On the Way to a Long History

I noticed in two places - the "13 Teams, 1 Journey" blog and the Rebkell message board - that someone remarked that the WBNA has just passed the All American Girls Professional Baseball League of "A League of Their Own" fame for the longest enduring women's professional sports league of any sort. The AAGPBL lasted from 1943 to 1954 for a total of 12 years. This year is the WNBA's 13th year, putting it at the top.

What's not noticed is that the WNBA is as far as I can tell the third longest running professional basketball league of any kind outside of European teams. It's currently tied for third place and in 2010 it will hold third place in longevity all by itself.


64 years NBA 1946-present
64 years CBA 1946-present (*)
13 years WNBA 1997-present
13 years National Basketball League 1937-49
11 years American Basketball League (I) 1925-35

Not bad. Maybe we can get a movie with Geena Davis and Lori Petty?



(*) - The CBA has suspended operations. This might be it for the Continental Basketball Association.