Columbus, Ohio and OSU graduate was like...wut is wrong with you? I said its our first national championship. He still didn't get it.

Actually we had a national championship in fencing in the 40’s

 

[Source]

Actually we had a national championship in fencing in the 40’s

NCAA men's fencing was an NCAA sponsored sport from 1941 to 1989. The women had separate championships from 1981-89 and since 1990 it has become a co-ed team sport.

Rutgers and Army tied with team scores of 63-63 and were declared Co-National Champions in 1949. The finals were held at West Point. Ralph Tedeschi (Rutgers), Richard Bowman (Army) and Alex Treves (Rutgers) were champions in foil, epee, and sabre respectively.

Men's only tournament champions: NYU had 12; Columbia 11; Wayne State 7; Navy and Notre Dame 3; Illinois and Penn 2.

This year's championships have been cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic.

 

[Source]

1789 fans saw the game live 38 years ago. So far we’ve had the same number of YouTube views. thanks to everyone who have watched so far.

RUJON,

Watched last night. Great job putting this together, Jim and Jeff's announcing and the WRSU audio sync up with the video and loved the occasional trivia facts that appeared in the crawl. It might have helped me follow along if that crawl identified the player and uniform number when there was a foul OR a font of the players and their numbers at the start to help follow along.

This is only a suggestion and certainly not a criticism. Again, congratulations and look forward to the documentary!

 

[RUJON]

@Source Thanks. BTN is going to pick it up as a hour-long Rutgers Classic. They will be adding in their own graphics package which will hopefully include that. Geoff is editing this in his basement and as you know the editing and rendering is a bear. :)

 

[Source]

@Source Thanks. BTN is going to pick it up as a hour-long Rutgers Classic. They will be adding in their own graphics package which will hopefully include that. Geoff is editing this in his basement and as you know the editing and rendering is a bear. :)

Amazing quality for a basement project.

 

[knights1212]

I just watched this. That is an amazing job. It was most enjoyable. I remember in the late 70's and early 80's when RU often had a doubleheader with the women & men's games. My wife and I often enjoyed those times. The women were so good for so many years.

 

[RUJON]

Thanks @knights1212