Marshall University Athletics
BOGACZYK: History-Making Dennis Still Giving Assists
7/30/2015 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
By JACK BOGACZYK
HERDZONE.COM COLUMNIST
HUNTINGTON, Va. - Like most of the black basketball players of her era, Brenda Dennis wore an Afro during her years on the floor ââ'¬Â¦ Think Dr. J.
Maybe, however, Dennis should have also sported a coonskin cap.
The point guard from some of the earliest teams in Marshall women's basketball history - the "Green Gals" -- definitely was a pioneer.
The 5-foot-8 Dennis, from Louisville, Ky., starred for Coach Donna Lawson's teams from 1971-72 through '74-75. She was inducted to the MU Athletics Hall of Fame in 1988.
But it was after that when Brenda Creyvonne Dennis made history.
Over more than a century, how many Marshall athletes can say they have been the first to accomplish something in historical fashion ââ'¬Â¦ the first of anything ââ'¬Â¦ something no one can ever do again?
On Dec. 8, 1978, at the MECCA in downtown Milwaukee, Dennis started at point guard for the Milwaukee Does against the Chicago Hustle in the inaugural Women's Professional Basketball League game. The league known as the WBL started with eight teams and was the first women's pro basketball league in U.S. history.
Twenty-six seconds into the game at the home of the NBA's Milwaukee Bucks and the Marquette program that two seasons earlier had become an NCAA champion under Coach Al McGuire, the southpaw Dennis made the first assist in women's pro hoops history.
It was a pass to guard Joanie "Baby J" Smith, who hit a mid-range jumper from the left baseline.
"I do feel like a pioneer," Dennis said, "and I'm really proud to have been part of something special at the start. And when you watch the WNBA today and see how far women's basketball has come, those players do amazing things.
"To feel like you were a part of getting that started ââ'¬Â¦ The WBL kind of got it out in public. It was a start, and now the game has grown so much."
It was a Saturday afternoon -- 1:44 p.m. Central Time to be exact -- when Smith hit the first basket in American women's pro basketball history. Dennis remembers the game - Chicago won, 92-87, before 7,824 curious fans -- like it was yesterday.
"I didn't even think of it at the time as something that was a first," said the animal-loving and retired Dennis, 64, who lives these days in Charlotte, N.C., with her five dogs and four cats. "I can still see it though. Joanie was open. I was at the top of the key and I could have shot it, but she had a better shot, so I made the pass."
The short-lived WBL, a forerunner to today's WNBA, gained its most notoriety when flashy guard Nancy Lieberman joined the league in 1980-81, its final season. It started with teams in Milwaukee; Chicago; New York; Houston; Minneapolis; Des Moines, Iowa; Dayton, Ohio; and Elizabeth, N.J.
Dennis played two WBL seasons for the Does, whose original logo was a busty female dear, with a hairdo and eyelashes, standing on her back high-hooves, clad in short-shorts and jersey, dribbling a basketball.
The league lasted only three seasons.
Dennis already was three years removed from her Marshall graduation when she went "I think it was to somewhere in Ohio" for a WBL tryout. She received a letter asking her to tryout, but at the time she was working for Ashland Oil.
"(Marshall teammate) Jody Lambert and I first read about a pro league starting," Dennis said. "I wasn't going to go, but the league kept writing to me and finally I decided to do it. and I kind of figured if I didn't go (try out), I'd always wonder if I could have made it ââ'¬Â¦ I don't remember how they determined who would play for which team.
"I remember we had to report in October for training camp. We stayed in dorms, and it was different, getting used to that all over again, with new people."
Dennis averaged 15 points per game in her first WBL season and ranked third in the league in assists. But after two seasons, she knew she was done.
"They were having trouble paying players," Dennis said. "Not just us, all of the teams. The other players were younger than me. Ashland Oil told me I could come back, and so I did."
Dennis, who coached and taught physical education at Ashland's Holy Family School right after graduation, had come to Marshall at the suggestion of fellow MU Hall of Famer Bev Duckwyler. The two met while playing AAU basketball.
Dennis had played at Loretto High School in Louisville, then spent one year attending Jefferson Community College in her hometown. She didn't play basketball there, but did play for the AAU Louisville Rebels. So, she came to Marshall's AIAW program with four seasons of eligibility -- and made the most of it.
"The public schools in Louisville didn't play girls' basketball then," Dennis said. "I was from a family of six kids and I chose to go to a Catholic school and play. We played with six players (former female basketball rules) in my freshman year, then went to five my sophomore year."
Dennis wasted no time impressing on the collegiate level.
In the season opener of her freshman season (1971-72), Dennis led all scorers with 17 points in Marshall's 47-41 victory at Bowling Green. She scored double figures in 16 of 22 games for the 21-1 Green Gals, who started 20-0 before losing to Calvin (Mich.) in the AIAW Midwest Regional. Dennis' 14.5-point scoring average led the Gals that season.
That teams defeated Pitt, Kentucky, Cincinnati and Louisville, throttling Dennis' hometown school in two meetings by 50 and 31 points.
Marshall's program began in 1970-71, and Dennis likely would have become the school's first 1,000-point career scorer. However, she did something during her sophomore year (1972-73) that you likely wouldn't find today.
Dennis - who wore Nos. 12 and 34 for the Green Gals -- said she left the basketball program after a few games in her sophomore season ââ'¬Â¦ but remained in school and continued to attend classes. Dennis regularly drove home to Louisville from Huntington that school year to be with her seriously ill father, who passed away in the spring of '73.
She scored only 85 points before leaving that team. The sketchy Herd records from the day show Dennis with a career 989 points. With her skill and career numbers, an average game would have brought 1,000.
Dennis played for MU teams that forged a combined 63-27 record - with the one team she had to leave for her father's illness going 10-11 mostly without her. That also was the only one of her four Marshall season when the Green Gals didn't win the state's AIAW crown.
And she was part of another big first, too. On Jan. 25, 1974, Dennis scored a game-high 15 points in Marshall's 44-32 victory over West Virginia at the WVU Coliseum. That was the first meeting of the schools in history. In those years, MU was the state's AIAW champion.
Dennis also played volleyball for the Herd, and admitted she liked that sport - "I was pretty much a spiker," she said - better than she did basketball. "I was good at basketball, but honestly, I really enjoyed playing volleyball more."
After Marshall, most of her years were spent rising through the ranks at Ashland Oil, where she eventually retired - "That was the all-time vacation," Dennis said, laughing -- and moved to Charlotte to operate a pet-sitting business. At one time, Dennis had 234 clients for her dog-walking and care-taking.
"Then I got a phone call to come back to Ashland Oil - that was about 2000, I guess - and I went back as a chemical operator," she said. "I stayed until 2008 and then retired and moved back to Charlotte. I was with Ashland for 25 years."
On her half-acre property, these days she takes in rescue dogs, including some greyhounds.
Dennis said she doesn't get back to the Tri-State area much these days, but she's always reminded of her great days in these parts when she looks at one of her dogs.
"Bailey, he's 12 now," Dennis said. "He was one of the rescue dogs I took in. We found him on I-64 in the middle of the highway, by mile 29 (near the Milton exit), standing by his mom, a German shepherd. She was hit and killed by a car.
"He was standing over her, whining and wimpering. He's part German shepherd, part Airedale ââ'¬Â¦ a great dog. He's getting up there, like me."
See ââ'¬Â¦ It's almost 37 years since Dennis doled out her historic pass toward the first WBL basket ââ'¬Â¦ and she's still making big assists.
